loanDepot has committed millions of dollars to technology to do two things. One, to reduce the cost of making a mortgage happen, by reducing the cost to make a mortgage manufactured and delivered will increase our pricing power at the front end of the transaction, which will give our loan officers much more aggressive opportunity to compete for price. But Number Two, and probably most importantly, this was an opportunity for the consumer to have a better customer experience, to relieve the anxiety of whether their loan is approved or not approved. To go through the appraisal process, the underwriting process, and somewhere down the road two or three weeks, find out their loan has been approved. The difference with mello smartloan™ is that we have built the technology upfront; from the very beginning of our transaction in the mello smartloan we can remove all anxiety from the borrower regarding close. We also can close fast. Now does that mean that they have to move in eight days? No. it basically gives optionality to the customer, which is what we’re looking for. If you need to close quickly, we can. If you need to close in 45 days, I’ve saved you almost 35 days of anxiety because your loan is approved you can start the machinations of moving, which we all know is a lot of fun and work on that, and not worry about whether or not you’re going to qualify to buy this house. I know for our homebuilders, our realtors, and our consumers, all three of those customers want that kind of assurance as quickly as possible in the process. If you’re building a new home for someone, you want to know they can afford it, you want to know that they’re going to close on that home, you want their rate guaranteed, and you want their approvals as quickly as possible. So mello smartloan is not just another marketing term; it is actually a technology that is going to have to be developed and it’s going to take a while for the industry to have the time, energy, and they may not even have the resources to do it in that timeframe. We’re very fortunate that we were committed to that early on, made this decision early on, and created a product that’s going to benefit our retail originators all the way through the process and long term in our industry.

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