In the aftermath of the economic downturn that has been wrecking commercial interests all over the world, the US mortgage industry is realizing better ways to propel itself into a more organized and effective working mannerism. Mortgage lenders have been forced to take a serious look at the functionality and induce methods that can substantially reduce costs and increase their chances of success in mortgage-related legal predicaments such as handling foreclosures.

Efficient Mortgage Processing — homeowners often demand that the lender provides original documents that contain the financial history and a list of any financially obligations related to the concerned property. Typical documents that are often demanded by prospective property buyers include documents detailing the sale/resale history and securities. Securities are the original legal note that bears the signature of the homeowner. These are often difficult to locate if the property has been sold/resold numerous times over a period.

The simplest solution lies in scanning such security notes and electronically storing them in the form of scanned images. This also helps to negate the costs that are often incurred in extracting original documents from government warehouses — a process that is time consuming and could create a time gap during which a home buyer’s interest can be lost.

Handling Faster Turnarounds — many mortgage companies are now projecting themselves as being able to provide a quicker turnaround time (for mortgage processing). To make this a reality, it is vital that a major portion of post-loan documentation is conducted via transmitting/accessing records that have been electronically saved. A faster workflow process means that the customer is given lesser time to think away from his funding decision and the loan is quickly executed, i.e. giving the customer lesser time to reconsider his decision.

There is another aspect of benefiting from faster mortgage operations. Thousands of smaller brokers depend upon sending loan applications to be funded by larger, established lenders. Many times, a broker submits the same application to numerous mortgage companies. Whosoever responds first, is the one that gets to handle the portfolio. Companies that have PDF-based operations stand to gain substantially, since their turnaround time would be drastically lesser than that of conventional mortgage firms.

Handling Mortgage Foreclosures — it has been confirmed that judges are willing to view electronic documentation for foreclosure arguments. Lenders and nj real estate attorney who can provide paperwork in the form of PDF files for quickly overviewing the documentation are able to establish that they are still holding on to the loan.

Nearly 2.3 million homeowners have faced foreclosure proceedings last year and even more are on the verge of losing their homes in the current fiscal.

Inability to present the demanded records is the primary reason why many mortgage-servicing companies are unable to support their foreclosure arguments in the court. Lack of the original Note alone counts for about 40% of the foreclosure proceedings that went against the contesting mortgage companies. ‘Produce-the-Note’ demand wherein lenders have been asked to locate paperwork that simply cannot be traced can single-handedly delay a foreclosure for about 10-to-12 months. Often, the apprehension related to the time wastage in digging-up conventionally stored documents is used as a pressure tactic against the lender, forcing him to renegotiate his conditions for the mortgage — an apparently insignificant aspect regarding the storage medium of mortgage documents can directly hamper the profitability of a mortgage deal for the lender.

Paperless Medium — it is easy-to-comprehend that an increased use of accessing/sharing mortgage records and processing documents that have been scanned and saved as PDF files means a gradual shift towards a paperless environment. This means direct, daily cost savings. Being paperless, i.e. adopting an electronic documentation format through the scanning of paper records means:
• Using a central, secured, electronic mortgage information storehouse that can be accessed from remote locations and shared with mortgage partners like third-party vendors.
• Presenting prospective customers with a more organized and transparent process — removing the fear of fraudulent dealings from a customer’s mindset
• Reduced processing charges due to removal of paper shipment, storage (warehousing) costs and expenditures caused due to manual filing and copying.
• Presence of standardized loan folders containing the scanned files reduces chances of misplacing important documents.
• The opportunity to perform quicker, performance-linked, analytical electronic audits.
• Eliminating document copying requirements and manual file search — resulting in quicker retrieval of desired documents.