New XSite features released today! Digital signatures, Spanish 1003 and more

Back in November we announced a partnership with Wave Systems that would bring digital signature technology to our customers. Many of you may be thinking that digital signatures – or e-signatures as they're often called – are something that only the "big guys" like WaMu or Countrywide use and it will take years for the concept to trickle down to small businesses like yours.

That's not so anymore. In fact, you'll be receiving the digital signing capability as one of several new features added to your XSite today.

One of the biggest advantages to using legally-binding and standards-compliant digital signature is that they will make it easy to stay compliant with federal mortgage laws. For example, you'll be able to get documents, like credit authorization forms, signed at the time buyers submit their loan application, instead of waiting for them to fax it over or spending money on courier services. Then as your client moves through the rest of the loan process, you'll simply save the documents that need to be signed in the client's online loan folder and shoot out a status update letting the client know loan documents are ready to be signed.

Why the push towards digital signatures? As many industry analysts will tell you, the adoption of e-signatures is the vital step towards a completely online – and hence, paperless – mortgage and real estate transaction. And from our point of view, it is a quintessential component to our business objective of creating technology to help you run your businesses better. We want to lead, not follow, the industry in adopting technology that will streamline the real estate transaction from start to finish.

"Now, thousands of small businesses and even more working professionals have this capability, which will greatly enhance adoption. And when the cost and efficiency benefits are realized by our XSites Network users and their customers, customers will demand nothing less," Scott Kinnaird, our Chief Strategy Officer, explained.

To make your XSite "digital signature ready," you'll need to obtain a digital certificate. The Digital Signature Wizard in your my Office area will walk you through the process. And as always, if you have any questions, you can call the tech lines any time, 24 X 7. We're happy to help any time, day or night.

Reach the Hispanic market
Hispanics are the fastest growing minority group in the U.S. and are expected to account for as much as 40 percent of all new homeowners over the next 20 years. And, since Spanish is the first language in about one in every 10 households, we've been working on ways to make it easier for you to attract these potential clients with bilingual loan information and services.

Today we released a Spanish version of our FlexApp 1003 for your Mortgage XSite. This new service, paired with the more than 60 pre-built content pages available in Spanish, will allow you to better market your services to the Hispanic homebuyer market.

The new online Spanish FlexApp has a sophisticated Flash-engine just like the English version, which prompts prospects for relevant information as they go through the loan application. The Spanish FlexApp also automatically saves data as it's entered, so prospects have the option of starting their application and either finishing it or coming back to it hours or even days later.

We're also making some behind-the-scenes changes that'll make both 1003s (English and Spanish) faster than ever before. To add a Spanish FlexApp, go to the My Content section of your XSites Wizard and enable Spanish content.

Manage more users
Now it's easy for your LOs to market and manage loans from your Mortgage XSite. Assign loan apps to specific LOs. Then when loans and leads come in, your LOs can log into their own area of your XSite to manage the loan process. And you can easily reassign loans to another LO. No more lost leads when LOs are out. Look for the new multi-user management feature in the My Office area of your XSite.

While other website providers charge extra or take forever to update their features, we're constantly updating and improving your XSite throughout the year. Enjoy your new features.

To learn more about how to use these or any or your XSite's features, click Help in the upper right hand corner of your XSite's admin area. For a full list of features updates, click on Release History in the My Office area of your XSite. And as always, please feel free to give us your feedback by e-mailing us at info@alamode.com.