Business Building Center
How Loan Officers Can Create a High-Converting Sales Funnel
After three decades navigating the ups and downs of the mortgage industry, I can say this with confidence: we’ve entered a new era. The loan officers who will succeed going forward are the ones who control the top of their sales funnel - not those who rent it or...
Helping Homeowners Experiencing Financial Hardship
As the COVID-19 pandemic wears on, putting jobs at risk if the economy slows, approximately 1.86 million homeowners remain in forbearance, with 65% of active plans set to expire by the end of 2021. With 750,000 of these active forbearance plans due to expire by the...
How Student Loan Debt Impacts Homebuying
With 54% of students requiring financial assistance to pay for their higher education this past year, the burden of student loan debt continues to grow in the trillions and weighs heavily on individuals after graduation. Many graduates are concerned that student...
Is Your Mortgage Business Ready to Pivot to Purchase?
At the start of the year, industry analysts predicted that production would pivot from predominantly refinances to purchase around the middle of the year. Recent MBA Origination Insight Reports have begun to show the scale starting to tip towards purchase loans....
How the FHFA Decision to Consider On-Time Rental Payments Can Help More Renters Qualify for a Fannie Mae Mortgage
The Federal Housing Finance Agency recently made an announced that can help renters aspiring to become homebuyers improve their mortgage eligibility. Effective immediately, on-time rental payments will now factor into Fannie Mae's underwriting calculations, and...
Improve Your Odds Playing Lead Roulette
As refi mortgage applications fluctuate weekly and many homebuyers decide to wait for home prices to become more reasonable, mortgage leads are getting more competitive and expensive. Demand for paid mortgage leads, which are predominantly refinancing leads, has...
How the Housing Crunch Is Hurting FHA and VA Homebuyers
Homebuyers who are making an offer using FHA financing (9.6% of applications for week ending July 16, 20211) or VA financing (10.5% of applications for week ending July 16, 20211) are finding it difficult to compete against buyers who are financing using a...
New FHA Guidelines Can Help Homebuyers With Student Loan Debt Qualify for a Mortgage
Student loan debt is one of the major barriers facing first-time homebuyers to qualify for a mortgage. In 2020, 51% of all buyers said that student loans delayed their ability to save for a down payment or save for their home purchase, according to the 2020 Home...
Helping Consumers Achieve Financial Freedom Through Homeownership
As we celebrated our nation’s independence last weekend, I couldn’t help but think of the financial freedom that homeownership provides. For many low-to-moderate income first-time homebuyers, the current growth of home prices is pushing that dream further out of...
Jumpstart Your Refinance Pipeline
While soaring home prices and low inventory are probably stressing your first-time homebuyers, there’s another segment of your borrowers who are sitting pretty – your homeowners. If you’ve noticed your refi pipeline drying up, you’re not alone. That’s...
Move Over Millennials. Centennial Homebuyers Are Coming.
Just when you thought you’d mastered your marketing strategy to Millennial (Gen Y) homebuyers, there’s a whole new homebuyer demographic to understand. Centennials, also known as Gen Z, were born from 1997 to the present, so the oldest is currently 24 years old....
Homeownership Month Challenge: Get More First Time Homebuyers Mortgage Ready
With demand outstripping supply across the nation and homes often attracting multiple bids, it should come as no surprise that CoreLogic has reported that home prices were up in April 13% year over year. In FinLocker’s hometown of St Louis, real estate agents...
The Secret to Closing Well Is Starting off Right
The average time to close a purchase mortgage was 49 days in April, down from the 46 days one year ago in April 2020, according to a recent report from ICE Mortgage Technology. Fingers have been pointed at long lead times with appraisers, inspectors, and other...