If you don't want to deal with sitting in mortgage lender's office, you might consider applying for your refinance loan online.

Online mortgage applications have picked up considerably in the last month, primarily due to refinance demand, according to industry observers.

At Norwest Mortgage Corp., Des Moines, refinance volume on the Internet accounts for fully 77 percent of its total online loan volume, said Dan Frahm, spokesman. "Even though our online volume is a small percentage of the total, it is currently experiencing double the activity."

Numerous lenders have online applications
Many mortgage companies provide online mortgage and refinance applications, including Norwest, Countrywide, Irwin Mortgage Corp., American Finance Corp. and others.

Online mortgage or refinance customers at Irwin Mortgage send their applications via e-mail, which is sent to an Internet loan processor, who reviews them and contacts the customers directly via telephone or e-mail.

"We're trying to make the refinance process as painless as possible," said Nick Vracas, first vp at Irwin Mortgage in Indianapolis. "The surge in applications started about a week ago and has continued since then, so sometimes response time is slower than it should be."

Online volume up, but not loans closed
Vracas said the ease in applying online for mortgage loans and refinancing has upped application volume, but not the volume of loans closed.

"It's not a huge volume in online loans closed," he said. "We get a few and that makes it worthwhile. It's a growing thing."

Within Irwin Mortgage as a whole, refinancing lending activity is up 70% compared with volume a month ago.

Most online refinance applications are fairly easy to complete, but most require additional documentation, and usually always require a trip to a mortgage lender's office.

"It's pretty hard to avoid the office visit with most refinance or mortgage applications, even if they start out online," Vracas said. "Plus, a lot of people just prefer the hand-holding that goes with an in-office application process. They want face-to-face."