What elements make up the perfect tech stack for your mortgage office to rock the next year with plenty of loans?
Now is the time to get serious about upgrading and adding new technology to make sure you hold your ground in the contracting mortgage marketplace. Develop a great stack and you may even load your pipeline with new loans. Not just stacks of loan applications, but deals that actually close efficiently, and lead to even more business and net profit.
Mortgage rates are headed up, home sales are shrinking, and capital is becoming more risk averse as some housing markets begin to decline. Only by being hyper efficient, having a loan experience that is extremely appealing, and delivering on what matters in a profitable way are mortgage offices going to make it, or hope to grow. That now requires not just excelling in one area, but putting together a functional full stack of fintech solutions that integrate well.
What do you need to fill this stack?
Check out the most important areas mortgage professionals and lenders need to cover, the best available features, and whose got the solutions below…
POS Software For Your Mortgage Office
Your mortgage point-of-sale software is where your prospects and customers interact with your loan business. It is where they really decide if they want to do business with you, and take those first steps. How much they can complete and how much of your pipeline is automated often starts here.
The front end of this portal is your mortgage website, landing pages for loan officers, and mobile mortgage apps. Unfortunately, most of the industry has horribly dragged behind the times in this space. The pressure to perform, make it look great, and provide an even more seamless experience is definitely on now. Click here learn more about BNTouch’s integrated POS tools and discover the power of POS & CRM combined.
Today, a strong mortgage POS system will incorporate:
- An integrated website experience
- Digital 1003 application
- Automated pre-qualification tools
- Live chat features
- Digital document management
- Electronic signature capabilities
- A borrower loan portal to track and manage the loan process after application
- Multichannel updates and coordination for borrowers and other parties to the transaction
This should all be able to be delivered in a fully mobile experience. One which is just as good, if not better than a desktop version. Remember that Google is now all about mobile first.
Some of the top mortgage POS solutions available now include:
Among the important features to look for when making your selection include:
- Customization options
- Real digital 1003s
- Automated prequalification tools
- Ease of integrating with the rest of your tech stack i.e. your mortgage CRM
LOS Software For Your Mortgage Office
Loan origination software (LOS) is the anchor and foundation of your mortgage office. It is what you use to manage your loan applications, generate loan forms and disclosures, connect with processing and underwriting, get those loans cleared for funding, and ensure compliance.
The most popular mortgage LOS software options include:
More and more LOS options are popping up. There are now dozens out there. Though a few have managed to dominate the industry for decades.
The most important features to consider when choosing a LOS include:
- Integration with the rest of your tech stack
- Ease of use
- Integration with third party underwriting systems and vendors
- Familiarity of use by top mortgage professionals for your team (LOs, processors, etc.)
CRM’s For Your Mortgage Office
Customer relationship management systems are increasingly differentiating the mortgage lenders and loan officers which stand out, control market share, and stay profitable.
Mortgage CRMs are pivotal for:
- Bringing in new mortgage leads
- Maintaining high lead conversion rates
- Building industry relationships (Realtors, builders, etc.)
- Delivering on a whole loan experience that results in high customer happiness levels
- Retaining customers over the long term
- Repeat business and referrals
- Building value in your mortgage company
- Attracting and retaining the best mortgage talent
Among the best reviewed CRMs available are:
Top factors for choosing a CRM for your mortgage office include:
- Easy integration with lead generation and lead capture channels
- Ability to assign leads to loan officers
- Onboarding on new mortgage branches and LOs
- Customization and branded communications
- Compliance features
- Right sized pricing and scalability
- Cost of upgrades and add-ons
- Integration with social networks and smart speakers
- Whether it is specifically designed for use in the mortgage industry
Today’s best mortgage CRMs not only incorporate printing letters and mailing labels, but email, SMS and voice calls. Going beyond this they may provide push notification abilities. Even ease posting of updates to POS portals for updating borrowers, Realtors and other parties on status.
