Recruiting, Retaining, and Training – Top Tips for Mortgage Professionals and Lending Institutions

Summary: 

  • The recent drop in interest rates caused a boom in purchases/refis, flooding the lending industry with new loan originators, processors, and underwriters.
  • Mortgage professionals have a high turn-over rate and short average employment time compared to other industries. 
  • Finding and training new mortgage professionals is extremely expensive.
  • Lack of effective training, investment in  technology, and operational support are some of the top reasons why mortgage professionals choose to join or leave.
  • RealKey provides a digital mortgage platform and free consulting solutions to address training, process automation, and technological resource needs.

With fluctuating interest rates, mortgage lending organizations are constantly thinking about how to appeal to borrowers with changing demographics and demands. At the same time, and just as importantly, financial institutions are battling to attract and retain the best loan originators and closing teams to cater to borrowers.

The mortgage industry has changed a lot in the last 10 years. Home prices hit record highs after the 2012 crisis, there was an explosion among first time home buyers, drastic decreases in home supply, and all-time low mortgage rates. There have also been drastic changes for mortgage lending institutions catapulted by the COVID-19 crisis. Although the interest rates are currently increasing, the pandemic drove them to an all time low, overwhelming the market with new home buyers and creating a high demand for refinances. This extreme boom drove experienced and new MLOs to capitalize.  

As the lending industry is being flooded with new loan originators, processors, and underwriters, it is simultaneously undergoing an exodus. Frustrated and overworked seasoned lending teams are looking for organizations that offer better technology, higher salaries, and better commisions. The turnover rate among mortgage professionals is almost double compared to the national average, peaking at 77% right before the 2008 financial crisis. Also, the average employment time with one organization is only 2.29 years, with high-achieving loan officers leaving in less than a year. This is forcing lending institutions to scramble to train new talent and retain the seasoned ones. Why? Because hiring and training new front and back office teams is extremely expensive, costing an organization an average of 30% of annual income.

Studies conducted to understand why MLOs and closing teams churn at such high rates found the following reasons to be the most common: 

  • Lack of Education & Training – MLOs, processors, and underwriters feel they are not provided adequate training, and are expected to learn on their own through trial and error. Thus, leading to stress, frustration, burnout, and lower earnings/commissions.
  • Disorganized Workflow – Confusing and manual processes create more room for error, making the originating and closing process more challenging and longer.
  • Poor Operational Support – A lack of strong and knowledgeable processors and underwriters delays the entire process, putting MLOs in stressful situations with their clients, and not closing within projected deadlines.
  • Lack of Technology – Many front and back office teams voice they need access to technology to automate tedious and error-prone tasks, manage higher loan volumes, and close faster.

MLOs and closing teams are constantly chasing documents and playing catch-up, making them too busy to research and learn about new digitals tools. This causes them to “get stuck” in their patterns and comfort zones of using ineffective and outdated tools and resources. For other professionals, it’s pure arrogance. They think they know best and provide their customers with superior service and rates. This ignorance and lack of time to dedicate to learning about new resources can have serious consequences for mortgage teams, who continue working with outdated tools and processes, as well as customers that are not offered the best mortgage products and experience.

To address frustrations faced by lending and closing teams, RealKey came up with solutions using its innovative digital mortgage technology.

Effective & Transparent Training That Ensures Everyone Understand Their Responsibilities

RealKey’s technology and automation is a great tool to train new originators, processors, and underwriters, decreasing the learning curve and teaching them the correct way to originate and close loans from day one. By investing in digital mortgage automation tools, organizations can make onboarding faster and easier, causing less frustration and walkouts. 

Automation provides transparency and gives a 360 degree view of the process from start to finish. It not only maps out the entire process, but helps understand the “why” behind every step and transaction. In a way, it’s a “mortgage project management” tool where each team member (including borrowers and 3rd parties) is assigned to and understands their responsibilities. With every new borrower, a LO will fill out an application and upload it to RealKey’s platform. The originator and borrower(s) will then invite all the parties (such as processor, underwriter, title, attorney, etc) to the “project” outlining their responsibilities and deliverables for closing of the loan.  This way, everybody is synced and follows the correct process from day one, leading to cleaner loans, faster closing, and more earnings.

Loan originators, processors, and underwriters are a “golden triangle” that works as a cohesive team to originate and close loans. Each is responsible for equally-important parts of the loan-closing process. Misunderstanding of individual roles and making minor mistakes can drastically delay the closing and frustrate borrowers and referring real estate agents. That is why it is extremely important that everyone is well-trained and clearly understands their responsibilities and deliverables.

