Automate Mortgage Document Management with AI
Let Ascendix’s bespoke Document Extraction framework facilitate your mortgage business workflows.
A typical day for a mortgage loan officer starts and ends with loads of manual work: documentation management, reviewing applications, employment proofs, credit score comparisons—and all that for a single property. It’s no surprise that the sphere is so susceptible to human error, which sadly, in turn, may lead to the rejection of a candidate fully eligible for a loan.
Custom mortgage application development driven by AI is a perfect solution to this problem. Instead of dealing with loads of paperwork, a mortgage loan officer would review all the applications online, launch an OCR-powered software to scan and extract the required information from the documents attached, use an AI data entry tool to insert the data into an application, and then review and launch the required checks – all within one mortgage software.
In this article, we will analyze mortgage applications – both ready-made and custom ones, their benefits for mortgage businesses, must-have features, AI integration possibilities, and will guide you through the custom mortgage application development process.
The mortgage market continues to grow and innovate, driven significantly by the digital revolution and AI implementation in real estate. As more and more businesses choose digital mortgage application development and AI-powered document management, the adoption of modern technologies becomes a necessity rather than an optional choice.
The global mortgage lending market is predicted to grow at a CAGR of 9.5% through 2022-2026, reaching $27,509.24 billion by 2031. This growth is supported by the increasing demand for digital mortgage platforms which enhance mortgage processes globally.
In the United States, one of the largest mortgage markets worldwide, the focus on digitalization is especially deep, as it is closely tied to the historically fluctuating mortgage rates and new generations of customers now entering the market.
Millennials and Gen Z continue to dominate the housing market landscape. In 2023, millennials represented 38% of all homebuyers in the U.S., with a significant proportion of them finding properties and loans online – a very clear signal to lenders that digital-first strategies are already a must-have. Traditional banking institutions face a stark choice: relying solely on traditional methods of providing mortgages could mean losing up to 35% of market share to more adaptable online providers, according to industry reports.
Mortgage lending market: Facts and figures
Furthermore, with digital lending markets expected to hit an impressive $20.5 billion by 2026, nearly doubling since 2021, the implementation of digital mortgage applications is more critical than ever. As reported, valuable market segments such as VA loans still hold a strong presence, accounting for around 9% of new home purchases.
In conclusion, mortgage loans are still in high demand and will stay so as a new generation of homebuyers enters the market. At the same time, the mortgage loan landscape continues to evolve and utilize more and more innovative digital solutions that cater to the needs of younger, tech-savvy generations. Thus, staying at the forefront of technology adoption in mortgage market is a crucial component of sustained growth and future competitiveness.
Based on the above, the key considerations for mortgage app developers in the 2020s would be:
Digital mortgage applications are must-have tools for any institution providing loans, be it a bank or a private company. However, to utilize something effectively, first, you must understand what exactly you need to optimize and how it’s going to work. In this section, we’ll discuss examples of different types of mortgage application development and how they can be used to streamline business operations.
Custom mortgage application development vs Ready-made mortgage app | Ascendix Tech
What makes them an attractive choice for businesses:
Example of a ready-made mortgage application interface | Source: Republic Mortgage Home Loans
The limitations of ready-made apps should also be considered:
Why choose custom mortgage application development:
Considerations of custom development:
Let Ascendix’s bespoke Document Extraction framework facilitate your mortgage business workflows.
Mortgage applications and software differ not only by the way it is created or integrated, but also by the purpose and task it is designed to streamline. Let’s have a quick view on the primary types of mortgage software applications.
Loan Origination Software is essential for managing the end-to-end loan origination process. It is designed to automate and manage the initial stages of the loan process, such as application intake, document collection, credit assessment, underwriting, and loan approval.
Loan origination software interface example | Source: DigiFi
Key Features of LOS:
Mortgage CRM helps businesses manage leads, nurture client relationships, and track the lending pipeline. Using it is essential if you want to centralize customer data, automate follow-ups, and get analytics to enhance customer experiences and improve efficiency.
Key Features:
After loans are originated, they are managed through another type of software called Loan Servicing applications, which handle tasks like payment processing, collections, and reporting, ensuring seamless post-origination operations.
Loan servicing application interface example | Source: HES FinTech
Key Features:
Unlike previous apps, which have a more or less narrow focus on a certain part of the mortgage process, cloud-based mortgage platforms can handle many things at once, being a universal solution for mortgage companies. They enable remote management of mortgage processes with enhanced integration and real-time updates. The features of the mortgage platform vary in mortgage application development, depending on who is using the tool – broker, mortgage loan officer, business owner, or else, so we’ll provide a quick overview of what can be included in such an application.
Key Features:
Online mortgage calculators help borrowers and lenders quickly estimate and understand the amount of mortgage they can get, the period of time, regular payments amount, interest, etc. They are used in pre-qualification processes and allow users to evaluate different loan scenarios based on inputs like loan amount, interest rate, and term length.
