What is Cascade?

What is Cascade?

February 9, 2022
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Certified Credit

The mortgage industry is competitive, complex, and ever-evolving. As a result, most mortgage lenders are eager to find ways to gain an edge over their competition. One way you can set your business apart is by optimizing key workflows with Cascade.

Designed by mortgage industry experts, Cascade is a class of workflow automation products made for loan officers. Cascade can transform some of your most tedious processes into the secret engine behind your success.

Here are a few of the powerful benefits Cascade has to offer:

  • Innovative automation – Cascade can effortlessly automate your client retention efforts, lead distribution, and verification of employment and income (VOE).
  • Improved effectiveness – Cascade’s products are designed to tackle the unique challenges facing modern mortgage lenders, such as waning customer retention and monotonous VOE. With Cascade’s solutions, you can upgrade essential aspects of your workflows and soar above the competition.
  • Enhanced efficiency – Cascade’s automation helps you save time and money, allowing your business to run a lot more efficiently. In turn, you can skyrocket your productivity and profits without sacrificing your quality of service.

Cascade’s product line is expected to grow in the coming years. As of now, two must-have Cascade solutions are Cascade Alerts and Cascade VOE. Below, we’ll explain how these two solutions can upgrade your mortgage lending business. We’ll also review eight benefits of automation for loan officers like you.

What is Cascade Alerts?

Do you wish your customer retention rate was higher? If so, you’re not alone. Over 80% of customers change mortgage lenders when they refinance or move homes.1 Thus, it’s not uncommon to lose a significant portion of your hard-earned business to competitors.

While customer retention is a pervasive problem, you don’t need to accept defeat. After all, returning borrowers are incredibly valuable. They’re easier and more cost-effective to acquire if you know when to reach out to them. That’s where Cascade Alerts can help.

Cascade Alerts is an innovative credit monitoring tool that lets you know when your past, current, and prospective clients’ credit reports receive mortgage-related inquiries. You can receive lists of these clients in as little as 24 hours. Armed with this timely awareness, you can reach out to these clients before your competition beats you to it, increasing your chances of maintaining their business.

How Does Cascade Alerts Work?

Cascade Alerts is very simple to set up and start using.

All you have to do is:

    • Add your client database – To start, you’ll need to upload your database of past, current, and prospective clients into Cascade Alerts or integrate Cascade Alerts with your existing CRM software.
    • Customize your lead qualification criteria – Next, you can set filters for your preferred credit thresholds and GSE pass/fail requirements. This way, you’ll only receive qualified leads on your Cascade Alerts lists.
    • Sit back and allow Cascade Alerts to work its magic – Cascade Alerts will continuously monitor your client base’s credit activity and process the data every 24 hours. After that, it will compile lists of qualified leads and send them to you daily, weekly, or monthly, depending on your preference.
    • Reach out promptly and make your pitch – Once you receive a list of leads who are actively looking for new mortgages, you can contact each of them and pursue them for repeat business. If you’ve provided them with outstanding customer service so far, there’s a good chance that they’ll be happy to work with you again.

Mortgage lenders who use Cascade Alerts report notable increases in their client retention rates. You can join their ranks risk-free with our month-long Cascade Alerts free trial.

What is Cascade VOE?

Another vital aspect of the lending lifecycle is VOE. Understanding your borrowers’ financial status can help you manage risk and make informed lending decisions. While crucial, the VOE process can also be cumbersome, time-consuming, and expensive—that is, unless you have Cascade VOE.

Powered by an innovative rules-based engine and three-level cascade, Cascade VOE automates the VOE process, saving you the time and hassle of doing it manually. It allows you to customize the number of verification vendors you use, as well as the order in which you use them. Once your vendor preferences are set up, Cascade VOE will do all of the heavy lifting for you.

Compared to manual VOE, Cascade VOE’s automated process can yield a higher hit rate with lower-cost vendor. Better yet, you only have to pay when Cascade VOE returns a hit. What’s more, Cascade VOE can enhance your compliance by conforming to secondary market guidelines and LQI standards.

Thanks to these benefits, Cascade VOE can revamp an otherwise cumbersome process into one of your greatest assets.

