Getting mortgage rates online has never been more important. According to the Zillow Group Report on Consumer Housing Trends, 9 out of 10 homebuyers will use an online resource at some point during the buying process. Whether it’s something as simple as a mortgage calculator, or as important as applying for a mortgage, the amount of people doing it online is high and steadily growing. With more homebuyers than ever using these resources, the next logical step is to put your rates online, so that all of those online buyers can easily find your mortgage rates while still early on in the buying process.

The ability to test changes and monitor how they impact business is a huge advantage for any company. The testing process is critical for companies that want to try new things, and see if the changes they’re making are having a lasting and positive impact on their business. However, without the right tools and setup, this testing process can be slow. You need everything in one place, and operating at the fastest possible speed so that you aren’t wasting all of your time testing, and instead spending your time implementing and reaping the benefits of these changes.

Last week we took an updated look at mortgage quote seasonality, determining whether or not the time of year really makes a difference on mortgage quote volume. As it turns out, it does! (To an extent.)

With that in mind, and as the busiest time for mortgages gets closer, have you thought about what you’re going to do to prepare? While the summer and early fall are verifiably busy with a higher volume of mortgage quotes, that doesn’t mean they appear out of thin air, nor do they nurture and convert themselves.

Fortunately for you, this increased volume doesn’t have to put a strain on your work day or add extra hours into your week – that is, if you’re smart about how you approach things. Here are three things you should do right now with increased mortgage lead volume on the horizon.

The weather getting warmer, schools starting to close, and folks starting to spend more time outside all point to the same thing: summer is quickly approaching. For the mortgage industry, this also means that the busiest period of the year is about to begin. About two years ago, we looked into mortgage quote seasonality from 2009 – 2014 to see just how much of a “busy period” the summer months really were compared to the rest of the year. Those numbers looked like this:

With two years now passed since then, we wanted to pull the numbers from 2015 and 2016 to see if things had stayed consistent, or if they’d changed, and look into why any changes (or non-changes) had occurred. Here’s what we came up with:

Comparing the two charts together, two conclusions can be drawn. The first is that rates are still the determining factor in volume. Notice that from 2009 to 2014 rates were significantly higher than from 2015 to 2016, and as a result, the overall percentage of yearly quotes for the first third of the year went up. This caused a much more balanced graph in the last two years than the five years prior, which saw a steady decline in rates from the year’s start to its end.

Introspective evaluation is an important part of any process, whether in business, hobbies, or just life in general. People who want to be the best at something are always looking at what they’re doing, how they’re doing it, and how to make those processes and habits better so that they can enjoy continual success. In a business that moves and changes as much as mortgages, this inward-thinking is especially vital.

We’ve often preached about the importance of time-saving in the mortgage industry. As a growing number of borrowers become more expectant of an immediate response, finding ways to streamline current daily processes to spend more time getting in touch with them is vital. One such way you can earn back some of that precious time is by removing the need to constantly re-enter data when pricing, but how? Let Mortech help.

The above graphic is an example of a Marksman user that utilizes our integration Encompass’ LOS platform to save themselves from having to rekey data for a pricing scenario. By integrating our pricing engine with Encompass, a lender can input the data they need once – without having to repeat it later – and automatically transfer that scenario between Marksman and Encompass, eliminating the need to manually download and upload the borrower scenario.

As an investor, your ultimate goal is to have as many qualified lenders as possible quoting your products, while reaching more potential borrowers. Fortunately, Mortech aligns with this way of thinking, and works to provide the most accurate and up-to-date investor rate data to our customers, so that they can provide those products to their borrowers. But what makes being a Mortech investor so beneficial is the amount of lenders that can use your rate data to find the best product for their borrowers.

Lenders who use Marksman for pricing use, on average, rate data from nine different investors when finding best execution pricing. This provides them with flexibility to offer the best possible product and rate to their borrowers. As a Marksman investor, you would have a dedicated team working for you to ensure that your rate data and approved lenders remain up to date and consistent, by being provided an open line of communication. This includes supporting any major rate sheet changes or adjustments that may come up.

This communication doesn’t just stop with Mortech, though. Have a specific product or special offer you want highlighted? Mortech helps market your product offerings to our lenders so that it can be noticed and offered immediately.

As a mortgage lender, keeping your online rate tables updated is vital for presenting only the most accurate information to borrowers. Delaying rate updates can cause potential customers to be misinformed, and result in a less than favorable first impression for your brand. It’s this fear of getting off on the wrong foot that has many lenders constantly posting and updating their rates, trying their best to maintain accuracy and trust with their borrowers.

The toughest part about bringing information together from several different sources is compiling it all into a single, cohesive body that ties together. Imagine you have 100 different sources, all speaking in different languages and accents, with different mannerisms and phrases. When you’re putting this all together, you need to make it one language and style, so as not to confuse those reading it. You’d probably have one standardized language and writing style that you’d transpose everything to, and using that, you could put your source material together. This is exactly what Mortech APIs do with leads every day.

Often times, lenders focus on how they’ll sell a prospect on a loan when they have a conversation with them. It’s the simple idea of having a sales pitch ready when a potential borrower walks through the door. But what many lenders might not realize is the number of borrowers they could be losing before they’ve even had a chance to talk with them at all. When submitting a mortgage application, the experience a borrower goes through is the first thing that determines if they’re going to stick through the entire online application process, and having a slow, time-consuming, 1003 applications can cause a lot of borrowers to stop the mortgage process when they’ve only just started.