05May

Technology Innovations in Private Lending

May 5, 2021 Civic Financial Services

One of the greatest benefits of private money loans is speed. However, with that faster processing window comes the increased demand for real-time information. Enter: Origin8® — the cornerstone of innovation for Civic Financial Services, delivering an exceptional, private-labeled experience for today’s broker and your customers.

Origin8 is one of the first secure cloud-based online portals for private residential lending, designed for ease, flexibility, and transparency – but also designed with your wholesale business in mind. Bells and whistles aside (we’ll get to those shortly), what makes this truly unique is the power it gives you to brand your client’s experience to your business instead of the lender’s. Because, let’s be honest, you want your hard-earned clientele to be constantly reminded of the white-glove service you’re providing, and not the financial transaction alone.

Today’s real estate investor wants to conduct their business just as any other customer does — fast, simple and at their convenience. For some brokers, depending on the systems and resources available, streamlining a process with numerous moving parts can be quite challenging — especially with multiple clients and properties. As the relationship manager and main point of contact for your clients throughout the lending process, Origin8 is completely customized to you and your business.

The technology delivers a seamless digital lending experience that can be white labeled to your business, starting with a personalized website to direct borrowers to, enabling your customers to request a “quick quote”, check rates, submit an online application, upload documents and check loan status online, from any device, 24/7. It is packed with features that include real-time pipeline views which display loan status and outstanding underwriting conditions, and a document management interface to allow uploaded documents to satisfy conditions immediately. But wait – it gets better…

Emails generated throughout the process display your logo with no mention of CIVIC, you can choose from six different color themes for your personalized website, and you can quickly generate an LOI with your logo on it. Have a support team? No problem. With its seamless digital broker approval process you’re granted the ability to independently manage your users and your customers, making it easy to add internal team members to access the platform, such as LOs and processors.

Ordinarily, customers would have to get in touch with you during business hours to run through a scenario to even get an idea of pricing. Now, with Origin8, they have pricing available at their fingertips 24/7, and you keep control of the process. Hundreds of quotes are being run through broker Origin8 websites by customers who have no human interaction with anyone, and that is a key indicator of the success and demand for a fast, easy, digital resource. Consider this:

Sales Superpower: Origin8 is the Superpower sidekick you’ve been waiting for. It allows you to focus more time on finding new clients and nurturing your existing ones.

Smooth Operations: Automate manual steps, eliminate redundancies, consolidate documentation, and streamline communication to expedite the loan process and ensure an on-time closing.

The Need for Speed: Time is money. Origin8 dramatically reduces closing time, getting your customers from quote to closing with speed and simplicity.

Increased Accuracy: With no need for handwritten applications, documentation accuracy is improved and human errors are reduced in the process.

A True Digital Package: More than just an online application, Origin8 is the most robust lending platform in the private lending industry. It enables you to conduct business with your clients at the speed and transparency they desire and enables white labeling so the innovative closing process can be done digitally under your own brand.

Juggling multiple loans simultaneously just got easier, and the customer experience for your savvy real estate investor clients just got better. As an institutional private lender, CIVIC developed Origin8 not only to simplify and expedite the lending process, but to help you provide borrowers with the level of transparency they demand. The platform, personalized with your name and branding, has improved conversion from quick quote to application, and from application through funding. CIVIC understands the needs of our broker partners and is committed to investing in innovations and technology that enhances the efficiency and transparency of our broker platform.

10Feb

What’s the Difference? Mortgage Application Versus Mortgage POS

February 10, 2021 BeSmartee

BeSmartee examines the difference between a mortgage application and a mortgage point-of-sale (POS) platform, and uncovers how a POS platform is a lender’s all-in-one solution.

The modern mortgage experience is so much more than a mortgage application.

As millennials continue to dominate the housing market, it’s evident that today’s borrowers want to get a home mortgage just about as easily as you can order a pizza from your smartphone. Having a digital lending platform is no longer a choice, it’s a must-have for lenders to stay relevant, especially in the COVID-19 era.

