Business Building Center
First-Time Homebuyers Are Buying Later. Why the Cost of Waiting is Higher Than People Think.
Most renters believe they should wait for “the right time”:• Wait until rates drop• Wait until I have 20% down• Wait until prices cool off• Wait until our debt is paid down But while they wait, the market keeps moving. Below are illustrative national figures...
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...
Having a Lion Mindset Helps Millennial Buy First Home
Ethan was typical of many young first-time homebuyers. He had a short credit history, an average credit score and thought the only way to qualify for a mortgage was to have a 20% down payment. What was different about Ethan is that he worked at FinLocker and had...
How Fintech Makes it Easier to Deliver Borrowers a Personalized Mortgage Experience
Borrowers come to you at all levels of financial preparedness. First-time homebuyers can have student loan debt, an average credit score, a high DTI, and insufficient savings to cover their down payment and closing costs. How do you get each borrower...
How Consumer-Permissioned Data Provides Consumers With Extra Protection During Financial Transactions
Consumer-permissioned data puts the consumer in control of what transactional data they share with a lender, insurance company, other financial institutions, or service providers. What is consumer-permissioned data? Consumer-permissioned data is personal...