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Uniwest Mortgage Corporation
East West Mortgage
Homecomings Financial
Equity Now
GEM Mortgage
UNIWEST MORTGAGE CORPORATION
Background
Uniwest Mortgage Corporation, a mortgage banking company committed to serving homeowners, realtors and the mortgage broker community, has been in business for 19 years. Uniwest is headquartered in San Diego, CA and has additional offices in Carlsbad, CA and Denver, CO. Uniwest originates approximately 300 loans per month and 90 percent of its business is through its wholesale channel. As a small provider with many senior level experienced professionals working for the company, Uniwest has built a strong reputation of agility, responsiveness and fast turn times, while maintaining careful attention to customer service. Tom Reid is the executive vice president and broker of record for Uniwest.
The Challenge
Before implementing BlitzDocs, Uniwest struggled with the following challenges:
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Storage with local records company was strenuous due to lost or misplaced files
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Courier and overnight shipping fees were substantial
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Manually stacking and faxing files was time- and labor-intensive
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Results
By implementing BlitzDocs, UniWest has achieved the following benefits:
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Stipulations for investor delivery reduced by 80 percent
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Closing agents have electronic access to files
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Increased savings by eliminating or reducing shipping, courier and storage fees
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Fast funding decreases interest holding charges
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Find out how they did it, click here to request the full case study.
EAST WEST MORTGAGE
Background
East West Mortgage is known as New England’s leading mortgage lender, closing more than $1 billion in mortgage loans annually. Acquired by Commerce Bank of Worcester, East West Mortgage is now a wholly-owned subsidiary. An inbound call center that is dependent on its aggressive advertising, East West Mortgage has continued to grow and exceed expectations. Headquartered in Peabody, Massachusetts, the company serves Florida and the majority of the New England states: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Rhode Island. Gary Roche-Bernard is the director of information technology and was brought into the company for his experience with information technology and background in commercial banking. He is responsible for the strategic implementation of paperless solutions, such as BlitzDocs Collaboration Suite.
The Challenge
To set the scene – it is 2004 and East West Mortgage is closing over $1 billion of mortgage loans in four locations, struggling with expensive paper-based storage and processing, long turntimes and costly leased copiers. According to Roche-Bernard, “We were using leased copiers as network printers. The maintenance charge is based on number of pages produced and from ’04 to ’05 we printed 6.5 million pages. At an industry rate of .01 cent per page, copy costs were a significant expense.”
Results
By implementing BlitzDocs®, East West Mortgage has achieved the following benefits:
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Funding turnaround time for investor delivery decreased from 15 to 4 days
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Significantly decreased the interest carried on closed loans on warehouse credit line
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Streamlined processes and reduced loan rejects and stipulations from 20 percent to 5 percent with major correspondent buyer
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Cut number of copiers needed in half, from 12 to 6
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Find out how they did it, click here to request the full case study.
HOMECOMINGS FINANCIAL
Background
Homecomings FinancialSM is a rapidly growing national wholesale lender that serves more than 7,000 mortgage brokers across the United States. A business unit within GMAC ResCap (Residential Capital, LLC), a leading real estate finance company, Homecomings Financial offers a full range of products, industry-leading technology and unsurpassed service to mortgage brokers. The company boasts an impressive customer satisfaction rating and does over $25 billion dollars in loan volume a year.
The Challenge
Homecomings Financial understands the meaning of finding a silver lining at the edge of a storm. In fall 2005, the company’s Fort Lauderdale office was closed for multiple days due to the numerous hurricanes that hit Florida. With power outages and unsafe driving conditions, employees could not get to the office and ship the paper files to another office. Later that year, ice storms in Dallas led to power failures. Again, processing backlogs occurred and resulted in increased turnaround times.
Results
By implementing BlitzDocs®, Homecomings Financial has achieved the following benefits:
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Overwhelming broker support of imaging initiative
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99 percent of loan volume handled via imaging
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Eliminated overnight shipping
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New streamlined process resulted in improved service levels
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Find out how they did it, click here to request the full case study.
EQUITY NOW
Background
Founded in 1984, Equity Now is a mid-sized direct mortgage lender that has approximately $350 million in loan origination annually. Equity Now evaluates applications, reviews appraisals, underwrites loans and sells them to investors, all within a centrally-located operation. The company is headquartered in New York City and is licensed as a mortgage banker by the New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Alaska, Hawaii, Colorado, Indiana, Maine, Maryland, Missouri, Montana, North Carolina, Virginia and Florida Banking Departments.
The Challenge
In 2005, Equity Now began looking for a solution to reduce costs associated with paper processing, eliminate the need for a paper filing system and save loan turnaround time. Like many mortgage banks, the company physically assembled each loan file individually, made copies of each loan folder, and used overnight express services to forward the loan to the appropriate person. With an increase in business and desire to expand further, the physical loan files and costs of processing them were stacking up. The seemingly simple task of looking for a file was arduous, sometimes taking up to two hours to find a file among hundreds of loan folders. And the conventional file system had even more drawbacks as storage space was quickly disappearing.
Results
By implementing BlitzDocs®, Equity Now has achieved
the following benefits:
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BlitzDocs is 100 percent implemented throughout Equity Now for origination, image-based underwriting, post-closing and investor delivery
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Improved efficiency of loan processing
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The collaborative network makes interacting with investors and business partners easier
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Underwriters, closers and investors laud the benefits of going paperless with BlitzDocs because it simplifies processes and improves the workflow
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Find out how they did it, click here to request the full case study.
GEM MORTGAGE
Background
Founded in 1986, GEM Mortgage is a mortgage banker that has grown
to approximately 40 retail branches in California, Washington, Arizona,
and Nevada. GEM Mortgage supplies loans for single-family residence
and one- to four-unit multi-family properties. They are approximately
90 percent retail with one wholesale branch in Northern California.
GEM Mortgage works with about 22 investors and currently originates
in excess of $140 million in loans a month.
The Challenge
In 2003, GEM Mortgage began looking for a solution to address
an internal storage problem. Because the company is licensed by the
Department of Corporations, GEM Mortgage is required to keep files
for five years, and, at the rate of 8,000 to 10,000 loans a year,
storage was rapidly becoming a problem.
After initial research into
industry solutions, GEM Mortgage discovered that BlitzDocs could potentially offer more than just storage. Management
determined that it would most definitely meet their storage needs,
but they saw other ways where they could use the solution to increase
efficiencies and operate their business more cost effectively.
Results
By implementing BlitzDocs, GEM Mortgage has
achieved the following benefits:
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Use of BlitzDocs as a key tool in recruiting
new branches
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Savings include redeployment of personnel to other
usage, less copiers
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Better service includes faster turnaround and responsiveness
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Personnel greatly appreciates efficiencies associated
with paperless
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Find out how they did it, click here to request the full case study.
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