The Digital Online Mortgage

In the internet age, it seems like almost anything can be done online from the comfort of your home, and your mortgage financing is no different. Today, mortgage lenders utilize digital technology to support a completely online home financing journey for their customers. Whether the goal is to purchase a new home or refinance, digital tools allow you to navigate the entire process with a few clicks of a button

What Exactly is a Digital Online Mortgage?

A digital online mortgage is exactly what it sounds like. The term encompasses the entire home financing journey, from pre-approval to closing, and refers specifically to a process that utilizes digital technology allowing you to complete the mortgage application, get pre-approved, submit your financial documents, select your loan program and rates, communicate with your home financing team, and sign all your closing documents from your computer, smart phone, or tablet connected to the internet using Wi-Fi or cellular data. When you use a digital online mortgage to pursue your home financing goals, you can expect:

Overall, a digital online mortgage empowers you to take control of your home financing journey with technology that allows you to get pre-approved online in minutes, quickly send your financial documents in for review, and select your loan program and rate the way you want to, when you want to.

The Digital Online Mortgage Process

The ins and outs of the digital online mortgage process are very similar to those in the traditional process, they just take place from your computer, smart phone, or tablet and utilize smart bots and automation to move you through the loan process.

You’ll begin your home financing process by completing the online mortgage application. The Warp Speed Mortgage smart application will request basic information needed to determine your loan qualifications, quickly reviewing your submissions, and requesting more documentation if needed.
- While you’re completing your online mortgage application, you will be prompted to upload financial documents for Underwriting review. This can be done quickly and easily through digital asset verification tools that communicate directly with your financial institutions to securely verify assets and collect necessary documents. You may be asked to upload documents more than once depending on your application.
- Completing the application also acts as your pre-approval process. If you qualify and have sent in all applicable documentation, you can expect to receive your pre-approval quickly and securely in your Warp Speed Mortgage communication portal and by email.
- At this stage you will also choose your rate and loan program from personalized options based on your financing goals.
Once your documentation has been collected, your pre-approval has been issued, and your loan program and rates have been selected, your application is digitally sent to Underwriting to begin its journey through the loan process.
- The Underwriting Team reviews your digital application and verifies the information to determine if your loan will be approved.
- Throughout this process, you will receive emails updating you on your application’s progress and requesting any additional information.
- Once your loan completes it’s first round of Underwriting, it will move to the Processing stage of the loan process where your Client Manager will review your loan file and request any additional documentation. Your loan will then move to the final Underwriting stage to prepare to be approved.
Once your loan is approved, documents are signed during your eClosing.
The eClosing process is very similar to the traditional closing process, you’ll simply be signing some or all closing documents (depending on your type of eClosing) digitally instead of with paper and ink. You’ll choose how and where you eClose.

The Digital Online Mortgage Application

Online mortgage applications allow you to apply for a mortgage anywhere, anytime easily and securely from your smart phone, computer, or tablet using Wi-Fi or cellular data. Completing an online application is the first step to getting pre-approved and beginning your home financing journey. As you move through your application, smart technology reads your application and determines additional needed items, eligibilities, next steps, and will raise flags for any questions that arise. A typical online application will request:

Basic information about you
Current employment
Employment history
Paystubs covering the last 30-day period
W-2’s and/or 1099’s from the most recent 2-year period
Tax returns from the most recent 2-year period (include personal and business if applicable)
Bank statements: Most recent 2 months (all pages)
Retirement/Investment Accounts: Most recent 2 months' statements or most recent quarterly (all pages)
ID verification
For property owners: Each property owned, your most recent mortgage statement, homeowner’s insurance declaration page, income taxes, and HOA statement

Most of the above documentation can be gathered quickly and easily through digital asset verification tools that communicate directly with your financial institutions to securely verify assets and collect necessary documents. You may be asked to upload documents more than once depending on your application.

Choosing Your Mortgage Rates and Loan Programs Online

As you complete your mortgage application, smart bots are reading your responses and calculating in real time the loan programs and rates that you can qualify for based on your financial goals and situation. You can then read through your options, take a look at the long-term payment schedule for each loan program and rate offering, and select the program and rate that best aligns with your goals.

