Buying a home is among the most consequential transactions most Americans will ever face. It is also among the most stressful. From working with a broker to negotiate a price, to securing a mortgage and title insurance, the process is riddled with middlemen, endless paperwork, and a cascade of nagging closing fees that ensure buyers remain within arm’s reach of the Maalox.

With tech having transformed nearly every industry in our lives the past decade, it’s fair to wonder why home buying remains frozen in the carbon copy paper world of the 1970s. Well much-needed innovation is now on the table with the proposed merger of Rocket Cos., the nation’s largest mortgage lender, with Redfin, the techy real estate brokerage, and Mr. Cooper Group, a major Texas-based mortgage servicer. The deal will bring complementary parts of the homebuying process under one roof, simplifying the process and delivering cost savings for buyers.

Rocket’s move to integrate Redfin’s real estate search and brokerage capabilities with its own end-to-end mortgage platform – and now with Mr. Cooper’s loan-servicing infrastructure – opens the door for even greater opportunity within the industry to establish a seamless, unified homebuying journey. For consumers, that means fewer surprises, fewer delays, and thousands of dollars in savings.

Closing costs in the U.S. average around 3% to 5% of a home’s purchase price, according to Bank of America. On a $400,000 home, that comes out to about $12,000 to $20,000. That is a substantial burden for working- and middle-class Americans. Worse yet, it is mostly unnecessary. Overlapping paperwork. Redundant verifications. Fees for moving information from one silo to another.

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