Celebrating mortgage success with our new ROI study

At Blend, we constantly seek to better understand how we can help our customers. To gain deeper insight into how we’re performing, we engaged MarketWise Advisors to conduct an in-depth customer survey.1 The results were compelling.

The total potential ROI for a Blend customer who responded to the survey is 10.3x, meaning that were a lender to turn all features studied in the survey on, they could potentially get back over $10 for every dollar they invest in Blend. That equates to a potential savings of $824 per loan.

Reducing the cost of loan origination

The survey found that one of the key ways Blend has aided financial institutions is in reducing the cost of loan origination. By developing features that streamline the mortgage process, Blend has enabled loan officers, processors, and underwriters to do what they do best — only more efficiently.

Taken broadly, there are four main areas of improvement for survey respondents: digital application experience, document verification, follow-ups, and borrower communication. The survey showed Blend Mortgage saved significant time at each step for those lenders who responded.

Hedge cost savings

Blend’s technology also contributed to a significant reduction in loan cycle times, which reduces hedge costs. Blend customers reported in the survey that they saw an average of 7.3 days cut from the loan cycle. We further asked survey respondents where the time savings were found:

• App submit to processing (average of 2.5 days saved)
• Processing to underwriting (average of 2.2 days)
• Underwriting to clear to close (average of 2.6 days)

Key features, ranging from asset connectivity — enabling borrowers to connect accounts and reducing the need for processors to go back and forth with the borrower — to automated requests for letters of explanation, provide additive benefits that can lead to larger time savings.

Managing changing loan volume

One of the most interesting findings of this survey was the impact Blend had for lenders who were dealing with the refinance boom of 2020.

As lenders rushed to manage the spike in refinance applications, many rushed to scale up operations to handle the volume. Blend customers who responded to our survey found that while their volume increased on average 54%, they needed only an average of 27% more staff to meet that need.

Blend was also able to assist our customers in dealing with the unprecedented volume of the 2020 refi boom by building features that spoke directly to their pain points. These included helping our customers solve for top-of-funnel volume issues by enabling pre-application rate shopping and auto-decisioning features that helped reduce the number of applications that required manual review.

Tying it all together

Blend customers who participated in the survey saw a powerful return on investment in 2020 fueled by efficiencies gained throughout the origination process. All told, survey respondents said that Blend accounted for 10.3x potential ROI for an average of $824 per loan. The survey found that by reducing the amount of time needed to complete steps in the process by nearly 12 hours and helping lenders reduce cycle times by over a week, Blend empowered lenders to reduce both the labor and hedge costs involved in originating a loan, improving business efficiency and cost-effectiveness.

Moreover, in addition to the cost savings, the survey found that Blend customers were able to handle significantly higher loan volumes while hiring fewer additional staff, which generated incremental revenue. This increased efficiency is important not just in booms, but also in improving profitability when margins tighten.

And these savings represent only a fraction of the ROI Blend customers can look to enjoy. Blend is continually improving and expanding upon the platform’s functionality.

¹The results of this survey are based on an independent study performed by Marketwise. All data in this report was obtained from customers who used Blend Mortgage as part of their origination process. Individual results may vary.

All data, reports and analytics are provided for informational purposes only. Individual results will vary. Both MarketWise Advisors, LLC and Blend Labs disclaim any liability and provide no warranty or representations as to performance or accuracy of the data.