Issue #43: The way we communicate has changed dramatically. When will that reach the mortgage process?

Something struck me earlier this week. As I hopped from Zoom or Google Meet meeting to meeting, it occurred to me that, even when a meeting doesn’t need to be visual, we’re doing it more and more anyways these days. I don’t know about you, but I seem to be doing fewer traditional calls, and my emails more or less seem to be about scheduling…well, Zoom meetings! That’s not to say email or phone is dead as important means of communication. But things are changing.

And if I need to exchange an amount of data or information beyond my phone number or a day that works for me? A lot less email. Usually, I’m using some kind of closed, shared, secure Cloud-based system to share that information. If the person or business I do occasionally call doesn’t pick up? 50/50 odds I’m not even leaving a voicemail these days (depending on decorum and protocol, of course. If it’s a first-time call—of course, I’m leaving the voicemail. But an old friend? A peer with whom I regularly communicate? They see the Caller ID!).

And yet…

For some reason, the mortgage process, which many would argue is the most important transaction of the typical person’s life, still seems to revolve around the request for information stuck within an email (lost in a sea of emails) or via voice mail. Hell, some still use faxes and couriers in the process. Why not carrier pigeons or runners?

Don’t get me wrong. I see multiple providers out there making major advances in this regard. There are several worthy solutions coming online, so to speak.  And the industry is slowly but surely evolving away from the voice mail/email dance between loan officers and borrowers. But it’s amazing to me that, in this day and age, I can all but buy a car without speaking to someone unless I want to. I can apply for a personal loan or a business line of credit without weeks of back and forth. I can easily upload things like driver’s licenses or Federal Tax Identification information with little more than a scanner and a laptop…or even a smart phone with a good app.

But the worthy mortgage transaction still takes as much as 60 – 70 days while we play email or voicemail tag for similar information.

I see it changing. It just can’t change fast enough!

Ideas or suggestions for future topics? Have something you’d like to say to the readers of Deeper Thoughts? Please share with me at jpaolino@lssoftwaresolutions.com.