Paperless eMortgages: Where is Al Gore?

You may have heard of paperless mortgages. You can fill out and sign your loan application and disclosures online. Provide PDF copies of W2's, tax returns, bank statements and proof of insurance. You can even sign the loan closing documents online using eSign technology.

While the paperless process most defiantly can speed up the loan process, in particular the loan closing time which can be cut to as little as 10 min, the real benefit is in cost and environmental savings. So where is our environmental champion Al Gore?

It is estimated that the average mortgage loan generates over 500 pieces of paper. If you have ever completed a real estate transaction you have surely reviewed and signed a mountain of paper...and that mountain of closing documents is only a portion of the documents generated and filed in the average mortgage transaction.

Try this academic exercise:

• As a rule of thumb an acre of forested land may yield an average of 10-15 cords of wood when harvested at maturity.
• A cord of wood is approximately 8 feet wide, 4 feet deep, and 4 feet high. A cord of air-dried, dense hardwood (oak, hickory, etc.) weighs roughly 2 tons, about 15-20 percent of which is water.
• A 500-sheet ream of 20-pound bond paper weighs 5 pounds.
• There are over 14 Million loan transactions per year...representing over 7 Billion pieces of paper!

It has been estimated that one cord of this wood will yield one of these approximate quantities of products:
• 1,000-2,000 pounds of paper (depending on the process)
• 942 100-page, hard-cover books
• 61,370 No. 10 business envelopes
• 4,384,000 commemorative-sized postage stamps
• 460,000 personal checks
• 1,200 copies of National Geographic
• 2,700 copies of an average daily newspaper

Additionally, an 1,800 square foot home requires about 10,000 board feet of lumber (roughly equal to about 20 cords of wood)

So, what effect would a paperless eMortgage mandate have?

1. You could save 7,000 acres of forested land.
2. You could provide 65,940,000 100 page hard cover text books for the nations school children.
3. You could provide the lumber for 3,500 low income 1,800 sq. feet homes.

Maybe Al Gore is more interested in the melting ice caps than the nations forests and mortgages. But, you can request that your mortgage broker or real estate agent provide you with a paperless transaction.

You can follow this link (www.closingprime.com/videos/stewartmers.avi) to view a great video on the paperless process. Note: The video is about 10 min. long and depending on your Internet connection speed it may take 3-5 min. to load, so be patient.