While much of the world seems to communicate instantly in rapid-fire, 140 character messages or through live-video chats with friends a world away, the mortgage industry has often struggled to keep up. However, a new generation of lenders is embracing the disruption caused by technological leaps and looking for new ways to make the homebuying path easier, faster, and more enjoyable than previous borrowers experienced. Today, the digital mortgage is making a big splash in the lending market by alleviating the pain points once faced during the home buying process. Here are five ways that the digital mortgage process can help ease common fears that potential homeowners have about the steps ahead of them:

Better borrower experience. As anyone who's applied for a mortgage can tell you, one of the most time-consuming aspects is gathering and completing documents. However, as digitizing documents becomes easier, something as simple as pre-filled forms in electronic format can be a huge time-saver and turn a 6-inch stack of paper into a 5- or 10-minute click-through PDF. Additionally, lenders are increasing the availability of mobile options, giving borrowers even more accessibility and freedom.

Transparency. Gone (or at least soon) are the days of borrowers having little idea where their loan is at in the process. Instead, lenders find that opening up their systems allows borrowers to stay engaged throughout the process and waste less time calling their loan officer to ask for a status check.

Shorter time frames = less pain. As HousingWire points out, a world that is usually defined as one-click purchases that arrive in two days (thank you, Amazon) must find it hard to understand the lengthy mortgage process that currently exists.  However, that is changing, and everything from self-service options to real-time customer service is being brought to bear to shorten turn times.

Compliance challenges meet technology solutions. Embracing technology has helped blunt the blow that a wave of new regulations and mandates threatens to drown borrowers and lenders in paperwork, fines and instead keeps the focus on borrower experience.  Just one example: by having an electronic "paper" trail throughout the process, lenders can be more confident that a loan is ready to move from one stage to the next, and workflow becomes sharper and more efficient.

Technology brings savings. Since many tasks are performed by mortgage lenders when preparing and underwriting a loan, which can be labor-intensive and repetitive, introducing technologies that cut down on that time and allow employees to be more efficient means that lenders can afford to pass those savings onto borrowers.