Good Afternoon —
Last week I discussed real time payment and how RTP has the potential to speed up and streamline the closing process. Remote online notarization (RON) can also play a pivotal role in speeding up the closing process, but adoption of the technology has really taken off over the past few years.
Despite having been approved for use in Virginia a decade ago, RON did not really start to make headlines until the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic when social distancing measures made it virtually impossible for homebuyers and sellers to have documents notarized in person. Over the course of the pandemic, states that had yet to approve RON passed temporary approval laws, allowing the technology to be used for a certain number of months. Since then, most states have either permanently approved RON or are in the process of doing so. The state of New York generated quite the buzz when it passed a bill to permanently approve RON in late 2021, with the law set to go into effect on Jan. 31, 2023.
"RON is having a heyday right now," Notarize CEO Pat Kinsel said. "There are a lot of really large companies that are scaling RON and starting to see real value and business impact through it."
"We are in the adoption phase right now," he said. "I always said, if you look at the percentage of consumers who search for a home online, it is in the 90s, and the percentage of people who apply for a mortgage online was in the 70s and is moving to the 90s. RON will follow the same path, as people who start their home search in the digital experience will ultimately close in a digital experience."
For those who think only Millennials or young homebuyers are the ones interested in digital closings and RON, Kinsel said the average age of their customers is in their late 50s.
"We recently closed a mortgage for someone who is 102 and we've done tons and tons of customers in their 90s," Kinsel said. "They always tell us they are so happy because their hand didn't hurt at the end from signing all the documents."
Although some homebuyers may be concerned that if they choose a digital closing no one will be there to help walk them through all the documents, Kinsel said that most of the eClosing platforms he has seen, including Notarize, have someone there to answer any questions users may have.
While the title and closing industries are often maligned for being "antiquated" Kinsel says that although things may not be advancing at the rate many are hoping, he is optimistic about the future of technology in title and closing.
"I'm completely convinced that the innovation is already happening — if people just take a step back and look, it's there," he said. "We will get to this future that everyone is imagining."
If you have thoughts on RON or just the state of technology advancement in title and closing in general, feel free to email me anonymously at bhan@housingwire.com.
Until Next Week,
Brooklee Han
Real Estate and Title Industry Reporter
bhan@housingwire.com
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