Although the U.S. refinance wave recently crested, the prospect of new refinance business is quickly fading. So one firm is helping lenders make a transition from refinance originations to purchase business.
Mortgage rates have been on the rise, with 30-year fixed rates nearly reaching 4 percent in Freddie Mac’s rate survey last week after falling to a record-low 3.31 percent in November.
Refinance share had been around three-fourths in the first quarter of this year. But industry forecasts have refinance share plunging — with the Mortgage Bankers Association predicting a 44 percent fourth-quarter refinance share, Fannie Mae projecting a 49 percent share, and Freddie Mac being most optimistic at 60 percent.
Faced with the prospect of lower refinance originations, some loan originators will shift their resources to financing home purchases.
Promising to help in such a strategic shift is Mortgage Returns — which says its customized marketing solution is utilized by more than 9,000 loan originators and over 275 financial institutions.
The St. Louis-based firm says that its customer relationship management technology has been enhanced with new features that enable lenders to increase purchase business.
The automated marketing solution enables more effective marketing to prospective borrowers and referral partners.
Loan prospects are engaged with communications that include specific details about their loans like their interest rate, term and payment amount.
Users can view real-time reports on how their marketing efforts are performing. Among available metrics for individual marketing pieces are return on investment and customer retention.
“Our analysis shows these capabilities are three times more effective at driving retention and new business,” Mortgage Returns Chief Executive Officer Jim Blatt said in the announcement.
Blatt added that the enhanced offering helps originators overcome the shortfalls of more traditional systems by providing better measurement and tracking — leading to “longer-lasting relationships with borrowers” and providing “a higher revenue stream from satisfied repeat customers.”
