Ask the Experts: How to Build a Winning RON Strategy

 Transcript

Maria Ferrara 00:00

Before we get started, there's going to be a few housekeeping items. Feel free to submit questions in the Ask a Question box. It's located on your webinar dashboard. You can enter them at any time, and we'll get to as many as we can by the end of the session. You can also use the link in your dashboard to request a meeting with a member of our team. And lastly, you're also going to receive a recording of this webinar in case you'd like to re watch it, share it or reference it later on. And with that, let's go ahead and get started. Welcome to the Ask the Experts How to build a winning Ron Strategy Webinar. So my name is Maria Ferrara. I am the Senior Manager of Ron solutions here at Snapdocs, and will also be your moderator today, anything and everything, Ron. I am definitely one of your gals here, the other ones joining us on the webinar for implementation strategy and overall business model. With that, I'll go ahead and send it over to Whitney to introduce herself. Thanks,

Whitney Voigt 00:54

Maria. So excited to be here. You know this is our favorite topic to talk about. We I am a solutions principal. I joined Snapdocs with Maria, you know, explicitly, because we are passionate about Ron, and we want to see lenders find success with Ron. Prior to joining Snapdocs, i Why am I here? I spent five years implementing and managing Ron at a large national lender. So I'm excited to share some of those insights. The good news of having experience with Ron, we implemented and were active prior to COVID. The bad news is that we had a lot of hard lessons, and we learned a lot of painful lessons during those times. And we're excited to impart those insights, share that experience so that lenders can successfully use Ron, add it to their toolkit and avoid some of the common pitfalls that really can undermine confidence in a really strong program. So thanks. We're really excited.

Maria Ferrara 01:52

Perfect. Thank you so much. Whitney, yeah, it can definitely be said that we will never pass up a chance to tell our stories, both good and bad when it comes to Ron and our experiences over the years. So with that, let's go ahead and take a look at our agenda for today at the very top, and we'll just go quickly through this part, like we said. You'll get the webinar recording afterwards if you'd like to reference it, but we'll go ahead and go over the current Ron's landscape and kind of just what is Ron, in case you need that information, then we'll just get right into answering your burning round questions. Thank you so much for submitting those. They're wonderful questions, and we're excited to answer them. And then we'll go ahead and do the live Q and A for any questions that you submit throughout the webinar today. So to begin what is remote, online, notarization, many of you probably already know a lot of this information, but just quickly, it is a virtual, paperless closing. It is as digital as digital can get when it comes to real estate transactions. So all of the documents and notarial acts are executed using digital signatures, electronic notarization, identity verification and audio, visual communication. Just a couple of quick facts here, the notary does need to get electronic Commission. In addition to their standard commission, they must be located within their commission state when completing the signings, unlike the borrowers, who can be located elsewhere. A common misconception with Ron is that it may not be a safe or it might not prevent fraud, when in actuality, in our fourth box here, run vendors are responsible for authenticating identity in various ways. Session must also be recorded and stored by that vendor for the state, required minimum amount of time, so a little bit of the industry outlook. So Ron does continue to build momentum, which is exciting, could be a little stressful, but mostly exciting. So we have found that 89% of lenders report a focus on E close within the next 12 months, and nearly 20% are specifically looking for a Ron plan, which makes this webinar very timely. And as you can see on the right, we do have our Ron legislation map. It has currently been passed in 44 states and most recently our white whale California, which we will definitely touch on later in the webinar as well. So what is some of the value of Ron? Why is there such a high interest at this point? So is an extension of customer service. It's another product to offer to your clients and customers, providing a lot of convenience and satisfaction, especially with the next wave of home buyers coming up, being younger and expecting digital and online transactions to occur. It alleviates issues. It's it helps with accessibility, whether that be child care, illness, taking time off not having reliable transportation to possibly get to a title office. It does increase safety and security and mitigates fraud and errors. This also is has a nice environmental impact. You're getting rid of all of those documents and the paperwork, so we're definitely help saving the trees here. And. It mitigates signer availability issues, because it can be done almost anywhere, anytime, and all of the signers do not need to be in the same location, like we mentioned. It does increase the security and reduce the fraud risk, and also eliminates all of the, you know, non value adding parts of the clothing, closing so the printing, the scanning, the mailing and the waiting, which nobody likes. So with that, we kind of get into the heart of what this webinar is about today. The main challenge, the industry is buzzing about Ron, and lenders have a ton of questions, and we always talk about Ron in theory, in an abstract. But now we want to talk about how you actually do it, not only do it, but also do it well. So with that, we're gonna go into our first kind of big component, which is the Ron strategy, and what lenders should be thinking about and addressing as they go ahead and start creating their Ron plan, which leads us nicely into our first question. Whitney, so what types of loans in your experience have you seen as best for Ron, and what is the best way to scale in a purchase market as well?

