You’ve got loan closure targets to hit, and you also to focus your time on qualified borrowers. So how can you attract qualified leads and get them through the lending process smoothly? In a word — clarity.
In an industry where jargon, acronyms, and ambiguity run amuck, you’re the trusted translator of a major financial milestone. Build a sales funnel that improves both the customer experience and your own. Identify opportunities to reduce friction, confusion, and extra work and you’ll be rewarded with happy customers and generous commissions.
1. Define the Loan Process at the Beginning
More potential buyers are starting their home search later in life for many reasons. Higher home prices, affordable rent, and settling on a location or partner are possible factors. But when it’s time to start searching for a dream home, understanding the lending process is often forgotten.
Ignoring the financial obligations that make homeownership dreams a reality is understandable. Digging into the financial side of buying a home can be cumbersome and confusing. That’s why lenders have a unique opportunity to clarify the process, which can ease borrowers’ anxiety and attract more clients.
First, consider how your office handles loans and break down the steps a potential client will follow. Next, translate these into easily-digestible chunks that can fit on one page. Use this guide to kick off new client meetings, craft a blog post, or build email automations.
This level of clarity and brevity can help potential borrowers understand the steps, timeline, and documentation needed throughout the process. Break down key steps like income verification, home inspections, and appraisals. These steps often require engaging with third parties with their own set of rules. By providing this detail up front, you can help qualify leads, manage expectations, and increase satisfaction.
2. Agree on Communication Expectations
Everyone has their own communication preferences in their personal life, and they often carry over into their professional dealings. But when you’re navigating a process rife with personally identifying information, time-sensitive approvals, and third parties, make expectations clear.
Kick off your first client meeting by discussing the lending process and how you’ll communicate along the way. Introduce them to key contacts and provide a list of their names and preferred contact method. Include general timing expectations for responses so everyone is on the same page.
Next, cover the topic of how you’ll handle secure data about your clients. Share how their Social Security number, banking details, and other sensitive information will be handled during the process. Provide parameters on how certain information should be shared and uploaded to ensure their data is protected.
If your office uses a secure portal for communication, document uploads, and digital signatures, you’ll probably need to provide a tutorial. Work with your team to develop a step-by-step guide that you can share with your clients. Ideally, the platform you use is intuitive, but don’t solely rely on user experience design. Some clients aren’t as tech-savvy and when dealing with personal financial information, it’s understandable to be wary of online access.
3. Protect Your Clients’ Dreams by Identifying Loan-Killing Don’ts
Searching for a home is exciting, but it’s a major financial move that comes with restrictions. You never know what misconceptions people have gathered about loans and underwriting along the way. Reset their understanding and help borrowers protect their home ownership dreams by identifying loan-killing don’ts.
Whether your borrowers arrived with great credit or worked to achieve an in-range score, it needs to be protected. Provide an overview of financial expectations you’ll have of them as they pursue a loan. Just as you shared the loan process, list out risky financial moves borrowers need to avoid.
Break down the why behind risk-laden moves like opening a new credit card, changing jobs, or exceeding debt-to-income ratios. Brush up on your understanding of behavioral economics and how it can relate to borrower decision-making. Simply put, humans don’t always make rational choices, even if it’s good for them. As you set the parameters for your borrowers, consider the temptations they’ll face along the way.
With the promise of a new home on the horizon, shopping for home goods might cloud their judgment. Take the opportunity before you request a full credit report to gauge their pending financial moves and set expectations. Get their commitment to follow the plan and avoid loan denial thanks to a careless shopping spree.
Keep Customer Experience at the Forefront
As a seasoned professional, it can be easy to get comfortable with complexity. The business is second nature to you, and it can be challenging to put yourself in a novice’s shoes. But remembering where you started while conveying your expertise is how you can set yourself apart and support your clients.
Keep language simple and make it a practice to define lending-specific terms and what purpose they serve. View your role as both a lender and teacher, especially for first-time buyers or those pursuing a new-to-them loan type. When you’ve guided your clients through a smooth lending process, you’ll create loyal clients who happily refer you to others. And with many buyers changing up their address every 13 years, you’ll likely have repeat customers for a lifetime.