Technology is always making its way into the mortgage industry. I have personally seen the ready acceptance of almost every new and innovative tool by brokers, loan officers and other industry professionals to enable them close more deals with less stress and effort. Data entry is time consuming; besides it leaves businesses vulnerable to potential fraud. What if borrowers could call up, leave their information, get pre-qualified and have all that data fed into your loan origination system without you, the broker, ever having to even speak to them? It sounds like science fiction, but it isn't, it is routine today.


Voice2Forms offers a technology that asks the borrower a series of questions via an automated system. The generated data is then automatically fed to Loan Prospector or Desktop Underwriter to pre-qualify the loan. After prequalification, the data is fed back into the origination system from where it is available for access on the broker's desktop.


Lenders like Mid-Atlantic Financial Services have been using it with great success and the system can be easily adapted to suit the broker's requirements as well.


"It is a tool our company has been using to attract future homebuyers," explained Mid-Atlantic president Michael Anthony. "Homebuyers speak their information into a phone from where it automatically flows to the system. It works faster feeding your information into the system rather than talking to a human.?


"Some people just don't want to talk to a salesperson," he continued. "It's a non-intimidating way for people to apply for a home loan. Each morning mortgage brokers can just go to the site and download the information. It's turnkey.?


"We like the fact that we can capture after-hour customers without people," noted Mr. Anthony. "Also, the system is very consistent. You know what you're getting. It also eliminates data entry because it can be automatically uploaded into any application. It's a good way to pre-qualify the loan and determine which LO is best to handle the loan."


The program was implemented at Mid-Atlantic within a week and they have had no problems to date. "Implementation is simple," said Mr. Anthony. "We had our system up in a week. It was as simple as our IT personnel mapping to our marketing database. Once it is up and running you don't even have to maintain it."


The system runs 24 hours a day and acts as an alternative for potential Mid-Atlantic borrowers. "We still give the customer the option to call a live number," pointed out Mr. Anthony. "So, we still staff, but it has cut down on the alternative of voice mail and data entry or contracting a call center that may not know much about your business."


The application carries a one-time setup fee and a ?per-lead? fee. "We've even thought about providing incentives for borrowers to use the system," said Mr. Anthony. "It's an attractive option that we're considering. The incentive could be something like a $300 closing cost credit. We're considering it."


The main reason Mid-Atlantic is willing to even consider such an incentive is because of the ROI that they are getting out of the system. "The advantages for us are - having a turnkey system, savings on HR costs, high conversion rates as roughly 20% of the calls get converted into loan applications and the number you can't quantify is the number of people that will hang up and go to a competitor when they realize that they're getting voicemail," noted Mr. Anthony. "It can be imported to LP or DU to get an approved loan.?


"After a five-to-seven minute phone call you could have an approved loan, which cuts down on processing time," he concluded. The system pays for itself in a month and produces loan data with right information and you don't have to worry about it calling in sick or having a bad day."