Digital mortgages

As the mortgage and real estate industries traverse the challenges of the increasingly digital coronavirus landscape, title agents and their integral part of the process can get overlooked.

Joe Welu, CEO and founder of Total Expert, provides his perspectives on how the coronavirus pandemic impacts the mortgage industry and ways lenders can push forward.

Consumer needs are in flux and Top Producers were looking at technology and risks associated with unexpected financial challenges as areas where they weren't yet meeting those needs. The coronavirus only intensified the urgency.

As delving further into digitization becomes more the standard, loan officers across the country know artificial intelligence is the next evolution in mortgage technology.

Mortgage technology efforts have historically been behind the curve, but some recent responses to the coronavirus highlight instances where it rises to the occasion.

As the world practices social distancing to counteract spreading the virus further, it forces lenders to move as close as possible to an all-digital model, as quickly as possible.

Refinancing activity is surging, existing borrowers are inquiring about loan modifications, loan closings are being delayed by more complex credit checks — and banks are short on people to handle it all.

Mortgage industry technology providers are adjusting their processes to allow for originations to keep flowing through the system as the nation combats the coronavirus.

Electronic closings are a solution in efforts to limit people congregating, but there could be some state law concerns.

Maxex, a company that acts as a private exchange for residential mortgage sales, is seeing a pickup in business as sellers seek additional outlets for their nonagency loans.