DocuSign : Offer a Fully Digital Mortgage Experience with Rooms for Mortgage with Notary

The mortgage landscape is going through a time of intense change. Recent years have brought record-breaking volumes of loan originations and refinancing, while trends in remote work drove shifts in demand on the buyer and seller market for real estate. These trends have increased pressure on the lending community to conduct business in a faster and more efficient way.

At the same time, customer experiences and expectations are evolving as borrowers become accustomed to conducting financial transactions in a digital space. Technology is quickly transforming to provide an alternative in-person interactions with more efficient digital equivalents. Legal regulations are also changing to allow more activities to take place in a secure digital space.

Today, as interest rates are on the rise and loan volumes are regressing to the mean it is more important than ever that lenders have the ability to streamline work, reduce operating costs, and provide borrowers with the comfort to review and sign their documents from the convenience of their homes.

All of those changes add up to an exciting opportunity for modern mortgages. DocuSign has studied the trends around today's borrowers and lenders to build a robust modern eMortgage platform. In this post, we'll share how lenders can use DocuSign to support fully digital closings.

Modern mortgage customers and providers both want a digital experience

eMortage capabilities are a customer-friendly process that are proving to be a significant differentiator for the modern mortgage customer. DocuSign research conducted in late 2021 revealed that more than 80% of lenders surveyed feel that having a greater percentage of their mortgage process available digitally would help attract customers. All respondents in that research agree that the ability to offer borrowers an online closing experience directly impacts their overall satisfaction with their mortgage loan experience.

The initial returns on eMortages are promising, with lenders and banks working together to digitize loan applications and disclosures. These mortgages are faster than traditional loan processes and can be completed with lower costs and higher customer satisfaction. To help lenders and customers who want to move to a hybrid or an all-digital mortgage environment, DocuSign offers Rooms for Mortgage. Instead of downloading forms and emailing attachments, lenders can use Rooms for Mortgage to collect documents, accelerate closing packages with external participants and create configurable checklists for a smooth closing. It's the innovative digital mortgage experience that both lenders and customers want.

Modern closings incorporate remote online notarization

Another critical trend in the eMortgages landscape is the increasing acceptance of remote online notarization (RON) tools. RON refers to the process of having a state-licensed notary public notarize a document remotely through the use of electronic signature, identity verification, audio-visual and electronic notarial journal and record keeping technologies; thus, removing the need for the notary and borrowers to sign and notarize in person.

Legal regulation to accept RON as a viable alternative to in-person notarization accelerated recently to accommodate the shift to remote business brought on by the COVID pandemic. In a very short time period, RON became a legally recognized practice in a growing number of U.S. states. According to the National Notary Association, remote notary is legally accepted as a valid option in 40 U.S. states as of March 2022.

DocuSign Notary is a tool that securely connects lenders, customers and notaries public in a digital space to conduct notarial acts. DocuSign Rooms for Mortgage with DocuSign Notary lets lenders prepare, sign and manage a fully digital closing within a secure, digital workspace while providing a best-in-class borrower experience. Borrowers can join a virtual session with a notary to sign and complete documents that require notarization or recording, like a deed of trust. Additionally, the session recording and an electronic journal is made available to the notaries for record keeping.

In 2022, DocuSign Rooms for Mortgage with Notary customer Solarity Credit Union is moving toward fully digital closings, tasking its teams to maintain a 60% or higher RON close rate for the year. Solarity team members noted that RON allows them to serve customers who prefer to stay at home to complete their loan or need to sign from two locations to include a spouse. "DocuSign Rooms is that one-stop shop where everyone-our employees, members, title companies and real estate agents-can collaborate on the closing experience," said senior lending program manager James Wise.

The DocuSign Agreement Cloud offers an end-to-end digital mortgage experience

The mortgage process needs to be understood as one continual workflow that can be completed on a single interconnected platform. The DocuSign Agreement Cloud is built for lenders who want to build a modern mortgage system with digital documents at every step of the process. It's the easiest way to create, complete and manage mortgage paperwork. Lenders can use the Agreement Cloud to create a faster, more efficient system that borrowers will love.

Whether your organization wants to build an all-digital mortgage workflow or simply start with a hybrid process, DocuSign has tools that can help:

• eSignature: Securely send, track and electronically sign documents in minutes from virtually any device, anywhere
• Rooms for Mortgage: Accelerate closing times with a secure digital workspace for all stakeholders to collaborate throughout the closing process
• Notary: Sign and notarize agreements electronically via a secure audio-visual session that includes a tamper-evident recording and electronic journal
• Asset Vaulting by eOriginal: Create and maintain an authoritative copy of the promissory note, making it easier and faster to record and transfer ownership
• Prebuilt integrations: DocuSign integrates with leading LOS and POS providers to create a seamless and connected digital experience

Using a combination of these features, lenders can build a seamless end-to-end mortgage experience with the Agreement Cloud.

If you're interested in learning more about eMortgages and how your team can offer customers a digital lending and notarization experience, check out DocuSign Rooms for Mortgage.