Converting Phone and Internet applicants to borrowers, quickly and inexpensively.

Stonecreek Funding

Stonecreek Funding Corporation is a Denver-based mortgage banker that directly services the homeowner and new home purchaser. They have offices in seven states and are licensed to operate in 30 states. Most of Stonecreek's retail leads come through Internet leads from consumers "browsing" for a loan or direct marketing to Realtors.

The Challenge

The challenge for any lender getting retail leads from the Internet or call center is to turn these browsers into borrowers. Part of the process is getting 3-day disclosures to them and getting their signatures, if possible. Stonecreek had tried sending the disclosures as email attachments, but security concerns in light of Gramm-Leach-Bliley had put an end to that. Standard practice was to either use an overnight delivery service to send disclosures to applicants along with return overnight envelopes or to pay local title company notaries to present the disclosures in person.

These practices were effective for getting commitment by the borrower to Stonecreek, but the extreme expense had become a real issue. According to Jon McGuire, Stonecreek Funding's Director of Business Applications and Development, "The reason we would actually pay someone to go present the disclosures in person is that when you have a live one, you need to 'strike while the iron is hot', as they say.  It is very expensive, but there is a very high yield in converting applicants to borrowers."

The Solution

When McGuire heard about SwiftSend's new eDisclosures™ Service, he realized it might enable Stonecreek to save a lot of money and get disclosures securely delivered even faster, while potentially improving the all-important ability to get the applicant's commitment. McGuire signed up for the service, and after a short trial, deployed it to all Stonecreek offices, making the service available to 100 Stonecreek loan officers.

"The beauty of eDisclosures™ is that now the disclosures can be delivered online to borrowers even as the loan officer is taking their application over the phone. The LO can take them through the docs and even get an electronic signature on the disclosure.  So we're actually able to strike while the iron is even hotter—no delay for overnight delivery. We can get buy-in prompted by our loan officer right at the time of application… for a fraction of what we had been paying." 

McGuire notes that "the best place for many borrowers to be called and receive docs is at work.  Well, few businesses will let employees install software on their systems, so SwiftView's breakthrough in developing a zero-client viewer – meaning nothing to install – is a critical reason why this service works.  Probably wouldn’t otherwise." 

"It takes a while for people to try something new, but already 50% of our loan officers are using the service.  Needless to say, we're strongly encouraging the others to adopt it—too much savings to ignore."

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