Document Management in Mortgage Industry

A Computer-and-Web-Based DMS Is Ideal for a Mortgage Business

You create a unique ID for each loan proposal received, and set up a to-do list under that ID. As each task in the list is completed, you record the completion status against it. This would enable you to review the latest status of the proposal.

Many of the tasks could be completed quickly using the Web. The Web offers tools and facilities that aid preliminary verifications and completing the mortgage formalities. The following partial list illustrates this point:

As the different tasks get completed, you could either record the details directly into a relevant computer record or scan the paper document, OCR it, and store it under the unique ID. In this way, a complete reference source is created to which access can be given to authorized persons, including your attorney.

This kind of a DMS is far more efficient than sorting paper documents, filing them in different folders, arranging them in filing cabinets and safes and shunting papers back and forth.

Mortgage Documentation Process

There are several forms of mortgage such as 30 and 40 year mortgages, low-doc and no-doc mortgages, no-ratio and no-down-payment mortgages and so on, in addition to standard term mortgages. Instead of creating complete documents from scratch each time, you could store standard templates for each format, retrieve the one relevant to a particular case and the complete applicable details.

The to-do list mentioned at the beginning could be tailored to the needs of the particular form of mortgage proposed. You could then start collecting the details needed to complete each task in the list. Your findings could be recorded under the unique ID for the proposal. Even paper documents can be scanned and stored under the relevant ID.

Different kinds of payments and insurance covers could be arranged online and the details recorded under the proposal ID.

When information collection and negotiations are complete, the standard mortgage documents - Settlement Statement, Truth-in-Lending Statement, Mortgage Note, Mortgage Deed of Trust and Monthly Payment Letter could be quickly generated using templates and printed out and executed. These could then be recorded at the County Records Office.

The speed of the whole process can be dramatically improved if the whole team, surveyors, attorneys and others, work online wherever possible. Each member of the team could access specific records with which that person is concerned and work on it.

Post Closure Transactions

The DMS can be configured to flag overdue interest and principal payments, and remind about approaching renewals of insurance, tax payments and so on. It could also record all transactions and reports, such as property inspection reports, as and when the relevant events occur.

Conclusion

Using a computerized DMS and Web resources and tools, a mortgage business can track progress of each loan proposal from receipt to completion and then monitor regular servicing of the mortgage by the borrower. Such a DMS would be more foolproof and far more efficient compared to a manual one.