It’s one of those busy weeks in the mortgage business. You’re working through a list of mortgage leads that were sent or referred to you, offering just a few pieces of information, including a name and address for the loan. Timing is critical: You’ll need to vet each lead quickly, so your best prospects don’t get on the phone with their mortgage banking friends or cousins, and close them first. At the same time, you’re sure that only a handful of these mortgage leads have the readiness and quality to go all the way to underwriting, and you just need to know which ones.
So how do you separate the hot prospects from the not-so-hot, and move them to close?
Size Up Your Referral Sources
When you see a referral’s source name next to your prospect, it should give you a sense of the quality of the lead you have. Online lead sources will provide key information about the borrower and the desired loan, but the information may not be valid, so you’ll need to verify it before you proceed. Other leads will come from your referral network of professionals and friends, along with valid prospect names, but they may be variable quality. Experienced referrers like real estate agents know how to evaluate buyer candidates already, and will often hand you a prospect along with information about their stage of the buying process, as well as other information to help you further qualify the prospect. You’ll rate these leads higher or lower based upon the typical quality of the lead. Once you have listed all of your known online and off-line referral sources, you should rate them according to the quality of their leads so you can quickly place these prospects into the appropriate bucket for action. As you grow your professional referral network, be sure to guide them to ask qualifying questions before they turn their leads over to you, to help improve the quality of prospects they send you over time.
Size Up Your Referral Sources
When you see a referral’s source name next to your prospect, it should give you a sense of the quality of the lead you have. Online lead sources will provide key information about the borrower and the desired loan, but the information may not be valid, so you’ll need to verify it before you proceed. Other leads will come from your referral network of professionals and friends, along with valid prospect names, but they may be variable quality. Experienced referrers like real estate agents know how to evaluate buyer candidates already, and will often hand you a prospect along with information about their stage of the buying process, as well as other information to help you further qualify the prospect. You’ll rate these leads higher or lower based upon the typical quality of the lead. Once you have listed all of your known online and off-line referral sources, you should rate them according to the quality of their leads so you can quickly place these prospects into the appropriate bucket for action. As you grow your professional referral network, be sure to guide them to ask qualifying questions before they turn their leads over to you, to help improve the quality of prospects they send you over time.
Screen the Property As Well as the Prospect
You already know how important a credit check can be when qualifying a prospect. But you’ll also want to screen the prospect’s currently owned property for any issues it can bring into the loan process. One of the best ways to qualify the property is to use an all-in-one property report that gives you a complete view of the prospect’s property, ownership, HOA, taxes and open mortgage liens, while giving you a starting point for conversations with a prospective borrower. This can help you identify opportunities, such as a low loan-to-value ratio, or hazards like unpaid property taxes or involuntary liens. Also, by discovering whether a property is in an HOA and what their fees are, you will help ensure that a borrower can truly make the payments on a new loan.
We instantly provides a 360-degree view of property, ownership and encumbrance, making it faster and easier for you to determine which mortgage prospects are the most valuable to pursue, and which are not ready for prime time. we give you a well-designed snapshot of virtually everything a mortgage lender would want to know about the current owner’s property: current vesting, open mortgage liens and lien position, loan history, plus information you won’t find in any other report, like HOA identification, fees and frequency. You’ll also find real-time property taxes, involuntary liens and market information. See a sample of our property report.
Rank your Prospects and Pursue Aggressively
Now that you’ve evaluated the referral source, prospect and property, you can rank order your prospects to pursue for biggest gain. You’ll want to contact your best prospects quickly and nurture them along the entire loan process to assure closure. Many prospects will take action with the first loan agent to work with them, so be the one to contact them first. And since the loan process can take weeks to complete, keep your customers posted with frequent emails to let them know how their loan is progressing. If real estate agents are involved, keep them informed as well, to further nurture your referral business.