With the right approach to earning mortgage referrals, you could win new clients in greater numbers and generate more income for your business as a result.
This is easier said than done, so here is a look at why you should care about mortgage referrals and what strategies to use to secure them.
Why mortgage referrals matter
From a purely financial perspective, mortgage referrals are clearly appealing. The more referrals you can create, the more commission payments you can earn, depending on the arrangement you have with your referral partners.
Of course, this is not the only motivation to focus on referrals. Another is that by honing your skills in linking borrowers with lenders that offer the best home mortgage rates, you will also be building out your ability to communicate and network effectively.
As well as being compensated for the time and effort you put into making referrals happen, you can also walk away from the table with a deeper understanding of what makes people tick. You can then use this to your advantage in your broader business dealings.
Ways to increase your referrals
Bringing new clients on board is expensive and resource-intensive, so the best way to speed up the referral process is to target people who are already on your books.
If there is a pre-existing relationship there, you will already have the trust of individuals and organizations; all you need next is their attention.
The best way to keep former clients on-side is to make sure that the after-sales support and care they receive is exemplary. Small touches like moving-in gift hampers can make a big difference when you reconnect further down the line in search of another referral.
That is not to say that you can afford to ignore new prospects entirely. Rather, it pays to be aware of how you can generate new leads by keeping current customers happy. Encouraging them to post positive online reviews of your services, for example, can bring fresh faces through the door with minimal effort required on your side.
Likewise, if you have a presence on social media, breaking down the trust barrier will be far simpler. When people can see that you take pride in your online presence, it will be less of an uphill struggle to secure their respect and their custom.
What else do you need to consider
Going all-out in your attempts to generate more mortgage referrals is definitely a good idea if this is the focus of your business operations. However, there are also some caveats that should shape the tactics you use when picking prospects for loan deals.
For example, it is impossible to overlook the importance of credit scores in determining whether or not a given client is likely to be accepted for a loan by a lender. This applies to personal mortgages as well as commercial agreements. If a prospective customer’s credit history is patchy or problematic, they may not be suitable for referral in the first place.
Likewise, you need to make clients aware of the role that the debt-to-income ratio has in assuring their eligibility for mortgages and other types of borrowing. People and businesses who have large debts that take up a sizable proportion of their cash flow to service each month may be sidelined by lenders, even if the scale of their income itself is otherwise reassuring.
Whatever side of the table you are sitting at in a mortgage deal, or if you are simply acting as a referrer, being attuned to the factors which impact the outcome of an application will save you from a lot of grief.
