the Coronavirus pandemic exposed the fragility of the real estate ecosystem, but there is an opportunity to emerge from this experience with rediscovered transparency and cohesion that will propel the market into a new way of doing business.

To do this, participants in the mortgage transaction will first need to understand how to improve their processes and collaborate more closely. This is where the real estate ecosystem comes in. It’s not just about the title company. Achieving this will require the lending, title, settlement and brokerage communities to come together.

Paradoxically, the upheaval of the pandemic actually pushes the process forward, with the real estate space responding with evolutionary adaptation rather than revolutionary change.

This increased development is more apparent in the remote notarization space, where it appears that new concepts are being offered for review almost on a weekly basis.

Understanding remote notarization

For example, the market now has remote ink notarization (RIN) and online remote notarization (RON).

RIN eliminates the need for in-person signatures and allows the notary and signer to be in different locations. Notaries witness wet signatures using audiovisual technology, then use wet ink to sign their names later, and finally affix their notary seal once the physical documents are received.

With RON, documents are notarized in electronic form. Here, the signer uses an electronic signature, appearing in front of the notary via online audio-video technology. This makes a fully digital RON the holy grail for the mortgage industry‘s transition to fully paperless electronic closings.

The COVID-19 pandemic has intensified the need do more remote online notarizations. As long as we are in this state of affairs, we must continue to push for these advances to take root. Notarial legislation currently remains controlled at the state level.

However, national legislation to change this is currently under review. In March, Sen. Kevin Cramer, RN.D., and Mark Warner, D-Va., Introduced legislation that would allow for the immediate use of RON nationwide in response to the COVID-19 outbreak. Both bills are being examined in committee.

As of this writing, in the 23 states that have adopted the RON statutes, documents that have been signed and notarized remotely and electronically are valid and binding. That is to say, provided that the notary is in the state of execution for the applicable part.

These states include Arizona, Florida, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington and Wisconsin. . On March 5, 2020, Wisconsin enacted the revised Uniform Deeds Act, becoming the 23rd state to allow notaries to perform online notarizations remotely.

Although only 23 states have passed legislation, almost all state legislatures have submitted a RON bill for consideration. Even though federal legislation allowing RON in all 50 states is passed tomorrow, people, including many county recorders, are unprepared for it. Many notaries lack training in its use and many states would suddenly have to upgrade to using remote notarization technology. The local communities that govern these things will also need to be cooperative.

The good news is that the pandemic is pushing these issues to the fore, with startups developing the ability to perform RON transactions through electronic notarizations.

Engage the community of lenders

Within the lending community, however, and particularly in large banks, the different customer needs and complex implementation requirements make this type of change relatively difficult. These are the big non-banking players, companies like Accelerate and LoanDepot, which stand a better chance of leading the way in these important innovations. Once they pass the ball over the goal line, the others will be forced to follow.

Quicken is currently the largest non-bank mortgage lender in the world, and it will likely stay there. The institution is capitalizing on several upheavals in the mortgage market, such as questions about the direction of federal bailouts, erratic liquidity in the wholesale market and the inability of others to scale during the disruption caused by the pandemic.

Creation of a virtual trading room

This pandemic is also forcing consumers to become more adept at using online conferencing technology communicate. We, at all levels, are increasingly comfortable with tools like Zoom, Skype, and Microsoft Teams, and now is the time for these effective resources to become permanent.

These tools will make a difference in the effectiveness and efficiency of our businesses in communicating with consumers. By making this part of our lives, it will be easier for our industry to empower people who want transparency without having to touch a lot of doorknobs, shake a lot of hands and kiss each other.

Williston Financial Group has a product called My house that allows the integral parts of a door-to-door sale to enter this digital bubble. It functions as a virtual data room in which the lender, realtor, broker and consumer can gather, share information and collaborate to move the transaction forward.

MyHome can be used to review transaction status, sign documents, and load reviews and inspections, making transactions more efficient and less stressful. In doing so, we eliminate the anxiety that consumers can experience when a lack of communication slows down the whole process.

Maintaining social distancing

What we do know is that social distancing is essential in people’s minds. Even if we get back to normal, progress in this area will depend on the volume of buyers in a market. The bottom line is that social distancing has become a big goal in our lives, and agents, brokers, and lenders are going to have to figure out how to make it work.

Technology will play a huge role in the future. It ranges from the home search process to opening and digitally managing the escrow process in a secure and efficient manner. Additionally, individual privacy and security protocols must be locked down for these changes to be successful, as the more technology we use, the greater the risk for cyber fraud and wire transfer fraud.

It is essential that real estate agents are made aware of the growing threat of cybersecurity risks, from phishing scams to identity theft and ransomware attacks. To help, WFG is now extending the use of WESTprotect, a fraud detection service originally created to assist title agents, to the real estate community.

The only way RON will be accepted is to prove the validity of the digital verification process. COVID-19 proves that we are all connected from a market risk perspective. Now we have to prove that we can meet the challenge together. Even though we stand six feet apart.

Steve Ozonian is the President and CEO of the Williston Financial Group, a Golden Gate Capital holding company.