HousingWire recently spoke with Kevin Koon-Koon, chief technology officer at Grid 151, about streamlining and simplifying how mortgage lenders interact with the rest of the ecosystem.
HousingWire: What are some common challenges lenders face when it comes to interacting with the rest of the mortgage ecosystem?
Kevin Koon-Koon: Many mortgage lenders have invested heavily into technology, people and process improvement to modernize the homebuying journey.
However, if there is not an equal investment from the other stakeholders in the transaction (i.e., appraisal, title, et al.), there is not a high return on that investment, because the ecosystem itself is only as strong as its weakest link. The lender might be the most modern and progressive thing going, but without tight coordination across the “assembly line” from front to back, the impact on the customer will be limited as the lender will effectively be stuck in a perpetual hurry up and wait.
GridBase is democratizing the power that comes with that tight coordination to all parties because the integrations across lender LOS, real estate transaction management system and title production systems is available off the shelf.
Additionally, GridBase will also enable connectivity between those same entities and the next level down of vendors and partners that support them. The tighter the coordination, the greater the efficiency, which translates into a better experience for all parties – most notably the customer.
HW: In today’s uncertain market, how important is it for lenders to be able to offer borrowers an expedited timeline?
KK: An expedited timeline is something the industry as a whole should aspire to achieve, and it can be a differentiator for those mortgage lenders that can consistently offer it to their customers. The connectivity and resultant efficiency that GridBase can enable across transaction stakeholders will help to make that possible.
But what is probably more important to the consumer experience than truncating the timeline is providing better transparency and certainty through the process, regardless of the timeline.
In other words, not every homebuyer needs or even wants to close on day two, but it would be a significantly better experience if the homebuyer was given helpful and reliable information very early on about what timeline is feasible (for better or worse) so they can be educated and plan accordingly.
Given the relatively low frequency and high value of real estate transactions for most consumers, the industry needs to do a better job connecting the dots and providing helpful and digestible information at every turn along the journey.
HW: How is GridBase helping mortgage lenders?
KK: The siloed, disconnected and often legacy systems of record of our industry do not easily communicate with each other. Mortgage lenders bear the burden of building solutions to solve this complexity but are often stuck managing to the technological limitations of their partners.
As a result, there are seemingly infinite workflow permutations depending on the partner and what system of record they utilize. Even when integrations are available, mortgage lenders’ technology teams are forced to learn, support and maintain multiple APIs. By centralizing all those integrations through a single point of entry, GridBase is streamlining and simplifying how mortgage lenders interact with the rest of the ecosystem and facilitating end-to-end workflows.
HW: Does GridBase benefit other product and service providers downstream from the lender as well?
KK: GridBase is a multi-tenant platform that adds value across the entire supply chain. For example, providers of instant title product, settlement agents, RON platform vendors and the village of other providers it takes to close a loan never have to leave their system either – order management, communication and delivery are all facilitated by GridBase. Plugging into GridBase opens up access to an entire universe of connections where the value is delivered bi-directionally to benefit all.
To learn more about GridBase, visit grid151.com.