Whitney Voigt 06:05

We're going to jump right into the big one. This is it. And to kick that off, it really with Iran's strategy. Ron has to be a strategic tool that's used thoughtfully as part of an E closing program. The most important thing is to know that Ron is not right for every borrower, every closing. It's not a one size fits all. And when lenders really take a step back and think through the Ron strategy, where it fits in their business, that's the first step to success. So when I talk about like, you know what types of loans are suitable, I like to start with low risk transactions. Ron is something that you have to get good at and get comfortable at as a lender. Even with a strong partner like Snapdocs, you gotta get a lot of experience. It cannot be an exception based process. So when I look for loans, the best and easy place to start as low risk transactions, and those can include refi. There aren't a lot out there. But what's great about refi transactions is that you don't have agents involved, very anxious agents. You don't have sellers involved. It's merely a transaction between the lender and their borrower. There's more flexibility on time. There's just less risk and urgency when it comes to a refi. So for lenders that do have refi, I highly encourage that. It's a great place to start any non owner occupied type property. So again, if you're thinking of a first time home buyer who's very anxious, you've got agents willing to celebrate, you know, excited to celebrate. Maybe a virtual closing isn't the right place, right tool for that scenario, but an investment property, your non owner occupied homes, you're talking about a savvy buyer. It's less about the celebration, and it's really a lot more about getting the transaction completed and with convenience, especially those investors. So there's different ways to look at, you know, your portfolio, the types of loans you do. If you have a captive title company, where you can get a lot of repeatability back and forth on a transaction, that's when Ron starts to succeed. The teams get comfortable. They get a lot of at bats. It cannot be that exception process, like I said. And then as you get confident, and you build those skill sets, the scripting, the comfort, the confidence with it, then you can start to start using and expanding Ron to those owner occupied purchase transactions. So in a purchase market, there's lot of purchases happening, but be thoughtful. You know, is Ron the right scenario, the right situation. Get good at Ron with those low risk transactions, and then expand across your portfolio and your origination. So hopefully that gives you some food for thought. What I like to say is pick the loans first and not the loan officer.

Maria Ferrara 09:00

I love that. I love that perfect we did touch on this just a little bit earlier, kind of how there's a lot of momentum in the industry, but what's kind of the reality of the adoption right now with Ron, especially with all the different platforms, and who's managing that technology and those platforms currently? Well,

Whitney Voigt 09:19

I'd like to think the outlook is strong. Ron is here. It had it. It definitely has come into the forefront. And now it's it's all about supporting that adoption, making it more of a common practice. So I do think the industry outlook is strong. It really is that last digital transformation of, you know, leveraging technology in the mortgage experience for lenders. So while lenders have become so sophisticated from the application, it just is that almost that last mile, that last component to bring together. So I, I feel very strongly about that, as it states, you know, as it is today, Ron is. Is a lender decision on a loan, so if you're an originator long you have ownership and accountability for when and how Ron is used, because it's your loan. And so that's why title has done a great job of adopting Ron and expanding and we're excited to partner with those title partners, but for the time being, the lender really needs to be comfortable with the technology platform, with the type of loans making the decisions about using Ron for their customers, and so it really sits in the lenders lap to really have ownership and understanding for the process and what's being used with their borrowers? Yeah,

Maria Ferrara 10:43

I would agree. And in our implementations, we've seen that as well. It's like, it's kind of like you said you mentioned earlier. It's just like choosing to do it and then choosing to do it with purpose. And that does right now, like that onus does fly with the lender. And I would also agree that it's a very exciting time for Ron. It used to just be the Wild West. Now there seems to be more structure, a lot of curiosity, and luckily, we just always get to have a lot of conversations where customers and potential customers are constantly bringing up Ron. So it's definitely a very, very cool time to be part of this.

