Loan Officer Life: Reducing Pre-Approval Fallout with KeySteps

Speaker A: Hey everybody. Welcome back to loan officer life. This is Hustle, Heart and Homeownership. And today is a special episode. It's special because you're just getting me. I'm going to show you today, um, a quick overview of the Keysteps app powered by Finlocker. But before I do that I want to start by talking about a conversation I had uh, in the last week with um, a group of loan officers. And we were talking just about the problems that loan officers in general face today in this market, in this industry. Um, and one in particular was uh, this idea of having to uh, work with folks in the pre, qual, pre approval process for an extended period of time. Right. Um, it's not uncommon to have somebody be in this pre approval, pre qualified status for 60, 90, 120 plus days. And in particular as we were having this conversation, this group of loan officers, uh, it quickly uh, converted, the conversation quickly pivoted to fallout, fallout from that pre approved pipeline. And the fallout came in a bunch of different forms. It came from some people, some consumers just stopping the process of shopping for various reasons and just kind of putting it on hold, um, maybe just you know, pricing too high, properties are too expensive, not enough inventory, combination thereof. Um, some, but not most of the fallout that we were talking about. Some was, but most of it wasn't in the credit, um, you know, or not yet qualified state. Um, but a big, uh, a big fallout that one loan officer identified was around consumers, uh, that they pre qualed, pre approved and then decided to go work with another loan officer as they found a property. Typically the realtor that they were working with when they finally found the property, maybe referred them to a different loan officer. And so that was true fallout because that, that borrower, that consumer who was pre approved by this loan officer went somewhere else for the, for the mortgage, for the loan. And we talk more about that and specifically of what were they doing proactively in that time, you know, during the time that somebody was pre approved to stay connected, stay sticky, um, and stay valuable to that consumer such that when they did find the home or a property that they weren't enticed to shop with another loan officer and certainly weren't enticed to apply and close with another loan officer. And this is where uh, the light bulb moment went off for me and for this group, you see, this group of loan officers that I was speaking with were all loan officers who are subscribers and users of the key steps powered by Finlocker Financial Fitness and Homeownership app. And this conversation was happening in, in a small mastermind group that we have with our active loan officer clients where we share best practices, where we share challenges and problems, uh, and then brainstorm on solutions to those challenges and problems. And, and this is where we ended up with this particular group of loan officers. The aha moment was as a loan officer, when I pre approve, pre qual somebody I need to think about what else can I do to add value to that consumer at that particular point in their shopping process. Again, at the point of pre approval or pre qual such that they're going to remember that I added that value. And, and that value is going to be enough that not only do they remember me but they stay connected to me and we stay sticky. And when they're ready, when they find that property and they're now ready to move into a formal approval process, it's going to happen with me versus them being enticed by a uh, referral from that real estate agent. And here's what we came up with guys. And I think this is going to be uh, a really interesting uh, use case for the Keysteps app as another value add for how you use the app with your pre quals, with your pre approved pipeline. You see we already know, because we talk about this all the time in our demos that this app, ah, this keysteps app is extremely powerful up the funnel as a tool to help somebody who's not yet ready to apply get to a place of readiness. Right? That's one of the primary use cases and that's one end of the continuum. We also know for past clients there's a use case to invite those folks to download the app and use it to track the value of the home they own and monitor their credit, blah, blah, blah, blah blah. And then there's a bunch of use cases in the middle. This latest use case which we're going to talk about now was again one that came up in this mastermind conversation. So what if at the point of pre approval, pre qualification, so I'm talking about every time you pre approve or pre qualify, however you define that. But every time you pre approve or pre qualify somebody, in addition to giving them whatever you give them to prove that they're pre qualified, pre approved, you also invite them to download your instance, your version of the Keysteps app, or if you happen to be with a company, uh, who has an enterprise uh, version of the Finlocker app, whatever your app is branded. So let's do this guys. I'm going to bring to the stage keysteps. Here's our keysteps app. We're looking at the web version, but imagine now as a value add. For every one of those pre quals, every one of those pre approvals, you're inviting the consumer to create their free keysteps account and then you're enrolling them through the account in free credit monitoring. So let's, let's talk about that. The credit monitoring during pre approval, during the pre qualification process. So between pre approval and final approval and going into the application process, it could be 30, 60, 90, 120 days, could be longer. But that's a time when a consumer should be monitoring their credit. They should be paying attention to any changes in their credit, their credit score. And maybe you don't know this, but when you give your consumer a link to create their own keysteps account and when they link their credit in the App, which over 85% of users do, that consumer is automatically enrolled in free credit monitoring. So guys, on the screen you'll see an example of a consumer who has connected their credit. They're going to get their credit score. They're going to have visibility into their credit score. They're going to see it right here in the app. So 800 is our user's credit score. This credit score updates every seven days as does the underlying credit data behind the score, the full credit report. So that user, that consumer also can see their entire credit report. And here's an example of what a consumer would see. And