Mortgage calculator application interface
Key Features:
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The underwriting apps provide a more efficient, data-driven approach to mortgage decision-making. They enhance the efficiency and accuracy of traditional underwriting within the mortgage industry by automating the manual processes related to it.
Key Features:
One of the biggest benefits of custom mortgage application development is that data protection and compliance are the full responsibility of the software creator. Therefore, there is a significantly lower chance that a third-party provider would compromise the classified or private data. Custom applications can be engineered with top-level security software which would integrate compliance modules to protect both lender and borrower from legal issues. These measures are absolutely essential, given the fact that the mortgage sector is heavily regulated and has high standards of data privacy, anti-discrimination, and consumer protection.
With custom mortgage application development, it is possible to significantly enhance data management capacities. Custom applications will centralize the borrower-related data – such as loan applications and financial documents – and give a transparent, comprehensive view of all necessary information. This storage of data in one place both simplifies document management and reduces reliance on physical paperwork. Moreover, during the mortgage application development process, it is possible to use your data to train an AI model, which would mean fully tailored software specifically used for the needs of your business.
Custom mortgage application development allows you to focus on the specific marketing and sales metrics important for your business. Instead of handling the tools and tags you never use in ready-made apps, you can generate reports on what is really important for your business – the leads, prospects, email subscribers – anything can be set up. With automated reporting and validation checks, lenders can have better client communication and offer more precise services.
The mortgage application process involves numerous steps – from submission to verification and underwriting – that are prone to bottlenecks and errors if handled manually. Custom mortgage applications allow you to automate these workflows, boost productivity, and reduce the potential for errors, which in turn would lead to faster approval cycles.
A significant advantage of custom mortgage apps is their ability to integrate with cutting-edge technologies. Whether it’s AI-powered predictive analytics or using blockchain for smart contracts implementation, you can easily do anything, whereas with ready-made applications these possibilities are extremely limited, and you can stay outdated waiting for another application update for months or years.
Though the initial investment in custom mortgage application development may appear substantial, the long-term cost efficiency outweighs it. Custom software is designed to cater to the requirements of a specific business, meaning the efficiency in resource consumption will be specifically dedicated to your business model and workflows. Over time, the reduction in manual labor, minimized error rates, and improved efficiency will translate into substantial savings and a higher return on investment.
Before investing in custom mortgage application development, it is essential to understand the task of your business and what exactly processes you want to optimize. This will let you choose which features to include and which – to omit in the development. Let’s discover the common mortgage application features below:
User account interface in a mortgage app
Example of a mortgage borrower application feature
Mortgage calculator desktop interface | Mortgage application development
OCR-powered document management in mortgage application development | Ascendix Tech
Credit score checking feature
Mortgage application development: Key steps of mortgage custom applications development
Before launching a full-scale mortgage application development, you need to understand what you will be doing, for whom, and how this will be beneficial. Discovery sets up the foundation for all further real estate mortgage application development. You will need to answer the questions like:
At this stage, it is vital to engage with stakeholders as well as with the target audience if you’re developing an app for your own business, as it allows you to gather insights and validate assumptions and avoid overlooking important details. Getting acquainted with the technological requirements and current technology capabilities is also a good idea, as it will help understand if the idea is feasible and technically possible to accomplish.
As you understand the pain points, it’s time to find out if there are any companies providing similar solutions in the market. At this stage, discover:
Having answered these questions, you will have a good view of what you are building, a great brief for a technological partner, who will be responsible for custom mortgage application development, and a good marketing start for promoting the product.
Successful mortgage application development requires strict adherence to legal standards. You’ll need to ensure compliance with international regulations such as GDPR for protecting customer data, PCI-DSS for secure payment processing, and AML/KYC for identity checks, anti-money laundering, and fraud detection and prevention.
Before starting actual development, you’d also need to sketch a user flow map to define how users will interact with your mortgage application. This helps identify key features and potential third-party integrations that will later enhance the customer journey.
At this stage, you can pinpoint bottlenecks, like complex application forms or confusing terminology, plan to automate processes like document management or underwriting, etc., making the mortgage application process straightforward. While optimizing the flow, keep in mind that some processes still will suffer from bureaucratic delays.
To handle mortgage application development, you need a trusted and experienced development partner. Choose a development team skilled in proptech who employs secure, compliant technologies, has experience in custom app development, and can integrate AI and ML tools.
Ascendix is a perfect choice, with over two decades of experience and proven expertise in real estate technology development. Our depth of knowledge and commitment to cutting-edge AI real estate applications make us a reliable partner who can implement your vision into reality, ensuring your mortgage application development meets all technological and industry standards.
Our experienced real estate development team will create a powerful mortgage application to streamline your operations.
The development phase is the one that brings an application to life. It involves several key aspects, which will be performed by the development partner you have chosen.