Whitney Voigt 11:14

Yeah, oh, I love this question. I know we

Maria Ferrara 11:20

do, we do. So I'm going to let you just get right into it. So what is Ron eligibility, and how should we approach this? Well, we know

Whitney Voigt 11:27

that this is going to be a whole another webinar, and we're just going to scratch the surface here, but certainly would love to talk talk more about this. But let's think about eligibility, because, you know, Ron will become universally adopted and accepted. I'm excited for that day, but until then, it's very important for lenders to understand and understand the eligibility components, what the investors are requiring, what the landscape requires. But very simply, I like to break it down into four components, and those components that you have to think about when you're considering Ron on a loan. First of all is, is the borrower suitable? Is this the right type of customer that is going to be able to successfully connect with a notary? We'll expand more on that. But also, you know, is this the right situation for the borrower? And that's something the loan officers really need to understand and own, is, is this borrower suitable? So borrower suitability is the first dimension. The second one, does the property qualify? Is the dwelling in a property state in which e recording can happen. You know, can the property be properly recorded and transacted with electronic documents and notarizations. The third dimension, does the loan qualify? Does the type of loan, the product program and investor meet the criteria set forth in the selling guides with whoever you may be transacting with. And so it's very important to understand what loans qualify for Ron and Fourth and finally, is the title considerations. Most importantly the title policy, because of the need to ensure have a title policy, both for you know, the buyer, but also for the lender themselves. You want to make sure the title underwriter will accept a transaction or ensure a transaction using electronic notarization. So four dimensions to think about a lot more there. We won't go into detail today, but understand if the borrower suitable, the property is eligible, the loan qualifies, and the title considerations. You cover those four bases, and you're good to go with Ron

Maria Ferrara 13:43

Absolutely. And it does sound, you know, I always say Ron is complex, but it doesn't necessarily have to be complicated. So the eligibility is complex, but there are resources, tools, experts out there that can help, you know, guide lenders through that as they're trying to figure this out as well. We're coming up on my favorite questions that we get often, and there seems to be a lot of confusion, ambiguity about it. So, you know, Whitney, give them that good old, crisp answer for us here.

Whitney Voigt 14:14

Well, you know, again, the landscape is good, the outlook is good. It's been wonderful. Fannie, Freddie and Ginny being out front really setting the bar, setting the standard that other correspondent investors have followed as it relates to accepting Ron or leveraging Ron on a closing the guidelines are very clear. There are very few constraints as outlined in the guides, and a lot of the correspondence follow the the Fannie Freddie guidelines. But as always, it's so important when you think about your business, who you're transacting with on loans, to understand the selling guide, understand the requirements. A lot of loans are are eligible conventional through Fannie Freddie. The conforming, the Gini, FHA, VA, USDA, are likely, you know, all fall within their their parameters of eligibility, with understanding what constraints you can and cannot do. There's even some jumbo out there. So I think the acceptance is out there. It's not uniform. It's not universally allowed, but it's getting there, and it continues to improve, and confidence in leveraging Ron is really growing, so that makes it exciting, absolutely.

Maria Ferrara 15:31

Luckily, you have a lot of these conversations. So how do we encourage the customer, the lender, sales team, to utilize Ron more giving the competitive edge, and how should they position themselves? What's a great talk track or a way to approach those conversations as they're looking to introduce Ron to their base?

Whitney Voigt 15:52

Well, Ron is a is a change management activity. I mean, when you think about incorporating e close into your business, there's some learning when you do hybrid closings, but the change management to incorporate Ron is really next level, and the reason is because this is a tool for your sales team. This is a way for them to differentiate themselves out in the market, in a highly competitive space loan officers that can offer their customers both in person and virtual closings, that level of customer service really stands out. And so when you want your your sales team to, you know, encourage them to use run, they need to understand, of course, when to use Ron, you know, when are the situations, you know, when is it best suited the types of borrowers. But also make sure they're confident in the process. And that goes back to some of the early comments about get started on Ron, on the low risk loans, easy loans. Build some competency, build some internal skill sets. Because when your team, not just the partner that you work with on the runs like Snapdocs, but also your team understands how it flows, what to expect, what types of notifications you're going to get, when to know you've successfully closed the loan. Then your Los are confident. And then they're, they're, they're more inclined to be like, hey, this works. You can, you know, they're, they're, they're excited to use it again and again. You know, one, one mishandled, closing, miscommunication, poor borrower experience can really undermine a really strong program, and leveraging Ron so you want to try to minimize that by investing in your resources. You know, you just don't want your borrowers and your loan officers to feel like they've been left in a lurch, because this is a totally different closing experience. I always like to say that, you know you when you're doing Ron, you don't want to make your loan officers feel like tech support, because their customers, that's the first call. Hey, I don't know what I'm doing or I don't know what's going on. What was I supposed what was supposed to happen here that loan officer, when they get that call, they feel they feel uncertain, they feel unsupported and and so you really have to think through the level of support, the human capital investment to really build confidence and make rounds successful.

