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During the last 12 months, Stearns Lending has experienced a hiring boom, revamped its corporate culture and launched a new mobile and desktop application, Stearns Digital, that allows homebuyers to complete their mortgage application 100% digitally.
The company has also rolled out personalized individual MLO sites and a new stearns.com.
“We’ve been thrilled with the rollout of Stearns Digital, which is an all-encompassing app that enables digital completion of the entire mortgage process. Our MLOs tell us that incorporating Stearns Digital into their business is like having an additional assistant to meet their customers’ needs — and it increases their loan capacity,” Stearns CEO David Schneider said.
The app features the 1003 mortgage application using a question-based format, making it easy for customers to complete the form within the app or online. With just a few clicks, the app securely verifies income, employment and assets – all electronically.
After it is verified, the information flows directly to loan underwriting, where qualified borrowers quickly receive a firm loan approval.
In addition to the mobile app that the company’s MLOs and customers use, the company also offers an exclusive app, Stearns Digital Partner, for its real estate and builder partners. This app enables real estate professionals to remain tightly integrated with the mortgage process, which keeps things moving along quickly for everyone.
The future looks bright for Stearns Lending, and COO James Hecht explained the company is focusing on providing MLOs with the resources they need to achieve their highest goals, and enhancing and continuing to develop its leading-edge technology.
“We are very optimistic about 2018 and beyond,” Hecht said. “Two of the features we’re most excited about are eClosing and Pre-Sales. With a continued emphasis on customer convenience, eClosing delivers on the expectation that our clients can complete the entire mortgage process from any location.”
The Pre-Sales feature accomplishes this by making it easy to engage customers earlier in the home-buying process. MLS providers will notify Stearns’ MLOs when prospects begin searching for properties, enabling the Stearns team to assist house hunters with pre-qualification from the very beginning, so that borrowers are looking for homes in the right price range.
Looking ahead to the coming year, Schneider said one of the greatest challenges the company faces is the increasingly low inventory available for homebuyers.
“However, because we provide a fantastic turnaround on approvals and deliver superior customer service, we’re able to be there when a property is available and the buyer is ready to take action.
“We help them land their new home quickly and enthusiastically,” Schneider said.