Invest in Automation Technology That Simplifies Jobs & Tasks

Extensive studies have shown that MLOS and closing teams want technology and automation tools to make their tasks easier, more efficient and less error prone. If a lending organization does not offer technology to streamline origination and closing processes, the front and back office teams will spend hours manually inputting the same information into different platforms. Lack of technology is one of the main reasons why many professionals decide to jump ship to more “tech-savvy” lending organizations that nowadays also use innovation as a lure to attract new talent.

Now that interest rates are increasing and the housing market is slowing down, it also creates an ideal time for mortgage professionals to re-evaluate their processes and systems in order to incorporate automation technology before the industry starts to ramp up again. Lending organizations and independent professionals can invest in RealKey’s digital tools to make the mortgage process more efficient, close more loans, faster, with less effort from start to finish.

Stay On Top Of Latest Digital Mortgage Tools

Fintech technology and tools are changing at the speed of light and it can feel like a full-time job to stay on top of new digital offerings and learn how to use them. With RealKey, mortgage teams not only get technology that enables them to streamline their processes, but also live onboarding and training, at no additional cost, to ensure they fully understand how to use and maximize it. Because RealKey technology comes “out of the box” and ready to use, without much customizations, it dramatically shortens the learning curve. The training team demonstrates how seamless the process is and continues to provide ongoing support.

As an added service, RealKey offers free consulting from the most experienced and highest producing experts in the mortgage industry who stay up-to-date and share the most effective technologies and best practices to help new and seasoned mortgage teams easily scale their business. It’s not about “selling” technology, but also recommending complementary tools that save borrowers money and help originators earn more.

No matter what the industry is, organizations are only as good and strong as their teams. Because loan officers, processors, and underwriters are a mortgage company’s most important assets, it is important to provide support with the right digital tools so that they can thrive in any market condition.

RealKey is an innovative provider of digital mortgage technologies that fills gaps (LOSs, POSs, and AUSs) in order to streamline the mortgage process. The RealKey platform provides automated and intelligent collection of documents, review of data, and secure communications among all parties involved. These combined capabilities shorten the loan processing cycle by roughly 50%, giving MLOs time to close more loans and grow their business. RealKey’s software works seamlessly with existing point of sale and loan origination systems to bring an end-to-end, fully digital mortgage processing experience to lenders, brokers and their clients.  

Schedule a Demo today to learn how RealKey can help train new-hires, retain seasoned professionals, and automate the most difficult loan-closing processes.

Misogyny in Mortgage Lending Is Still A Thing And It Must Stop

Summary:

  • March is Women’s History Month and it‘s aim is to emphasize historical achievements of women.
  • While many industries are tackling sexism and misogyny against women, the mortgage lending industry is trailing behind.
  • As lending institutions are implementing no-tolerance policies, misogyny gets camouflaged as competition and is fueled by toxic bro culture.
  • Although the number of women working in the lending industry is increasing, many are still working in the behind-the-scenes processing and underwriting roles.
  • Accountability and providing safe space to voice concerns are some of the ways of ending sexism.

Since the 1980s, March has been recognized as Women’s History Month in the United States. Women’s participation, which has always been a part of history, has been overlooked and excluded for centuries. Historically, the past has been shaped and seen through the lens of the great male heroes. But in the early 20th century, the narrative began to change with the introduction of women’s history in academia. This pushed to emphasize the importance and achievements of women, as well as to provide them with equal access to jobs and education.

When we fast forward to today, organizations are discussing how to tackle gender bias, discrimination and sexist attitudes in the workplace. Additionally, the MeToo movement has started outing inappropriate behavior in the workplace across many industries, and demanding accountability. While large leaps have been made towards women’s inclusion and equality, industries such as mortgage lending are still trailing behind and exhibiting misogynistic and sexist behavior.

As organizations are implementing tougher protocols and no-tolerance policies against sexism and  misogyny against women, the lending industry continues to be in the spotlight. High-ranking and everyday scandals get dismissed with a slap on the wrist, and go unpunished. While some industry professionals are brave enough to take a stance and distance themselves from shamed leaders and organizations, many sweep it under the rug and continue with the “business as usual” mentality.

“Boys will be boys” can no longer be used as a justification for outbursts and tantrums. They are not examples of innocent mistakes, but rather that of “bro” culture, bully tactics and toxic masculinity camouflaged as professionalism and doing whatever it takes to win and close a loan.  Helping borrowers buy a home should not be done at the expense of defaming women (or anyone) in or outside of the industry. This behavior shows lack of respect, and essentially undermines support of ALL women who are someone’s wife, mother, or daughter.  

Even though today there are more women in the lending industry, many of them still feel that mortgage lending remains a male-dominated industry with a toxic culture. Some of the women that work alongside men as loan originators express that in order to “fit in” they must become “one of the boys,” meaning that they have to accept and not react to inappropriately sexist jokes, comments and bullying.

