Start a mortgage loan software meeting with the question ”When is does an app become an app?” and you will have as many opinions as you have attendees.
The “application” — and what determines when a bank has a mortgage application — has been hotly debated for years. Even now with RESPA guidelines that suggest that a bank has a mortgage loan application when there is a borrower name, SSN, property value, loan amount, income and property address. These are, after all, “guidelines” that still leave room for interpretation.
Some mortgage banks consider that when a lender gathers enough information to make any type of determination as to whether or not they can help the borrower, then that is in fact an application because there was enough information in the conversation to make that determination.
Other banks dictate that until a credit report is ordered, there is not enough information for there to be an official “application”.
The “application date” and what determines it dictates subsequent dates as to when disclosures are issued and when a decision is rendered. The “application date” appears to be what everything else pivots upon.
About twelve years ago, OpenClose entered the loan software business to address the nuances that separate lender workflows. Unlike other mortgage software companies, we distinguish our company by being able to adapt to the little differences that help our customers thrive.
So when in comes to the RESPA rules, we’ve done our best to provide a variety of ways to accommodate different interpretations of when an app is an app. For instance, OpenClose allows its bank clients to determine when – and if – an application date should auto populate to the loan. The application date can populate (1) upon fulfillment of RESPA guidelines, (2) upon ordering of credit (3) upon submission to automated underwriting (3) upon submission to underwriting (4) or manually entered by the user.
It’s little touches like this that help lenders provide their employees with a comfortable and effective working environment.