so let's say uh, they want to see what's going on with this Citi credit card. They can actually click into that tile in their credit report and see the visualization of every account on their credit profile. So credit score and this credit data updates every seven days. Now let's go back to our dashboard. In addition to getting my credit score updating every seven days, seeing my entire credit report updating every seven days, I also have access to a couple cool simulator tools. I can actually come in here as a consumer and think of this as the consumer's DIY what if scenario. So maybe their goal is to increase their credit score, you know, to 810 points for whatever reason. Or let's, you know, for example, let's say this was below the, the 780 threshold for a, ah, loan level price adjust improvement. And they wanted to know what would they, what would they need to do to improve their score? And so let's just say I was able to reduce credit card balances by $12,000. As an example, I run the simulator on that modeled action and my score would go up seven points. So as a consumer, I can come into this keysteps app that you invited me into as a loan officer. Right. And I can enroll my credit, see my credit score, see my credit report and use um, these credit simulator tools. But this is the thing that I want to talk about, which I think is the, is the value add that you can provide at that point where you're issuing a pre approval or a pre qualification is peace of mind. And the peace of mind that you're offering for free to that borrower, that consumer is going to come in the form of credit monitoring. So when that consumer has linked their credit in the app, they're getting all the stuff we just talked about, plus they're getting ongoing free credit monitoring. And so what does that mean from a credit monitoring perspective? Most of y' all know this, so maybe I, I'm kind of uh, talking uh, under you at this point and I apologize for that. But credit monitoring in this case is peace of mind. So now I would be advising any borrowers, any consumers I'm engaging with in that pre, qual, pre approval pipeline. So I just pulled a soft credit pull. I did my pre approval. I would be advising your clients, your prospective clients at that point that now is the most important time that they should be monitoring and keeping tabs on their credit for obvious reasons that you all know, which is any changes to their credit score, that's super, uh, evident and super important and that all happens in here. But they're also now going to be able to have peace of mind that, you know, if there was any, you know, potential breach or breach where their data was exposed and somebody tried to open, ah, a new credit card as an example, uh, for that, you know, under that consumer's name. This credit monitoring would alert the consumer in real time that there was a hard inquiry, an inquiry on their credit and it would tell them who made that inquiry. Right. And so, um, you know, the addition, additionally, if someone were to get through the process and actually was successful in opening a new account, that would be an instant alert that the consumer would receive that there was a new, new account opened under your name. The inverse is true. If there's an account closed or an account goes into a delinquent payment status, all those credit activities, uh, or events create an instant alert to your prospect, your consumer. And so where would I take this? I'd actually go a step further as a, as an Advisor as a home buying mortgage advisor. And you know, I've done your pre qual. We're good there. They can go out and shop or at least start that process. I've invited you into this free, uh, financial fitness homeownership app that includes free credit monitoring. And what I'm saying to the consumer is as the loan officer is, this is the most important time in this process for you to be monitoring and keeping an eye on all things related to your credit. I'm going to offer you this tool as part of this relationship you and I have that's beginning with this pre qual, pre approval. And if you see anything, any changes, any alerts, any notifications that come from this app on your credit that concern you, first of all, log into the app and see what the. See what happened. Was there an inquiry? Did somebody else pull credit on you? Um, and then call me and we'll have a conversation. And so this really cements you as more than just, you know, a loan officer focused on rate and price and turn times. That's, those are table stakes. This is a uh, differentiator that you're able to provide to your prospects, your consumers that not every other loan officer has access to. And so this differentiates you from that loan officer that they may get referred to by a realtor when they go, you know, start looking for homes. And so this value, this extra value that you're providing, you know, creates some insulation and some stickiness in some, in enhances the relationship in such a way that you're less likely to have fallout in your pipeline for those consumers that you spent time, resources and money on doing pre approvals. I'd love, love, love your feedback guys. This um, is going to be a short episode because I think it's an important one. I wanted to just focus on this single use case, um, because I think, I really truly believe that loan officers that can find ways to add additional value to their prospective clients in that pre qual, pre approval stage are going to create just a stickier relationship, a real valued relationship with that, uh, with that consumer. And as a result you're going to see less fallout happen in your pre qual, pre approval pipeline. I also bet you're going to see more referrals coming from agents that know that you have access to this innovative tool and you're more than just a transaction based loan officer. So guys, I hope this was helpful again. I'm going to keep it short today. Thank you as always for spending time with us on loan officer life. If there are any, uh, any experts out there that you are learning from or you want to learn from that you think would be a great guest for Loan Officer Life. Shoot me a note. I'd love to hear. I'd love to invite them on, interview them. And if you're a loan officer who's doing something, uh, innovative, exceptional, uh, that's leading to success, I'd love to interview you as well. Give me a ring, shoot me a text, shoot me an email, uh, hit me up on LinkedIn. Would love to have you as a guest as well. Thanks for joining this week's Loan Officer Life, and I hope you all are hustling, having heart and driving homeownership.