As a mortgage lender, you may rely on tri-merge credit reports, verification of employment (VOE), undisclosed debt monitoring (UDM), and automated valuation models (AVMs) to support your lending decisions. However, sourcing each of these solutions from different vendors can introduce unnecessary complexity into your workflows.
Consider a loan processor who has to switch between four separate systems just to access the information they need. This fragmentation can result in more manual work, disconnected data, and a greater risk of costly errors or oversights.
Fortunately, you don’t have to source these solutions separately. By consolidating them with a full-service provider, you can simplify how you order, access, and manage critical loan information.
Read on to learn the benefits of receiving your credit reports, VOE, UDM, and AVM from one provider and how to do so with Certified Credit.
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Key Takeaways
- Tri-merge credit reports, VOEs, UDM, and AVMs each provide distinct insights that help you evaluate borrowers and properties throughout the mortgage process.
- Sourcing these products from separate vendors can create disconnected workflows, complicate billing and cost tracking, and increase the potential for duplicate or unnecessary orders.
- Consolidating multiple solutions with one provider can simplify your data flow, reduce vendor complexity, and give your team a more unified way to manage loan files.
Four Products, Four Different Pieces of the Loan File
Tri-merge credit reports, VOEs, UDM, and AVMs each serve an important role in helping you evaluate borrowers and properties. Here’s a brief overview of how each of these solutions can support your mortgage workflows:
- Tri-merge credit reports: A tri-merge credit report combines applicants’ credit information from Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion into a single report. You can use this information to evaluate a borrower’s credit history, outstanding debts, payment patterns, and other factors.
- VOE: VOE solutions help you confirm a borrower’s employment and income history. Automated tools like Cascade VOE can provide this information electronically when records are readily available, while manual verifications can help you assess borrowers whose employment information requires direct employer outreach or additional documentation.
- UDM: A borrower’s financial picture can change significantly after you pull their initial credit report. Cascade UDM can monitor their credit activity during the pre-closing period and alert you of any noteworthy changes that could put their eligibility at risk.
- AVM: While the first three solutions help you evaluate the borrower, AVMs provide information about their property. An AVM uses available property data and statistical modeling to estimate a property’s value, giving you another data point to support valuation-related decisions. An AVM does not automatically replace an appraisal; its use depends on the loan program and applicable lender and investor requirements.
Read More: What is an Automated Valuation Model (AVM)?
What Happens When Your Loan Data Lives Across Multiple Vendors?
When you rely on several vendors to support a single loan file, your team must coordinate multiple handoffs throughout the lending process. This can lead to the following inefficiencies:
#1 Data Silos That Create More Reconciliation Work
When your data comes from different systems, your team may need to piece that information together manually. Each handoff creates another opportunity for information to be overlooked or inaccurately reconciled. It also forces your team to spend valuable time switching between systems and comparing reports instead of helping borrowers move toward closing.
#2 Multiple Turnaround Times That Complicate Your Closing Timeline
Your loan file can only move as quickly as the data you need to complete it. When that data comes from several vendors, their varying turnaround times can create bottlenecks that delay your progress.
For example, you may receive a credit report from one vendor the same day, only to have the file held up while you wait several days for an employment verification from another.
Some requests inherently take longer than others. While consolidating vendors can’t eliminate every delay, it can reduce the operational friction that comes from coordinating requests across multiple providers.
Read More: The Hidden Cost of Waiting on Your Vendors
#3 Underwriting Teams That Lack a Single Source of Truth
When your loan information lives in several places, it can be difficult for your team to determine where to find the latest data. For instance, a loan processor may reference one report while an underwriter relies on information from a different system.
By building a tech stack with integrated solutions that make reports and order status accessible within your existing workflow, you can help your team find the information they need and coordinate their review of each loan file.
