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Special Reports
Document Services
No Red Tape: Close Faster, Use Imaging
By Brad Finkelstein
LOS ANGELES -- While we are still a long way away from having a true paperless
closing, the imaging of documents during the mortgage process makes getting to the closing table that much quicker,
said one lender who is a heavy user of this technology.
No Red Tape Mortgage here has been "paperless" when it comes to its
mortgage files for the past year, said its vice president of strategic initiatives, Josh Stallings.
By imaging the documents, the company has rid itself of one of the biggest worries
of any originator, which is losing the file during the process. The file gets handed off on multiple occasions
and there is the possibility for pieces of it or even the entire file "going missing" when it is most
needed.
With the system, which uses Advectis' Blitz Docs software, anyone at No Red Tape
has access to the file at any time, Mr. Stallings said.
Furthermore, the system makes it easier for the company to outsource loan processing
in times of heavy volume, he added.
When an imaged document is first used, there is a ramp-up period for an underwriter
who is used to dealing with paper documents. But eventually, Mr. Stallings noted that underwriting time is "significantly"
reduced. At No Red Tape, this means it is able to make certain turnaround time commitments, including next-day
underwriting and same day for everything else.
The majority of loans are submitted via fax to the account executive and then
imputed into the system and imported into Blitz Docs. Mr. Stallings added that all No Red Tape account executives
have an e-fax account. Documents submitted through this system are converted to PDF files.
When the file is created, it is logged and time stamped by the system, he continued.
In the next few months, No Red Tape is looking to open its imaging system up to
its mortgage brokers. In this way, he said, the broker can view the file at any time and can see any status change
as the file goes through the origination process.
"This is a significant change that is on the horizon," Mr. Stallings
said. "It is most efficient for us to have the mortgage broker see what we see."
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