With only a few weeks left in the year, it’s an ideal time to start goal setting for next year. Your goals can be anything – taking a 2-week European holiday, buying a vacation home, or running a marathon. But you can’t achieve these goals if you don’t plan them out. You wouldn’t expect to […]
How well do you stay up to date on key homebuying trends like how homebuyers are utilizing online resources and their reasoning for choosing a new home over a previously owned one? Knowing these types of key homebuying trends can help you create new marketing messages to attract new leads to fill your lead pipeline. […]
In the mortgage industry, we sometimes tend to think of our prime first-time homebuyer market as the younger half of the Millennial generation. You know, the ones that are obsessed with plants and Instagram. However, the recent National Association of Realtors report reveals that the median age of first-time homebuyers has risen to 33 years […]
In a past post, we discussed renovation loans and identified similarities with the better-known construction-to-perm (or construction loans for short). In this post, we’ll expand upon those differences and give you a more thorough understanding of construction-to-perm loans. There are some significant differences between the two programs that we will explore. But let’s focus on the […]
We’re in the midst of a refinance market, but are you taking advantage of those market conditions? As interest rates continuously drop, there’s a greater volume of past loans that are now eligible for refinancing, even those that closed just a year ago. A refi boom presents the perfect opportunity to get in touch with […]
Have you ever heard the phrase “if you’re not evolving, you’re dying?” In business operations, not having a process improvement mindset to evolve with changing customer expectations can be detrimental. Process improvement is a serious yet necessary undertaking in the mortgage origination space. In a contracted market, we look for efficiencies to reduce cost and […]
If you’ve worked with your state’s Housing Finance Agency (HFA), you might have heard about Mortgage Credit Certificate (MCC) tax credits. But even if you’ve worked with your HFA, you may never have had a reason to learn about MCCs, what they are, who qualifies for them, and how much money a qualified borrower could […]
This article first appeared in the National Mortgage Professional Magazine’s July edition. People will tell you that “you need to have a social media presence.” Unfortunately, in this case, “have” is the wrong verb. Truthfully, “you need to build your social media presence.” It’s easy to have a social media presence. Go to any social […]
Housing Finance Agency (HFA) programs might not apply to many of your customers, but did you know you can leverage HFAs to capture leads you might ordinarily not? That’s right! If you focus only on conventional low down payment loans, you could be missing out on an opportunity to capture more business using HFA loans. […]
Perhaps you’ve heard the murmurs about an automated appraisal. There are big changes coming to appraisals, and they’ll have a huge impact on how the mortgage industry does business. Today, we’re breaking down some of the new developments in appraisals, what they mean for your business, and tips to help you prepare. I keep hearing […]