In the home lending office, it’s more common to see women employed in supporting roles like loan assistant or in back-office roles such as processor and underwriter. These positions are oftentimes overlooked, overworked, and underpaid. While mortgage originators razzle-dazzle borrowers to sign up for a loan product and get the financial recognition for when the loan finally closes, what many borrowers don’t see is the behind-the-scenes team that cleans up messes and puts out fires to make the loan approval actually happen and fast.

Although mortgage lending is still considered a male-dominated industry, the dynamics are shifting and women are playing a larger part. Changes in borrower demographics as well as theories about how women could be better loan officers are just some of the reasons for why we see more women transitioning to client-facing mortgage broker roles and into leadership positions. A standout example is JMAC Lending which was founded by 2 sisters and has a majority female leadership team. Since 2007, JMAC has originated more than 40,000 mortgage loans and is one of 30 largest wholesale lenders in the industry. 

Today, the borrower profile is changing as well. (Single) female home buyers have become more normal and accounted for almost  20% of home purchases in 2019 with that number expected to increase. And although women make $0.81 to every $1.00 that men earn, single women own more than 1.6 million homes than single men in the US. To serve a growing female customer base, the mortgage industry would benefit from more female loan officers. 

How to promote inclusivity and eliminate misogyny and discrimination: 

  • Accountability–the industry MUST react swiftly, make itself accountable and hold misogynists accountable (including firing) from all ranks, top to bottom.
  • Collaborations–facilitate partnerships with industry allies that are examples of change in the industry.
  • Safe Space–provide a space where men and women feel safe, comfortable and protected to voice negative experiences without consequences of losing their job or commission.
  • Allies–men should act as allies and call out vile behavior.
  • Clear Company Policy–organizations must have policies against gender inequality and code of ethics guidelines applying to anyone in the ranks.
  • Equal Access–female employees must have fair and equal access for career opportunities.

Sexism, discrimination and mysoginy in the lending industry exists because of weak leadership and lack of acknowledgement or accountability. While many males in executive leadership roles don’t exhibit the mentioned behaviors, they fail to make the necessary changes to eliminate them. It’s easier to look the other way than weed out the “bad apples”.

Oftentimes, there is a tendency to downplay, or altogether ignore, the impact and severity of sexism in the workplace. However, just like in every relationship, there is a huge difference between a healthy (gender) dynamics versus blatant hostility and discrimination. Eliminating misogyny not only benefits women and makes a company HR-compliant, but it makes organizations more successful overall. Company culture and historical industry stereotypes can no longer be used as an excuse for behavior that diminishes and materially disadvantages anyone.

At RealKey, we understand the challenges that loan originator teams face in the loan process.  We  conducted extensive studies to pinpoint the most common pain-points of closing a loan.  In keeping with the focus of this post, we found that processors and underwriters manage the bulk of the closing process, and rely on outdated and non-intuitive tools. While mortgage originators are bombarded with and invest in new and efficient technologies to find new borrowers, complete online applications, and even release their commissions sooner, the back-office support team are commonly overlooked.

RealKey’s digital mortgage platform is one of the steps towards equality in the mortgage industry by promoting investment into roles and divisions of the loan ecosystems where women (and men) are working the hardest. This won’t only have a positive impact for loan originators and their team, but the entire organization.

RealKey’s AI improves on current processes and systems for initial needs lists, to get the right conditions the first time, inviting not only borrowers, but 3rd parties to the centralized platform. RealKey provides centralized chat, which reduces the amount of time and frustration spent by processors communicating through inefficient emails or attempting to get through to everyone involved by phone (often getting full voicemails or likewise being hard to reach themselves due to being inundated with tasks of their own). Review of documents is automated by RealKey’s AI to suggest re-conditions when the uploader did not follow the clear instructions, or new conditions based on the data/documents provided. To reduce back and forth with underwriting that adds stress for everyone, underwriters can clearly see what has been provided as well as what is still being worked on to get cleaner approvals out sooner. This all leads to preferred underwriting (wanting MLOs files over others) and better pricing in most cases. Not to mention RealKey has been proven to improve the likelihood of borrowers refinancing or referring business to the same MLO by 50%. Investing in all of your staff and their division, not just sales, is for everyone’s benefit.

Contact us today for a demo, and learn how RealKey can help automate the most difficult loan-closing processes.

How Mortgage Loan Automation Kills 2 Birds With 1 Stone

Summary

  • Interest rates are at an all time low, creating a high demand for purchases and refis.
  • Many loan originators still depend on outdated, manual, and paper-based processes.
  • Although interest rates and fees are important, borrowers are looking for digital mortgage experience that provides improved communication, transparency, and proper expectations.
  • Loan originators are incorporating mortgage loan automation tools to keep their customers happy and grow their business by making the loan approval process faster, more accurate, transparent, and more efficient

Mortgage brokers are faced with a double edged sword. On one hand, business is booming. The current pandemic forced interest rates to an all time low, flooding the housing market with renters looking to buy and existing homeowners to refinance. On the other hand, many loan originators and processors still depend on time-consuming, error-prone, paper-based and inefficient processes which prevent them from focusing on their clients and growing their business.