Maria Ferrara 18:21

Totally agree I was going to say the number one word you said is that confidence that gets them committed to it and excited about it every single time. And I do believe with this part of a webinar series, so in a future round webinar, we will talk more about, like, what that enablement looks like, what that training implementation and how to make everything Whitney just mentioned like a reality for that as well.

Whitney Voigt 18:45

Yeah, and I want to speak, if we could, before we go on to that, then we can go back for a minute. I want to speak specifically to the customers as well. I know I focused a lot on the loan officers, because they're key. They're going to be introducing it, you know, we had loan officers. You know, Ron is an extension of customer service. It really is lenders being able to meet customers where they are supporting their busy lifestyles, their unique scenarios. You know, we talked about that in the opening. So, you know, you're positioning Ron as an extension of customer service. You know, you want to be able to start the conversations early. Some of our very successful loan officers used it as a a sales tool at the start of the loan. You know, they knew enough about, you know, what, what loans could and could go wrong. They introduced it. Hey, we're fully digital here. We're a paperless, you know, tech forward organization here to support you and your needs. So it's something that can start early in positioning to your customers. You want to invest in the resources we talked about, supporting the ellos. You want to be responsive and have knowledge when you position with customers, especially and. That enablement sometimes. You know, having FAQs and flyers and resources available is great, but don't, don't underestimate the value of that human touch, that connection, that that in person response, supporting your ellos, supporting your customers, introducing it early in the process, again, using it a selling point. You know, this is a feature, a customer service angle, that you and your organization can offer and and make it a positive point. I

Maria Ferrara 20:30

was going to say everyone on the webinar probably see the moment where you read my mind about, I think another common misconception with Ron is that you lose the personal touch. You lose that connection with the borrower. And as you just stated, it really does not have to be the case. You can absolutely still have that personal relationship and get that referral business later on, while also making their life and a real estate transaction, which sometimes can be stressful, much, much easier and simpler overall.

Whitney Voigt 21:02

And one last thought, I know I'm I love talking about this. It'll be a whole, probably should be a whole webinar. Customers don't do a lot of loans. They don't do them. You know, every couple years, give or take, you don't ask them if they want to do a run. They're going to be like, Hey, who's Ron, what can you do for me? So something as simple as really engaging your marketing teams. This is a product offering. This is something you can brand and take to the street and really, you know, convey what it is. So even talking to borrowers in terms like, Hey, we're going to be doing a hybrid or a run, you know, shush it up a little bit. Give it a great marketing name a marketing splash, you know, have it speak to something that customers can understand. So again, they're not going to know these terms, so speak to them in language, you know, they can understand virtual, closing, paperless closing. There so many different creative marketing type. So go have fun with that.

Maria Ferrara 22:01

Yeah, absolutely. And everyone loves a little flair. No one's going to be mad about that. So perfect. Alright, I was going to say we could talk about this, this particular one forever, so I will move us along here. Okay, so we did touch on this earlier with that. Ron map, you know, everyone's excited about this, but there is this legislation is involved and rolls out in phases. So let's touch on this a little bit so we can go ahead and give an update on this recent passage of the legislature and kind of what this the notary, a California notary, is going to be experiencing and train with on this run process.

