Mortgage applicants don’t always have high enough credit scores to qualify for the best rates and terms.
As a mortgage lender, you can take proactive steps to help them raise their scores before the formal application process. By providing this type of support, you can help your borrowers receive the very best rates and secure their business.
So, how can you improve your applicant’s credit scores? Below, we’ll outline several strategies and tools to help you do just that.
Table of Contents
#1 Provide Your Applicants with Credit Education
If you tell an applicant they need to raise their credit score before they can qualify for a mortgage, you may assume that they’ll know what steps to take. However, this isn’t always the case.
As a mortgage lender, you understand the ins and outs of creditworthiness, but many mortgage applicants need some guidance. They may not know what factors make up their credit score. After all, a large percentage of credit consumers believe common credit score myths.
You can help your applicants take the right credit score improvement steps by educating them on credit and dismantling disinformation. In addition to advising them in person, you can encourage them to visit your website, where you can offer educational resources in the form of:
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- Articles
- Videos
- Webinars
- Podcasts
Not only can this educational content help your applicants raise their credit scores, but it can also establish you as an expert in your field. As a result, borrowers may be more likely to view you as their trusted advisor throughout their home buying journey.
#2 Identify Applicants’ Areas of Credit Score Improvement
Since the housing market is so time-sensitive, increasing applicants’ credit scores quickly is critical. It can make the difference between them qualifying for the homes of their dreams or losing them to other buyers.
You can help your applicants raise their credit scores fast by pinpointing specific areas for credit score improvement. For example, you may determine that an applicant needs to pay down a large credit card balance or diversify their credit mix with a credit-builder loan.
By laying out clear steps for your applicants to take, you can empower them to raise their credit scores within a certain time frame.
Certified Credit’s Credit Score Improvement Tools
Offering your mortgage applicants customized credit score improvement suggestions doesn’t have to be complicated or time-consuming—you just need to rely on the right tools.
Here at Certified Credit, we’ve partnered with ScoreNavigator to help you guide your applicants along their credit score improvement journeys. ScoreNavigator’s credit score improvement tools include:
- Mortgage Action Plan (MAP) – ScoreNavigator’s MAP conducts an in-depth analysis of your applicants’ credit reports and generates custom credit score improvement plans for them. By implementing these plans, your applicants can boost their scores efficiently with confidence.
- Point Deduction Technology® – ScoreNavigator’s proprietary Point Deduction Technology® can show you and your applicants the estimated point values for positive and negative credit report items, helping them tackle the most impactful areas for credit score improvement first.
- Innovative Simulators – ScoreNavigator has three powerful simulators to help you and your applicants make strategic credit decisions. The Target Score Simulator shows the most efficient route to achieving an applicant’s desired score, while the Money Simulator identifies the best accounts for them to pay down to achieve it quickly. Meanwhile, the Manual Simulator can forecast how various actions may impact applicants’ scores, either positively or negatively.
With the help of these tools, you can guide your mortgage applicants in the right direction and set them up to qualify for better mortgages. Your support can also set you apart from other lenders and help you secure your applicants’ long-term loyalty, since they know you’ll always go the extra mile to get them the best rate.
#3 Use Rapid Rescore to Raise Your Applicants’ Credit Scores Quickly
It can take several billing cycles for positive credit changes to show up on applicants’ credit reports. Until their credit reports are updated by the credit bureaus, they won’t see an increase in their credit score. During this interim period, your applicants could miss out on the opportunity to purchase their dream home.
Fortunately, there’s an easy solution: Rapid Rescore.
What is Rapid Rescore?
Rapid Rescore allows updated or verified information to be corrected in the database of all three repositories (Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion), usually within 72 hours after changes are requested and have been confirmed.
Rescoring an applicant gives you the ability to finalize discrepancies in a quick, efficient manner. As a result, it enables you to better support your borrowers with more ways to qualify for the loan, all while helping them close on time and ensuring you deliver a great customer experience that generates a strong referral base.
How to Use Rapid Rescore to Update Credit Reports Quickly
To use Rapid Rescore, simply submit your request, along with proper documentation, and we can begin the investigation process for you.
After confirmation, we will forward the necessary changes to the databases of each of the repositories.
Once the bureaus correct the items requested, we’ll inform you that a new, updated, and rescored report can be retrieved. That’s all there is to do!
Why Use Rapid Rescore?
Rapid Rescore can be very helpful for applicants who have credit scores that fall short by a few points. By changing their credit scores quickly, you can potentially offer them better rates sooner than later. In turn, you may be able to shave thousands of dollars off the total cost of their mortgages and beat out the competition for their business.
Mortgage applicants will greatly appreciate this service, since it can lock them into a better mortgage without forcing them to lose out on time-sensitive home buying opportunities.
**Advice From Our Experts**
Although a rapid rescore could help your borrower qualify for a better rate or loan terms, without the proper guidance, not all rescores will work in borrowers’ favor. It’s important to educate your borrower on good credit habits and discourage them from missing any payments or making large purchases in between credit pulls. We also recommend performing your rapid rescore within 30 days of your initial credit pull.
#4 Encourage Applicants to Apply for Prequalification
Prequalification allows potential borrowers to see if they meet your most basic mortgage qualifications. It also enables you to establish relationships with aspiring homebuyers early on in their home buying journey. Once you’ve initiated relationships with these applicants, you can help them improve their credit scores and earn their customer loyalty along the way.
After a prequalification applicant enters your sales pipeline, you can provide them with helpful tips and guidance. For example, if an applicant:
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- Doesn’t prequalify with you, you can help them understand why they fall short. After that, you can let them know what they can do to improve their eligibility in the near future using your handy credit score improvement tools from Certified Credit.
- Does prequalify with you, you can help them optimize their creditworthiness going forward so that they qualify for the very best rate and term when they’re ready to formally apply for a mortgage with you.
What is Cascade Prequal?
Offering prequalification is easy with the help of Cascade Prequal. Cascade Prequal is an automated prequalification solution from Certified Credit.
Cascade Prequal allows you to offer prequalification directly on your website. As applicants submit their information to you, it will populate within your existing loan origination system (LOS) automatically. Meanwhile, your applicants can receive automated responses regarding their prequalification status.
With Cascade Prequal, you can customize your credit thresholds and select your preferred soft pull credit reports. Soft pull credit reports are more affordable than regular credit reports, so you can attract more applicants into your sales pipeline at a lower cost. You can also save your applicants’ credit scores from the impact of unnecessary hard inquiries as they shop around for the best mortgage.
Bring Out the Best in Your Mortgage Applicants Today
As you can see, it’s easy to help your applicants improve their credit scores. You just need to take advantage of credit score improvement tools, such as Credit Assure, Wayfinder, What-If Simulator, and Rapid Rescore.
By offering your applicants this type of support, you can become a superstar lender in their eyes and earn their customer loyalty for years to come.
Are you ready to enhance your mortgage lending business? If so, partner with our team at Certified Credit. In addition to our innovative credit score improvement tools, we also offer:
- Affordable mortgage credit reports
- Automated lead generation tools
- Automated prequalification
- Automated verification of income and employment (VOE)
- Fraud and risk support
- Settlement services
- Money-saving strategies
Discover how Certified Credit’s mortgage lending solutions can take your business to the next level today.
Sources:
1 CNN. Common credit score myths and truths.
https://www.cnn.com/2022/03/11/success/common-credit-score-myths/index.html
