With interest rates recently hitting a 50-year low, mortgage applications increased so much that the MBA doubled their projection for refinance originations.

The volume of applications has staggered the mortgage industry. Some lenders are increasing their rates as a counterbalance to the avalanche in demand.

We’ve been hearing from loan originators every day that are buried by refinance business.

Where typically their focus is on generating new business and making connections with referral partners, now all hands are being called on to help manage loan files and get as many deals closed as possible while the environment is conducive.

Time is the mortgage originator’s most precious resource right now.

Originators who find themselves without the capacity to handle the loan application volume will see their hard-earned customers look elsewhere to get the deal done.

To process more files, faster, and close as many loans as possible – all while maintaining a high standard of customer service excellence amid unprecedented circumstances – originators are leaning on their digital technologies to help carry the load.

Here are three areas they are able to get significant uplift from one of those technologies, the point-of-sale, so that they can maximize their share of the refi boom business.

HIGH-EFFICIENCY PROCESSING

Web-based point-of-sale systems with workflow automation allow many files to be worked on concurrently and eliminate the type of necessary-yet-redundant tasks that LOs or their teams get bogged down with.

By streamlining or even completely automating those portions of the loan origination process, more work can be done by fewer people and in less time.

Taking Applications

Taking an application over the phone or in-person is not the best use of everyone’s time, particularly during business hours when the originator has other high-priority duties.

But just leaving borrowers to fend for themselves with a paper 1003, or even a web-based version that looks just like the paper version, can be a bad idea as well.

By utilizing modern point-of-sale technology that employs the interview-style method of guiding borrowers through their application one step at a time, originators can get highly accurate and complete submissions without requiring the time or effort to do the guiding themselves.

Borrowers want to get their application in as fast as possible right now to take advantage of the favorable rates, but they also want to do it from the comfort of their home or mobile device and with as little pain as possible.

Gathering Documents

There are many different channels through which to collect documentation from borrowers. The problem is that the vast majority of those channels are either incredibly inefficient, not secure, or both.

The mortgage point-of-sale absolutely shines in this department.

It provides a secure and transparent portal for borrowers to see exactly what documentation is being required of them and gives them a simple way to upload their response, or use an integrated verification solution to directly authorize the gathering of information from the source.

These processes can be done completely online, from anywhere, on a mobile device if necessary, and keep the loan file organized and accessible at a glance.

Automating Communications

LOs are super busy. Most borrowers know that.

But they still have an expectation for the service they will receive and the level of communication that will take place around their loan as the process unfolds.

For originators and their teams, manually updating clients when their loan status changes is a time drain even when application volume isn’t up over 50%.

This is where leaning into customized automation can relieve a huge amount of pressure from loan teams and still give borrowers the timely information that they want.

Loan milestone status updated? The system will let the borrowers know.

Application not complete? The system will remind them to finish it.

Documents outstanding? The system will tell them exactly what is still required.

REMOTE OPERATIONS

There is an unprecedented need for staff, as well as prospects and borrowers, to avoid the office right now and anything companies can do to allow people to be productive and contribute while keeping their distance is a huge benefit for everyone.

Web-based technologies like video conferencing, messaging, screen sharing, and cloud storage provide part of the foundation that a mortgage business can take advantage of to make this happen.

As are other origination systems like many LOS solutions, CRMs, and point-of-sale systems.

Not only do borrowers get the benefit of being able to fulfill their loan requirements digitally, including eSigning disclosures and authorizations, but the origination team can use the same systems to manage their files, doublecheck for accuracy, and get the loans registered.

With the right systems in place, loan operations at the branch level can be run fully-remote for a period of time without experiencing a drop in performance or efficiency.

IMPROVED QUALITY AND ACCESS TO DATA

When time is of the essence, nothing is more frustrating than having to hit the pause button because a piece of data needs to be retrieved from a separate system or location.

The ideal workflow puts all the necessary information to complete a process at the fingertips of the lending team exactly when they need it.

There are several ways that the point-of-sale system works to accomplish this goal:

• It allows all relevant documentation for the loan file to live in one centralized repository.
• It directly integrates with other systems in the origination software ecosystem to synchronize data – improving data hygiene and access.
• It can gather direct-source information from banks, employers, and the IRS through integration with industry-approved verification solutions.
• In can, in the case of Floify’s point-of-sale system, be configured with custom data fields that put necessary loan and borrower data directly on the screen.

RESULTS / ROI

We recently commissioned a survey of 100 loan originators who utilize the Floify platform and asked them to quantify the results that they’ve experienced since implementing point-of-sale technology into their lending operation.

What we found was that LOs were closing loans faster (up to 10 days in some cases), boosting their production by 20-50%, and reducing their workload through increased process efficiency.

All of those key results are directly applicable to the current mortgage environment.

Read up on the results from the survey in our whitepaper covering the ROI of mortgage point-of-sale systems.