Survey: Most Borrowers Satisfied With Closing Process During COVID
October 22, 2020
Most borrowers were satisfied with their closings (90 percent) during the COVID-19 pandemic even though most of the transactions involved e-signing and remote closings, according to a survey conducted by ClosingCorp.
The survey, conducted in early September, interviewed more than 690 borrowers who had purchased or refinanced a home since March 15. Approximately 15 percent of the respondents were homebuyers, 79 percent were refinance customers and 6 percent were both. Among the homebuyers, just over a third were first-time buyers.
“As we’ve seen throughout 2020, this crisis is accelerating adoption and acceptance of e-transactions, and when things return to normal, e-signing and e-closings will be the new normal and consumers will like it better,” said Bob Jennings, ClosingCorp’s chief executive officer.
Additionally, the vast majority of borrowers said their closings were efficient (95 percent).
More than half of all borrowers (55%) said their closings were conducted remotely, and not in traditional locations, such as a title company or lender’s office. The survey did not denote whether closings were conducted using remote online notarization or some digital closing variation such as remote ink-signed notarization.
According to the survey, going forward, 82 percent said they preferred e-signing documents prior to closing and more than two-thirds of borrowers said that in the future they would prefer remote closings over in-person. The borrowers who were less comfortable with remote closings, tended to be older (55+).
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