Currently, originators are struggling for quality leads, dealing with low credit scores from prospects and experiencing low referral rates from partners in this down market. So how do you keep your business fresh and stop losing money on poor or non-committed leads? You shift your business model to focus on being more of a financial advisor than a mortgage broker. The most important aspect of this approach is to illustrate the value of consulting with a borrower on their credit worthiness. 

Prior to pulling credit, any lead or referral has 0% invested in your business. Even after credit is pulled, you could very well be out money due to the credit costs of the low scores.  To override this situation, utilize a credit integrated application (Credex) where the borrower pays for the credit report up front. This will stock your pipeline with leads.  Helping borrowers manage their financial profile so you can eventually get them in a loan product will be powerful!

Send a marketing campaign to your prospect base that focuses on getting a call to action from them.  Take an educational approach – people love to feel educated on complex matters – especially as it relates to their credit profiles. In your marketing campaign, illustrate how they can pull a merged credit report with all 3 scores from you CHEAPER than going through the 3 repositories credit system.  And not only is it cheaper for the borrower, you will provide them with follow up credit analysis – for free – something they can’t get anywhere else.

Maybe your prospect has a child that is soon off to college and no financial assistance has been invested – maybe tapping that equity line of credit will make college education a reality.  What about a remodel on their home – don’t go open a Lowe’s credit card, that will incur so much more interest than tapping the equity in their home.  Debt consolidation – maybe they went too crazy at Christmas and need to take out a second mortgage to pay off debt at a more affordable rate. Or maybe their car loan has a higher interest rate than a second mortgage does and they can wrap the car payments into the mortgage payment and save money on interest from the car loan.  There are various things you can educate and assist borrowers on regarding their homes and lines of credit that don’t deal with a straight refinance or new home purchase.  Think outside of the box and present yourself in a broader light to customers.

By executing the Credex Financial Consultative Approach, you are instilling trust along with future loans and referrals which has a positive product life cycle for your business even – if you can’t do the loan within the next 30 days.