We recently connected with Mark Fiebig, Founder at The Closing Docs, a firm offering automated income verification for property managers and lenders.
As explained by the company’s management, The Closing Docs provides an automated income verification tool that positions property managers and lenders to “make defensible approval decisions.”
By using their solutions, property managers and lending platforms are able to expedite the review and approval process, while “increasing reported income accuracy and eliminating pay stub fraud from the application process.” The Closing Docs is focused on helping their clients close more deals a lot faster.
Our conversation with Mark Fiebig is shared below.
You’ve explained that The Closing Docs’ income report helps property managers, lenders and financial institutions make confident decisions. How do you build the required technical infrastructure to enable quick and secure income reports?
Mark Fiebig: We’re relying on a complex set of tools built over years, in addition to leveraging certain technical partners for specialization or expertise in unique requirement sets.
Combined, we have a robust solution delivering value to our customers every minute of the day. As a result, our systems deliver applicant income verification reports in 98% of cases, which is 2 to 3 times more often than the competition. From a security standpoint, we are subject to bank-level data procurement requirements and so utilizing our service is as safe and sound as paying for groceries at the checkout line.
It’s worth noting how applicants in our workflow are required to review and confirm the accuracy of the data they will share before they are able to pass it along to interested parties. This gives applicants a solid sense of understanding regarding, and confidence in, the financial picture they will convey to their potential landlord or lender.
Crowdfund Insider: How would you define your target audience? Do you think that your target audience is ready to depend entirely on automated technology to verify income?
Mark Fiebig: Ours is a two-sided marketplace. Applicants are looking for a new place to live or to borrow money for the purchase of a vehicle. And those with inventory to offer need accurate, verified income data to make sound business decisions regarding whether to proceed with any given applicant. There’s a symbiosis that thrives on accuracy and speed and
The Closing Docs delivers both, in spades. So, directly, our target audience is comprised of landlords looking for well qualified renters and those who lend money wanting connections with qualified borrowers. We make it easier than ever for both parties to achieve a shared, desired outcome. Are people ready for technology that expedites opportunity in decision making? I think the world we live in has resoundingly answered that question in the affirmative.
Crowdfund Insider: You’ve mentioned that your company is emerging to be the new standard for verifying income. How can your company make a significant difference to the existing traditional methods of verifying income in the Housing & Fintech industry?
Mark Fiebig: Well, because we have implemented technology that makes lives easier, and support it with good customer service both in- and post-transaction, we believe what our customers tell us.
Applicants say they get answers faster and with less friction in the process, and landlords and lenders say they are able to now conduct business in ways allowing them to reduce liability exposure while increasing transaction velocity. Everybody wins.
Crowdfund Insider: Could you please highlight some of the features that set The Closing Docs apart from its competitors?
Mark Fiebig : First and foremost, we deliver automated income verification reports 2-3x more often than any competitor and we can do so because of the infrastructure we have developed. And those reports include data unique to the reviewer’s business requirements, information that informs their use cases and helps them to make better business decisions faster. Others in our field are, shall we say, less robust with what they deliver, both in terms of frequency of completed reports, and in terms of value added in the information delivered.
Second, our customer support is, bar none, best in class. Thirdly, we give landlords and lenders total flexibility regarding when, where and how they use our tools. Others dictate global use, for instance, when many users want conditional use for a variety of business reasons. This flexibility, coupled with superior delivery and analytics, and best-in-class customer support push us to the front of the pack.
Crowdfund Insider: Do you believe that Automated Income Verification is the next big technology for users to embrace in 2022? Data theft is a growing concern for smart device users globally. How do you ensure that the users’ valuable data is never compromised in the process?
Mark Fiebig: Automating income verification migrates what is nearly a paper and pencil process into the modern era, making it easier for the members of our two-sided marketplace to conduct business and to do so with more certainty, understanding, security and insight. These elements are worthy of a warm embrace, right?
We believe our duty is to make lives easier for those we serve and, if we can earn a few bucks along the way, it’s because we are fulfilling that duty.
Now, regarding data security, the expectation, the requirement, really, is that we operate to the same security standards as all practitioners in the overall banking universe. This basis is tantamount to our longevity. You see, if we are unable to at least meet the minimum requirements, financial institutions would shut us out in a heartbeat. And without data, we are dead in the water. A fundamental objective, therefore, is to keep information secure.
It’s worth pointing out people are reducing their liability exposure by using our services.
The alternative, processing uploaded documents is, in and of itself, a highly unsecure proposition where there are many known points of potential for compromise. And I suppose you could rely on our competitors, but only if you find it acceptable to receive the data you need to operate your business 30-50% of the time. Do they discount their pricing as a result? We do wonder.
By consistently and predictably sharing only the required info to our audience and not any sensitive data, the Closing Docs has removed the opportunity for bad actors on both sides of the marketplace: fraudsters cannot forge and then upload falsified documents and the recipients of applicant data are unable misuse what they don’t receive, right?
For the applicant, our service is a boon. No longer are they sharing bank statements and pay stubs which include more info than reviewers need to inform relevant decision making. And management in our customer organizations can relax a little, knowing their team is reviewing neither fraudulent nor sensitive info. For both parties, this total exercise transpires over minutes, not days. Fast, secure, simple. Everybody wins when The Closing Docs solves these business needs.
Crowdfund Insider: What are your plans for 2022 and beyond?
Mark Fiebig: To continue to add value to the daily activities of our customers, we need to stay focused on meeting our duty: to make lives easier. The ways we do that have been introduced here and I would encourage your readers to get in touch to learn more. Go ahead and send an email to mark@theclosingdocs.com. Listening to our customers at every turn is what has allowed us to achieve our success to date and that listening and learning will not stop.
We have a number of tricks up our sleeves to further enhance our solution and to bring even more value to both sides of our marketplace, and you’ll see those announcements in the future. We’re in a major growth phase for the company and serving our customers very well is how we’ll crush our performance benchmarks.