How Does Cascade VOE Work?

Like Cascade Alerts, Cascade VOE is easy to integrate with popular LOS systems, such as Encompass. You can order verifications from your existing LOS or directly through MeridianLink. No matter which option you choose, completing your verifications is a breeze. All you have to do is:

    • Upload the borrower authorization form
    • Select the required report
    • Order an automated VOE
    • Let Cascade take care of the rest!

It’s that easy!

Once you’ve requested a verification, you can track its progress within your LOS system or request to receive hit notifications for added convenience.

8 Benefits of Automation for Loan Officers

Now that you know a little bit about Cascade’s automated solutions, let’s take a look at eight benefits that automation can bring to your mortgage lending business:

#1 Time-Savings

When you’re trying to grow your business, managing your time can be a challenge. The more areas you can save time in, the better.

From helping you identify lucrative opportunities for repeat business to expediting the VOE process, Cascade’s automation can save you a ton of time.

With more time on your hands, you can invest your efforts where it matters most and turn your attention to:

  • Cultivating strategic professional relationships
  • Making a positive impression on prospective clients
  • Optimizing other areas of the loan origination process

#2 Lower Operating Costs

In addition to freeing up your time, automation can reduce your operating costs in more ways than one.

Firstly, automation can take a lot of tedious work off of your and your team’s plates, allowing you to maintain a more streamlined, cost-effective team. Meanwhile, Cascade will be working for you diligently behind the scenes 24/7—no sick leave, vacation time, or overtime pay required. 

Additionally, the automation you’ll enjoy with Cascade Alerts and Cascade VOE can help you save money by promoting cheaper client acquisition and lower-cost vendor verification.

#3 Business Growth

Every mortgage lender wants to grow their business. Unfortunately, manual processes can act as a bottleneck to your growth. By investing in automation, you can supercharge your workflows and confidently manage an expanding client base.

#4 Enhanced Efficiency

The efficiency of your business is a strong indicator of your lasting success as you scale up.

Automation drives efficiency by:

  • Speeding up key processes – Automation allows your workflows to move along faster. For instance, Cascade Alerts can pinpoint, process, and compile lists of qualified leads much faster than you could ever dream of doing so manually.
  • Reducing inconsistencies – Automation also enhances the accuracy and consistency of your workflows, ensuring that no steps in the process fall through the cracks. For example, Cascade VOE can request verifications from your ordered list of vendors the same way each time, ensuring optimal consistency.

By enhancing your efficiency, automation can truly revolutionize the way you do business going forward.

#5 Error-Reduction

Manual processes are notoriously prone to human error. Even the most detail-oriented mortgage professionals can make mistakes when they’re doing repetitive tasks. Catching and fixing these errors later on often disrupts your daily workflows and may even cost you money.

Automation has the potential to eliminate these errors. In turn, it can tighten up your workflows and fortify your loan origination process.

#6 Ease of Integration

Cascade is easy to integrate with whatever systems you currently have in place. As a result, you can embrace the benefits of automation while continuing to use the CRM, LOS, or POS system you and your team already know and love.

#7 Comprehensive Compliance

In the mortgage industry, compliance is crucial. Cascade’s automated solutions include built-in security and compliance features, so you can enjoy the peace of mind that your client’s confidential information is safeguarded at all times.

#8 Improved Customer Experience

Loan officers aren’t the only ones who appreciate a smooth, easy origination process. Your clients do too!

Automation can expedite many steps involved in getting your clients their mortgages. More importantly, it can free up your time so you can invest more of it into providing high-quality customer service and going the extra mile.

 

Experience the Benefits of Cascade Today

From elevating your business’ efficiency to improving its bottom line, automation offers loan officers many advantages. Cascade can help you embrace automation with ease and stay one step ahead of your competitors.

For more helpful mortgage lender solutions, visit Certified Credit. We provide a variety of other credit-related products and services, such as:

  • Mortgage credit reports
  • Third-party verifications
  • Fraud and risk support
  • Settlement services
  • Credit report tools
  • Money-saving strategies

Reach out to us to learn how we can help you upgrade your mortgage lending business today.

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