The outdated and manual loan processes also create a lot of friction for the customers, for whom applying for a home loan becomes a stressful and emotional journey. For borrowers, taking out a mortgage is THE biggest monetary transaction of their life, and it’s also the most frustrating and lengthy financial transaction they endure. 

While interest rates and fees are extremely important when choosing a lender, these factors are more or less the same across different lending institutions. When looking for a loan, price is not king. What borrowers really value (especially first time borrowers) is exceptional customer experience, reputation, and knowledgeable staff. In the mortgage industry, reputation can make or break a loan originator. Customers that had a negative experience will not recommend the lender to others and are 2-5 times as likely to work with someone else to refinance.

Customer expectations, catapulted by the Covid-19 pandemic, have changed. 91% of lending institutions agree that customers are looking for a digital mortgage experience. Borrowers don’t want to send (and re-send) a never-ending trail of paperwork, and then get flooded by calls and emails for missing info and documents.

Savvy loan originators understand that in order to close their loans faster, make their customers happy, and free up time to look for new clients, they have to move away from ancient and manual processes and move towards automation technology. They must transition from working hard to a working smarter mentality.

Loan automation is a solution that kills two birds with one stone by eliminating pain points and challenges for loan originators AND customers. Approximately 60-70% of tasks in the lifecycle of a mortgage can be automated. And today, there are many mortgage fintech solutions that fill partial or majority of automation needs that provide countless benefits for their business and customers without sacrificing quality.

Shorter Closing Times

Loan application process, especially during Covid times, can take up to 90 days, involve more than 500 pages of documentation, 10+ transactions per day, and manual data re-entry. Automation can shorten the loan processing cycle by up to 50% by eliminating repetitive tasks and errors.

Less Errors

Manual data entry has a high propensity for errors which can slow down the closing process and even lead to loan rejection. Human error can cause up to 10% of discrepancy while doing redundant work. This creates extra work for the loan originator and unnecessary frustration and stress for the customer. Automation can improve loan quality by eliminating human error.

Increased Productivity

Automation helps employees cut down on manual and repetitive tasks, close loans faster, and free up time to focus on growing their business.

Pipeline Management

Automating the mortgage process allows for lenders to have process uniformity, realistic closing times, and accurately predict their revenue. This information can also help lenders adapt to market fluctuations and customers needs.

Defined Workflow

Each loan is unique and requires a different “mix and match” team and customized process. Mortgage automation tools allow to create processes for different loans and create workflows for closing teams where everybody has a clear understanding of their deliverables and timelines.

Communication

Loan originators can spend up to 75% of their day calling and emailing customers about missing info and paperwork. Automation allows lending teams to send and request information digitally and resolve issues faster. Automated digital notifications can reduce time, manual work, cost of printing and mailing and allows lenders to keep records for regulatory compliance purposes.

Scalability

In today’s volatile market, for a business to grow, loan originators must adapt to real-time industry changes and customer needs. By automating the mortgage process and decreasing the closing times, lenders can take on more clients, adapt to market changes and respond to spikes in demand.

Happy Customers

Dependence on technology and digital tools has created a culture that wants results and answers instantly. Customers don’t want to chase lenders for updates and wait for weeks for a loan decision. Mortgage automation makes loan processing faster, efficient and transparent, allowing lenders to set realistic expectations. Because automation cuts down on manual and repetitive tasks, it gives originators more time to focus on customer service and stay connected with the borrowers.

Benefits of mortgage automation for loan originators and borrowers are endless. RealKey is an innovative mortgage automation solution that can help lenders run and grow their business efficiently while providing customers with the best experience. Contact us today for a demo and learn how RealKey can help you scale your business.

Mortgage Brokers and Managers – Rates are Going Up, Here’s How to Stop Making the Same Mistakes and Increase Sales NOW

The end goal of your job is to provide your customers with excellent service, but the reality of operating your business means that each day, you have to go through a long list of priorities, from keeping up with new sales and managing staff to ensuring that existing transactions get funded. Add to that, you typically have back-and-forth emails and phone calls with your loan originators, processors, and underwriters, as well as borrowers, their real estate agents, title, escrow, attorneys, insurance agents, and more. The list is endless, and on an average day, you’re lucky if you can find a few minutes for a lunch break!

As a mortgage broker and manager, you cannot afford to have an unproductive day. That means your time should not be spent dealing with processing and underwriting. Instead, you need to focus on supporting your team so that they can meet their sales goals. Quite simply, as your business grows and you bring in new employees, you need to ramp up quickly to maintain your reputation and stay ahead of the competition.

