With the recent changes in the mortgage lending industry, there is more of a focus on qualifying leads to expedite the process of converting them into approved mortgage loan holders. If you are a mortgage broker or loan officer, knowing how to quickly and efficiently determine how to qualify leads for mortgage loans can give a significant boost to your business.
Why Do You Need to Qualify Your Mortgage Leads?
Mortgage leads can come from anywhere - referrals from family members and past customers, social media leads, paid ads, referrals from banks for refinancing, etc… Regardless of how the lead got to you, most people will not walk through your door ready to apply for a mortgage. And, even those that are ready to apply might not be approved. That’s why you need to go through a mortgage lead qualification process. To filter your leads into a list of people who are actually capable of turning into customers.
What is a Qualified Mortgage Lead?
A qualified lead is someone who may or may not already be pre-approved for a mortgage loan, but that is likely to be approved when they actually apply for a mortgage. To be qualified will require a combination of things like high credit scores, a low debt-to-income ratio, a sizable down payment, a good job/revenue source, etc… These are just a few of the factors that contribute to how to qualify leads for mortgage loans.
4 tips to qualify leads for mortgage loans:
- Determine your prospect’s goals. Is your prospect seeking a new loan for a home, refinancing, or a second mortgage? This knowledge can help you figure out how likely they are to be pre-approved. For example, if the prospect is after a second mortgage to pay down credit card debt or to cover some other expense, these amounts can sometimes be flexible. A home purchase however, is likely to be a fixed or even higher price than the prospect is considering applying for.
- Investigate the timeline of the prospect of buying. It is much more important to nurture the leads likely to need a mortgage loan soon than the ones that are not going to be ready to buy for weeks or months from now. When is your lead in need of the mortgage?
- Find out if they’re looking at property and/or ready to put in an offer. While some people are just perusing the housing market, you want to focus on the leads that are actually trying to purchase rather than simply investigating their ability to be approved. Ask things like:
- Where are they looking
- What kind of property are they hoping to buy
- What are the values of the homes they are looking at?
- What is their buying stage? If they are considering the budget, the conversation will go one way, and if it’s the location it will go another. Determine what stage of buying they are in to nudge them into making a buying decision or to move them down in your lead priorities list.
Qualifying Leads Ensures People That Are Ready to Make a Move Are Served First
You never want to ignore a lead, but the whole point of qualifying a lead is to determine the people that are most likely to need a mortgage in a timely fashion and prioritize nurturing them first. After all, spending time on someone who has no intention of applying for a mortgage in the near future is literally costing you man hours. The goal is to strike while the proverbial iron is hot as they say.
The good news is that the process of qualifying your leads doesn’t have to be complicated. In fact, with software like Agent Legend, you can make quick work of the task with scoring rubrics that reveal to you who the hottest irons in the fire actually are. Not only does Agent Legend help with lead qualification, it can help you automate your lead nurturing without ever losing the personal touch your prospects are counting on.
You can try Agent Legend for free and test out all the bells and whistles we have to offer. Click here to start your free trial today!
