How First Continental Mortgage, Ltd. Slashed Verification Costs by 80%

Hello everybody!

Hello, what's up?

Gonna give it, gonna give it another minute so people can join us. 2 o'clock on the dot, we are very punctual here.

All right.

2:01. I will get it going. Hello everybody. My name is Melissa. I'm the senior field marketing manager here at Troove. Before we dive into today's webinar, quick housekeeping items. We are recording the session. So if any point you need to leave, no worries. You'll receive the recording as well as the case study in your inbox tomorrow at some point. And if any of your colleagues couldn't join, feel free to share the recording as well. Today's webinar will be very conversational, but we have reserved the last 10 minutes as a Q&A. So down below on the little bar, you can see a Q&A session. If you have any questions that come up, feel free to submit them at any point. No need to wait till the end. We'll kind of get to them as they come. So with that, I'm going to hand it over to Chris Truves, Head of Lending.

Good afternoon, everybody. Excited to be here. Quick introductions. As Melissa mentioned, Chris Calcasola, Head of Lending here at Truves. Been in the industry for just under a decade. Really excited about this opportunity to meet with Jessica and discuss, you know, you know, what Troove's doing for her and her company, as well as her learnings, as well as maybe some failures. So really excited about that. Want to keep it very real. With me, I have Jacob. Jacob, I'll let you introduce yourself.

Yeah, sounds great. So I'm a senior CSM here at Troove. I work the partnership with Jessica. So my goal here is really just to do all the trainings, make sure we're aligned on goals, you know, next steps moving forward in our partnership, everything like that. Any product releases, feature updates, we work together. Get that rolled out. That's my role.

And the star of the show, Jessica, Chief Operational Officer at First Continental Mortgage. Jess, I will want to say hi. I know, uh, you're shy of the camera, so we really truly appreciate you doing this and, and furthermore, the partnership that you provide with Troop. It's, uh, it's a wonderful thing.

That's awesome. Thank you. Excited to be here.

Excellent. So we're gonna keep this very conversational. I know webinars can tend to be tedious. People lose, you know, momentum roughly half an hour in. So we want to keep it real. We want to make it informational, and that's what we're going to try to accomplish today. So again, Jessica, appreciate the time. I know you're really busy, but Again, appreciate the partnership as well. So let's get into it. First and foremost, a little bit about yourself before we just dive into it. I know you don't like to talk about yourself, but I think it is important for the audience to understand who you are and kind of where you're coming from. Your resume is wonderful.

So that's very kind of you. So I am the COO of First Continental Mortgage. I was actually just recently promoted into this position this year. So thank you. Very exciting. I've been in the industry only about 17 years. My dad's a loan officer. I mean, it's just kind of all I've ever known. Before coming to First Continental, which I've been there about a year and a half, I worked with Gateway Mortgage for about 8 years and previous to that, USAA for about another 8 or so. So my whole world was retail and I got this opportunity to come over to First Continental, which was it's a little bit different than anything I've ever been, um, and so I'm totally excited for it.

You know what I love? I, I was with you last week at an offsite, and the exact— what you just described was the exact same thing that you told me. So love that about you, authentic. Uh, couldn't appreciate that more. So let's dive into it. You've been with Troove for not— I mean, not too long, but the partnership has been substantial in regards to being able to see some ROI and things of like that, things of that nature. And I hate to use the word ROI because everyone says ROI. Um, we'll get into that a little bit, uh, later. But what led you originally to the partnership with Troove?

So if I'm being honest, I don't fully remember. It was my COO at the time had brought me in on the phone call because I was starting to, obviously we kind of knew she was going to retire. And so I was starting to transition into, you know, having the partnerships with the vendors and so forth. And I want to say, I think it was probably through LendersOne. And so she brought me on the call. It was the first one. It was with Alan and Truby introduced it. And honestly, it was kind of just like, love at first sight kind of thing. Like the relationship was just there. We just connected. I understood like what the product was right away and I was just like really excited about it because the work number was just draining us a lot. Like it was insane for our size of a company. When I pulled the numbers to see what we actually did in 2024, I was like, mm, how hard is that? And so that kind of is what started. So I mean, it just— they all introduced the product. Alan and I would have the conversations. I presented it to my CEO. I did a demo and so forth and showed him like how easy it was. And I mean, honestly, within a matter of weeks, we got everything signed and started.

