What Tops the Mortgage Process Checklist for Borrowers?

Speed is the Top Priority Across the Board

As a mortgage professional, you know well that the home loan process involves dozens of specific steps, each one as vitally important as the last. After all, just one tiny mistake could cause the entire “assembly line” to come to an abrupt halt.

You also know that your customers aren’t always aware of this fact. They don’t see all the paperwork involved, all the calls you have to make, and the tasks you have to keep up with. Understandably, they’re laser-focused on how home loan qualification feels and that they do – indeed – get their mortgage loan in the end.  

The reality is that great mortgage professionals will need to keep this fact in mind, as client experience is everything. Ultimately, exceeding their expectations is one of the few things that can set you apart from the other 23,125 mortgage brokers across the nation.   But what exactly are their expectations? What truly is their top priority?

The One Thing Every Buyer Wants? Speed

As it turns out, clients are interested in speed more than anything else. That means that simply speeding up your processes could lead to higher satisfaction rates, better reviews, and more referrals.   Sound like a stretch? It all adds up when you consider how clients perceive the mortgage process.

How Your Clients View the Mortgage Process

The average client’s work begins well before they come in contact with their eventual loan originator. Before they’ve booked an introductory call, they’re browsing online listings, contemplating their options, getting pre-qualification letters, researching neighborhoods and school districts, and finding the right real estate agent.  

Honestly, by the time a customer even reaches your desk, they’re likely more than ready for the process to come to an end. They just want you to turn things around quickly so they can get into the home they’ve been dreaming about for weeks—or even months—now.   In the eyes of the buyer, long periods between steps in the mortgage process only creates room for things to go wrong.

How MLOs can Speed Up the Mortgage Process

While a quick and convenient process is important, unfortunately, it’s not quite as simple as just willing it into existence. If you’re looking to improve your speed and efficiency, consider one or more of the following:

Be Available

In a competitive market of mortgage brokers, it’s vital you are available to your customers when they need you. Gone are the days of office doors closing and clients waiting until regular business hours to contact you. Today, your customers want answers quickly and expect you to be there to provide them.

Be Personable

You don’t have to sacrifice the client experience for speed! In fact, it’s quite the opposite. Being personable with these people, who are often looking to make the largest purchase of their lifetime, will pay dividends. It will instill a level of trust, thus resulting in fewer status update calls, fewer one-off emails, and fewer pesky texts. If a client has faith in you, they won’t be worrying so much about the structure in place.

Automate Your Process

As a leading processing network for MLOs, we’ve helped to rapidly close loans, with the goal to lead to repeat customers for our users. We are a system designed by former MLOs, so we know the pain points of your workday and have created a solution. Learn more here.

The Need for Speed

It’s always important to remember that clients aren’t in the trenches with us, going through the day-to-day operations, so they aren’t aware of the many steps needed to close a loan. It is our job to communicate the ins and outs of these processes and, whenever possible, try to improve them.  

Through automation tools and constant communication, you can relieve some of the stresses on your customers and free up time to expedite the loan origination process. Plus, you could even bump up your referral rate at the same time! Talk about a win-win.  

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