Dylan Salotti, managing director of Divitis Finance, is teaching his new assistant how to order property valuations, and his praise for ApplyOnline Broker-Ordered Valuations is clear.
“Brokers want uniformity in order to make our lives easier. The current process of acquiring property valuations most often means dealing with 25 different lender portals, each with a different login and password.”
“Doing valuations through ApplyOnline just makes it simpler and easier to work with a lender.”
The ApplyOnline Broker-Ordered Valuations service gives brokers a streamlined, consistent process. It’s a standardised approach to broker-ordered valuations that enables brokers to order the valuation as part of the loan application process either up front or at any point in the origination process.
“With all the lender changes and the tightening of credit, everything is getting tougher and more time-consuming, and the bottom line is that brokers want things made easier for us,” says Salotti.
ApplyOnline Broker-Ordered Valuations offers a multitude of efficiency benefits. There is one login, it shortens the application processing time, there is no data rekeying as all information entered for the valuation order filters through to the application within ApplyOnline (which means the elimination of errors), it increases visibility online regarding the status of the valuation, and it provides more efficient and enhanced reporting opportunities.
“The ApplyOnline Broker-Ordered Valuations add value to ‘work in progress’ reporting,” says
NextGen.Net sales director Tony Carn.
“Notably, it embeds the property valuation data ordering process into the ecosystem of the broker group.
“Currently, a broker’s pipeline of loan applications doesn’t show when the valuation has been ordered because the application and valuation ordering processes can be separate.
“ApplyOnline Broker-Ordered Valuations incorporates the two processes. This enables brokers and lenders to more accurately view and measure conversion rates, which in turn allows much more meaningful conversations because they’ve got more data at their fingertips to examine valuation activity and more enhanced reporting.
“It also allows brokers to order a valuation at any time in the application process, which provides huge flexibility when servicing client needs.”
The marrying of the two processes ultimately means faster valuation turnaround times and improved customer service due to the surety of the approval of the loan.
Since this service features an address look-up feature, property details are already more accurate, which reduces the number of revaluations. There are also a reduced number of revaluations due to the linking of duplicate orders by referencing a unique identifier.
Carn says the company has ‘‘a steady flow of lenders wanting to incorporate it into their process”.
And Salotti adds that “it’s great to know that lenders appreciate the third party channel”.
“There are a lot of lenders,” he says. “It’s a very competitive landscape. Anything that makes our lives easier is one more reason why we choose a specific lender.
“Lenders jumping on board with ApplyOnline Broker-Ordered Valuations makes brokers very appreciative. A built-in standard process all in the one environment serves us both and just removes another barrier between us and them.”