Whitney Voigt 22:39

Yeah. Well, obviously we're very excited. It's the largest market out there. It's it's frankly frustrating that California is taking quite so long. But let's celebrate the wins that we can get and work there. Obviously we have to follow what the investors will accept. Fannie and Freddie are leading, are leading the way in the sense that you know. So I encourage lenders to talk to Fannie and Freddie, make sure you're 100% clear on what they will accept. I think we're optimistic. And Maria, maybe you can talk a little bit about timelines, but at the end of the day, please talk to your your account reps. Talk to Fannie and Freddie. Get absolute clarity, because California has been murky. Just so you know what you can and cannot do, using out of state notaries is common practice, so I'm pretty excited we'll be able to, you know, to leverage that quickly. Unfortunately, for the in state notaries, it doesn't require an in state notary to conduct the transaction, but those, those California notaries are going to be waiting for a while. I think they've put it out for several years before they're going to, you know, be able to build out an electronic notary certification program. But even if the California notaries can't conduct electronic notarizations themselves, there is the opportunity to leverage out of state notaries, especially in states like Texas, Florida, Virginia, that have had long established notary rules. But Maria, your thoughts,

Maria Ferrara 24:07

yeah, absolutely. I definitely second all of the emotions you said, as far as the timeline, yes. So California, the California notaries within the state, it's looking like around 2030 for them. So, like you said, it would be quite a long time. But you know, you never know that could speed up, because there are so many states that have done it successfully. Now, California does have a model that they can go off for building that and building it correctly. But yes, as far as out of state run certified notaries being able to complete them, like you mentioned, Florida, Texas, Virginia, Nevada. There's actually quite a few states that can have nationwide coverage. Now it's looking like early of next year, so it's very possible, you know, in the beginning of 2024 that those can start rolling through. But I definitely would double down on making sure just. Especially in the beginning, doing that due diligence, making sure everybody is on board, accepting it, you know, just to make sure that we're not having a transaction kind of fall apart near the end. But yes, very exciting. We've all been waiting a very long time. I'm sure every Ron vendor out there had a party at some point for California. But yeah, so we'll just keep everyone apprised of any news we hear. But like we said, the latest is kind of early 2024 we can just go ahead and start sending those through with out of state run notaries.

Whitney Voigt 25:32

Yeah, Fannie and Freddie have been great partners. They want to hear from lenders. We obviously talk to them each and every day as much as we can to encourage them. Vendors are great, but it really when the lenders are asking for it, they'll be very clear and so definitely reach out and Ginny as well. So hit them up. Make sure we we continue to move the ball forward.

Maria Ferrara 25:56

Amen, sister, alright, you did touch on this a little bit before, under the eligibility, so just looking at borrower suitability. So how does Iran signing work when a borrower is in another country, and then we'll also, what if the borrower is a non US citizen?

Whitney Voigt 26:14

Yeah. Well, the best part is that being a virtual closing borrower location really isn't a consideration, provided that the borrower suitable. We talked a lot about suitability as part of the eligibility understanding the borrower, the the signer, location isn't really a consideration. So borrowers, and we did many closings all over the world where borrowers needed a stable internet connection and be able to pass the Kba or authentication requirements. So in terms of location, they don't have to go to an embassy. They can be in the comfort of wherever they may be located, which is why Ron is so beautifully suited, for a number of borrowers. We've had signers that, you know, are international travelers that got stuck during COVID and couldn't come back. Our military families, especially those families are on the move or deployed. It just eliminates the need to get those poas or trying to get into an embassy, which can be a challenge. Ron, you know, eliminates a lot of those challenges, it makes it very easy. Being a non US citizen is a challenge for Ron the KBI, Kba, authentication, the safety and security of conducting Iran does require a social security number, a credit history recent US addresses. So when you think about Ron, you can't just think about your borrower. You have to think about all the signers that have to transact on the loan. So if you have non borrowing signers, maybe title only spouses, a non citizen spouse will be challenged and may not be able to pass the Kba. And so that's again, why the loan officer is so critical in knowing their borrowers and knowing if they're suitable for Ron Maria thoughts or or anything to add there.