Built by a former #1 Originator in the U.S. and a TurboTax Design Lead, the RealKey platform can help you work smarter and maximize your results in less time. We provide the tools you need to increase efficiencies to close more deals, provide better customer service for more client referrals, and improve follow up to get more leads. In a nutshell, we can help you improve the processes of your deal flow for repeat and referral business. How? RealKey is designed to fill in gaps in existing lender/broker technologies to fix what’s broken in the mortgage industry. We’re doing this by facilitating and automating processes through our key features, like our Conditions Engine, which intelligently triggers conditions and document needs based on the loan application exported from your LOS (Loan Origination System), and automatically invites the right collaborators at the right time (not just the borrower or your internal staff). We’ve also streamlined your communications through our Centralized Chat feature, improving upon outdated and inefficient emails and phone calls or full voicemails. 

RealKey helps with obtaining preferred rates and underwriting, affording lenders/brokers an edge over the competition. RealKey’s smart conditioning and improved submission/review statuses gets the right documents the first time so that you can submit clean files with less back-and-forth with underwriting.

Need to respond to customers faster? Through our Centralized Chat Engine, RealKey automatically invites parties based on their role, and allows for live chat in a single location for a more efficient way to exchange information and improve response time, meaning happier customers who come back for future transactions and provide referrals to their friends and family.

With intelligent document collection and review, coupled with centralized communication for all parties involved in a mortgage transaction, our combined capabilities can shorten the loan processing cycle by 50%, saving you money and time, enabling you to process more loans and grow your business.

Stop making the same mistakes, and focus on automating your mortgage operations.

Ready to increase sales NOW? Contact us today for a demo.

RealKey Named a Finalist in the MassChallenge FinTech and IBM AI Mentorship Program

,

As a MassChallenge returnee and 2020 Diamond Award Winner, RealKey is honored to announce that we have been accepted as a participant and named a finalist in this year’s MassChallenge FinTech and IBM AI Mentorship Program. This year’s three-month virtual program kicked off on November 10. MassChallenge, a global network for innovators, and IBM partnered to support and advance startups solving real world problems with AI. They are working with startups where at least one founder comes from historically underrepresented identities including black, indigenous, people of color (BIPOC), and/or female.

RealKey is one of 51 startups selected from a talented and highly competitive applicant pool given our potential to drive impact and create meaningful change through the power of AI. 

One of the greatest challenges that lenders experience is the receipt of unsupported and incomplete applications through Points of Sale or by phone from borrowers. The mortgage loan originator runs that data through Automated Underwriting Systems and requests basic documentation (often the same documents twice), resulting in repeated back and forth with underwriting. Their internal systems provide no facilitation on what to gather and when. These gaps lead to drastic reductions in the Net Promoter Score (NPS), which measures customer loyalty and the likelihood of repeat or referral business, and substantial costs incurred. The RealKey platform addresses these challenges by centralizing and simplifying documentation collection and review. Our platform reduces touches with underwriting by getting documents and data collected directly from the source. We do this through APIs to identify a more complete list of initial needs, invite the expected uploaders, and provide clear instructions. RealKey then uses OCR and APIs to review the documents and data provided, and finally, AI again to determine if more action is required.

RealKey is taking a documents-first approach to automate processing and underwriting to get all the right documents upfront through integrations, OCR, and automated rules/algorithms to facilitate documentation collection and review. We are filling the gaps of current industry systems: LOS (Ellie Mae, Calyx), POS (Blend, Roostify, Rocket Mortgage) and replacing current manual processes affecting mortgage loan originators. RealKey’s innovative product and features also help insurance, title/escrow, and other mortgage ecosystem participants through:

  • Smart Conditioning – Get the right conditions the first time
  • One Portal for All Parties – Securely upload and download all documents relevant to a transaction at anytime to streamline processing, updates, and communication
  • Chat Group – Keep all communication in one place and improve response times
  • Automated Updates – Keep all parties up-to-date as the transaction progresses
  • Reduced Fraud – Get data directly from borrowers and third parties
  • Smart Stacking – Submit cleaner packages to help you get preferred pricing and quicker underwriting turn times

Want to know more about RealKey? Contact us today for a demo.

 

About MassChallenge

MassChallenge is the global network for innovators. Headquartered in the United States with seven locations worldwide, MassChallenge equips bold entrepreneurs to disrupt the status quo and to create meaningful change. Since launching in 2009, more than 2,900 MassChallenge alumni have raised $8.6B in funding, generated $3.6B in revenue, and created more than 186,000 total jobs. Learn more about MassChallenge. 

