The lone wolves of mortgage lending, mortgage brokers help consumers achieve their homeownership dreams without working directly for any one lending institution. As free agents, they negotiate on a borrower’s behalf to select a lender and loan with the best rates, terms and closing costs for each individual’s needs.
Juggling each aspect of the loan process can be a considerable burden for a mortgage broker to carry on their own. Fortunately, today’s mortgage brokers can succeed in 2022 and beyond without a large team or expensive resources. In this high-cost, low-demand market, time-strapped mortgage brokers can turn to reliable tools and solid mortgage marketing strategies to stay relevant and profitable.
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The relationship between mortgage brokers and mortgage lenders is founded on a broker’s ability to feed primed borrowers directly to lenders’ portfolios. Of course, not every borrower is the best loan candidate for every financial institution. To connect lenders with the right borrowers, brokers not only need to understand each homebuyer’s financial situation and goals; they must also know what types of loans lenders are looking to originate.
Mortgage lenders will sometimes offer temporary deals and incentives for a specific type of loan to balance their portfolios. For example, a federally insured institution may incentivize loans guaranteed by the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) or the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) for low-to-moderate income borrowers, as these loans can be used as credit toward their Community Reinvestment Act examinations. In this situation, a mortgage broker could support that lender – while also earning their own business – by connecting them with qualified low-to-moderate income homebuyers.
It is also important to note that mortgage brokers are not always supported by the same corporate marketing initiatives that benefit other mortgage professionals. For this reason, many brokers employ mortgage marketing technologies to help keep pipelines full of high-intent leads and referrals. An automated customer relationship management (CRM) platform that integrates seamlessly with other digital tools is a key resource for mortgage brokers. CRMs help brokers market themselves, better understand their customers and cut down on time spent on manual lead generation and outreach.
Cut through the red tape of less efficient origination channels
Larger lending institutions have entire teams of marketing specialists to help lessen their loan officers’ (LOs) workloads. Brokers, on the other hand, are often solely responsible for their own lead generation, marketing, building referral networks and operational duties. Because they run a one-person show, efficient mortgage brokers must remain structured enough to handle each aspect of their daily workload, yet flexible enough to address last-minute problems and priorities to keep pipelines moving.
To achieve maximum efficiency, it helps to have technology that can automate as much work as possible. Enter Black Knight’s Surefire CRM – a comprehensive marketing automation platform designed specifically for the mortgage industry. Surefire CRM enables busy brokers to automate nearly every aspect of sourcing, nurturing and converting mortgage leads. Its powerful automated workflows help brokers easily stay in touch with prospects, in-process applicants and post-close borrowers.
By using Surefire CRM to deliver engaging, educational marketing content across the entire loan lifecycle, mortgage brokers can build personal rapport with homebuyers and proactively help them understand the level of service they can offer. That way, once a lead reaches out to initiate the loan process, they know that they can expect a transparent, personalized homebuying experience.
Getting borrowers into the right products
Finding the right lender for each borrower is not luck. Successful mortgage brokers strive to provide consultative, empathetic service that clients will remember. To achieve this, brokers must collaborate with consumers and discuss all aspects of their desired loan — from interest rates, down payments, fees and closing costs to insurance requirements, estimated time to close and the overall experience offered by a lender. Only once a mortgage broker understands a borrower’s priorities can they effectively meet — and ideally exceed — that borrower’s expectations.
Surefire CRM helps mortgage brokers provide a world-class homebuyer journey with minimal effort. Its immense library of award-winning mortgage marketing content can be used to generate relevant, branded outreach that can help keep a steady flow of inbound leads. By taking advantage of continuous communication delivered to consumers’ preferred channels, brokers using Surefire CRM can easily establish and maintain long-lasting borrower relationships.
Surefire CRM comes pre-loaded with template workflows that can immediately be activated as-is or can be reconfigured to fit a user’s unique goals. These workflows enable automatic distribution of loan-specific content illustrating the pros and cons of various financing options, so mortgage brokers can more easily identify the ideal lender and loan for any borrower. Brokers can even create their own custom workflows in Surefire CRM to target specific borrower types, such as past customers who may be able to lower their monthly payments by refinancing down the road.
In summary, mortgage brokers can maximize the value they bring to the mortgage market, better serve their borrowers and lean into the qualities that make their services unique by leveraging powerful marketing automation and award-winning content from Surefire CRM.