From manual data entry to 4X growth with a click of a button

Brightpath Capital Corporation is a private lender based out of Waterloo, Ontario. Operating all across the province and recently expanding into British Columbia, Brightpath has a positive outlook on the real estate market and doesn’t shy away from higher LTVs.

Fast turnaround, flexibility, and excellent customer service are the staples of Brightpath’s operations. Brokers can generally expect a response to their deal submission within one business day, often getting a Commitment or Letter of Intent within a few hours. Offering a wide range of products, Brightpath aims to always have a solution for their customers.

Since the inception in 2016, the Brightpath team recognized certain challenges to the company’s growth that they would have to tackle. Borrowers often need quick access to funds, so the speed of service is essential in the private mortgage industry. It’s almost impossible to be at the forefront if your underwriters have to spend a significant part of their day manually filling out the documents, consequently dealing with data input errors, and handling the ever-growing number of incoming emails.

The need for software and automation became apparent as spreadsheets and manual data input could no longer sustain Brightpath’s growth.

To add more structure, convenience, and automation to their processes, Brightpath started evaluating the software platforms available on the market. They were looking for something that was system agnostic so both Windows and iOS users in the office could easily work with the software. Another important part was to have underwriting and servicing all within one system.

After getting their first Mortgage Automator demo, Brightpath saw how the software could be a good fit for them and help mitigate their concerns with current business processes. The team ultimately became an early adopter of Automator not only for the capabilities and features it had to offer to help grow their business but also how it is a web-based software accessible from anywhere, at any time.

“The software is able to accommodate almost all unique lending scenarios. And as a lender providing flexible solutions to brokers, this was very attractive, and we didn’t feel like we were limited in what we could and could not do in the software,” Fiona Elder, VP of Operations at Brightpath Capital, told us.

“We really feel like it is designed for the mobile lender. The days of being tied to the desktop access are gone. Mortgage Automator allows Brightpath and staff to access the software anywhere, on a laptop or phone. It was really easy for Brightpath to transition, especially during the pandemic when things were shut down.”

These days, it’s all about automation for Brightpath. No longer feeling bogged down by the volume of emails, they are able to automate review and approval communications, the renewal process with the borrower, manage sub statuses, and more.

In addition, the team at Brightpath is now able to collaborate more efficiently thanks to the seamless exchange of information and process tracking accessible to them in Automator.

“I could go in today and look at a file that’s in the underwriting stage, and I can see the date and time of when everything happened: date of submission, when the underwriter reviewed it, notes the underwriter made, when the underwriter issued the LOI to the broker. So that’s great because if someone goes on vacation, there’s a cover for that. And if a broker calls in asking a question, anyone answering the phone can go into the file and look that up,” Fiona is excited about the excellent customer service Brightpath is able to offer as a result of this ease of access.

By now, Brightpath can be considered experts in Mortgage Automator. They have structured their processes with maximum efficiency, allowing them to handle the growing deal volume with ease. They receive broker submissions directly in Automator via broker platforms such as Filogix and Lendesk.

The deals are set up in a user-friendly way in the system. It’s just a matter of reviewing the information and confirming it via supporting documents. Issuing Commitments and Letters of Intent takes a matter of seconds. Having the documents uploaded to the broker portal saves underwriters a lot of time that would be wasted on emails and locating the documents. Now, they are able to just go into the file, approve, decline, or send it back for revisions.

Servicing their deals in-house, for Brightpath, it’s just a matter of clicking the ‘Fund’ button. As soon as the deal closes, automated messages are sent directly to the broker and borrower. Managing and tracking missed payments is a breeze as well. Brightpath team has set up automated emails to the borrowers informing them of any missed payments, sparing everyone lots of hassle and headaches.

Brightpath is also very excited about being able to handle statements of investment income in Mortgage Automator.
“The ability to create the T5’s now within the system is saving us a great amount of time as well as money because that was something we may have outsourced in the past, or had our finance team do, but it’s all automated now. With a quick review and the click of the button, the emails go out to our investors and all the T5’s are prepared instantaneously.”

Since becoming Automator users in 2019, Brightpath’s funds under administration have grown four-fold. From Q4 2020 to Q4 2021 specifically, Brightpath saw 165% growth. Notably, they did not have to expand their underwriting or servicing teams to accommodate this growth, as automation handles it for them. With Mortgage Automator, Brightpath is able to manage volume, maintain a high level of customer service, and continue on their upwards trending growth trajectory.