Building Borrower Loyalty Brick by Brick [Sponsored Content from MeridianLink]
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You’ve likely heard the saying, ‘a house is built brick by brick.’ Well, it turns out the same idea applies to mortgage lending. Every step in the mortgage process is like laying down another brick, contributing to the big picture: sustainable growth and, of course, happy borrowers.
Starting with how you handle applications to closing deals, it all plays a part in making your mortgage business thrive. But what if your loan origination system (LOS), which is supposed to make the process simpler, starts causing more problems than it solves?
We’re diving into strategies that can help keep your mortgage lending experience smooth and your borrowers smiling.
Loan Origination & Loyalty
MeridianLink’s mortgage survey paints a revealing picture: nearly half (45%) of Americans explore alternative mortgage options before settling with their primary financial institution. This highlights a profound truth—borrower loyalty must be consistently earned, not assumed.
As a mortgage lender, your goal is to offer borrowers a seamless application experience that prevents them from initiating the process only to abandon it due to confusion or frustration. To accomplish this, a good place to start is to evaluate whether your mortgage LOS is equipped to support this journey effectively or if it is showing signs of weakness.
As the foundation of your mortgage lending operation, when your LOS fails to keep pace with evolving borrower expectations or struggles to adapt to changing market dynamics, it can be costly. Delays, errors, and inefficiencies caused by an outdated or ineffective LOS can lead to frustrated borrowers, missed opportunities, and, ultimately, damage to your institution’s reputation and bottom line.
Start by asking yourself a few questions: Are manual tasks and paperwork impeding your mortgage lending operation? Are you relying on pricey point solutions from various bolt-on vendors? Is your operation struggling with service latency? What is the impact of these challenges on your profitability?
If these questions hit close to home, you’re not alone. Fortunately, there are comprehensive solutions to help reclaim your reputation, time, and revenue.
The Blueprint for Success
The first step in creating a positive borrower journey is constructing a framework that carefully balances technological efficiency with human assistance. This emphasizes the holistic borrower relationship, providing streamlined convenience with the reassuring support of human guidance.
You can further strengthen this foundation if your mortgage LOS prioritizes configurable workflows, role-based navigations, and advanced automation. With these essential resources on your side, tasks that were once clunky and time-consuming can be completed in a fraction of the time, and tailored to your operational needs, so you can put more emphasis on engaging with borrowers while handling a higher volume of loan applications.
Next, let’s explore the capabilities and tools that can propel your mortgage lending success. Built-in point-of-sale solutions empower you to easily build powerful, personalized borrower-facing experiences while seamlessly connecting them to their loan officer and real estate agent in real-time on any mobile device. Meanwhile, an integrated document management system facilitates efficient sharing, editing, packaging, and attaching of loan documents, keeping your borrowers informed and engaged every step of the way. These serve as pillars for your institution’s scalability. When integrated into your mortgage LOS, the results can lead to reduced loan manufacturing costs, improved pull-through rates, and accelerated closing times—not only meeting borrower expectations but also driving greater efficiency and return on investment (ROI) for your institution.
Now, onto the exciting part—analyzing your results. With easy access to actionable insights, reports, and dashboards, you can identify points of friction or opportunities for improvement in the lending process, gaining a better understanding of borrower experiences and expectations. Leveraging these key automated reporting capabilities provides a clear understanding of your mortgage business’s overall health, enabling proactive adjustments that foster stronger relationships and drive greater satisfaction and loyalty.
Assessing Your Mortgage LOS Performance
With the prevailing mortgage rates and elevated home prices, borrowers are already challenged to stretch their housing budgets. The last thing they need is further complications in the mortgage process.
Is your current mortgage LOS costing you more than you realize? Take the MeridianLink® Mortgage LOS Impact Assessment Survey to find out now.
(Sponsored content includes material submitted independently of the Mortgage Bankers Association and MBA NewsLink and does not connote an MBA endorsement of a specific company, product or service. For more information about sponsored content opportunities, contact Bill Farmakis at bill@jlfarmakis.com or 203/834-8832.)
