Hello, LOs!
People are generally divided on the threat (or promise) of automation.
Creating digital tools for boring things like paying your taxes seems like a good idea — especially if you're a company providing those tools. I find other things, like automatic grocery cashier kiosks, endlessly frustrating.
Wherever you fall on the automation issue, beyond the past year's obvious need to close loans remotely, it's clear that it's coming to (or for) the mortgage industry.
Just yesterday, Fannie Mae told mortgage servicers they could use third-party vendors to verify income and asset information. While mortgage tech firms were thrilled at the news, I can imagine that for some underwriters, automating away even parts of their job is pretty scary.
Maybe not all underwriters feel that way, though. Thomas Showalter, CEO of mortgage AI firm Candor, told me that some underwriters love the idea.
"It frees them up from the mundane tasks and allows them to do the interesting stuff," Showalter said. Automating away the easy tasks might, however, be threatening for middle-of-the-road underwriters, he told me.
"I can tell you that his or her boss would certainly like to swap out the 20th percentile underwriter for a 90th percentile underwriter," Showalter said.
As for origination, automation could allow loan officers to spend more time advising clients — and less time chasing paper. That might be especially welcome as profit margins continue to decline after last year's refi boom.
So, LOs, what parts of your job do you wish a robot would do? And what advice would you give someone designing an automatic loan officer?
Send me your thoughts, anonymously, at gkromrei@housingwire.com.
Georgia Kromrei
Senior Mortgage Reporter, HousingWire
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