Online mortgage banking has become more prevalent over the past five years. In fact, banking research data shows that in 2013, Internet-based mortgage sales increased by 75%. Clearly, this is an important statistic and bankers need to be aware of the ways in which their customers are doing research, getting quotes, and getting data. While Internet-based mortgages are surely convenient, there are also downsides to doing your own research and evaluating quotes that may not even come from a real person, but a software program database instead.
While you won’t have to leave the comfort of your own home to shop for a mortgage online, you may be asked to provide your social security number in a contact form every time you want an informal quote. The security risks alone right there are of concern.
The quote you get from a real mortgage banker will be 100% accurate. The quote you get from the website? It may be far off from reality, as you can’t be sure where the website is getting the numbers and how it is evaluating your risk as a borrower. Mortgage calculators are just rough estimates and you won’t get the definitive human factor you get in person with a knowledgeable banker.
Having clients submit loan applications online is a great way to save money and overhead (some lenders won’t even have an actual walk-in location where you can sit down with someone), but it’s impersonal and gives the client far less power. You can never be sure who exactly is looking at any of your information and whether or not they are making the best decision on your behalf. Your ability to ask questions about the mortgage process and make changes is limited. You may be frustrated with being treated like one more number rather than a human being. One-on-one lender/client engagement is crucial to highly customized transactions; if you never meet your mortgage banker, how can you know you want to do business with that person?
While filling out forms online is definitely more convenient than walking into an office and filling them out by hand, the rest of the process is less convenient and takes power away from the client and puts it into the hands of companies that churn out mortgages like parts on a factory assembly line. To me, a mortgage is such a personal and important business transaction that I can’t imagine handing over the power to a website without even meeting your broker first.