How does a mortgage application compare to a mortgage POS?

Let’s talk about what a mortgage POS can do for your lending business and how a mortgage application can’t compete.

What is a Mortgage Application?

A mortgage application is a document filled out and submitted by one or multiple individuals applying for a mortgage loan to purchase real estate.

Most lenders use the Uniform Residential Loan Application, or Form 1003, to determine if potential borrowers qualify. The application is lengthy and provides lenders with the necessary information to determine whether or not the potential borrower is financially stable enough to pay back the loan.

22Dec

10 Proven Ways Banks Can Deliver More With a Mortgage POS

December 22, 2020 BeSmartee

Analyzing the proven benefits a Mortgage POS can bring to your bank.

Technology is constantly changing the mortgage industry, making it easier for lenders to work with their customers and guide them through the origination process on a digital channel. One of these tools is the mortgage point-of-sale (POS) platform.

The right mortgage POS platform can allow banks to effectively communicate with their customers and provide them with the necessary information and documentation to validate data and complete their mortgage loan application. By accessing a web-based dashboard, borrowers can upload documents, communicate with their lender, and track the progress of their application.

Let’s examine 10 proven ways banks can benefit from the right mortgage POS platform.

1. Improve the Borrower Experience

The digital mortgage is all about the customer experience and it begins at the point-of-sale.

The results from a 2019 survey conducted by McKinsey & Company of 1,200 residential mortgage customers showed that there’s plenty of room for improvement in customer satisfaction. Findings showed that superb customer experience was as important as getting the best rate. First-time home buyers said they relied on online reviews and word of mouth to learn more about how well the bank worked with their borrowers to deliver an exceptional experience.

02Dec

Insellerate Launches DATA IE™ Solution

December 2, 2020 Insellerate

Newport Beach, CA – December 2nd, 2020 – Insellerate, the leading mortgage Customer Experience Platform featuring Lead Management, CRM & Engagement that helps lenders close more loans by increasing efficiency gains across sales, marketing, operations management, announces the release of its DATA IE solution.

This innovative solution allows lenders to better serve their customers by quickly turning borrower data into actionable insights and intelligent engagement. DATA IE delivers powerful data insights, leverages that data to enhance borrower engagement, and provides personalized outreach to enhance borrower relationships while delivering timely messaging throughout the borrower journey.

“It is critical to provide lenders with actionable data insights that provide a truly personal and engaging customer experience,” said Josh Friend, CEO of Insellerate. “We understand the desire of lenders to better serve their customers, which is why we continue to deliver innovative solutions to allow lenders to do just that.”

Insellerate’s dynamic DATA IE solution enables loan officers to craft the right message at the right time with the right offer through the power of intelligent data and engagement. This delivers timelier and more personalized engagement, enhanced borrower retention, and higher conversions.

Built by mortgage professionals, the Insellerate Customer Experience Platform has full CRM & Engagement functionality with built-in lead management and automated marketing, now enhanced with actionable data insights. Lenders can improve both the borrower and loan officer experience with multi-channel communication, leveraging tools such as phone, SMS text messaging, email, direct mail, and customer monitoring-anytime, anywhere.

17Nov

3 Reasons Why Omnichannel Contact Centers are Critical for Modern Lenders

November 17, 2020 Sourcepoint

Today’s borrowers expect the same speed, convenience and personalization from their lenders and servicers as they are used to with leading retailers such as Amazon and Apple. As digital technologies enable customers to engage with lenders over multiple channels, contact centers are fast becoming a critical component in a lender’s ability to deliver exceptional customer experiences. Here’s how.

12Nov

What Data Insights Do Mortgage Lenders Need Right Now?

November 12, 2020 LBA Ware

The novel coronavirus outbreak has tested lenders’ ability to adapt to sudden, monumental change. Branch managers are grappling with an influx of record-high refi volume and lack of staff capacity all while transitioning to a remote business model. Instant data insights and concise communication are now more important than ever to keep employees connected, on track, and of course, motivated.

