Computerization Seen for Home Mortgages

Computerization of the home mortgage loan industry is inevitable, members of the California Mortgage Bankers Assn. have been told by Sigmund Anderman, chairman and chief executive officer of CompuFund Inc., based in Dublin, Calif.

Lenders’ competition for borrowers can cause lower interest rates, an important benefit to consumers, he said. “After all, a one-quarter of 1% reduction in the interest rate of a 30-year fixed-rate loan can mean more than $7,000 to the home buyer over the life of the loan,” he said.

“Computerized loan networks enable realtors to access a veritable ‘shopping center’ of home mortgages by merely pressing a few buttons on an office computer, a much more efficient and timely process than depending upon traditional lender rate sheets.”

Lenders are joining networks such as CompuFund, he said, because they can move into new markets without the capital expenditure for new branches and “probably most important of all, they are finding that they can delegate the drudgery tasks of loan processing to a computer and focus employee efforts on decision making.”