About IBM

IBM’s support of MassChallenge is part of Reigniting Small Business from IBM, a program that provides no-cost education and coaching designed to help small businesses run their companies more effectively as the COVID-19 pandemic eases. As part of the program, IBM volunteers and other industry professionals are available to coach individual entrepreneurs at no cost. Reigniting Small Business from IBM also offers live and on-demand tutorial sessions from program partners and IBM that include primers on topics such as human resources; accounting; funding; legal; and digital branding, marketing and customer relationship strategy.

 

Loan Processors who are Sick of Lazy Mortgage Originators and Nitpicky Underwriters are Using AI for Cleaner Approvals

Non-warrantable condos, pension/military income, forbearances, FHA/VA loans, self-employed income, and more…have you mastered the endless list of non-basic conditions?

Is working with your lenders’ systems a source of daily frustration?

Do you spend countless hours each day reading and understanding what seems like an endless pile of documents?

If you’re a loan processor, chances are the challenges above are all too familiar. Your role entails many manual processes, like reviewing documents, requesting appraisal reports, and verifying document authenticity. It’s a slow daily grind that remains done mainly by hand, which as we all know, is one of the mortgage industry’s most significant bottlenecks.

The RealKey platform — built by a former #1 Originator in the U.S. and a Turbo Tax Design Lead — is your answer. Here’s why.

In an ideal world, you would be able to package files for loan submission quickly, gather and clear as many outstanding conditions as possible, and package the closing documents for all the files set to close the next day. You would be able to do all this and more while staying on top of the pipeline to maximize loan volume and reduce costly errors. 

But the day-to-day reality is far different from an ideal situation. The problem is multi-faceted: loan officers get incomplete documentation, they don’t explain needs lists to borrowers, and they don’t always review documents adequately. Additionally, third parties consistently provide similarly incomplete or wrong  items. In a nutshell, if mortgage companies want to reduce the loan processing time and errors, they need to do more than just expand their processing staff. Mortgage companies need to invest in technology solutions that can improve performance by automation through intelligence, centralized communication, automated review of documents, and secure storage of all relevant documents.

Tailored to all lender guidelines and processes, RealKey addresses the critical challenges many loan processors face. Our AI technology can mitigate the inconsistencies and delays that all too frequently result from manually collecting financial data and other mandatory customer information. We automate the lending process from start to finish while delivering accuracy, increased efficiency, and reduced decision-making time for the following tasks:

  • Needs lists beyond the obvious “No-Duh” items that AUS findings request.
  • Clear instructions for Borrowers, 3rd Parties (Title/Escrow, Insurance, HOAs, CPAs, etc.), and Fellow Lender Reps to get the right document requirements the first time.
  • Lender specific requirements, overlays, forms, and mortgagee/CPL clauses automatically provided (almost 100 lenders, and over 3400 loan programs in RealKey).
  • Easy to follow document review fields to facilitate pre-underwriting review and discover new conditions early on.
  • A shared chat tool for faster communication, centralized for everyone involved in the process (real estate agents and borrowers love this).
  • Combine .pdfs for stacking without needing to export them to your desktop.

Quite simply, we provide processors with a reliable, consistent flow for any stage of the loan origination process, while shortening the overall processing time, and delivering a solid review cycle.

With its user-friendly design, the RealKey platform works seamlessly with existing point of sale and loan origination systems, allowing for a genuinely comprehensive mortgage experience. We are filing an essential gap, focusing on eliminating conditions by facilitating and automating document collection/review and communication.

Through technology and improved processes, we believe that we can change how people work and how work gets done. We can help you shorten the loan processing cycle by 50%, giving you more time to close more loans to meet today’s increased demand.

Are you ready to save time, process more loans, and grow your business? Contact us today for a demo.

 

RealKey Founders Club: Get Exclusive Access to RealKey’s CEO and Leadership Team

,

Christopher Hussain, CEO and Founder

Home sales are at record highs across the country, and that means for those in the mortgage industry, having the right technology is more important than ever. By being an early adopter to cutting-edge solutions, you can gain an upper hand by closing faster, providing a better experience for your customers, and increasing client acquisitions so that you can grow your business. RealKey is helping mortgage loan originators (MLOs) do just that with the Founders Club, an exclusive group of users who learned about and joined RealKey before all others.

We know that understanding and addressing what our customers want, need, and expect is the core to success for you and for us. As a Founders Club member, we’ll give you extra time and attention to help maximize your productivity by minimizing wasted time and expense beyond the RealKey platform. That means you will have exclusive access to me, Christopher Hussain, and RealKey’s leadership team. I will share with you my insights, and tips and tricks so that you can do more with less effort. I will help you nurture your business growth, and show you how to seamlessly interact with everyone involved in the mortgage process so that it’s an enjoyable experience for you and your customers.

