“Even as rates rise modestly, the housing market remains healthy on the cusp of spring homebuying season. Homebuyer demand is strong and, for homeowners who have not yet refinanced but are looking to do so, they have not yet lost the opportunity”, reports Freddie Mac’s Economic & Housing Research Group. This reveals that the work for Mortgage companies is far from being reduced, and projects a demand surge. With the new mortgage needs and most lenders neck-deep in paperwork, loan process outsourcing continues to gain credence.
However, as the story goes, where there is competition, finding the mortgage outsourcing partner becomes a tough choice to make. While there are many factors that are taken into consideration for loan process outsourcing, here are 5 Key Factors to Consider When Choosing your Mortgage Outsourcing Partner.
1. Established Mortgage Industry Experience: A Measure of Domain Knowledge Acquired
The mortgage industry often bypasses the pitch made by marketing gimmicks as the actual value lies in experience and expertise. Once you have a list in hand, start looking at the potential mortgage process outsourcing partners in terms of their industry experience. By the number of years of experience. While being a veteran in the business may not mandate innovativeness, it sure means that they have a clear understanding of the industry’s best practices and in-depth domain knowledge. Domain knowledge plays an important role when it comes to confidence about the processes and on-time deliveries. It makes outsourcing more fruitful considering that the partner has the exact skills you need along with the experience to add in more value.
2. Ability To Apply Technology Solutions To Address Problems
Experience has its perks, and so does the ability to adapt to technological advancements. With the process requirements changing ever so frequently, the need for error-free assessments, anomaly identification, credit scores, and document processing all have led to the inclusion of machine learning and data analytics in mortgage processing. It is hence, a pre-requisite that the outsourcing partner should be able to use these applications to help in bridging complex processes like underwriting, auditing, etc.
3. Continuous Improvement in Processes To Achieve Process Efficiency
As mentioned above, adaptability is an important aspect and so is the readiness to stay updated with the changing processes, upgrading skill sets and technological readiness, and the openness to keep improving. Stagnancy in the mortgage business can be a major pitfall, which is why finding an outsourcing partner with the drive for continuous improvement to achieve process efficiency can be another key part of the selection process.
4. Access to Skilled Talent Base: A Measure of Skills That You Can Command
There is a lot of automation that is being used in the mortgage loan life cycle, the need for human intervention however remains unchanged. While data and paper-heavy processes can be done faster through technological integration, the processes like underwriting, authentication, and customer service require trained and skilled hands with a clear understanding of the processes and changing compliance requirements, to get the best results. There is a lot more than trained hands in the mortgage industry bring on to the table, which is why analyzing the skill base in the outsourcing partner’s team becomes important. It is important to consider that that team has to work as an extension of your in-house team, and so even if you are simply outsourcing due to a surge in requirements, onboard a partner that matches the standards rather than just picking a low-cost solution.
5. Keen Understanding of Mortgage Compliance: Insights to Industry Best Practices
The mortgage industry has strict standards and hence compliance with industry regulations and protocols is a characteristic that cannot be overlooked. The underwriters and other professionals in the mortgage industry must have comprehensive knowledge about the guidelines set by authorities. It is pertinent to ensure that all mortgage files are compliant after underwriting is done. So, while looking for an outsourcing partner, it is essential to ensure that they have past use cases that point towards adherence to industry guidelines. Ensure that along with the right technologies they have established processes with the right workflow in place to ensure adept decision making and deliver error-free loan processing.
The 5 points mentioned above make an important part of the checklist for selecting an ideal mortgage outsourcing partner. But before even getting to these, it is essential to run a background check, to learn about how long the vendor has been in the market. Cross-check with past customers to know about how they work and also look at what the social media platforms have to say before narrowing down your list of potential vendors. Check the past work, case studies, Client References, and Samples if available to gain clarity about the work quality.
With that done, it is also good to analyze the infrastructure readiness and workforce capability of the potential partner. While all these may be time-consuming, overlooking them can affect the business in the long run, and it is always better to be careful with finances and data security. So, run the check and give it enough thought before getting into Mortgage process outsourcing.
What Makes PrivoCorp a Good Choice?
Reliability, quality, and data security are three aspects PrivoCorp emphasizes. Our efficient processes help in delivering effective mortgage origination, servicing, and title solutions to clients while greatly reducing operational costs and cycle times. Get in touch with us today!