#4 Duplicate Orders That Inflate Costs
Another risk with disconnected systems is that your team members may not always know what reports have already been ordered, leading them to pay for unnecessary reports. Even if duplicate orders are relatively infrequent, they can quietly increase your costs and chip away at your profit margins.
By curating a more unified ordering workflow, you can give your team greater visibility into existing orders and help combat redundant requests.
#5 Multiple Invoices
The operational burden of juggling multiple vendors doesn’t end when a loan closes. Your accounting team is then left to manage and reconcile separate invoices from each provider.
Not only can this billing situation make it more difficult to track per-loan expenses, but it can also create unnecessary administrative work for your accounting team. Depending on the billing arrangement, consolidating products with one vendor may simplify your billing and cost reconciliation.
Read More: What “Full-Service” Actually Means From a Credit Provider
How to Identify Opportunities for Vendor Consolidation
You don’t need to overhaul your entire tech stack to make your mortgage workflows more efficient. Instead, you can make meaningful improvements by following these three steps:
#1 Map Out Your Current Ordering Process
To start, choose a loan file and follow it from application through closing. As you examine its journey, ask yourself:
- Which systems do you use to order credit?
- Where do you obtain employment verification?
- How do you monitor the borrower’s changes in credit activity?
- Where do you order property valuation information?
Count how many handoffs are involved in this process. If your team routinely toggles between different systems, it may indicate an opportunity to consolidate some of those steps.
#2 Review Your Ordering History
Next, examine your recent ordering activity for duplicate or unnecessary report pulls. Look for instances where your team ordered information that was already available elsewhere in the file or where a different ordering approach could have eliminated an unnecessary report. This exercise can help you identify where strategic consolidation can help you cut costs.
#3 Evaluate Your Integrations
Finally, consider how many systems feed information into your loan origination system (LOS), while keeping in mind that each additional integration can create more technical work for your IT team. By working with fewer vendors, you can streamline that workload and enjoy a simpler technology ecosystem.
Consolidate Your Mortgage Solutions With Certified Credit
If you’re ready to reap the benefits of vendor consolidation, you simply need to partner with a vendor that can support multiple stages of your lending process. At Certified Credit, we make it easy to bring your credit reporting, verification, monitoring, and property valuation tools under one relationship.
By partnering with us, you can benefit from:
- Easier data flow: You can access multiple products through supported LOS integrations, depending on your platform and product configuration.
- Simplified billing: Depending on your billing arrangement, consolidating your solutions with Certified Credit may simplify invoice management and make it easier to track per-loan costs.
- Fewer duplicate orders: A coordinated ordering workflow can help your team track existing reports and reduce redundant requests and unnecessary costs.
Ready to simplify your mortgage tech stack? Learn how Certified Credit can help you consolidate your solutions, optimize your ordering strategy, and uncover opportunities for cost savings.
Explore Certified Credit’s Solutions
Frequently Asked Questions
Can credit, VOE, UDM, and AVM come from one vendor?
Yes. Certified Credit offers credit reporting, employment verification, undisclosed debt monitoring, and automated property valuations, allowing you to consolidate these essential solutions with one provider.
What are the benefits of getting multiple mortgage reports from one provider?
Consolidating multiple products with one provider can simplify your ordering workflows, reduce the number of vendor relationships you need to manage, potentially streamline your billing process, and give your team greater visibility into the information associated with each active loan file.
Can consolidating mortgage products reduce closing times?
Vendor consolidation can help reduce some of the operational friction that can contribute to closing delays, though turnaround times may vary depending on the specific solution and circumstances.
What is a tri-merge credit report?
A tri-merge credit report combines a borrower’s credit information from Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion into one report, giving you a comprehensive view of their credit history for mortgage qualification.
How do AVMs fit alongside credit and employment verification?
Credit reports and employment verification help you evaluate the borrower, while an AVM provides information about the property. Together, these insights can help you evaluate both sides of the underwriting equation: the applicant’s eligibility and the property securing the loan.
