Closing is the final process of buying a home. It concludes a mortgagetransaction where all parties involved in the sale or purchase of the property gathers to sign the final papers of the loan. Once signed, the transfer is complete – the seller takes his or her money, the bank starts the payment clock, and the borrower is now responsible for the loan.
Today, almost every step of the mortgage acquisition processhas been digitized. Underwriting and appraisal softwares have been launched. Lenders are slowly embracing the technical benefits of digitization to streamline their businesses.
Unfortunately, there’s never been total success in end-to-end digital mortgage acquisition – until recently.
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Introducing Notarize
Notarizeclaims to be the “first notary public platform” that allows businesses and individuals get legal notarization for their documents online.
And, in a recent victory, Notarize helped accomplish the first end-to-end digital mortgage procedure by facilitating the first eClosing process.
In this method, instead of having the parties meet in person to wet sign documents or, per a newer solution, eSign with a shared tablet, the borrowers and the notary person utilizes the help of third-party communications service such as FaceTime or Skype and the documents are then signed remotely.
Notarize achieved the deed with United Wholesale Mortgage and revealed that it has existing partnerships with four other lenders: Lenda, Eagle Home Mortgage, WEI Mortgage, as well as Mid America Mortgage.
Center of focus
A good 40 percent of notary services primarily cater to the needs of the mortgage market.
Notarize founder and CEO Patrick Kinsel says they are hence making the mortgage market their center of focus where they think they can solve “the strongest pain point.”
Kinsel expanded that mortgages are not solely what Notarize does but that it has the most pain points when it comes to notarization.
Speaking on the future of eMortgages, Kinsel details that only four states in the country legally allow notarization via video or audio. Legislative barriers remain one of the top reasons why digital mortgage acquisition is still a far off option for many of its potential beneficiaries.
United Wholesale Mortgage’s CEO Mat Ishbia believes normalization of eMortgages will come around soon.
“eClosings will be more of a standard practice next year and I think the majority of closings will be done this way by the end of 2019”
For now, Notarize is doing its best to get many more statutory bills passed so they can expand outside their current state of operation.
Widely supported
Notarize has gained enormous backing, with the likes of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac who complimented the company for its innovative services.
“Freddie Mac is focused on innovation as a medium to help lenders achieve their goals around efficiency and deliver a better customer experience. We see the digitization of the mortgage process as one way to reduce errors, speed the closing processand offer a complete solution to consumers,” Freddie Mac’s Single-Family Business Strategic Delivery VP says.
The enormous support does not simply put Notarize at ease, however.
Kinsel believes there is still a lot to work on and they are invested in providing solutions to many of the existing challenges. He cites technical aspects of the problem that could most probably arise, the compatibility of platforms, and the time constraint.
“Our technology has to work…We are investing a ton of time and resources in this, and we want to tell a lender that we got it,” he adds.
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