An everyday, paperless, all-electronic mortgage remains little more than a mortgage originator's dream, but using information technology to spread the word about mortgages and to originate loans is going gangbusters.

Some 83 percent of consumers said they would complete a mortgage application online and 76 percent use the Internet to check rates and research mortgages. Among lenders and brokers, 72 percent of them take online applications, 56 percent say the Internet is a useful marketing tool for existing customers and 42 percent say the Net is a significant source of new business.

The young marriage between the mortgage industry and the Internet isn't without its problems, but it's a sound union that isn't likely to dissolve, according to the fifth annual "Myers Internet/Mortgage Banking Internet Mortgage Industry Survey" an online Zoomerang.com-assisted survey of 616 mortgage companies and 507 consumers.

The survey found 75 percent of consumers willing to complete the entire mortgage process online once digital signatures become available, but for now, they'll have to settle on comparing mortgage rates and completing loan applications.

Only 1 percent of loan originators have implemented electronic signatures, according to

MORTECH 2001 a survey of 360 lenders conducted between November 2001 and February 2002 by Silver Spring, MD-based MORTECH, LLC, a mortgage banking industry consulting firm.

"The industry is at the middle point of building its electronic infrastructure. The inter-company connections are more complete than the consumer-to-company links," says Jeff Lebowitz, president of MORTECH, LLC.

Warren H. Myer, CEO of Myers Internet Services says the mortgage business has embraced the Internet for its efficiency which allows lenders and brokers to originate more loans in less time. Consumers are after pertinent information -- 50 percent of consumers use the Net to research mortgage information, 26 percent to check rates only and 24 percent to actually obtain a mortgage.

Online mortgage consumers are also bargain hunters -- 76 percent said the most important factor for choosing a mortgage company is rates, presumable low rates; 69 percent prefer Web sites that let you compare rates; 68 percent expect to get a better rate if they shop online; and 54 percent would select a mortgage company 2000 miles away if its rates were 0.125 percent better than local rates.

"Consumers love the convenience of using the Internet along with the ease of access to educational tools and content," said Myer.

For consumers, "The most important features of a mortgage Web site are accurate, up-to-date rates; informative content; privacy policy; and loan status information. Consistent with previous years' surveys, consumers wanted low rates and fast, responsive service and were not concerned about brand," he added.

On the mortgage industry side, 71 percent of mortgage companies stated that the Internet consumer is more price-sensitive than any other type of consumer and Internet leads are generally worse in quality than leads obtained through traditional media.

Nevertheless, 88 percent of lenders indicated they plan on continuing their Internet presence. One major feature in e-Mortgage Axis is XML Smart Documents, a product of the Mortgage Industry Standards Maintenance Organization (MISMO),the mortgage industry's electronic commerce standards developer established in 1999 by the Mortgage Bankers Association of America.