Founders Club exclusive access includes:

  • Christopher, CEO and Founder of RealKey, will make himself available for one-on-one discussions with branch offices. Based upon availability, Christopher will also provide single MLOs with extra time and support to help them improve performance and productivity. 
  • RealKey’s leadership team will host bi-weekly user group meetings to share ideas and learn what features are most important to their business.

Offices and MLOs who would like to participate must sign up for RealKey by May 12th.

When signing up, there is no cost or obligation required of you. You will have early access for users of your choice, plus 14 full days beyond May 12th to continue trialing the product before any charges are made.

With the Founders Club, we are rewarding our most loyal users by providing increased access to the leadership team, because your success is our success. As time progresses, additional exclusive perks will be provided to our most loyal users, including designation of your status on our platform.

With the RealKey Digital Mortgage Platform, we are changing how the mortgage industry operates, shortening the loan processing cycle by up to 50%. We are setting a new standard for more efficient mortgage processing by automating documentation collection and review by underwriters and processors, and streamlining communications through a centralized chat for all collaborators in the mortgage process.

Want to learn more about the Founders Club, and how you can join now to gain exclusive and early access?  Visit here.

RealKey Founders Club: Join NOW to Gain a Competitive Advantage

Christopher Hussain, CEO and Founder

As many of us have read about and seen firsthand, early adopters to new technologies can gain a competitive edge to measurably improve efficiencies, drive business growth, and bolster their market position. The same holds true for those in the mortgage industry, which is ripe for transformation. This is why we are introducing the Founders Club.

Hosted by RealKey’s leadership team, the Founders Club’s mission is to help those in the mortgage industry overcome key challenges, from streamlining communications and removing manual processes to generating cleaner loan files that close faster. Our commitment to you is to make the current mortgage process not only more enjoyable for everyone involved, but also more efficient by cutting your mortgage processing time by up to 50%.

When joining the Founders Club, you’ll receive many exclusive benefits, including direct access to me, Christopher Hussain, for tips and tricks to successfully manage your origination business. I know first hand the challenges and personal sacrifices that go into becoming a top producing mortgage loan originator (MLO). In fact, I was the number one MLO in the United States for two straight years, personally originating and funding over $2 billion in residential loans in all 50 states without the support of any staff. My success was possible because of the systems I built. As a member of the Founders Club, you’ll learn what I did to take a better loan application, create cleaner submissions, improve conversation ratios, and more.

Additional membership benefits include:

  • Advance access to new platform enhancements before public releases
  • Early access to new partner integrations
  • Access to our product team via digital user group meetings
  • Direct influence on upcoming features
  • Additional support and customizations
  • Exclusive 14-day trial period for members signing up before May 12th

With the RealKey Digital Mortgage Platform, we are changing how the mortgage industry operates, shortening the loan processing cycle by up to 50%. We are setting a new standard for more efficient mortgage processing by automating documentation collection and review by underwriters and processors, and streamlining communications through a centralized chat for all collaborators in the mortgage process.

Want to learn more about the Founders Club, and how you can join now to gain exclusive and early access?  Visit here.

Visuals designed with Freepik

Key Takeaways from the Flagstar Mortgage Tech Accelerator: Building Relationships to Transform the Mortgage Industry Through Technology

Christopher Hussain, CEO and Founder

Rob Reid, Head of Sales and Strategic Partnerships

 

We are excited to announce that RealKey has graduated from the Flagstar Mortgage Tech Accelerator, the first and only U.S. accelerator dedicated to mortgage technology. The accelerator was an intensive three-month virtual program designed by Flagstar Bank, the sixth largest mortgage lender in the country. We were selected to participate because we have a clear understanding of the industry, and are addressing a pain point for Flagstar, their broker channel, and the rest of the industry.

During the accelerator, RealKey was in good company with fellow participants Stavvy and Home Lending Pal. In fact, each of our organizations was recognized for creating technology that will disrupt and transform all areas of the mortgage business — from mortgage origination, processing, marketing, and servicing to compliance, sales, underwriting, credit, and quality assessment. 

On graduation day, we were joined by approximately 70 Flagstar mentors, including members of the C-Suite and other top executives. The day’s events provided an informative platform to demonstrate how companies can leverage the latest technology to improve efficiencies and provide tech-enabled products to their customers.

Without a doubt, the accelerator gave us an opportunity to forge new relationships that will enable us to bring about transformative changes to the mortgage industry and improve the customer experience. However, as many in the mortgage and banking industries know, for potential vendors, there’s a heavy lift to formalize a relationship. 

For example, while a bank may want to do business with a vendor, establishing that partnership is not always an option for the bank. Why? There are several reasons, with bank regulations being one of the key holding points, as well as the expense and time that go into vendor management and certification. While mortgage lending companies like Quicken Loans and United Wholesale Mortgage (UWM), and some of the the bigger banks like Chase and Wells Fargo, have more resources to adapt to an increasingly tech-dominated environment, growing banks like Flagstar are increasingly leveraging tech accelerator programs to find those companies — like RealKey — that can solve their problems. And at the end of the day, this is a beneficial situation for everyone. 

