Lender Sierra Pacific Mortgage (SPM) announced Wednesday it will use CoreLogic’s collateral valuation platform in order to streamline future home appraisals.
In a press release, SPM officials said the CoreLogic platform will increase underwriting capacity, while expediting the review process and enabling consistent and precise analysis of appraisal data.
“We are excited to work with innovative lenders like Sierra Pacific Mortgage to find ways to take time, touch and cost out of their collateral underwriting workflows,” said Sage Nichols, CoreLogic executive of client and business development. “Unfortunately, for many lenders, it actually takes longer and costs more to originate a loan today than it did ten years ago – and this is preventing them from benefiting from the current originations boom.”
CoreLogic announced last week that it entered into a definitive agreement to be acquired by Stone Point Capital and Insight Partners for $80 per share in cash, or an equity value of about $6 billion.
Sierra Pacific Mortgage, a California-based nationwide direct lender licensed in 49 states, has been searching for ways to increase underwriter productivity since 2018. That’s when SPM conducted an internal analysis and found that its 82 underwriters were spending an average of 45 minutes to an hour reviewing the details of each appraisal, which limited each underwriter’s productivity to 1.5 to two loan files per day.
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HousingWire recently spoke with CoreLogic’s Chief Appraiser Shawn Telford about re-examining traditional appraisal workflows in light of the changes brought on by COVID-19.
Presented by: CoreLogic
The future of appraisals is murky at the moment, with so much of the housing industry moving to online platforms in an attempt to social distance during the COVID-19 pandemic. Some companies have implemented the use of “desktop appraisals” – agents completing an entire appraisal process without leaving their office – while others have used “hybrid appraisals,” where a third party appraises the house and reports data to the original company.
In addition, historically-low mortgage rates are driving people to purchase homes, and appraisers are struggling to keep up with the volume for both refinance and purchase mortgages – resulting in increased turn times at one of the most critical junctures in the underwriting process.
Sierra Pacific Mortgage is hoping CoreLogic’s platform will significantly improve turnaround times, said Susan Roy, SPM executive vice president of national operations.
“This will allow us to issue the closing documents sooner and complete loan closings faster,” Roy said. “By having a centralized appraisal review process in place, we have been able to reduce the underwriting time on each loan. Before using CoreLogic’s appraisal review solution, each underwriter devoted significant time to the review of the appraisal. After we implemented it, productivity improved by allowing the underwriter to focus on the credit aspects of the loan.”
