Regularly, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) publishes a report examining mortgage servicers’ responses. It recently released a report related to the Covid-19 pandemic. The data, collected across 16 large servicers from May through December 2021, reveal homeowners continue to face significant risks and challenges connected to working with their mortgage servicers. This problem is particularly acute for those borrowers struggling to make their mortgage payments after exiting Covid-19 hardship forbearances.
This mortgage metrics report reveals the challenges borrowers faced as CARES Act protections began to expire, and homeowners transitioned to restarting their monthly payments. At the end of 2021, approximately 330,000 homeowners had delinquent loans, their loans were no longer in forbearance, and they had no loss mitigation solution in place. One challenge for borrowers was their inability to reach, or get a timely response from, their mortgage servicer’s call center. Mortgage servicer call centers are vital links between the homeowner and servicer that answer homeowners’ questions, and provide them with information to make important decisions about their loans. The extent of these challenges varied significantly among servicers.
The findings from this report are pulled from key data points – including call center metrics, Covid-19 hardship forbearance exits, delinquency rates, and borrower profiles – all of which provide insights into the performance of mortgage servicers in serving borrowers in need of mortgage repayment assistance (cfpb.gov/).
Key findings from the report include:
- Many borrowers exited Covid-19 hardship forbearance with no loss mitigation solution in place
- Some mortgage servicers significantly lagged industry peers in call center response times
- Data on borrowers’ language preferences remained limited
- Some mortgage servicers relied on systems that could not provide information on key metrics
The CFPB’s continued monitoring and supervision of the mortgage market shows borrowers are still struggling with the after-effects of the pandemic. Also, the CFPB is encouraging mortgage servicers to enhance outreach to borrowers exiting forbearance, and closely monitor data on borrower demographics and outcomes.
NOW MORE THAN EVER, THE MORTGAGE INDUSTRY AND ALL OF ITS COMPONENTS NEED TO LOOK AT OUTSOURCING AS A MEANS TO EFFICIENCY AND OPERATIONAL SUCCESS.
Poised for Growth: Advantages of Property Preservation Outsourcing
Establishing a property preservation company brings with it a multitude of tasks to consider. Understandably the core business requirements, such as property inspections, are addressed first, as, without a strong base, your company won’t be able to flourish as it should. As your business begins to grow and you attract new clients, the contributing work such as data entry and auditing increases too. Of course, this work is essential and requires a lot of attention to ensure complete accuracy and quality, but often other jobs take priority over it.At this stage, it’s advantageous to consider outsourcing these responsibilities to an outsourcing firm. Here, we explore the six main advantages of outsourcing data entry and auditing for property preservation.
1. Cost-effectiveness
To ensure profit margins consistently grow in line with the business growth, outsourcing can aid in your firm’s cost-efficiency considerably. This can be achieved by setting up a team in a location that already has the infrastructure and relevant software to produce the best quality work.
Outsourcing resources remove the requirement of commissioning your dedicated team in your company, outlay for software, office space, and equipment that would have cut into your firm’s budget, leaving less cashflow available for company growth areas. India, for example, is famed for their access to the latest technology and its implementation to current processes, enabling them to continually increase speed and capability in performing multiple tasks.
The utilization of outsourcing firms reduces the amount of money your business spends on permanent or temporary employees, and the benefits & perks you are required to provide. Pensions, annual holidays, sick pay, etc. can build up and impact your budget, in turn, any reduction in outlay will increase the amount of capital you have available to reinvest in your business model.
2. Improved Work Efficiency & Quality Services
It isn’t just the cost-efficiency that benefits from outsourcing; your whole workforce can find themselves operating much more efficiently with the help of an outsourcing team. Data entry and auditing tasks can be a long, draining, and diverting process for your employees, especially when they have lots of other core-business responsibilities that require attention.
Allocating too much time to non-core business responsibilities will ultimately be detrimental to your overall workflow efficiency.
With outsourcing, the accuracy and quality of the work will improve substantially too. A team dedicated solely to data entry and auditing won’t be distracted by any other responsibilities, thus improving the accuracy and quality of the work done. The reputation of your business in terms of quality output can aid you in the acquisition of new clients, primarily when you can provide useful and informative reports to illustrate your work.
Fast, On-time, and Accurate Outsourced Property Preservation Support that helps you Reduce Costs and Process More Orders
3. Excellent Data Management
The meticulous organization of your company’s property preservation data is crucial for various reasons. An organized system enables you to generate quick customized reports, fast analysis of information, and the ability to rapidly export any necessary data instantly. A well-managed database also ensures your firm is doing everything possible to protect the security, and you can provide absolute data protection to your clients while adhering to data protection laws.
The continual updating of a well-maintained data management system is a win-win for your business, which helps all areas of your business. Outsourcing your firm’s data management ensures a dedicated team working continuously on the optimization of your data, providing a logical, indexed system, enabling a seamless method to audit your data.
4. Time Zone Factor & Holiday Schedule
A significant benefit is the extension of your regular working hours. Due to the considerable time difference between India and the US, your business will be growing around the clock.
Offering your clients availability 365 days a year is something that your competitors may not be able to offer, and this extended support will allow you to offer a backup for your workforce. The whole idea around the growth and optimization of business processes is to be better than your competitors, to stand out from the crowd, and to be noticed for the work you are putting in. Extending your availability can go a long way to show that you are a professional business with contingencies in place all over the world.
5. Flexibility To Manage Varied Workloads
Clients and the workload they generate will fluctuate over time, depending on current campaigns, time of the year, and current economic state.
Outsourcing allows you the flexibility to increase or decrease your workforce as you need it. Linking it back to cost-efficiency, only paying the required amount for work will help you remove any unnecessary salaries on your books.
In contrast, firms that keep all their departments together with full-time employees can often struggle with their capability when they have acquired a big client, generating lots of revenue, but also more work requirements. If you have an overseas team on hand to step up their workload at the drop of a hat, you can safely accept all new clients and not worry about your capabilities. Your team will also be experts in estimating the time specific tasks will take, enabling you to provide clients with accurate delivery times.
6. Ongoing Training
Most outsourcing firms will have an in-house training center, enabling them to keep their employees up to speed with all relevant training to best succeed in their role. Your firm will have access to skilled workers that they wouldn’t have been able to utilize in any other way previously.
This is a tremendous benefit to have. Your team is always the most knowledgeable in the field at no extra cost. A team that is consistently reviewing their sector knowledge, and the best processes to follow will be an efficient and crucial asset to you. The value of these outsourced teams will continue to grow and provide your business with more worth, as they mature in their roles with ongoing training. You will benefit from new ideas, the latest research, and an outsourcing team that is used to providing the best quality product for you and your clients.
It is vital that in an industry that is filled with uncertainty and volatility, you will have an outsourced team that works as your extended team, supporting you with the processing of challenging and complex inspection and auditing work. By utilizing an outsourcing team like IMS Datawise, you can put yourself in the best possible position to succeed in your goals.