To absorb as much refi business as possible while keeping consumers happy, branch managers will need to go “back to basics” in their evaluation of operations and production data.

Here are three real-time data analytics branch managers can use to keep themselves out of the weeds and ensure the entire branch is on the same page.

1. Pull-Through and Fallout

Pull-through and fallout data are essential to helping branch managers identify where they are losing business, why it’s happening and what steps they can take to prevent future losses. Take, for instance, a common lender predicament in our current market: volume is high, but fallout has increased. A branch manager who’s satisfied to simply attribute unusually high fallout to an increased rate shopping market and wash their hands of it could be losing a large swath of good loans.

04Aug

Cloud Coverage: Its Always Sunny in the Cloud – Common Myths (Part 2)

August 4, 2020 LoanLogics

David Gitlin, Director of Technology, LoanLogics

I’m back with my second post myth busting common beliefs about the cloud. Part 1 discussed myths surrounding deployment and cost . Today’s post focuses on our final three cloud myths surrounding security, development and scalability.

3. Myth: The Cloud is less secure then traditional hosting Or Cloud providers will be responsible for all aspects of data security
All these points are simply false. Large cloud companies such as Amazon and Microsoft have huge financial resources at their disposable, and can, and do hire the best security experts in the world. Experts that are available 24×7. Few companies or hosting services can afford this level of staffing. The size of the major cloud providers and the resources available to them also enable them partner with third party best of breed security providers. Also, cloud services are built with security baked in rather then bolted on afterwards. Further the cloud is capable of offering cloud native solutions for identity verification and user Sign-Up, Sign-In, and resource Access Control. AWS Cognito is one example of a cloud-native strategy for managing user verification and access rights. The cloud also provides mechanism to automate security tasks not generally available in other environments.

It is true that organizations are still responsible for locking down their own software. And failure to pay attention to security best practices when building or managing security can lead to security issues. Building cloud native software is not a panacea for not following security best practices. Development and DevOps teams are still responsible for securing their code, data access and ensuring that best practices are followed concerning managing users.

4. Myth: Cloud software development is just like development in standard hosting environments or there is nothing special to learn about software development for the cloud
No and No again! As stated above the cloud can be used like an old-fashioned hosting service in the same way you can ignore object-oriented principles and write a procedural application with an object-oriented language. You can, but what purpose would this serve? The impact of cloud computing on application development is itself a complex topic deserving of its own blog entry. The cloud offers unique services that are transformational and highly impactful on how software is developed, deployed, and used. Cloud native software that fully integrates these services is not the same as software developed for other traditional environments. In future blog entries we will explore the impact of the cloud on how software development is performed.

03Jun

Most Employers in CBRE Study Favor Phased Return to Workplace, Adding Touchless Tech, Restricting Visitors

June 3, 2020 CBRE Group Inc

Most companies included in an analysis by CBRE plan to take a gradual, cautious approach to bringing employees back to their workplaces as governments begin to lift restrictions tied to COVID-19.

Roughly half of the 203 company operations that CBRE studied across the globe are implementing touchless technology to enhance cleanliness. Most are following social-distancing standards. And most will provide their employees with face coverings, though less than a third will require the covering be worn at all times in any company facility unless mandated by local authorities.

CBRE gathered its findings by surveying account leaders in its Global Workplace Solutions business, which manages facilities and real estate projects for large companies. The surveyed account leaders oversee client relationships spanning 4.2 billion square feet of workspace in offices, industrial & logistics real estate, tech space, data centers, retail, and healthcare used by more than 38 million workers. The analysis includes data collected as of May 4.

“Our analysis of our clients’ return-to-work strategies shows that virtually all are engaged in detailed planning to ensure a careful and reasoned approach,” said Karen Ellzey, Executive Managing Director of Consulting and global lead for CBRE’s COVID-19 response for occupier clients. “Most of these companies have established their own criteria for when to return to the workplace beyond local and state government requirements. And nearly three quarters plan to bring employees back in phases rather than all at once.”