Awesome. Yeah. No, makes, makes total sense. What was so prior to Truve? And I know, what was your verification process like at First Continent? What was it like?

It's still a little bit of a thing. We're still working on it, but it's unlike anything I had seen before. So I was very used to, I mean, where I came from previously, the processors have the work number and that was it. And otherwise you did a manual verification. Here, I'm gonna say it was at least 4 or 5 different platforms that the processors had access to. And actually at the time it was that they weren't allowed to do emails, like they couldn't call and confirm, they couldn't. And so I was just like, well, why wouldn't we allow that? You know, just 'cause this one thing happened years and years ago. And so we had a conversation about that and it just honestly was a mess. There would be multiple different verifications, you know, maybe Underwriting didn't like the way this looked or this didn't come through like this. Or, you know, I've heard processors say when they're in a crunch, well, I just ordered from all of them to see which one first came back. And I like dropped off my chair. So it was just, it was just mania. I mean, it was just whatever, wild, wild west, whatever they could get, they would have.

Oh, makes sense. And I know just talking to so many prospects and customers alike, you're not alone. It's pretty much the consistent sentiment amongst, amongst the industry. So with what you just said and kind of how it was, what does it look like today?

So we're still working on that, honestly, just because also our model is different, but We have slowly been able to turn things over. And I think one of the biggest things, if I'm being honest, is that it's— we've placed it in Encino, right? So now the borrower— and I mean, we've seen a huge uptick in that. And it was also getting my LOs buy-in. And so I kind of had to make some deals with them, like, let's just wait and see if the borrower connects. And if they do at the application, Awesome. Then you have it. If you don't, then you can take that next step in the waterfall and you can do the work number. And I've even tried to start making some deals with them on how we can do that. And, you know, like I said, part of that was getting their buy-in. And the truth is, I don't necessarily have the clout that I did before, like at Gateway where I'd been there forever and my LOs, whatever I said they would do, you know, so they were still trusting me. And so that, that took some time. And so that's kind of where it's led us today. And, you know, it's still evolving. We're going to now place in the automation of the, the 10-day VOE to be automated. So we're going to do that later this week. So it's still evolving, but it definitely looks much better than it did before. And we've already taken one of the options. And—

Totally get it. And I, and I love the fact that, you know, you kind of, you learn from, you don't know what you don't know, right? I mean, that's just life, whether it's professionally or, or just, you know, everyday life. It's, but putting it top of the waterfall, and I know we spoke about that when we were together last week at a, at a conference, it just makes it that much easier. And Education, I think, too, right? And we were talking about being able to educate your loan officers, A, to build that trust, but as well as to educate their borrowers, their clientele on, hey, here's what's happening, here's what's going to— you're going to see a link or however they want to position it. It's okay. This is going to help streamline the process. With that being said, I'm going to bring in Jacob here. And Jacob, in just kind of working with Jessica and the team on how we— how to position the product advantageously for both— and I don't— I want to take TruVive out of this— for First Continental as well as their borrowers, it's crucial to us because if they don't succeed, obviously we don't. So how do you work with Jessica and team to make sure that she's, you know, you're her consultative expert. I mean, at the end of the day, right? I mean, that's what we're doing here. So how do you position that and work with the team to make sure it's fluid?

Yeah, definitely. Thanks, Chris. So currently we meet weekly to discuss metrics, really any ongoing reporting for the team over the different products that they're utilizing, any open items or new product features we connect we work together to plan a training. So recently we had the VOA rollout in the fall. This is kind of how we helped them achieve that 85%, I think it was, VOA login success rate. You know, we create different guides. I asked Jessica, hey, what do you need? What works best for your team? Once I know what works best for them, we're able to, you know, I guess you could say customize the training for them to make sure that that rollout is successful. We do that with any product feature that comes out. And, you know, we stay connected weekly, like I mentioned. So That's really just what has been super successful for us so far.

Love it. And again, I don't want to— I don't want to speak for Jessica, but people are key. At the end of the day, people do business with people they like, and that's continuous, whether things are going so well or things are not going well, and being able to have that ability to communicate with the team if things are not where they should be. And Jessica is always the person to let us know if things aren't going well. But Jessica, would you say from, you know, there's always hiccups, right? Nothing is what they seem. I mean, we're all human. We do the best we can. If issues do arise, or I don't even want to call them issues, but things that may be out of the ordinary, you reach out to our team. How does that look like from your point of view?

