Turnaround times are a constant issue in the mortgage broker sector, with lenders constantly competing to increase their approval speed.
To the customer, however, the lender is just one part of the process of buying and refinancing. Brokers are responsible for their customer’s happiness from end-to-end, beyond just when their home loan is accepted: which is where the turnaround times of other process providers comes in.
Galilee Solicitors were named as the best panel law firm at the recent PEXA Awards, and can make the striking claim of reducing the time it takes to purchase a home by as much as a week and a half, through optimising the legal aspect of the property buying process.
“We are the last bit of the mortgage transaction,” said Simon Duke, managing partner at Galilee. “A customer would approach the broker, who applies for the loan, which gets approved and then the lender instructs us Galilee as its panel solicitor to do the last bit.”
“We are then responsible to document that loan, check that it’s all in order, check that the doc pack has been correctly executed, and that the mortgage is registerable. The lender then funds Galilee with the loan proceeds and we’re responsible for funding that if it’s a purchase and, if it’s a refinance, to pay out the outgoing mortgage.”
“We’re the fulfilment space, the last piece. That experience that we’re responsible for delivering is a key part of the mortgage transaction and reflects directly back on how the customer perceives the experience with the broker and the lender.”
For brokers, the signing process is often an afterthought, but it can make all the difference for a customer.
“We see ourselves as a critical part of the value chain and a critical component for the experience that the end customer has,” said Duke.
“The effect of legal firms like Galilee on the lives of mortgage brokers, especially in terms of approval times, is potentially huge.”
“Our e-signing platform enables us to deploy to document pack to the customer via a web portal,” explains Duke. “And to have them digitally sign via that portal.”
“That cuts out around 8-10 days versus the traditional model, which was for us to post the documents to the customer or where the lender approved it, to email them.”
“Having them returned instantaneously takes that time out of the last stage of the transaction, the fulfilment, so it’s a huge time-saver.”
“The benefits aren’t just time: it’s a customer experience benefit and also an accuracy benefit. We see the error rate in a paper transaction as more than 50% of loan packs being returned incomplete or incorrect.”
“Whereas with our digital signing platform, that percentage drops to 1 or 2%. The time saving of not having to rework the transaction is another benefit of the platform.”
“As the tech matures, it brings everyone in the value chain up. We invest less time in repetitive tasks that don’t add value for the customer, and this part, the e-signing, is part of that.”
“It’s necessary, but it doesn’t add a huge amount of value and frees up everyone to invest more time in the things that customers really value, like getting a deeper insight into their financial goals and tailoring products that can help them achieve those goals.”
“That’s the value proposition from a digital signing platform for mortgages.”
