Get in the MYX: Data Strategies for Direct Marketers

Using Prescreen to Size the Real Market for Mortgage Refinance

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If you are counting on incoming calls to fill your mortgage pipeline...you may be facing a declining number of applications and you may not be seeing the most qualified consumers.  An article recently released by Reuters made an interesting observation - despite record-low rates, refinance application volume has fallen for the third straight week - and remains more than 35% below levels of just a year ago, when interest rates were actually higher.

How could this be? Well, let's face it, with more than a third of homeowners underwater, unemployment at all-time highs, a recession that is chipping away at discretionary income, and the most stringent underwriting guidelines the industry has ever seen, it really is no surprise that the overall universe of eligible/qualified borrowers is shrinking.

However, it is NOT all gloom and doom. While industry analysts believe that most borrowers who are qualified to refi have already done so, this is simply not true. What IS true is that mass marketing is no longer efficient at identifying eligible/qualified prospects. Highly targeted marketing leveraging prescreen credit data, on the other hand, can, and will, unearth these diamonds in the rough.

There are still eligible/qualified borrowers out there. Based on a review of not only credit scores, but loan-to-value and real estate records, Tranzact Information Services analytic team ran counts.  There are more than 1.4 million well-qualified borrowers who have not refinanced since 2005 - in just nine states (AK, AL, AZ, CA, CO, DC, DE, FL and GA.) These are people with at least 80% LTV and credit scores above 680.  The trick is, you must leverage prescreen credit data to find these coveted prospects.

Now, don't get me wrong. I am not proposing that the majority of homeowners in your marketing area are going to fall into the qualified/eligible bucket. Try to find the needle in the haystack using mass marketing techniques, and you will not only be wasting valuable marketing dollars, you will also create a highly inefficient sales process by talking to a bevy of unqualified prospects.

Furthermore, in order to MAXIMIZE the number of eligible/qualified prospects you are able to identify, you need to leverage a tri-bureau prescreen credit solution. Learn more about how to maximize your marketing universe leveraging tri-bureau credit data by reading our post entitled, "The Trifecta of a Tri-Bureau Prescreen Marketing Solution".

But don't take our word for it; call one of our direct marketing professionals at 1-800-488-9113 to request counts of borrowers in your market area that will meet your specific qualification guidelines. Our team would be happy to outline a direct marketing strategy that will help you bring a higher level of targeting to your efforts.