The design lays the foundation for future mortgage application development and makes user interactions smooth and nice. The design team creates the mockups and interfaces of the application for mobile platforms like iOS and Android, making sure they are visually appealing and intuitive with seamless navigation, easily accessible for all users, and consistent with your company brand style.
Frontend development is about translating the design on the mockup into a functional user interface.
Frontend developers will use programming languages and technologies like JavaScript, TypeScript, HTML, and CSS to create interfaces that coincide with the ones in the design.
With such frameworks as React.js, Vue.js, and Angular, developers will enhance user interaction, ensuring the application is smooth and highly responsive.
Backend is the backbone of reliable mortgage application development, because it is responsible for the core processing logic of the app.
Depending on the request and your mortgage application development partner’s expertise, the team can use languages such as C#, JavaScript, Python, or Java and frameworks like .NET Core, Node.js, Django, or Spring for backend development.
Choosing the right database, cloud hosting, and integrating requisite APIs are crucial decisions in this step to support scalability and robustness.
Testing is a final part of mortgage application development, which will ensure the app works flawlessly and securely.
The process of testing includes unit testing for individual components, integration testing to assess the interaction between modules, and end-to-end testing to simulate user scenarios.
The development team can also perform load testing to check the app performance under stress, and security testing for compliance with GDPR, PCI-DSS, etc.
Each phase is designed to refine the application and prepare it for a seamless launch.
The final deployment of mortgage software involves placing it on a production infrastructure. During the process, various approaches can be used – CI/CD to automate updates and version control, Docker and Kubernetes for operational consistency in various environments, and Google Cloud Monitoring or AWS CloudWatch for performance monitoring.
Support and maintenance efforts are essential for making the application work seamlessly, stay compliant, and be responsive to changing trends.
Maintenance and support stage happens after the main mortgage application development and involves regular updating functionalities, resolving bugs, modernizing to meet new regulations, and introducing up-to-date services to align with the mortgage industry.
Enhancing your mortgage app with AI features can not only significantly improve efficiency and user experience but also give you an immense competitive advantage. Here are some key AI technologies to consider for your custom mortgage application development:
Optical Character Recognition (OCR) technology automates the process of scanning and digitizing physical documents required for mortgage applications.
This feature allows users to quickly upload and process their mortgage-related paperwork, as it extracts text and data from scanned images, PDF documents, photos, pre-printed and filled-in forms, etc., and can automatically insert them into the mortgage app.
Enhancing the document quality with OCR technology | Ascendix Tech
AI-driven data entry automates the input process into the software.
After the document is scanned with OCR, the data is recognized, identified, and automatically inserted into the relevant fields inside the app, which significantly reduces the chance of human error and the processing time.
This way, your customers’ and loan officers’ data is always accurately populated across appropriate fields and systems within the app.
If the data is not required in the system, but should be reviewed to reach a decision, for example, during checking the credit score, employment and income statements, credit score before approving the loan, the perfect solution is AI document abstraction.
AI document abstraction integration will review the documents instead of you and provide a brief summary of all the key points that are essential for making the decision, reducing the application processing time.
AI data entry tool by Ascendix Tech
Predictive AI analyzes data patterns to forecast future trends and behaviors.
In a mortgage app, predictive AI can be used for assessing loan eligibility or identifying potential risks of lending to a person.
AI analytics’ benefit is that it not only can speed up the process but is significantly more objective in assessing eligibility than a human mortgage loan officer, so the cases of subconscious bias will be minimal.
AI chatbots are great assistants for both customers and business representatives who use the app.
They can handle common inquiries and frequently asked questions, provide mortgage advice, conduct easy searches for more appropriate mortgage conditions for the borrower, and, in general, handle customer support, all while operating 24/7.
AI chatbots are virtual assistants that provide quick, accurate, and personalized responses without human intervention, which increases customer satisfaction and experience.
AI chatbots | Ascendix Tech
For more than 2 decades, the Ascendix team has been automating real estate companies’ business processes with digital solutions that deliver value, reduce costs, and boost revenue.
As both custom development specialists and creators of our own products for real estate, we have immense expertise in leading real estate companies’ digitalization journey.
Over the past 16+ years in the real estate sector, we have mastered custom software development tailored for the industry, developing products that let you overcome challenges and improve processes.
We can optimize your business processes with a tailored real estate mortgage application that integrates seamlessly with your company’s existing systems.
If you already have an existing mortgage management app, we can provide audits and testing, integrate it with other systems, or enhance its functionality with customized AI-powered updates.
Ascendix operates globally with its headquarters in Texas and five additional offices across the US and Europe, offering a global delivery capacity that helps reduce costs.
Let’s enhance your mortgage lending process with an all-encompassing application that will refine your workflow and save you time.
Contact us and get a quote for your app development!
Yana is a proptech enthusiast and a technology fan. In her articles, she explores the world of real estate software, including proptech news, useful resources, and real estate technology insights, assisting everyone involved in the industry to modernize and optimize their business.
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