Prepare for Rate Drops By Deploying This Tech

It’s the moment we’ve all been waiting for. All signs point to the Federal Reserve finally cutting the federal funds rate in September. 

And good news has already come for prospective homebuyers — and the mortgage lenders that serve them. Rates have been consistently coming down since their October 2023 peak. And, as a result, mortgage originations have been on a slight uptick since Q3 2023. 

If the Fed cuts rates next month and mortgage rates follow suit and slide down further, many prospective homebuyers and refinancers should start seeking out loans. That means now’s the time to get ready.

We have some suggestions here. By deploying tech in these three categories, you set your lending operation up for success. 

CRMs

Customer relationship management (CRM) tools are an invaluable resource for mortgage brokers, banks, and credit unions. With a good CRM in place, you get a way to:

• Store customer data in a secure, centralized location where it can be easily accessed
• Track interactions with leads and customers, allowing your sales team to see when they last contacted whom — and when to provide an extra nudge
• Gather data about what works (e.g., which email campaigns tie to success metrics like new loan originations or refinances)
• Automate certain sales activities, like follow-up emails

With more leads likely to come in over the next few months, you don’t want to have potential customers slip through the cracks. With a CRM, you get a reliable way to capture leads, track interactions with them, and propel them toward a closed loan. 

This said, not all CRMs are created equal. A strong one will allow your mortgage lending institution to tie activities to customer profiles. The right CRM can feed contact information to your rate alert email system to automate rate update emails, for example. It also allows data to flow both ways, too. It should be able to track how leads interact with certain sales tools, like their personalized rate dashboard. 

We have some recommendations of CRMs that can help you achieve optimal results at your lending institution:

• Total Expert
• Reclu
• Shape
• Insellerate
• Salesforce
• HubSpot

If you’re not sure which option would best suit your specific lending operation, talk with our team. We have experience with all of the above and we can talk you through key features. 

Websites

When people are searching for a mortgage lender, the vast majority of them start their hunt online. If you don’t have a website, you’re losing out on potential leads. And if you don’t have a good website, those leads might visit you, then click away with you none the wiser about their interest.

In short, a strong website makes all the difference in 2024. That means a site that’s easy to navigate and offers the information people are searching for, like live rates and personalized quotes. It means having a website that performs just as well on mobile devices (where the majority of searches happen) as it does on desktop computers. 

We have some tips to help you get better ROI out of your mortgage website. But you don’t have to navigate this alone. 

A strong website developer — particularly one that specializes in helping mortgage lending institutions and brokers — can come alongside you. Specifically, we recommend looking into Limesite and Vonk Digital. Both of those companies focus their efforts exclusively on mortgage websites so they’re well positioned to help you. While WebCherry works with companies in other verticals, we’ve also seen them build beautiful, strong websites for mortgage lenders. 

As experts in website design and functionality, any of those companies can help to ensure your site looks as good as it works. At that point, your website becomes a powerful lead generation tool. It helps you attract leads, then feed their information into your CRM so your loan officers can go to work closing the loans those individuals need. 

Live rates

The rate drop should bring potential homebuyers and refinance seekers out of the woodwork. They’re going to be exploring their options, hoping to see how the new, now-lower rates impact their lending scenario.

As a result, you need live rates on your site to drive the best results. Without them, you risk losing potential leads to other lenders who have current rates featured (as most big players do). With live rates, you show leads what you can do for them, giving them a way to shop their options and inform themselves about what’s on the table for them.  

Plus, this doesn’t have to be complicated to set up or maintain. We offer tools that connect to your product pricing engine (PPE) to automatically sync current rates to features on your website. That means you can deploy live rates in all of the following tools:

• Rate tables: Leads want a way to see and compare their options. With a rate table, you can show them current rates for a variety of loan products. This serves people looking for a 30-year fixed-rate loan, but it also allows you to capture the attention of folks looking for alternative loan products — like shorter-term fixed loans and adjustable-rate mortgages — too. 
• Mortgage calculators: Give your website visitors the power to crunch the numbers for themselves with a mortgage calculator. This tool lets them play with their options — like different down payment amounts or loan terms — to see what best suits them. 
• Custom rate quoting: Showcasing live rates is a great first step, but you can take things further by tailoring the rate to the lead’s unique borrowing situation. Plus, in exchange for the customized rate, you can ask for their contact information. This allows your loan officer to track how they interact with the dashboard so they can best serve that customer’s specific interests and needs. 

Clearly, there’s a lot you can do to prepare for rates to drop — and to capture the leads that should come with this shift. If this sounds like a lot of work, don’t worry. We can help. Get in touch with our BankingBridge team to schedule a demo and see just how easy it can be to get set up for success.