Well, I mean, like Jacob said, we have our weekly calls. Um, you know, he lets me know if I see anything. And there are times, you know, I'm not always checking the dashboard. Like, I mean, I don't want to be that person, but I am really busy and there is other stuff that comes up. Uh, and so sometimes he'll be like, hey, we might have seen a dip in this, let's double-check something. So it could just be sometimes that I might have pressed something, you know, I wasn't supposed to. But otherwise, it's, you know, when I give them the feedback to things like that, I've noticed them like, oh, you know what, we were going to do this and I realized this isn't really going to work so well for us. So it's really like you said, it's the relationship. It's just I've always prided myself on relationships. That's what's always been most important to me. So like I said, it was that when I met with the sales team before Jacob, the CSM, you know, it was okay, but I definitely was finding myself more frustrated and maybe things weren't always happening. And once Jacob came aboard, definitely saw a difference in that. And then honestly, probably the key thing I've noticed, if I've ever been really frustrated about something, is I go to the sales team. And not that Jacob wouldn't get it done, but I just being on with loan officers, I've just always known if I want something done, I'm I go to the sales team and they'll get it done.

Yeah, I mean, partnership. At the end of the day, it's a partnership. Customer success team, sales team, we're all, we're all in it together. Executive team. So that's always great to hear. Implementation, always a fun word, especially in the mortgage space with so many different vendors out there and so many different timelines. You don't know what you don't know, and that's totally great, but I would like you even to talk about that. But what did the implementation look like when you first started and maybe kind of recalibrating in what it is today? And just talk to me about what that process looks like because everyone— implementations, you know, it's always— it's easy, it's fine, it's great. It's But in reality, we all know there's a lot of work that goes into it from both sides.

So we implemented it like almost exactly a year ago, and I actually remember being at the ICE conference and we had just launched it and I was at dinner with True and another partner that y'all had that had just come on. She was talking about like testing it for a whole year and I was like, I I swear I was just like, it's a Neo product, like you don't need to test anything. And I was so smug about it and I ate my words because I realized it was definitely more difficult than I thought, right? It was also my first time in this role too. So I, I definitely would've done a lot of things differently. So the rollout was okay, the training was okay. You know, we did a couple of different— I think we did like 3 trainings and we rolled it out and that was when it was manual through Compass and so forth. And so that made it a little tougher because it just— the processors weren't used to it. And so it took time. And then once it was in Encino, that still took some time. So then I want to say it was maybe June, we took a step back and I pulled it back and we started with 2 of my JVs and we piloted it and we did that for about a month or two so that we could give the real hard feedback of what was working, what wasn't working. And then once we were ready, then I went over with Jacob, like what I really thought was important. So going over this, this, and then I really said, I want us to focus on the dashboard for the processors so that they know to look like, here's a timeline, here's if there's an MFA, all these things, because They're moving so fast they don't think, and then they're coming in asking your support team and they don't need to. It's right here. So, you know, we really did that and then it still took a little bit of time. And that was honestly just some stuff with our JVs. But honestly, once we finally got it rolling, I mean, I can't— the conversion rate was huge. I mean, the amount of orders— I think we just had our biggest month last month. We had like 300 and 90 completed orders, which was huge considering we did 338 loans last month. So I mean, so it's definitely just getting better and better and it's getting easier. And obviously, like I tell my team, just like AI, the more you use it, the more you'll know. And I say if there's something come up, go to the TRUV team, like go to the support team. They respond so quickly and like tell them, they'll, they'll help fix it, or they don't know what they don't know, like you said. So That's kind of what it looked like. So, you know, we kind of had to step back and like I said, I definitely was like, hmm, next time on some products, I know to pilot them before we just roll it out to the whole corporate.

