3 minutes
Early last year, Miramar Federal Credit Union, a full-service credit union that caters to the military based in Southern California, was looking to streamline its lending process. We had two goals for this: to provide a better experience to our members, and to allow our two full-time loan officers to balance an increased workload.
In March 2014, we chose to deploy Roostify– a new technology solution created by three technologists frustrated with their individual home-buying and re-financing experiences who believed there was a more efficient, open way to complete transactions.
Roostify’s platform is completely Web-based and provides loan officers the ability to collect important documents, keep all involved parties up to date in real time and, as a result, close loans in a shortened timeline. The credit union is charged for each completed application through the system.
For Miramar FCU, the key benefit to implementing the Roostify platform has been document management.
“Collecting important financial documentation can really hold up the loan process and is often a challenge for our members who would normally have to fax, email or mail the documents to us,” says Melissa Alcazar, loan officer at Miramar FCU. “Not only does this slow down the process, it also poses a risk for our clients when sending important documents with financial data, Social Security numbers and more. With Roostify, these documents are uploaded to the platform and completely secure, not to mention they are available to us instantly.”
Miramar FCU military family clientele have a unique circumstance that also poses a challenge to closing a home loan: the possibility of deployment and/or being away from home at any time during the process.
“Because Roostify is Web-based, members can upload pay stubs, tax returns and key documents from anywhere onto the platform,” says Alcazar. “This is very important for our members, who may not be home for the duration of the home loan process or even for a soldier who is looking to buy a home, but happens to be overseas when doing so.”
So how does the process work? A member can simply start the application process directly from Miramar FCU’s website. Likened to the simplicity of an online tax program, the application is simple and intuitive and will even pull in customer details from online sources, such as LinkedIn for employment data and online tax filing platforms and bank accounts for financial data. An application can be completed in as little as 10 minutes. Once a customer completes the application, the loan officer is notified and can begin to request additional documentation.
Roostify allows Miramar’s loan officers to customize the required documents needed for each loan type, which eliminates the need for the officer to dictate each requirement to each applicant. This avoids mistakes that cause frustration and loss of time.
“Our customers would often try to email documents, only for them to get stuck in our firewall, causing frustration not only for us, but for our customers too,” Alcazar says. “Many times they would just give up on the whole process because of the frustration involved. Roostify makes it so simple to share documents back and forth, trade secure messages, and even has a social network component that keeps our customers updated in real-time and allows them to inquire about loan status, which makes them feel like they are never just waiting to hear from us.”
Signatures are also collected through the platform. All parties—the loan officer, the applicant, and the even real estate agent—can be notified of every change of status until the loan is closed. Complete visibility into the process is provided from application to closing.
Finally, as mortgage volumes go up, Roostify’s workflow solution has proved beneficial, as processing loans now take less time and require less “legwork” from start to finish. Loan officers not only receive more complete applications from the start of the process, it gives them the ability to process more loans simultaneously, as each individual application requires less time and attention.
CUES member Paul Socia is president/CEO of $170 million Miramar Federal Credit Union, San Diego.
Credit Union Management magazine’s Web-only “Loan Zone” column runs the fourth Tuesday of every month.