Maria Ferrara 28:11

Yeah, and in this is coming from a little bit of experience here. So for anyone on the webinar that doesn't know, prior to Snapdocs, I wasn't notarized, one of the top Ron vendors for a couple of years, running their real estate partnerships, and prior to that, at Old Republic, also working on their signing services, including eventually the digital Enron services as well. So yes, the very few times where there's issues with that knowledge based authentication or getting the ID validated. It is almost 99.9% of the time where it's that there's not enough credit history, because there either isn't a social security number, there isn't that residential us address. Yeah, most of the time people have no trouble getting through but the few times that they do have trouble, we almost exclusively find out it's for those reasons. So you know, there's borrower questionnaires, different ways to figure out that suitability, so you don't end up crossing that bridge, unfortunately. But yeah, the in the experience, and as far as the US Embassy, we have seen still extremely long wait times post COVID, like sometimes it could be a month or two months until you can actually get an appointment. So you can see where Ron would come in very, very handy in those situations, especially like for military base, or, as you mentioned, travelers, Ron really works well for these occasions.

Whitney Voigt 29:36

Yeah, if you have a mail away desk and they're struggling to figure out those hard to schedule closings. It's a great place to figure out Ron. Great place to start with Ron. Don't do the mail away. Don't do the POA. If it's eligible, have your signers execute their own loan it. It's just a better way to do business. So great place to start there. Yeah.

Maria Ferrara 29:59

Yeah, it does make it very convenient. And also the nice thing is, with even with your signers in multiple places and maybe doing multiple Ron sessions and meeting with various notaries, you're still not counter signing documents. Either, everybody is still signing the same package, and it avoids a lot of that or any of those issues that may arise as well,

Whitney Voigt 30:20

absolutely and positive control of your documents.

Maria Ferrara 30:24

Oh, we all love that.

Whitney Voigt 30:28

Yeah, nothing like that. Lost FedEx coming back from some remote part of an island nation somewhere. Yes,

Maria Ferrara 30:36

I'm sure every attendee like we can't see them, but I feel they all did that little smirk laugh, because they knew exactly what we were talking about and the pain associated with

Whitney Voigt 30:48

been there, been there. Have the scars to show it absolutely. Um, alright, we're

Maria Ferrara 30:54

going to the next section here, which is process and technology. And it's actually coming up on one of my favorite sections. I did say earlier, you know, we always talk about Ron, and this theory and abstract and these questions are going to take us from knowing that, oh, we want to do Ron, oh, we know why we should do Ron, to the actual, some of the like the practical steps and implementation steps that can be taken to actually do Ron and do it well, which is why we're here on this webinar today. So we'll go ahead and get into those questions. So the very first one here is about business process and technology that kind of should be thought of and taken place before we're building out Ron, and then also just kind of your experience, and I can touch in on this too, on how we've seen people jump from the hybrid to the full digital e closing experience,

Whitney Voigt 31:46

sure. Um, well, you know, it can it can seem complicated, and I like the way you said it. You said it earlier. It can be complex, but it doesn't have to be complicated. And so there's some technology involved, and having the right technology in place. Part of that is, of course, having E sign capabilities, a hybrid provider like Snapdocs, that you have the workflow for sending the transactions over. And in fact, it's good to incorporate hybrid into Iran. We'll talk about that. But also e notes. Many of you are probably active or getting started with E notes, but to have a true run, you also need to exco execute an electronic promissory note. So you're going to need a vault. So you're need an E sign platform. You're going to need a vault, and you're going to need a partner that is able to provide the aggregation that manage the workflow and the process, and ultimately get the signers to the notary platform, whoever you know, whichever platform, in our case, we partner with notarize, and there's there's others out there, but it's not just the wrong platform. It's having the E sign capability, the E vault the infrastructure, the technology infrastructure, and the right partner to deliver Ron's success. So is there a jump from hybrid closing to Ron? Absolutely, absolutely. I think hybrid is certainly an important place to start. It builds the culture around e closing. It gets the organization operations, closing, post closing, your sales teams anchored around the idea of signing digitally some or all of the documents at closing. And it builds that scripting and that understanding. I like to say that, you know, having a culture of this is how we close loans. You know, it builds that confidence and that comfort level that allows you to, you know, then add Ron into your toolkit. So it's, it's, it's very important, and I think critical, to be confident and proficient in hybrids before, you know, before implementing Ron, you know, it's important to remember that Ron is a fundamentally different closing process for all parties involved, whereas with the hybrids or a wet sign, you're passing the documents over to title, and title takes it on with Ron, especially if title isn't the notary themselves, they're actually participating in preparing the documents. And so it's really the prep for Iran, of bringing the loan documents together, bringing the title documents together, making sure everything is tagged and annotated properly for the notary meeting. It just happens in a very different way. And so having the right partner, understanding the workflow, the turn time to how all that comes together, is very key in making sure that you've got the business processes to support the technology that you've put in place.

