The revamped guidelines of HARP 2.0 opens the floodgates to millions of underwater homeowners that could not lock in the prevailing low interest rates. The jury is still out as to whether this program has lived up to the hype, and there have been some flaws pointed out in some posts, but I'll reserve that issue for another entry. In this venue, I'll talk about how to market to a highly targeted list of HARP 2.0 leads available through the leading credit reporting agencies.
Using a tri-bureau platform, we can identify HARP 2.0 prospects that are PRE-QUALIFIED under the new guidelines. When searching for homeowners that meet eligibility requirements, we'll drill down the following criteria:
- Fannie and Freddie as investors in the loan.
- Loans originated prior to June 1, 2009
- Loans in good standing (zero lates in the past 12 months)
- Loan balances within conforming limits (no jumbos)
- Minimum FICO Score - while we generally want scores 620 and up, some lenders will raise the bar and we can adjust the credit score accordingly.
- Single family residence
- 1st mortgage only (no juniors)
Armed with this data, you can reach out to those homeowners and notify them they have been pre-screened for the HARP 2.0 program. These fatigued homeowners have been eager to refinance in the past, but have been told time and time again that they don't qualify for assistance. By pre-screening those prospects using soft credit data, you can help more people that actually QUALIFY for assistance. The biggest negative feedback we've gotten from loan officers and production teams working leads in the past is that a staggering amount of time is wasted on applications that have a ZERO chance of surving the underwriting process. Through pre-screened data, you can focus your resources on applications that sail through underwriting and close quickly.
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