The New URLA 1003 – Will You Be Ready?
By Bill Dolan, CMB
Don’t have enough time and hours in the day already?
With rates still attractive and volume steady, the GSEs come along and finally publish the revised implementation timeframes for the newly redesigned Uniform Residential Loan Application (URLA 1003). The required start date is now November 1, 2020.
If by chance, you have time on your hands and nothing else to do, (HMDA LAR submission due 3-1-2020), you can begin utilizing the newly revised URLA 1003 sooner (August 1, 2020) rather than later. The GSEs are calling this, their Open Production period (previously known as the “Optional Use” period).
You think to yourself…no big deal, I got this! I have plenty of time to ensure a seamless transition……Really? You will need to begin by revising your now outdated business rules previously implemented within your LOS, re-train the entire mortgage manufacturing plant (MLOs, Processor, Underwriters and Closers), create the necessary checklists and new processes and procedures including testing the entire redesign, before going “live” with the new URLA form. This will be a major challenge for all mortgage lenders. Add the peak spring market and department vacations this summer and you see what you will be up against.
The series of actions you engage in will vary, based on both your company’s planning and implementation process, but you need to incorporate the following action plan to help you prepare:
Identify any data on the redesigned URLA 1003 that your institution does not currently collect and develop a methodology to obtain that necessary data.
If you are currently utilizing a technology solutions consultant or 3rd party provider, reach out to them to ensure that they are aware of these new changes and communications provided by the GSEs, confirm their availability and time lines for initiating and completing a project of this magnitude (it is being compared to the scope of “TRID” implementation, no joke), including expectations of readiness to produce, test and implement the new URLA 2020’ to meet these deadlines.
If you maintain your own LOS system, work with internal technical and business analysts to scope and schedule the tasks necessary to process the updated AUS specifications.
Check regularly with the GSEs and your LOS vendors for additional updates to the AUS specifications to ensure you are using the most current version.
Schedule training with your LOS vendors as everybody within your mortgage department will need re-training.
If this appears overwhelming to you, your systems admin or staff, and you will neither have the time nor the resources to take on the weight and scope of a project this size, NOW is the time to reach out to SCA’s residential mortgage and technology consultants who are ready, trained and certified to ask the right questions, obtain the necessary responses and develop, design and test the new URLA 1003 for implementation to tweak and make any necessary adjustments you may request during the transition period between August and the November, the mandatory start date. For example, Ellie Mae requires an initial responses to their interrogatory form addressing 82 individual questions. This preliminary questionnaire will determine the process required for re-design, testing, training and implementation. SCA’s “tech” team are booking URLA 1003 engagements now so please don’t wait.
For more information, please contact Bill Dolan, CMB, Director at
(781) 356-2772 or email him at wdolan@scapartnering.com