At RealKey, we are working to prioritize Flagstar’s needs because they took the time and initiative through this accelerator to get to know us, and make working together a win-win. Being first, they get priority. Their showing us behind the scenes is definitely a factor now in prioritizing features and programming of their loan programs, overlays, and forms associated with the bank. We know their pain points, and can address their needs through features built for the TPOs (Third Party Originators) they work with. Eventually, we can integrate directly. For Flagstar, they have an early first mover advantage over banks and lenders that connect later and cannot be prioritized the same.

Through the accelerator, we have come to realize that there is a great advantage to aligning ourselves with small to mid-sized banks. For instance, with a bank like Flagstar, the sixth largest mortgage lender in the US, they have extremely stringent – even brutal –  requirements to become a vendor. The accelerator program identified that, as well as great uses for future capital, which will benefit RealKey, Flagstar, and the industry as a whole. The advantage for us is that we can work with Flagstar early to have everything in place in advance, shortening the time to implement. And for Flagstar, they get the advantage of identifying before their competitors leading-edge technology that will help them to compete and thrive.

The Flagstar Mortgage Tech Accelerator validated that we bring specific value to companies like Flagstar, their broker partners, and the rest of the industry, as evidenced by the below feedback and praise we received from Flagstar’s leadership: 

  • As a former top mortgage loan originator; Christopher and his team know firsthand the pain points from the production side and solutions to solve with technology, not the other way around.
  • While others in the space are focusing on the top of the funnel, RealKey is solving the problems that occur once everything goes through the funnel — from the multiple parties that create complexities in the mortgage process to inefficient systems for data collection, validation, and communication.
  • RealKey is a cloud-based, paperless solution that streamlines the processing experience by automating document collection, verification, and review, and keeps all parties seamlessly connected through a centralized chat, replacing disconnected communication tools like email, text and phone.

Our graduation from the Flagstar Mortgage Tech Accelerator reinforced the importance of innovating and discovering those areas of great opportunity. For us, that means collaborating with companies that have a similar mindset, and leveraging technology to solve for current and emerging challenges.

With the RealKey Digital Mortgage Platform, we are changing how the mortgage industry operates, shortening the loan processing cycle by up to 50%. We are setting a new standard for more efficient mortgage processing by automating documentation collection and review by underwriters and processors, and streamlining communications through a centralized chat for all collaborators in the mortgage process.

Want to learn more about RealKey? Click here to schedule a demo. 

My Key Takeaways: RealKey Wins Second Place at Startup Grind’s Quickfire Demo Day

Christopher Hussain, CEO and Founder

RealKey is honored to announce that we won second place at Startup Grind’s inaugural Quickfire Demo Day, an exclusive, invite-only pitch competition that was part of Startup Grind’s virtual Global Conference . RealKey was invited because of our experienced leadership team, and our innovative technology that demonstrates a clear product development and execution roadmap.

RealKey was one of the top 10 finalists selected from over 2,500 companies that were asked to participate. Event attendees included several hundred investors, and finalists from the USA and Europe, representing industries of AI, AR/VR, blockchain, fintech and SaaS. The day’s events featured a pitch competition format, where each company had a private screening with judges. Participants were allotted 90 seconds to pitch — a difficult task to accomplish — and provided two minutes for a question and answer session from the judges.

My key takeaways from Startup Grind’s Quickfire Demo Day include:

  • During RealKey’s presentation, the judges focused on the round rather than our team. Most often, this line of questioning is an indicator that there is interest in investing — they believe in the idea, and see a company’s growth potential. In our situation, we have room for any accredited investors interested, and I’m excited to see that people are moving forward by investing in RealKey and our goal to maximize the mortgage industry’s productivity by minimizing wasted time and expense.
  • What really stood out to me was the global reach of the event’s distinguished judges. For instance, one of the judges was Tim Jackson of Walking Ventures, based in London. Our winning second place with an international panel of judges reinforces the fact that the mortgage process is a complex ecosystem in need of transformation through automation. I was impressed that the likes of Tim Jackson and fellow judges Allison Pickens of The New Normal Fund and Stacey Bishop of Scale Venture Partners understood the need and potential for change in the mortgage industry.

With the RealKey Digital Mortgage Platform, we are changing how the mortgage industry operates, shortening the loan processing cycle by up to 50%. We are setting a new standard for more efficient mortgage processing by automating documentation collection and review by underwriters and processors, and streamlining communications through a centralized chat for all collaborators in the mortgage process.

Want to learn more about RealKey? Click here to schedule a demo.