Awesome. And I kind of cannibalized myself with that question to my next question, but I'll throw it out there and simplify it. But it was really what contributed to your new process and technology becoming successful. And you really, you just touched on that. But we talked about this actually ad nauseam. There's always a resistance with your loan officers and you touched on this earlier because trust, maybe even being new to the company or the position and you're trying to put them in a position to win. Is there anything that you did that the TruV team might have did that really help alleviate some of that friction and without kind of repeating what we talked about. And I'm sorry if that was a little bit convoluted, but—

No, I think it was once they gave it a chance. And like I said, I think it just took all of us going through a little bit of some pain points. Yeah. And I mean, at the end of the day, we've talked about, right, like there's a reason the work number works, right? It's just, it's fast, it's easy, nobody has to log into anything. So, but boots so expensive, and you usually have to order at least twice if not more. Um, so it's just crazy, that amount. So like I said, I was just trying to get my LOs to buy in and to see like, this will work. Like, I'm not saying it's going to be 100% of our business, like that was never the plan, but it was to alleviate like 40 to 60%, and so that we could then take that savings and put that towards other technology that we really need that will also make their life better. So it was, you know, like I said, it's just slowly opening their eyes and realizing I'm not really fully moving their cheese, just, just shifting a little bit, just changing the flavor, and then it will still be good and it will still work. Love it.

And, and again, I mean, we're just having such a great conversation that a lot of these questions are just kind of coming into, uh, into fruition, if you will, but We, you know, we talked about your initial onboarding with TruVive. You talked about your success with Jacob, and you talked about your sales team being able to reach out. I hate to use the word— how has TruVive been a partner along the way? And you kind of already articulated that outline, but I hate using the word vendor. I don't want to be a vendor. I want to be a partner. Partner, right? And I know talking to you, you don't want a vendor, you want a partner, someone you can talk with, laugh with, yell at when needed. Um, and that's okay, and that's what we do.

Yell at you?

No, you can just yell at me, and that's, that's totally fine.

I do yell.

Yep, and that's why I'm here. But, um, just kind of on that partnership, what's, you know, what's your approach of, you know, and you can, you can put Troove in this or just in general what that partnership means to someone like yourself as a COO at First Continental.

Like I said, it's the relationship. It's just like, is this gonna be weird and awkward? Do we connect? Do we not? Like, there have been other vendors I've met where, like, when we're sitting, meeting, doing the demo, and like their team has no chemistry and there's no connection and I feel friction, then I'm like, well, if I feel y'all's friction, I don't wanna work with y'all. I never have felt that with you guys. And like I said, I feel like it's been very organic. It's like I— Jacob and I met and it was like we bonded and like just are pals now. And I look forward to our calls because even if I like am in the worst mood, Jacob's going to put me in a better mood. And whenever I go to see y'all at the conferences or whatnot, like I smile, I get excited. I just feel like we all kind of have a friendship. And that's honestly part of what I look for in a partnership. I mean, I've told Jacob this, I think I told you this, like I told Easton this, like what I'm looking for in a partnership with these groups is that I want y'all to come to me and tell me how I can use your product better. And that's what I found has lacked since I took over this position and so forth with other partnerships and vendors, right? It's— I'm always like, well, how can I use your product better? Like, clearly we're not doing something. Like, what are we missing? And they just stare at me as if I'm crazy. And I'm like, I— this is your product, tell me. So, you know, that's like Jacob's always telling me, like, maybe what we could do better or suggestions. And like I said, the roadmap and so forth. And that's what I'm looking for, because the minute that partnership is not bringing value to First Continental, then it's probably not going to work. And so, you know, I've made that really clear with a lot of people, um, because I'm looking to help make our company better and grow even faster than are right now. So that's— I'm looking for just truly a relationship and partnership.

So good to hear, because what, what I'm preaching, at least from the lending side and sales, is a very consultative type of sell where we're not trying to sell you. We're trying to— if it works, it works. If it doesn't, that's okay too. And we want to make it work. We want to be transparent. Then we bring in our professionals like Jacob And he makes sure that what we're selling and what we're discussing actually comes to that fruition and gives you the success you need. Because technology, I mean, you strike out, it sets you back, right? Because you dedicate your time, your resources to do the demos, the conversations. And so if you're not feeling like what you were just speaking about, We're just wasting time.

