Digital Innovation in the Mortgage Industry

Bank of America reported that digital mortgage transactions nearly doubled in 2020 with 68% of consumer mortgage sales completed digitally. Additionally, a new survey by ICE Mortgage Technology discovered that 60% of borrowers said whether an online application was available or not would affect how they chose a lender.

This has set the precedent for more and more mortgage lenders of all sizes to adopt digital products and services to not only provide the best customer experience but also handle the increased volume of purchase applications and help internal operations flow smoothly.

Our attention spans as humans are consistently shrinking year-over-year and this has translated over to the mortgage process. Home-buyers are continuing to expect faster and faster close times with less “hiccups” throughout the process. The average end-to-end mortgage process can take around 30 days but increased volumes of applications can delay this to 45-60 days. The amount of documentation needed throughout the process can create bottlenecks as it is no easy feat scanning and verifying necessary information at a fast pace.

Digital products have transformed the home-buying process for all home-buyers and continuing to bring core functions digital will be a key point in survival for mortgage lenders. Products like Blend and Plaid have helped mortgage lenders compete with Rocket Mortgage by offering an API for lenders to integrate with. These services provide consumers the flexibility to upload documents, verify income, and complete the mortgage checklist from their mobile device with the goal of creating a frictionless journey.

In addition to engaging customers digitally once they are in the pipeline, mortgage calculators and analysis tools have proven to increase the conversion rate from visitor to prospect. These tools appear directly on the mortgage lenders website and allow for the visitor to receive valuable pre-approval information and guide them to next steps. This shows that the digital journey for customers begins from their first interaction with the mortgage lender and the digital expectations flow through the entire process.

The customer experience is a priority for all industries and companies. Mortgage lenders want to ensure the best experience possible to fuel customer retention and expand their referral network. Now, bringing a digital experience to your customers can create increased demand (great!) but an increased volume of applications can also stress internal operations. This being said, operational-technology in combination with customer-facing technology can bring “the best of both worlds” for a lender.

Employees, in tandem with customers, continue to crave digital experiences. Digital products can fuel efficiency across the entire internal organization. An example of this includes lenders adopting technology that is powered by artificial intelligence and machine learning to read the influx of documentation submitted throughout the mortgage process. The technology pulls only the necessary information for the employee involved in the application and allows for faster-decision making while also making less errors during the process.

We recently discussed digital innovation in credit unions on our Codelitt blog. The mortgage industry is following a similar path in that digital experiences are becoming a key priority across lenders of all sizes. It can be difficult to begin and prioritize digital initiatives across an innovation roadmap for an organization. Our post discussing reasons digital transformations fail can help mortgage lenders guide their team accordingly.

Building a custom product fit to your needs can create a desirable digital experience among users and increase engagement, as well as raving fans which lead to referrals and increased profitability. Codelitt enjoys helping companies create and build better digital product experiences. We are obsessed with the problem and using innovation to make products easier for the end-user. If you have a project or idea in mind we’d love to hear from you! Contact us here.