Digital Closings Are Here, and They’re Evolving Fast

Until recently, getting a mortgage was a paper chase. Suddenly, the industry’s going digital.

It’s all part of the wave to remote and hybrid work. And the rules and regulations have adjusted with phenomenal speed.

Title companies now view digital closings and notary services as inevitable — especially given pending legislation to make remote online notarization a national norm.

Here’s how the changes are unfolding, and where this is all going.

Sticky Fixes: From Pandemic Patch, to Legal Norm

Lenders, notaries, and title professionals scrambled, when Covid hit, to offer safe closings for their borrowers. Everyone needed answers: buyers and sellers, their brokers and agents, the mortgage consultants, the notaries, the settlement agents. With most of their offices shut for a public health emergency, these professionals turned to electronic closings as a temporary fix.

But customers liked it. They were already used to sending loan application documents over the internet, and receiving automated preapprovals. eClosings seemed to be the logical next step. And they stuck.

Customers like signing documents in stress-free environments, and getting agreements squared away in advance of closing day. Remote online notarization (RON) is now in demand coast to coast.

Lenders and title agents liked RON more than they might have expected they would. It was saving them money and time on each loan. Notaries and settlement companies hesitated. Would the digital closing sideline their vital role and their human presence in home sale transactions?

Turns out eClosings do substitute for proofing, printing, distributing, scanning, and otherwise copying documents. But that doesn’t make the agent’s work redundant. Professionals can now be more attentive to the people they serve. They can deal with those tricky issues that need their thoughts and expertise.

Sending Funds: Is There an App for That?

Closing on a home, until quite recently, put millennials and younger buyers in the strange position of writing checks. For young buyers, the world of wiring money and writing checks seems clunky and archaic.

Younger buyers are comfortable with mobile payments. As they keep influencing the market, watch for escrow account managers to start accommodating them.

Digital payments are already beginning to play roles in home purchases. To the extent they can guard customers funds from real estate wire fraud, the new breed of payment systems will likely continue gaining its foothold in mortgage financing.

Artificial intelligence is another factor that improves a home seeker’s mobile experience. Type in terms as you think of them, and the app “knows” what you’re seeking. For sellers, AI-enabled tech can estimate how many days a given home, with a given price, will take to sell.

As customers and agents keep using these tools, machine learning makes them better.

We’re in the Third Generation of Digital Lending, Says Wolters Kluwer  

Wolters Kluwer is the international digital software and data company that’s introduced the eOriginal® digital lending platform. The company identifies three generations of digital lending so far.

Digital Lending: The First Generation

Loan origination came first. Have you made a home purchase in the days before the pandemic struck? Maybe you’ll recall sitting down in an office or living room with a mortgage consultant, looking at your documents, discussing your goals. The expert would tell you if lenders would look kindly on your credit profile.

It’s a bit different now. You might still want to meet your real estate and mortgage professionals in person, but most of the necessary information channels are online. Technology now verifies personal identity — and most everything else that goes into a loan application. Even without a traditional bank account, you can establish a credit profile and apply for financing.  

Digital Lending: The Second Generation

The second stage is all about the customer’s journey. Remote online notarization followed innovations like eSigning. Hybrid appraisals followed desktop appraisals.

And then came eClosings, with everything done using digital tools. Managers handle transactions remotely, with lender and borrower able to communicate and visualize the whole process on their online platforms.

Digital Lending: The Third Generation

Today, reports Wolters Kluwer, we’re witnessing a third generation in digital lending. Now, it’s all about legal compliance and seamless transactions on norm-setting digital platforms.  

Before, lenders passed their financial batons from one party to the next, as the loan made a complicated but strictly ordered journey from origination to buyers in secondary markets. Now, the sequence can be customized without the companies falling out of compliance. Closings that used to take months are now being done in weeks.

For Lenders, Vetting the Services Is Critical

Lenders benefit in a number of ways from the move to eClosings. Mortgage consultants who are up to speed on eClosings can market an updated range of services. Smaller bank staffs can grow their mortgage volumes more efficiently.

But how are these financial pros making sure their title partners have digital services they can trust? 

Providing RON is a new and evolving technique. And with RON so new to the mortgage process; the rules are evolving. RON-equipped closing and title companies have to watch the laws and regulations with care, to preserve their reputations in the future world of lending.

In states that are leading the field in remote notarization, lenders can tap vendors that are selected by their states. If they have to pick the partners themselves, they look for providers with reliable platforms and a history of handling mortgage support roles.

Lenders need partners and platforms that fit in with their work flows and their existing technology. And they look for continuing support, not merely setup.

And so, a lender must ask: Has this company formed a track record yet? Is the staff knowledgeable? What service providers manage their software, and with what platform? Are they compliant with the state law, and best security practices?

Does the company go beyond electronic notarizing to offer the whole eClosing enchilada?

Digital Closings Are Winning the Public Trust. What’s Next?

Digital closings empower customers. People can more easily choose their services and how they want to interact with providers.

Lenders and title agents get the certainty of complete, useful records. This relieves lenders of the hassle of sending documents back to the parties due to missing details or signatures. With digital mortgage platforms, parties receive prompts if something’s not there before they submit information. Instead of papers to hand over or mail, the parties can post files to secure platforms.

What’s next in the evolution of eClosings? Data, not documents, will become the mortgage. And then, says Steve Bisbee at Wolters Kluwer, “the true value of analytics will create the fourth generation of real-time digital lending.”

Please know… Deeds.com has no affiliate marketing interest in the companies mentioned in our articles. We present information that’s relevant and up-to-date, for the purpose of general information and exploration of real estate transactions in our fast-moving field.

Supporting References

Stephen Bisbee for Wolters Kluwer Compliance Solutions, via WoltersKluwer.com: The Evolution of Digital Lending (Jun. 15, 2023).

CityscapeTechnology.com: The Digital Revolution in Real Estate: Why Agents Need to Adapt (Jun. 15, 2023).

FNF® Family of Companies: FNF is Ready for Digital Closings.

MortgagePoint magazine from The Five Star Institute, via theMReport.com®: Navigating the Wild, Wild West of Digital Closing Providers (Jun. 12, 2023).

Whitney Vogt for the Snapdocs, Inc. blog: The 4 Unexpected Benefits of eClose – A Mortgage Lender’s First-Hand Experience Implementing and Scaling eClose Technology (Jul. 14, 2023).

And as linked.

More on topics: Remote online notarization, Mortgage tech

Photo credits: Antoni Shkraba and cottonbro studio, via Pexels.