Obviously
trying to appeal to the Millennials,
some mortgage companies are starting to advertise an online mortgage process –
you “simply” upload all your financial information, complete the application,
click on a few buttons to customize your interest rate and mortgage terms, use
their e-signature option, and bam: you get instant notification concerning your
loan approval. While that concept is
very appropriate for registering your car at the Motor Vehicles Department
(it’s a wonder they haven’t done that yet), there’s SLIGHTLY more to it than
that.
I
don’t want to lose you here, so I won’t go into all
the nerdy details, but suffice it to say there’s abundant reason you WANT a
loan originator talking to your client and walking her through the process from
start to finish. Let me give you just
two:
• If a
borrower’s information is input incorrectly or placed in the “wrong box” on an
application, that can stop the process dead in its tracks. A computer’s not going to give an applicant a
“heads up” – it’s just going to kick out a message that the person’s
application is not approved. The
applicant, in this instance, is either going to give up and continue renting
for another year or start over (and perhaps get the same results because she’s
being forced to guess what went wrong the first time). While we, of course, are trained to put the
information in the right boxes, we’re also human – if a mistake is made, or
there’s something that comes back from underwriting that needs to be addressed,
we human LOs pick up the phone and speak with another human; it gets
corrected. The process continues without
a delay and stays on time.
• Giving
the applicant the option to just click a few buttons and “customize” their
interest rate and terms doesn’t explain all the other options available to them
that could be better suited to their current situation and, perhaps, their
long-term goals. Also, giving them such
an option doesn’t guide them to let them know what’s truly available to them
based on their financials, their debt-to-income ratio, etc. When we talk with your clients, we walk them
through the available options and give them a detailed understanding of how
those options will play out in both a short- and long-term fashion.
The
challenge here is addressing this “online” mindset. They went online for ease,
convenience, and options. There’s really
no way to “stop” people from going online and giving this option a whirl, but
when they come to you frustrated from having a less-than-optimal experience,
you’re going to want to refer them to a mortgage company that has the most
options and the most knowledgeable LOs so your client has a fantastic
experience. We might just know someone
like that.
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