Rocket Mortgage’s HOI verification tool now available to other lenders

The sister company to Rocket Mortgage, Nexsys Technologies, this week released Clear HOI — an encrypted, cloud-based product for lenders to automate homeowners insurance underwriting — to the broader lending market. Rocket has been using and refining the technology with Nexsys over the past year.

The automation software aims to cut down on the time spent on verifying homeowners insurance to minutes, confirming it in real time, using multiple authentications. Once authorized, borrower information doesn’t get saved, eliminating the possibility of data breaches, Mike Lyon, executive vice president of Nexsys Technologies, told National Mortgage News.

Verifying homeowners insurance is traditionally seen as one of the least efficient manual processes of underwriting a loan. As it stands, lenders go back and forth with borrowers to confirm and produce proof of the mortgage insurance they have in place. Then they contact the carrier to get the declarations page and any other relevant data.

“Sometimes that information comes in hours, but often it takes much longer. Once the information is received, the manual input of client data could lead to errors and potential disbursement delays,” Lyon said. “For these reasons, there is not a consistent timeline for getting accurate homeowners insurance information to originate a loan. It can range from 10 minutes to 10 to 15 days.”

By contrast, Nexsys’ technology connects directly with insurers to pull and verify borrower information. Insurers currently on the platform include Allstate, Farmers Insurance, Lemonade and Liberty Mutual.

Lenders have the option of integrating Clear HOI into their loan origination system through an application programming interface or using Nexsys’ portal. Pricing is based on lender need, with discounted rates available for integrations and volume.

“While there are existing HOI verification tools in the market, nearly all of these tools have focused on the servicing component of the lending lifecycle,” Lyon said. “Rather than having to work with thousands of different players in the insurance market, Clear HOI serves as a digital accelerator to create a single, standardized touchpoint for lenders.”

Nexsys’ suite of products also contains Clear Sign for electronic closings and Clear Path for closing document assembly and accessibility.

Rocket Cos. COO Bob Walters recently stated that the company is looking to streamline the digital origination process to the point at which it takesonly 24 hoursto close a mortgage loan. The company has gone through a year of big change, going public in August and rebranding Quicken Loans Mortgage Services as Rocket Pro TPO in September. Rocket came off a strong third quarter for origination volume while its gains on sales shrunk, as expected.

“The next step in improving the process is doing more with the data we have and making it easier to get the data we need,” Heather Lovier, Rocket Mortgage’s executive vice president of client experience operations, said in a press release. “Clear HOI has made what used to be a time intensive step an instant one. It’s a critical new tool that helps us provide the best experience to our clients.”