I've been in the industry for a few years now. As our book has grown, and with everything COVID happening we have seen an unbelievable uptick in refis. Mortgage companies bug our office hours out of the day to get them documentation to close their loan and request an unacceptable amount of revisions. Is it legal to charge them a fee for this? It's a massive drain on our time and doesn't benefit us in the slightest.
Is this legal?
- Thread starter Ambrose
- Start date
- 2,263
No, cant charge a fee. No, mortgage company cant want a loan to cover the mortgage, only to cover the dwelling. There is usually an opportunity to upsell the jewelry or scheduled personal property.
- 2,624
Sure it does. You get to keep your clients. When the mortgage company tells the applicant that his loan is on hold because the can't get the insurance information, your client is going to be pretty upset with you.
- 2,263
What you CAN do is tell the caller from the mortgage company that you require 5 days notice (even though you dont) and make them sweat just a little for waiting till the last minute to request the information.
- 2,624
It's not the lender that will sweat, it's the borrower whose loan is on the line, an insured who might be looking for a new agent on renewal.
With such an "unbelievable uptick in refis," how many clients can an agency afford to lose?
With such an "unbelievable uptick in refis," how many clients can an agency afford to lose?
whatyouwantfinally
Guru
- 457
When I was a loan officer 3 million years ago (roughly), we went further than that. By the time we called the borrower with the news, we already had a new agent ready to quote/bind a new policy quickly enough to keep the loan from being held up. Some people would actually explain this to current agents who weren't moving quickly enough for them.
whatyouwantfinally
Guru
- 457
It's not the lender, but often the loan officer IS sweating.
- Thread starter
- #8
I'm not worried about this. We have formed great, and meaningful relationships with the vast majority of our policyholders. If it comes down to 'us vs. them' we have a major advantage. A hassle during the loan process usually means that they'll look somewhere else for the loan, which has happened a lot. The insurance is already in place.
Not concerned with this either. Very few people are going to leave and move five policies over a refi with someone they probably don't have a relationship with when they already have insurance in force.
whatyouwantfinally
Guru
- 457
It happened often enough that the insurance agents we worked with considered us a gold mine.
When people refinance, they often count on not making their mortgage payment that month. When they hear they're going to have to make a payment they weren't expecting to because you're not moving fast enough, loyalty...decreases.
- 2,195
Ambrose - I almost totally and completey agree with you about this. Everything is last minute with these guys and about half the time much of the salient information is missing or just incomplete and sometimes even wrong - then they come back complaining.
I usually respond, depending on the insurer with the amount of time required to perform the change. Second the moment it gets testy, I just loop in the client. I have found over the years that most people appeciate it.
I usually respond, depending on the insurer with the amount of time required to perform the change. Second the moment it gets testy, I just loop in the client. I have found over the years that most people appeciate it.
Similar threads