Maria Ferrara 34:57

Can I say one of our favorite phrases, the crawl? Walk. Ron, right? Like everyone knows it, it makes sense to go hybrid, to run and like you, you know, you mentioned there is differences and there's work to be done, but it is absolutely a very, a very good way to approach that at that point. Yeah, alright, the post closing side. So how does this look like, how does the lender work with the the investors, the collateral docs, like, just, how does that post closing process?

Whitney Voigt 35:28

Well, it's, it's expedited, it's cleaner, faster, more streamlined. You know, post closing probably is, is in addition to the happy customers, you know, a post closing team that that isn't chasing paperwork down, but is actually moving the loans and over to the investors, the warehouse funders, being able to do, you know, get the documents back immediately after the meeting, funding the loans, moving the loans, everything is just going to be that much more faster because it's digital, electronic, not just the note, but the electronically signed copies of the other loan documents, the recording, obviously the mortgage is going to get recorded and passed back as soon as the county responds. So again, it's just a cleaner, more efficient process, and really just makes jobs a lot easier,

Maria Ferrara 36:24

fast, safe and secure. Those are that's what we like to hear. Alright? So how do lens ensure? Yeah, I was going to say around closing complies, and especially regarding e notes, yeah, I'll let you go right into this. Yeah,

Whitney Voigt 36:38

absolutely, we touched on this. But you know, to do a fully digital Ron, it does require the the lender to have an industry compliant e vault. Part of the Snapdocs platform is, of course, having the E sign, the E vault and the Ron service fully integrated into a single closing process. So whether you're focused on E notes or adding Ron, you absolutely must incorporate an evil in which the E note is signed as part of the closing process.

Maria Ferrara 37:12

Yes, ma'am agreed. All right, so getting into kind of the benefits and the cost analysis here. So what is the cost per transaction with Ron compared to a wet signing. And also, what time value are we seeing here? What's the difference between a traditional wet versus a run?

Whitney Voigt 37:30

Well, absolutely, the it's much faster. It's going to be very similar to a hybrid closing. The signers are going to E sign ahead of time, so their time with the notary is really focused on those critical documents that require a notary's presence, notarization, notary execution. So it really is a very short meeting. We did a lot of time studies looking at meetings, single signer, multiple signers, in meetings, the documents are tagged, and so it, from a time perspective, is great. Certainly, Ron will be a higher cost. It's important to remember that requires a lot more coordination and hands on management. So but the cost of Ron, more often than not, includes the cost of the notary as well. So when you think about the notary fee that's already incurred by the signer. It really starts to level out when you look at the cost of Ron and more importantly, think about the savings. When we talk about the ROI of going digital, the opportunity for savings is that much greater with Iran, because you're 100% digital, no paper, versus the savings that you can achieve with just a hybrid or a hybrid plus, you know,

Maria Ferrara 38:47

amazing, yeah, the ROI of Ron is always very interesting. And we do see, of course, the amount of money you could save, the amount of money you can make, and the time you can save as you're going through the like paper hybrid, hybrid with E note Ron, you know, you can just see the benefits. And like those charts always go up into the right in the the amount of savings, and also time and stress at end of month, the fact that you can do a lot of these digital closings quickly and efficiently. We've seen a lot of success in that area as well, once people have those reps, well, I will say that I disagree. All right, so just an overall kind of strategy outlook for Snapdocs, and what we're our plan is, and kind of what we're looking to do here in the round space,

Whitney Voigt 39:35

absolutely. Well, Snapdocs is committed to serving and enabling lenders and providing comprehensive e closing so and that fully encompasses hybrids e notes and Ron so we continue to invest in product and partnership. We are excited about the opportunity and are fully committed to delivering the spectrum of E closing to our partners. And achieving their success.

Maria Ferrara 40:03

Yeah, and I think I can speak for both of us, which I wouldn't, I wouldn't often do, but yeah, we're very happy, very excited. Yeah, the outlook is bright for Ron, and it's, it's going to be really exciting over the next couple of years to be a part of that and see that grow, not only in Snapdocs, but just in the industry as well. Yeah,

Whitney Voigt 40:23

so many great questions, I know. If you you know we've, we've had a few come in the Q and A, let's make sure we we try to, try to tackle as many as we can.

