Business Building Center
Growing Your Sales Pipeline: How Loan Originators Can Build a High-Value Network of Referral Partners
As a loan originator, building strong relationships with professionals in related industries is an effective way to expand your sales pipeline and increase business opportunities. Real estate agents, divorce attorneys, financial advisors, and other professionals in...
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...
FinLocker Helps First-Time Homebuyers Compete in Red-Hot Purchase Market
Many first-time homebuyers aren’t waiting around for the homebuyer grants. They’re jumping off the fence and landing with two feet to hit the ground running in their quest to buy a home. According to a recent report from the National Association of Home Builders,...
How FinLocker Is Helping the Next Generation of Consumers Become Homeowners
The proposed first-time homebuyer down payment assistance bill is a step in the right direction to help break the cycle of families renting generation after generation and put them in a better position to start creating personal wealth they can pass to the next...
FinLocker Can Improve Lead Conversion for Mortgage Originators and Brokers
Zillow is predicting 2.5 million new households will enter the housing market in 2021. In contrast, the MBA predicts that refi’s will reduce to just 24% of origination volume by the end of 2022. As mortgage rates rise and refinance volume drops, originators who are...
How FinLocker Streamlines the Mortgage Pre-qualification Process
Just when you thought you had enough to do with generating leads, pre-qualifying borrowers, processing loans, and retaining those customers, you get to repeat one of the tasks on your list. Low inventory continues to be a major challenge nationwide. Two-thirds of...
Planning Your Pivot: Learning From 2020 to Prepare for 2021
Many of the mortgage lenders and originators who successfully transformed their business almost overnight in March 2020 had a record year in 2020. 2021 is expected to be another year of change. Now is the time to identify what strategies elevated your business in...