Technology In The Mortgage Industry In 2020

Technology is disrupting entire industries, from changing organizational structures to product design to delivery modules to service distribution to customer acquisition and engagement.

The mortgage industry is also witnessing a rapid integration of technology at multiple levels and for those who were reticent about adapting, the pandemic has provided all the impetus they ever needed. The changes being brought in by mortgage technology are not just a fad, primarily because these are not just about the latest hardware or software in the market.

Mortgage technology in 2020, and the years ahead, will be driven by artificial intelligence, big data, and machine learning. Mortgage companies will have to stop relying on age-old methods of marketing, customer acquisition, and retention if they have to keep up with and outdo their competition.

The other reason they will have to incorporate mortgage technology is that customers will increasingly reward those companies that make it easier for them. This means that technology partners of the mortgage industry will have to provide solutions that can help the industry deliver customized products and services at scale.

We teamed up with Rob Chrisman, APM, Flagstar, Nomis Solutions and Premier Lending to bring you the webinar: Chance Favors Only the Prepared Lender: The Ultimate Preppers Guide. Bringing you a blog series of highlights. But, make sure you catch the full webinar.

How Tech Partners are Evolving Their Products to Arm Lenders for Success

According to Rob Chrisman, Owner, Chrisman Daily Mortgage News and Commentary, with the integration of technology in mortgage companies, “their employees are doing more than they were doing a year ago.” Work from home has not only accentuated the integration of technological solutions but also increased productivity. This is excellent news because, with the enormous drops in interest rates, the mortgage industry is in a hyperactive mode.

For Alex Kutsishin, CEO and Founder, Sales Boomerang, this is the time for technology partners to listen to their clients. They will have to learn fast, and pivot according to the specific needs of their partners in the mortgage industry. In other words, “be a partner and not a vendor.” EPO prevention is an area where, for example, Sales Boomerang has been helping clients by giving system-driven and real-time alerts. Alex reminds technology partners not to be close-minded. “If you are not listening, you are going to have problems now.”

This is also the time for the mortgage lenders to treat their database as an asset. Alex has a word of caution for the industry. Depending on the technology solutions they use, “the database could either be a depreciating asset, or an appreciating asset.” There is a potential lifetime-worth of business from each customer that can be extracted from the database. Using automated systems, mortgage companies can get their leads from within, instead of having to look outside. All you need is a technology system that can give actionable inputs with intelligence and accuracy.

6 Reasons Lenders Cant Live without SB

Joe Zeibert, Managing Director of Global Mortgage Solutions at Nomis Solutions remembers what happened towards the end of 2018. When the rates increased, although only for a couple of months, several companies went out of business as they couldn’t pivot. “The use of technology to price and pivot is so important going forward,” says Joe. He also admits that as lenders you can have blinders on especially when things are going well.

With the right mortgage technology, “if something pivots, even if it’s only for a month or two, you have the ability to stay above water.” That’s reason enough to invest in technology and innovation for Joe. “Technology is how you remain proactive and not reactive.” If there’s anything that 2018 can teach us, it’s that everything can change in a couple of months. It won’t be just exponential growth all the time. What goes down can also come up.

How You Can Use Technology to Prepare For the Eventual Downtown That is Coming

Smart mining of data is an excellent way to safeguard against periods of downturn. Joe believes that with millions and millions of records going through the system, there is enough actionable intelligence buried in them to give tremendous opportunities for new business. It will not only deliver volumes but importantly, help a mortgage company price them in a customized manner. Technology allows firms to partner with people and get to a granular level of understanding to maximize their offerings and revenue. With the right technology solutions, you can not only survive but also grow during a downturn, according to Joe.

Christy Soukhamneut, Chief of Staff, Flagstar thinks that this is a good time to rebuild systems at mortgage providers. The pandemic has disrupted our collective way of life but it has also led to a profusion and adoption of new technologies. “Consumers are ready for some innovation, and some change in the mortgage process,” Christy says. But technological adoption shouldn’t be just oriented towards the external audiences.

What companies implement should be “not only customer-friendly but also employee-friendly.” Christy is certain that “it doesn’t help if I make things easier for my customer if I make it ten times harder for the team at the home office or the branch offices.” Along with that, she believes that integration is a significant issue. Mortgage companies tend to haphazardly adopt technologies, leading to what Christy calls, the “shiny toy syndrome.” This results in situations where “none of them get fully integrated in a way that works together.”

Christy knows that “we can no longer take the easy path, and just take that one thing that will solve the one problem that looks really good today.” This means that companies have to look at a series of technologies, “create a tech stack and integrate it in a way that’s unique” to the company, its borrower experience, and what they are trying to deliver. That’s how technology will become meaningful, and impactful. “So, while we want to move quickly, we have to want to move with purpose.” Alex calls such companies with integrated technologies that are connected, “smart lenders.”

“Our whole position in the market is to create consumer experiences that matter.” That’s what Kurt Reisig, Chairman, American Pacific Mortgage, thinks the primary objective of a company should be. An investment in the right technology should be seen as an investment in better customer engagement. Whether it’s a digital-first service or faster turnaround times, it’s important to leverage technology to deliver great experiences with intuitive and actionable intelligence.

Devin Norales, Director of Capital Markets, Premier Lending, sees integrated technology solutions like Sales Boomerang providing an “exponential amount of volume” to smaller firms like his. He agrees with Joe that technology can help firms get the price right and still maintain the volume. He is confident that even if the refinance boom were to dry up, their loan officers would be so used to the tools at their disposal that “they can continue to go out there and capture that volume.”

In other words, the right kind of mortgage technology is a win-win situation for both companies and their customers. It’s one of the wisest things a mortgage lender can invest in, not just to make the most of the good times but also to survive and thrive during the lean times.

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