There's that. And I think, you know, others, I think when I say others, I mean all of you guys have also heard some of the things like, you know, I have valuable feedback to give to help make the product better. And I wanted to do that. And so, you know, y'all put me in touch with your product manager. And so I sat there and I gave ideas on what I thought, you know, before the BOA fully rolled out and whether or not I was the one that came up with those ideas. But like seeing it there was really cool. So even being a part of that and still meeting with him from time to time and, and others, like that's just a really cool thing to be a part of, to be a part, you know, be a part of the team besides just the product. So, and that hopefully then that will go help somebody else. Like I said, I fully admit that like I didn't do it right, I did it wrong. And, you know, we had to redo it, which is It's fine, you know, it's what makes anybody better. Um, and so I tell that to people truthfully. I'm like, Kyle, like, it's, you know, it's a little harder than you think. Um, and you just got to have that conversation with your people and just, just let you know.

Like you said, you don't, you, you don't know what you don't know, right? And, uh, so no, that's good. Um, so Obviously, the underlying issue in our industry on the lending space, specifically in the mortgage side, is how do we manufacture loans for a cheaper price, streamline that process, as well as give a borrower the best experience possible? I know the verification space is a little snippet of that. What is— what's your concerns with the entire loan process? And what does that look like for you all at FCM?

It's a tough one.

I mean, yeah, I know it was a big one.

Well, I brought this up actually at the LendersOne conference the other day. The borrower profile is not getting any easier and I don't think it ever will. It's only continuing to get harder. And honestly, I thought I had seen all the hard loans I'd ever seen. And now there's stuff that I'm like, I've never— We're like, nobody has. So it's just, it's hard. And so I actually think that that's where the importance of the verification process comes in. I mean, if the borrower connects and that's what we're trying to teach our loan officers to continue to talk about is, well, then they don't have to provide pay stubs, they don't have to provide W-2s, they don't have to provide an updated pay stub. Like, we can grab all that. Same with the BOA. We can update all those things. And that tends to actually be a huge portion of what borrowers have to provide. Oddly enough, you'd be surprised how they never find their W-2s. They can't find it. They can't remember. I don't know where to find my pay stub on my, you know, account. So it's hard. And in our world, in the joint venture world, some of these, they have to close in like 10 to 15 days, which is a lot like retail, honestly. And then we have some that, you know, are to be built and they can take 8 to 9 months. And so it just, you know, obviously the 8 to 9 months ones are a little bit better and easier to pipeline manage, but the quicker ones— and I mean, the builder world, you don't get to push a close date back, like, ever, ever. So the importance of getting those items, like, upfront and quickly and knowing that they're correct and that we have them is valuable time. And like I said, I think especially now once we put this automation of the 10-day verification I think my processors will be really excited. It's one less, you know, a few less clicks they have to do. And those clicks all save time. Awesome.

Jessica, thank you. One last question and then we'll open it up for other questions. But Fannie and Freddie approvals are crucial. You know that for pretty much all lenders, actually. With TrueView, a fully integrated product suite that is Fannie/Freddie certified. Utilizing our products for the VOIE, VOA. Have you seen improvements with the GSE validation rates and things of that nature?

Yeah, at first it was a little bit of a struggle, and but once we got some of the integrations going, especially like the employer name override, because that seems to be one that I'm not sure why the LOAs and processors— I mean, it reads right there. Employer name does not match BOIE. And I'm like, like, guys. And so once, especially that one, we saw a huge one. But especially with it in Encino, I want to say it's gone up like 8 to 10%. So, and like, D1C is very important here. I mean, our underwriters, they live and breathe by it. If it somehow disappears, they are freaking out and the whole world is notified to get it back. So we're It's really important. We love if we can get the single source validation even better, but it's big. So we're not a huge Freddie shop, which Freddie yelled at me the other day, so we're going to have a call with them. But with Fannie, I mean, we definitely have seen an improvement. Like I said, it's just reading that really unless the borrower hasn't been there for, I want to say it's a year that you don't usually get it. We've been getting it on every other one. So it's been a huge lift.

Appreciate that. And more importantly, appreciate you. Appreciate the partnership. Jacob, appreciate you supporting the team and, you know, doing what we do every single day on the TruSide. So with that being said, I will open it up. And Melissa, you can help us out here, but we'll open up for questions. And Jessica, again, appreciate the time. Again, the partnership. So thank you so much. This is great.

The best.

Yeah, great conversation. We do have a couple of questions, but if anyone else has anything that they'd like to ask, just do that in the Q&A portion of the below. So with Encino and Encompass, how much heavy lifting was required from your internal IT team versus the TruVve implementation team?