Technology Used during a Digital Online Mortgage

Replacing manual, tedious processes with automated digital technology has transformed the mortgage industry and allowed lenders to support a fully online mortgage experience for their customers. Let’s go into more detail on how these tools work and how they fit into the home financing journey.

Online Applications

We’ve already gone over digital online mortgage applications and how they can help accelerate your mortgage experience. This critical piece of smart mortgage technology allows you to efficiently apply for a mortgage and get pre-approved anywhere, anytime easily and securely.

Digital Asset Verification

Part of the traditional mortgage process includes document gathering, where you find and sort through various financial documents to send to the lender, who then sorts through the same documents to determine your loan eligibility. This process can end up taking a week or more depending on the documents needed. Luckily, with the adoption of digital asset verification, available to in-person, over-the-phone, and online customers, this process can largely be automated.

When you use a secure digital asset verification platform, you can share your account information from any financial institution with your lender in the form of an asset report in four easy steps.

Simply select the financial institutions with accounts you would like to have verified.
Use your online banking credentials to log in to your online banking portal.
Select which accounts to share with your lender.
Send your asset report to your lender in a read-only format through encrypted messaging.

When it comes to digital asset verification, security is the number one priority. It’s important to keep in mind that throughout the entirety of the digital asset verification process, encryption is used to ensure your data is always kept private. Your banking logins are masked so only you can see them, and asset reports can only be sent with your permission. Your data is encrypted while in transit and is submitted directly into databases protected with hardware and software encryption. The asset report the lender receives is in a read-only format and is sent via encrypted digital key. All these steps are taken to ensure your home financing process is reliable and secure.

Remote Notarizations*

Remote notarizations, while not available in all states, allow for the notarization of documents online using digital ID verification or other forms of ID verification. Below are the different types of notaries that range from completely online to the traditional in-person process.

Remote Online Notary (RON): completely online remote notarization of electronic documents using digital ID verification.
Paper Remote Online Notarization (PRON): remote online notarization of physical documents (delivered via mail) using digital ID verification.
Remote Ink Notarization (RIN): remote notarization of physical documents (delivered via mail) through an audio-visual communication platform like Skype or Facetime.
Traditional Wet Ink Notarization (TWIN): the traditional notarization process – an in person signing on physical documents.
In Person Electronic Notarization (IPEN): In person notarization of electronic documents with a digital signature.

Digital ID Verification

Digital ID verification confirms you are who you say you are by comparing an uploaded image of an ID like a government issued driver’s license or passport with a government database. Automated technology analyzes the uploaded image, scanning for different authentication features, and verifies your identity in seconds.

You can now see how the above-mentioned digital mortgage technologies are paving the way to a faster and more reliable mortgage experience by automating processes and reducing human error.

Digital Security Best Practices You Can Trust

When collecting and sending financial documents and other sensitive information online, security is the number one consideration. At Warp Speed Mortgage, we adhere to the strictest digital security best practices and utilize digital ID and asset verification tools that are used throughout the mortgage industry because of their reliability and top-of-the-line digital security standards.

Customer Support You Can Count On

Pursuing your home financing goals on your own time through a digital mortgage doesn’t mean you forego reliable customer support. Behind the online platform are real mortgage professionals who are ready to assist you when you need it. Your Client Manager will work with you to address any questions you may have along the way and will see your application through from Underwriting to Closing.

Is a Digital Online Mortgage Right for You?

Choosing a digital mortgage may not be the right decision for everyone. Moving forward with a digital mortgage experience would be a good fit for someone who feels comfortable using computers and technology and would rather move through the process on their own time. While technically there is no need to work with an individual loan officer during your digital mortgage experience, Warp Speed Mortgage will still assign a Client Manager as your point of contact to reach out to if you have any questions about your financing goals or the overall process.

A digital mortgage might be right for you if you:

Are comfortable with digital technology and do most of your shopping and other tasks online already.
Actively check your email and/or text messages.
Would prefer moving through the loan process on your own time in the comfort of your home.
Would like to avoid human error, missed signatures, lost documents, and other unexpected delays that can occur throughout the loan process.