eClosings, or online-based mortgage closings, have become significantly more popular recently. Industry adoption was slow until the Covid-19 pandemic accelerated the process as much out of dire need as general desirability.
What exactly is an eClosing?
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Traditionally, mortgage closings were completed in person with borrowers signing what could be dozens and dozens of forms, disclosures, notes, a deed, and of course, checks.
Today, a closing can occur completely online with Remote Online Notarizations or “RONs.” Alternatively, where a live inked or “wet” signature is required on the most important documents like a deed and mortgage note, hybrid closings will occur. A hybrid closing is when the bulk of the forms and disclosures can be signed online, and physical signatures are then taken by a notary, title officer or attorney at a separate time and place.
Either method goes a long way to create efficiency in the closing process, as borrowers are under no rush to review documents before signing and all parties to a transaction have little if any need to coordinate scheduling for all to meet at one time and location.
Keep eClosings on track using a strong Mortgage CRM.
The key to using a mortgage CRM to help prepare borrowers for an eClosing is to assure that they are made familiar with how the process will work. You can do it by using your CRM for educational marketing automation just as you would use it for automated mortgage marketing.
Submitting applications today is often an online experience for borrowers, so that process is a great introduction to submitting financial information and signing online. Still, borrowers need to know that an online signature application is acceptable, easy, safe, secure and very much for their own convenience.
A strong mortgage CRM is the best way to implement automated workflows that educate borrowers all the way through the process and right up to delivery of the closing documents. These are easy to create and implement in all the same ways that you use a mortgage CRM for mortgage marketing purposes.
Many borrowers are overwhelmed by the sheer number of forms that must be executed for a typical mortgage closing. Assuring that your borrowers become familiar with and understand why these forms exist long before the actual closing is key to assuring it goes smoothly when the actual time comes to fund their purchase or refinance transaction.
Let your borrowers know through your educational campaigns that having the time to read all of these documents if desired, along with the simplicity of signing electronically with a simple mouse click, can make the experience easier more comfortable overall. And that’s especially true vs. having to schedule and attend a traditional closing that’s usually only held during regular work hours.
A Mortgage CRM is for far more than just email marketing.
Today’s most popular mortgage CRM systems like Surefire from Black Knight are far more robust than the systems of years past. Email, text, web, video and tons of award-winning educational marketing content exists to create a feature-rich omnichannel experience for your prospects and clients.
Offering a seamless experience that allows your applicants to employ their medium of choice or to engage with a variety of media over time depending on their location and device of the moment makes learning easy. Regardless of the place and medium, the content and messaging will always be familiar and inter-connected with you and your branding.
A seamless way to educate borrowers without an outsized need for your personal time is the right way to assure both happy customers and enough of them to keep your pipeline full.
True automation is possible today, and it’s simply one of the best ways to keep your borrowers in the know and prepared for every next step leading up to their mortgage closing.
eClosings are the future, and the future arrived early.
The Covid-19 pandemic rushed in the advances and approvals needed to make eClosings possible. While face to face meetings are still great opportunities to get to know your clients and referral sources, doing business in up-to-date ways where technology is leveraged to enhance the experience and improve the process can be just as fruitful.
There’s still plenty of ways to engage in automated mortgage marketing using your mortgage CRM for more traditional pursuits. Email marketing, landing pages, videos, calculators, flyers, holiday greeting cards sent the old-fashioned way or with customized electronic wizardry — the choices are many and always yours to make. Yet utilizing all the same mortgage CRM systems to prep your borrowers for closing the way it can now be done today makes your existing, or your brand new tools all the more valuable.
If you haven’t recently seen what Surefire can do to make your business more efficient, click here for a demo today.
Brian Larrabee
Content Director
Brian’s entire professional career has centered in real estate. He’s designed, built and brokered homes. He’s provided over half a billion dollars in mortgage loan financing to everyone from first time-buyers to the CEOs of Fortune 500 companies He’s a published author with articles in periodicals,
hedge fund websites and trade publications. Brian has traveled the country and been on broadcast radio to speak in front of hundreds of his industry contemporaries. He’s also created and developed hundreds of educational products from print to digital used throughout the U.S. and beyond, which make the process of buying and financing a home easier for all. Brian is a father, real estate investor, outdoorsman, pilot, skier, golfer and plays ice hockey in several men’s leagues every week of the year.