Um, I mean, I think a lot of it was pretty easy once— I mean, I was able to, which, that tells you anything. So, I mean, Jacob walked me through a couple things, told me where to put some stuff, and then, you know, it was one call with Encino. And I mean, for me, I, I have to do it with every single one of my JVs, and then within the JVs there's like 6 groups, so like I have to go through each one just because of how ours operates. So in a normal world, it would have been even easier. But I mean, honestly, it was easy. Um, like I said, if I can do it, I mean— but yeah, it just a couple— I had one of, uh, our IT gal, she, you know, did the branding and the logo stuff. Once that's created, then it's just copy and pasting and boost this up. Literally 5 clicks.

You're more technical than you think, Jessica, I swear.

Really? At least, at least I got the right background.

I would maybe just to butt in here for a second, just in terms of, I don't think we touched on the costs. I mean, I think there's definitely been a lot of savings for FCM by working with True? Is that something you could touch on?

Yeah. I mean, I don't even want to say what the work number bill was in 2024. I mean, it was close to like $2 million. And like I said, for what we do, I found that to be pretty extraordinary. And we really already, like I said, seeing the lift, we have seen, honestly, about $700,000 in savings from last year.

Awesome.

And I think, like I said, I think that will really continue to go up. And if I could work to find a way to do more of the single source, I think that would be even better to get that validation off the BOA. That one's a little tricky because you also don't want to lose that chance of the borrower doing the BOIE upfront. Just makes it a little easier if they're doing it. But it's definitely been a huge lift. And like I said, the Just the difference in cost.

Yeah, I mean, something close to like 80% compared to the work number.

Yeah, yeah. Good to see that.

All right, another question that came in in our chat. Do you ever get pushback from customers who are hesitant to share their login credentials?

Yes. So I mean, that is just the truth. It is a little roll top sometimes, but I made a deal with my team. I, you know, once I said we put it in it in Sino, I asked if they are willing to, to ask them one more time when they're going through after the applications come through. If the borrower says no, then I was like, you move on. We're not here to truly push it in on them. And I don't want anybody to feel uncomfortable. So, you know, we try in some groups, honestly, if they don't do it at application and in Sino, then they don't ask again. But surprisingly, I mean, like, we have a really big conversion rate, especially with BOA. I don't know, I think everybody, as Jacob always says, everybody just remembers their logins. And I think a lot of people don't remember their, their, uh, payroll provider. And I don't really know what it is. Sometimes we, they're like, but you're gonna have all access to my information. I'm like, well, we already do. Would you give us like your BOA? And, and, you know, we have all the Information, letting them know it's going to drop off. And honestly, almost all of them have two-factor, so they have to end up signing in again too. So we try to reassure them with that. But, you know, sometimes it's age or cultural bias. They're just not comfortable with it. So we just don't push it, you know, ask once and that's— Yeah.

And a lot of people have the bank sign-in, you know, saved on their phone. It automatically fills for them so it can be easier.

Everybody just uses their face.

Or we also have the doc uploads, right? Like, I look at my parents, they're 80 years old. If I told— I try to tell them what I do, they just look at me and they just smile. They're Italian. They just smile. You want some food? No. Okay. It's okay. But, you know, we have a solve for whatever we might need. And I think it's the way, Jessica, to your point, how you position it with your team. I think education is so crucial. And that's why working with someone like Jacob how to educate your loan officers to make sure they can maximize what we're offering. Because at the end of the day, if it works well, it's great borrower experience. It's also great for the company from a bottom line perspective and want to create— continue to create a great partnership. And that's what we're here to do. I don't believe there's any more questions, so I don't want to hold anybody up. I like to make these short and sweet. Jessica, Thank you so much, A, for your partnership, B, for doing this for us. I'll see you in Vegas next week. So you guys— oh, we got to see Jacob too. Oh, Jacob.

Yeah, sorry about that.

Sorry.

I'm so excited to meet Jacob in person.

Jacob's going to buy us dinner, and it's going to be a wonderful thing. So I'm excited. Everybody, we appreciate the time. Thank you so much. I hope you got something out of this. More importantly, I just want to thank Jessica for her time and partnership. So thanks all.

Thank you guys.

Thank you all very much.

All right. Thanks, guys.

Take care.

Bye.