A discussion summary with Aaron King and Jim Deitch, CMB, CPA
Recently, Jim Deitch, CEO of Teraverde, sat down for a conversation with Aaron King, the CEO of Snapdocs—a digital loan closing platform for mortgages—to discuss everything from world travel to digital transformation. Aaron is an avid traveler, having traveled to more than 70 different countries in the recent past, which reflects not only his adventurous spirit but his draw towards the unknown. Which, in part, explains his passion for driving mortgage lenders to adopt emerging technology.
Aaron has been in the mortgage industry for a long time, “I started as a notary very early in life and earned a notary license at 18. That led to my first company, Notary Link, which connected notaries and title attorneys to banks and closing companies nationwide.” After that, he continued his entrepreneurial streak with other companies, including Snapdocs.
Jim and Aaron dug into the changes Aaron anticipates being seen in the mortgage industry in the next five years. According to Aaron, “Over time, we will see the digitization of more and more parts of the closing process. We need to distinguish exactly what that process includes with respect to closing. While some digitization includes the actual digital signing of forms, the process of closing is a more complex operation than you might expect, encompassing workflows, communication, decision making, transparency between parties, and more.”
Jim stated, “Due to the events of the last year, the process of digital transformation across many mortgage companies has accelerated. Lenders, customers, legislators and regulators were forced to adapt to working more digitally.”
According to Aaron, “As we’ve gotten more used to working digitally, we’ve learned how tools like Snapdocs can actually empower users to work more creatively at their jobs while reducing errors. ”
For mortgage lenders, this kind of digital transformation is necessary to remain competitive . Jim noted, “In the mortgage process, cost of originating is consistent with the increase in loan volume. Margins continue to suffer as we produce more loans.”
About 68 percent of the cost of issuing a mortgage is labor cost. That’s an extremely high percentage and is unsustainable.”
Aaron mentioned “Much of these labor costs lay in interactions between parties. Some of these interactions are internal to a given company, whereas others are external. Regardless of whether involved parties are internal or external, technology can eliminate friction and costs”, according to Aaron. “Bringing down the number of fragmented interactions is necessary, and integrated technologies can bring down the labor cost of those interactions as well.”
Both Jim and Aaron stress the reduction in labor is not about eliminating employees. Rather, it’s about deploying technology to improve efficiency while permitting employees to work on deepening relationships and consumer knowledge.
Jim noted that there are many ambitious and creative companies out there working to make the mortgage supply chain more efficient. And on the customer side, particularly among lenders, there is rapidly increasing adoption of software that aims to do just that. Although mortgage technology has customer and lender adoption curves that lag much progress has been achieved.
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This information was extracted from an interview with Aaron King, CEO of SnapDocs. In preparation for Jim’s upcoming fourth book on the transformation of the mortgage industry.
Aaron King and James Deitch are going live and sharing strategies to improve mortgage efficiency.
Digital Closings: CEOs Chat about What Lenders Can do Today to Prepare for Tomorrow
June 10, 2021 at 2:00 p.m. ET
As mortgage lenders move on from an unprecedented year, many are asking “what’s next?” With interest rates going up and inventory remaining low, leading lenders are gaining operating margin by implementing eClosing software. However, some struggle to scale this new process. Lenders need a clear framework to evaluate eClosing solutions, create an implementation plan, and forecast their expected return.
On June 10th, 2021, join Teraverde CEO, Jim Dietch, and Snapdocs CEO, Aaron King, to receive straightforward answers to your eClosing questions.
This fireside chat will cover:
■ The benefits of digital closings
■ Common misconceptions of digital closings
■ How lenders are experiencing immediate cost savings and operational efficiency
■ Considerations to take when deciding on a digital closing solution
