Goodbye Paperwork--Hello Digital Mortgages

As the U.S. continues to become more digital, more mortgage lenders are ditching the copious amounts of paperwork and hoping on the technology train by expanding their online offerings and streamlining the mortgage application process. Brenda Richardson, for the Washington Post, says that competition is heating up in the digital mortgage arena because, like the ease of online and app-based shopping, online applications are faster and more in tune with what today’s consumers expect.

“There’s a mix of lenders right now,” said Tendayi Kapfidze, chief economist at LendingTree, the nation’s leading online loan marketplace. “There are some lenders that have an almost completely digital process, and some lenders who have a partial digital process. But, ultimately, the industry as a whole, from application to underwriting and processing the application, is moving toward a digital structure.”

A lot of that, he said, has to do with consumer demand. “Customers are used to doing a lot of other purchases online and doing it digitally,” Kapfidze said. “It also creates for a faster process, so typically with digital mortgages, you get a quicker closing date, which is something that is appealing to a lot of consumers.”

The other side of the equation is creating a user-friendly experience and providing guidance for potential borrowers to make sure they are comfortable with such a huge endeavor.