Guide on How to Qualify Leads for Mortgage Loans

Time is the most valuable resource loan officers have when it comes to creating a high revenue-producing business. Therefore, it’s important to know how to qualify leads for mortgage loans immediately.

The top reasons borrowers are rejected for loans are:

• A low credit score
• Recent negative credit history
• Bankruptcy
• Debt-to-income ratios.

At the beginning of 2019, 78% of Americans were living paycheck to paycheck. COVID-19 left 33.5 million Americans filing for unemployment (cnn.com). These factors have a significant impact on the mortgage loan industry.

The mortgage loan pre-approval process has always been the most important step in the lead qualification stage of the sales cycle. Therefore, we are sharing our guide on how to qualify leads for mortgage loans.

Considering the economic factors mentioned above, it is crucial to have quality leads for your business to avoid wasting your time and your prospect’s time. Mortgage lead generation should follow an efficient process of qualification and appropriate funnel delegation.

What is a qualified lead?

A qualified lead is someone who meets all the qualifications to conduct business with you all the way to the close of the deal.
An unqualified lead may be interested in doing business with you; however, they don’t meet the criteria.

For example, Jane Smith is an excited, first-time homebuyer with good credit, but she doesn’t have enough money for the down payment. Instead of spending extra time with her, disqualify her immediately and send her through a lead nurturing financial education funnel that teaches her how to save for her future home.

Another example is someone who has poor credit and won’t meet the criteria of any of your lenders. You would disqualify them; however, you can send them through your debt repair lead nurturing funnel.

Both are unqualified leads that may convert into future clients once they meet the qualifications.

Importance of lead qualification

Lead qualification is the most important step in the sales cycle. If you don’t take the time to prequalify your lead ahead of time, you will end up spending hours, days, and even weeks focusing on a deal that won't close. Focusing on the wrong deal means you lose out on genuine deals.

Your attention needs to be focused on the right things to be successful.

How to qualify leads and prospects for mortgage loans

Qualifying mortgage leads is an easy process. If you are organized and have a streamlined process, it can be fast-paced. If you automate the process, you save even more time. We have a fully automated lead qualification process that saves time. Check out the Unfair Advantage for yourself.

You need to make sure you’re asking the right questions from the beginning when you’re qualifying your mortgage leads. You need to make sure they are ready to buy. You also need to make sure they are financially capable of handling the responsibility of a long-term financial commitment.

Loan managers have their own set of qualification questions; however, you can believe that all of them target the top criteria pieces.

• Debt
• Income
• Cash assets on hand

Some questions you can ask to make sure you know how to qualify leads and prospects are:

1. What are your goals?

This is a great question to ask because it allows you to know upfront how much thought the buyer has put into purchasing a property. If they seem confused or wishy-washy, you may be talking to someone who just got an idea to start checking on buying a home.

Knowing a prospect’s goals will allow you to see a clear picture of how you can help them.

2. What is your timeline for buying a home?

This question is important because some prospects are ready to buy ASAP, and some of them are looking to buy in the future. A person trying to buy within the next three months is different from a person looking to buy six months or later.

Knowing when a person is ready to buy allows you to offer them a great customer service experience. If a buyer says they want to buy later, you just send them through the appropriate funnel once you get more information from them.

Find out why they are waiting, and you can send them appropriate information to make buying an easier choice for them in the future.

A home buyer ready to buy now is getting warmer. You just need to qualify them financially.

3. What type of property are you looking for?

This question is important because you need to make sure your lender offers a specific type of loan needed for certain property types. Never assume that someone is just looking for a dream home. Some people are looking for investment homes and may need a loan that includes a repair budget.

4. What location do you want to buy?

This question will allow you to showcase your market expertise when you offer properties in your jurisdiction. It may be a waste of time if the person you are working with wants to find a home in another state with different regulations.

5. What is your budget?

Knowing the budget is a part of the financial qualification. Some people don’t realize they need a certain income level for specific loan amounts. Knowing the budget also allows you to determine the lenders you have access to.

You also need to confirm how much money they have available for a down payment. Asking this allows you to know if the borrower has a realistic expectation of the market. You want to make sure the person you’re talking to can afford the down payment, mortgage payment, insurance, and taxes.

6. Have you been pre-approved by a lender?

This is a good question to ask because it allows you to see if they are already talking to other lenders. It’s good to know if you’re being compared to other lenders. This allows you to step up your customer service game. It also lets you know that the person is serious about moving forward if they’ve been pre-approved already. You may be able to offer better terms.

Save time and get more deals closed with qualified leads and prospects

When you know how to qualify leads effectively, you save time and increase your closed-won ratio. If you would like to discuss key strategies that will immediately improve your lead quality check out our Fastrack system.

If you have any other questions about how to streamline your sales pipeline to close deals faster and easier, you can Contact Us with any questions.

Guide on How to Qualify Leads for Mortgage Loans was first published to: https://www.goodvibesquad.com/

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