Honolulu-based Compass Home Loans is looking to grow its business with an online platform that uses big data to make the entire mortgage application process digital and cuts the length of time to close on a residential real estate transaction in Hawaii by up to several weeks.
The cloud-based application called Compass Digital launched about four months ago, and Compass Home Loans President Jon Whittington told Pacific Business News the process “keeps getting better and better,” bringing the average days to closing down to 32.
The platform was developed by Stearns Lending, which owns Compass Home Loans in a joint venture with Honolulu real estate firm Locations, and can be accessed by mobile devices or desktops.
Whittington likens it to Quicken’s Rocket Mortgage and other similar online processes that get applications started before turning them over to a loan originator.
He said his firm’s inquiry-based app takes a borrower past the conventional point at which a loan originator steps in to complete the whole process, eliminating the need to provide pay stubs and tax returns for many borrowers, and also using data to bypass the appraisal process. Another type of software called LoanBeam helps the process for self-employed borrowers, he said.
“It’s noninvasive using big data and technology but it’s in a secure environment,” Whittington said. “It’s conceivable before you have a loan interview you have an approved loan.”
The technology has the potential to disrupt the mortgage process by performing low-level tasks such as verifying such information as names and addressed.
“We can save our high level thinking for our underwriters,” he said. “The underwriter is really involved in just the loan decision rather than the other stuff that can make or break a file.”
Borrowers can also opt in for electronic disclosures, eliminating the need to sign or initial stacks of paperwork.
“We are a month away, three weeks away from having all of the closing documents e-signed as well as other than the ones the state requires,” such as hard copies of the mortgage, the promissory note and a name affidavit, Whittington said.
Whittington expects the technology will help the firm grow its business by boosting productivity and freeing up the loan originators from paperwork to spend more time building their business and building relationships with clients.