Mortgage brokers have a lot at stake when they choose which lender to work with. We sat down with David Schroeder, Quicken Loans Mortgage Services (QLMS) Senior Vice President, to talk about the experience brokers receive by partnering with QLMS.
Q. We’ve seen tremendous growth in the condominium business. What is Quicken Loans Mortgage Services’ approach to handle condos?
A. Our goal is to always give our partners the right resources, technology and products to provide their clients with the products and service they are looking for – and that includes the booming condo sector.
This year, we’re seeing impressive growth in the new condo construction market. Last year alone there were 53,000 new condos built, and it’s already clear that number will be even higher in 2019.
To make sure our partners have the right loan products to help their clients, QLMS introduced a new condo construction product called, CondoMAXimum. This new loan offering aims to reduce the pain points in condo financing. CondoMAXimum benefits include no non-warrantable pricing adjustment, a 25% pre-sale requirement versus 50% required by most lenders and we’ve relaxed our construction completion requirements. Brokers now have more options and flexibility for their clients. We’ve heard nothing but great reviews from local builders and realtors, too.
In addition, QLMS just launched new technology that’s adding speed and certainty to condo closings and creating more repeat business. Condo Simply, our new tech-driven tool, can eliminate nearly two weeks out of the condo financing process. Our partners have access to a database that compiles every condo that QMLS has approved. Our partners’ clients don’t need to submit a condo questionnaire – saving them an average of $450. No need for a second approval, either. These two tools give our partners what they need to help their clients meet their homeownership goals.
Q. In what ways does QLMS technology allow you to pass savings along to your partners’ clients?
A. One of QLMS’ newest tools is Value Genius. It adds speed and certainty to the appraisal process and offers cost-savings advantages, too.
We run both Fannie and Freddie’s underwriting engines simultaneously, and if our partner doesn’t receive a property inspection waiver or automated collateral evaluation, we determine that the property may be Value Genius-eligible. Next, we send an individual to the property to collect data. No licensed appraiser is needed, which is a cost-savings for our partners’ clients. Then, we provide a property valuation waiver or request a desktop appraisal. No property revisit is needed.
The entire process can be completed in four days or less, which is a game-changer. We just launched Value Genius nationwide, giving more partners the opportunity to use this powerful technology.
Q. QLMS has grown tremendously in the past year. If we asked your partners what sets QLMS apart from other lenders, what do you think they’d point to?
A. You would definitely get a wide variety of responses including our incredibly responsive support team, our innovative technology and our award-winning servicing platform – but one key point is important to all of our partners: saving their clients money.
Saving money makes homebuyers happy, keeps them going back to their mortgage broker and keeps the broker coming back to us. This is why our new Power MI offering is so exciting. Power MI makes our industry leading mortgage insurance rates even lower, giving our partners the ability to save their clients nearly $5,000 without competing on rates and fees.
Here’s a scenario I use: if your client is taking out a $300,000 loan, with a 95 LTV and they have a 740 FICO – their BPMI payment will only be $80 per month instead of the $120 industry average. That can save them $4,680 by the time their mortgage insurance falls off.
Not only are our partners saving their clients money every month, but they can qualify more clients because the reduction in MI payments leads to a lower DTI. I encourage all our partners to leverage Power MI. If another lender has a lower interest rate, our MI can make up the difference in many cases.
When you partner with QLMS, you get the resources, products, technology and MI that takes your business to the next level.
