When you’re adopting digital closings for the first time, it’s difficult to know what you should be looking for and asking vendors.
Many lenders realize the functionalities and requirements that matter most only after they’ve signed a contract and started implementation.
To help you avoid this, here are 10 questions that you should ask the vendors you evaluate. These questions will help guide you to choosing a digital closing platform that doesn’t create more work, will drive real business results for you, and has a history of success with its customers.
How many closings were processed through your eClosing solution last month?
This question validates whether the vendor is processing substantial volumes of closings. It can be risky to choose an eClosing provider that doesn’t have much experience or hasn’t processed thousands of transactions each month. By choosing a provider that has onboarded many lenders and has a track record of getting their clients to scale with digital closings, you can increase your chances of success.
Also, ask the vendor to break down the total amount by the different types of digital closings: wet closings, hybrid closings with a paper note, hybrid closings with an eNote, and eClosings. This will show you whether the vendor has a strong product offering for all closing types and how successful they’ve been with customer adoption.
Does the solution support all documents for all closings, including lender docs, title docs, custom docs, and security instruments?
Both lenders and settlement agents should be able to upload their documents to the digital closing solution and access completed documents. If the solution doesn’t support this, you and your settlement partners will need to manage multiple ways of sending and receiving documents.
Can you automatically tag lender and title documents for eSignature and eNotarization?
Tagging documents with fields for eSignatures and eNotarizations is a tedious and time-consuming manual task. Some vendors offer semi-automated solutions to this, like templates. However, this method still requires manual setup and maintenance.
The most efficient way to tag documents is by finding a digital closing platform that completely automates this body of work. It’s important that the digital closing technology can not only automatically tag lender docs, but also title docs. When settlement agents are able to upload and have their documents automatically tagged, they feel more ownership over the success of the digital closing. As a result, borrowers eSign 100% of the time.
How many settlement agents used your tool last month?
Getting settlement agents to adopt your digital closing technology is a major challenge for lenders. You can overcome this by looking for a solution that doesn’t just have settlement users, but is also actively used by settlement each month.
If the product isn’t being used by thousands of settlement agents, it’s a sign of unsuccessful adoption. You’ll want to further understand why this is. It could be due to poor user experience, the creation of additional steps for settlement, or even a lack of implementation support from the digital closing provider.
