Equal Housing Lender
Start A System That Can Track Pre-Purchase Clients While They Get “Mortgage Ready”
Contributors • Nov 23, 2020
Providing needed resources for clients who need pre-purchase assistance is a plan all loan originators should have available. Here’s how to start.
Covid 19 and the lack of housing inventory are not stopping many seeking to purchase a home. Often the reason cited is “it’s less expensive to own a home than to rent!” Loan originators and real estate agents who can corral these potential clients with a system that can keep track of referrals and client progress can realize consistent, ongoing business for the future!
My strategy to assist ALL clients who want to purchase a home started with a very sharp but new real estate agent, Derek Simonsen, with Remax Champions . I asked Derek to give me all of his past and currently turned down client referrals, and he did!
The first step was to set up a custom tracking template in my Calyx loan operating system under Prospects. This template generates a report that can be shared to keep track of the progress of clients.
I then signed up with Send Out Cards and picked the realtor campaign to keep in touch and encourage referred clients. Reminding myself when to “send out a card” was as simple as noting a date in the Contact Info tab of Calyx.
There are three areas that most often hamper a client from purchasing a home now:
- Needs credit help (even after forbearance)
- Needs down payment assistance(DPA)
- Needs help with budgeting
- Student Loan Debt Relief added.
Solita’s House is the HUD housing counseling agency(HCA) that I am working with now, but there are thousands of HCA’s across the United States that can be found at https://apps.hud.gov/offices/hsg/sfh/hcc/hcs.cfm . I am working with Solita’s House for a variety of reasons:
- They service all of Florida
- They have their DPA program and can assist clients with area DPA programs
- They have experience helping clients with in-depth credit needs
- They provide Homebuyer education classes
However, I am finding that many HCA’s are at full or near full capacity. Covid 19 has resulted in an avalanche of people trying to stay in homes they own or rent. Most housing counseling agencies are the first contact for affected consumers.
So I called my HUD Housing Counseling Federal Advisory Committee colleague Ellie Pepper with the National Housing Resource Center and asked where to find more availability of housing counselors for pre-purchase clients. She directed me to a powerhouse of a resource, and we are working together now for immediate help. Further, we are collaborating to make the bridge from HUD housing counselors to loan originators and real estate agents a working reality now.
If you need help starting your system or finding a HUD Housing Counselor contact us or call Pam Marron at 727-534-3445.
Down Payment Connect is already being used by MLOs and Realtors. Now it's available to HUD Counselors through HomePrep! Down payment assistance is quickly rising to the top need for clients wishing to purchase a home. Down Payment Connect , the back-end data provider for the parent Downpaymentresource.com , houses every down payment assistance program in the US and provides extremely detailed information laid out in a consistent format for each DPA program in their system. Throughout the last two years, Downpaymentresource.com administrators have worked with MLO’s and the HomePrep developers to add nearly all wholesale down payment assistance programs to their platform and they didn't stop there! Extensive filters that allow for selection of specific client needs such as type (ie. SFR, manufactured homes, condos, multi-family, ADU’s), uses like renovation, above AMI income levels, non-1st time homebuyers are just a few of the filters you will find along with stand alone 2nd mortgages, combined 1st and 2nd mortgages and grants. DownpaymentResource.com is also in many MLS systems across the US and provides limited directory information and a free landing page for realtors to promote that they use DPA. Both MLO’s and realtors can subscribe to Down Payment Connect to get more of the extensive directory and back-end tools. Now, through HomePrep, HUD counselors can also use the Down Payment Connect system to filter trhough DPA programs that clients are qualified for, and can even provide wholesale programs when working with an independent loan originator (often called a mortgage broker)! Through HomePrep, HUD counselors are now able to provide MLO’s and clients with the DPA programs that they have found the client is eligible for.
If you have FFEL Student Loans, Take Action Before April 30th!
Three great tools that mortgage loan originators (MLO) can use to assist clients who need help with credit, down payment assistance and student loan repayment services have been used, fine-tuned and are already in use with individual MLO’s. These tools combined with the Freddie Mac HomeCoach automated system along with budgeting help and Homebuyer Education are all integrated in the HomePrep online platform that connects MLO’s with clients who have challenges to HUD counselors that get them mortgage ready.
Pam Marron, NMLS# 246438
Innovative Mortgage Services, Inc. NMLS# 250769
