The team at Fintech Blend notes that as humans, we can’t help but to “celebrate and feel positive in the moments when we finish a task productively.”
And yet, for many consumers (and lenders), the completion of the mortgage journey “can still feel somewhat underwhelming,” the team at Blend wrote in a blog post.
The digital lending software provider also noted that both parties “want to feel like their time was well-spent and even rewarding, but the closing process can be complicated and stressful.”
Gaurav Nagla, Product Manager, Close (at Blend) added:
“We’re helping to solve this problem with Blend Close, a crucial part of our foundational technology — called the Mortgage Suite — that helps loan teams manage volume while saving time and costs involved in originating a loan. And since we launched Blend Close in 2020, lenders and closing teams are achieving faster closing times and more efficiency.”
Over 125 lenders have “signed on with Blend Close, including U.S. Bank, Alcova Mortgage, UCCU, AMC Mortgage, PRMG, and SWBC Mortgage.”
In addition, over 21,000 settlement agents are using Blend Close to “enable secure document exchange and coordination with the lending partners they work with,” the company claims.
They added that to help you further “achieve adoption of more digitized closings and to expedite the approval process, Blend Close is also a Fannie Mae– and Freddie Mac-reviewed eClosing solution provider.”
Gaurav added that he’s “eager to walk you through the value your peers are already capturing with Blend Close.”
He also noted that their continued goal is to “make the mortgage process simpler, faster, and more transparent while also providing choice for customers – the choice to choose how they prefer to apply for and close their home loan.”
As more lenders and settlement agents started using Blend Close, the firm wanted to better understand “how much time and money [their] customers were saving.” They conducted an in-depth customer survey and claim that they “couldn’t be more pleased with the positive results.”
For hybrid closings, for instance, financial services firms “saved $135 per loan due to reduced labor, shorter loan cycles, fewer errors, and use of e-signatures versus printing and shipping documents.”
Lenders also “reaped the benefits of saving time in the closing process in general,” the Blend team revealed.
Here are some solid averages:
- Lenders were able to “take two days off their closing times”
- Closing teams “completed two more loans per day”
- For a hybrid close, lenders “saved 61 minutes per loan from streamlined borrower communication and reviewing fewer documents”
To continue this step in the “right direction” in their quest to enhance ROI and deliver “feel-good” closing experiences to borrowers, here’s an overview of a new feature the Fintech firm developed for Blend Close:
Blend offers integrated scheduling that “puts control back in borrowers’ hands.”
During the closing process, scheduling can be “time-consuming and require back and forth between settlement agents, loans teams, and consumers.”
Booking an appointment over email “can get messy and produce longer-than-necessary threads. Phone calls may also turn into an unwanted game of phone tag.”
Now, when borrowers are logged into Blend, they have “the ability to easily choose a time to close, whether they are closing online via remote online notarization or meeting a notary in person.”
Borrowers are “prompted to share their closing preferences and then to select available time slots. By keeping all parties informed and updated, it’s just one more way Blend is helping facilitate a faster close and ultimately, a better closing experience.”
Blend further revealed that their digital application adoption was “nearly 100 percent pre-pandemic and integrating Blend Close to the process now gives customers the option to review and sign documents at the time and place of their choosing.”
According to the Fintech firm, the rapid adoption they have experienced has “streamlined [their] process, driving both an increased employee and customer experience.”