Credit & Data Verification Tools
Mortgage fraud is still a major concern, and speed is an increasingly important factor in differentiating the leaders from the rest. A lot relies on accurate and rapid verification and data collection. Those who not only perform best in this area for loan performance and the secondary market, but for making the process more streamlined for borrowers will stand to win the most market share.
Data verification and collection tools to incorporate into your processing include:
Other digital mortgage office tools lenders and loan officers may wish to add include:
- Notary Cam for remote video closings
- BNTouch’s e-signature tool
See more digital mortgage tools for underwriting, closing, security and compliance here.
Digital Mortgage Marketing & Lead Gen. Tools
Of course, all of the above is almost useless, unless you have loans, loan applications and leads to process.
This makes a strong front end digital marketing suite an absolute must. You know your grandmother is on Facebook, and your kids may never have received a real letter in the mail. Direct mail, magazine and TV ads may still have their place. But if you’re not using modern media, you’re missing out on most of the business. Over 80% of home buyers beginning their home searches online today, the majority using mobile devices. The same clearly applies to shopping for mortgages as well.
With this in mind, top tools to look for to put the icing on your tech stack include:
- Curated social media content
- Video marketing tools
- Content which is SEO optimized for Alexa and Google Home
- Email automation services
- SMS and voice broadcast tools
Remember that all of these should be funneling prospects directly to your new mortgage POS solutions and mortgage CRM.
Top ad platforms:
Email software:
Mortgage lead data lists:
Voice broadcast and auto-dialer software:
Online Review Software
Mortgage businesses and loan officers’ careers have increasingly been influenced by online reviews. Having too few reviews can be as detrimental as having bad reviews too. It is vital for the survival of mortgage offices and LOs to be able to stay on top of what is being said about them online. As well as make sure they are controlling their online real estate and reputations. Top players will even be systematizing and scaling their positive online reviews as well.
This starts with a good audit. What is on the web? How much is there about you? How does that compare to competitors? Where do you need to take action? Hit up Google, Siri and Alexa and find out.
Then monitor those conversations moving forward using Google Alerts, following appropriate social tags, and regular check ups.
Make sure you are not overlooking online real estate you should be controlling, like Google business listings, industry directories, LinkedIn, etc.
Then tackle cultivating masses of new good reviews. This can be time intensive, and we all know that you are already busy enough trying to close loans and draw in new leads. Using bulk surveys and automated follow up messages from your mortgage CRM are great tools for getting valuable feedback. Effectively turn those into online ratings, testimonials and video reviews that can be used to propel your brand and business.
Popular Online Review Software for Your Mortgage Office
These tools can help ensure better reviews, and create greater efficiency in following up and securing these valuable testimonials, while you focus on closing the deals.
Review Ninja
Review Ninja’s reputation management software provides business users cloud based dashboards for monitoring what their customers are saying about them online. Automatically directing those with good things to say to the review sites that other potential customers use the most.
BNTouch Survey Builder
The BNTouch survey builder is a module specifically designed for mortgage offices. It enables the fast creation of custom surveys, with responsive templates and seamless CRM integration. Loan officers and lenders use it to stay on top of customer satisfaction ratings and generate more testimonials.
SurveyMonkey
Survey Monkey is likely the most well known of survey software tools for businesses. It has gathered many positive reviews itself. Most users like its simplicity. Though many wish it was cheaper or select features could be added on, without opting for a premium package.
Summary
To have any real hopes of becoming a top producing mortgage lender of loan officer who is generating over half a billion dollars plus in origination volume per year. Like these high performers, it’s all about creating a strong mortgage tech stack.
Every LO, mortgage branch and lender should have all of these solutions covered and working for them. This is even more important for those with remote and virtual loan officers, multiple branches, and those who are serious about growth. This can require tools designed to be effective for the individual LO, teams and at the enterprise level for managing the brand, quality assurance and compliance.
What’s in your stack?