Maria Ferrara 40:31

Yeah, for sure. Alright, so we'll get this first one going. So how would you recommend getting internal or executive buy in for Ron

Whitney Voigt 40:42

Well, a very important start is to understand what are the business goals and priorities? What is the business trying to achieve this year, and how does a Ron program, how does adding Ron support or help achieve those goals? So understand where the business is going. Are you trying to grow customers, gain market share, reduce costs, all of the above, enable loan officers with more tools. Understand what it is that the business is most focused on, what the executive leadership is focused on, and make sure that Ron and the benefits of Ron tie directly to those goals,

Maria Ferrara 41:23

I would agree absolutely, and it is, you know, the dollars and cents is always a very important part of it. Um, but I do tend to even think about the operations and those employees, the ones that are doing that work all day, every day, and especially at the end of month, when it can be so stressful. Um, if there's something that can make their life also easier, make them more productive and make them happier. We know a happy employee is an employee that stays right and you have less turnover. You're not retraining, you're not trying to hire outside people. So I think that's you know, of course, the bottom line is the bottom line. You always want to make that approach probably first. But I do see it as like a really good way to instill faith and confidence and kind of loyalty out of your employees as well. Yep, uh, Whitney, I'm going to toss this one for you. So would you recommend wrong closings on HELOCs?

Whitney Voigt 42:16

I think it's very commonly adopted there. There's should should be treated, excuse me, just like a like a loan. It's as long as the parameters and the criteria for when Ron can and cannot be used, then absolutely, it's a wonderful solution, anytime that you're engaging with borrowers to close a loan, home equity, you know, other loan types, even on the servicing side, if you know, doing loan modifications anytime you're transacting or and need a notary. Does that need to be an in person experience, or can it actually be accomplished virtually with Ron?

Maria Ferrara 42:58

That's that's a great way to think about that. I love that. I'll go ahead and take this one. So is Kba the only method of verifying borrowers identity using Ron? So actually, no, because there's two methods used, Kba is always used those knowledge based authentication questions. And for anyone who may just not have a reference, it's very similar. I'm sure we've all done it, but it's like, Have you ever looked at this address? Did you drive a 2018 Honda? It's those type of questions that you'll answer to verify your identity before making an online transaction. So that does always happen, and the borrower must make it through that to be able to get in a round session. And if they don't, they actually get locked out for 24 hours, and that's one of those security and fraud measures that we've seen has actually prevented fraud. And I believe Whitney has experienced this. So that's one of them. And then the other one is they actually have to do an ID verification where they'll upload the front and back of their ID, either via their smartphone or just their camera on their computer. And then lastly, it's not the technology part, but the notary will still do a visual check once they get into that Ron digital closing room as well. Whitney, I did touch on that that you've actually seen fraud prevented in this way. I didn't know if you wanted to share a little anecdote before we wrap it up here.

Whitney Voigt 44:20

Yeah, it's important to really think about, you know, the bad actors are out there. And you know, certainly we've seen cases where you might have some cash out refi transactions where it's not a legit buyer, they're doing an online application, they have an appraisal waiver. Sometimes an in person notary doesn't catch that ID, but the Kba will. So, you know, when you think about some of those high risk transactions, you know, that's where I see. You know, Iran first strategy, protecting the company, everyone involved in the transaction, protecting unwitting victims of. Identity Theft, Ron can really help be a protective measure. So for those who have challenges within their compliance or legal departments, preventing fraud, increasing safety and security usually goes a long way to getting their buy in.

Maria Ferrara 45:17

Totally agree absolutely well. As we're coming to the end of our webinar, we are at time we want to thank you so much for joining us today. On behalf of Snapdocs, myself and Whitney, we were so excited to be here with you. We're going to have to hold off on answering any additional questions, but we will follow up with everyone directly on any questions that we weren't able to get to. And as we said earlier, you will have a recording of this webinar as well for your reference and to share, thank you so much for joining us today. We were very happy to have you and have a fantastic rest of your Week.

Whitney Voigt 45:49

Thank you very much. Have a great day. You