Earlier this month we wrote about the level of self-service that Mortech’s new Marketplace Simulator can provide our users. However, with such a robust tool at your disposal, knowing how to best utilize it to maximize results can be tricky. With that in mind, we wanted to help you better understand the benefits of the Marketplace Simulator so that you can begin reaping the benefits it has to offer. So here are four reasons why you should be using Mortech’s Marketplace Simulator today.

With only a stop in the Senate before reaching the desk of President Trump, the Financial CHOICE Act has gained some momentum. The House passed the bill by a vote of 233-186, but Democrats and Republicans seem to be split on their support.

Introduced by House Financial Services Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling, R-Texas, the bill - short for Creating Hope and Opportunity for Investors, Consumers and Entrepreneurs - would abolish the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act with major ramifications to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). The CFPB’s name would be changed to the Consumer Financial Opportunity Agency, an executive agency with a director that would be appointed and removed by the president.

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.

Housing in the first quarter of 2017 was much better than expected, considering the tepid economic growth we experienced. This is partly due to the surprisingly low interest rates that have been around 4% for the 30-year fixed. Rates are expected to rise later this year but continue to hold steady. Economic growth is expected to pick back up this year, with an expected average of 2.3 percent.

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.

The refinance report released by the FHFA shows that refinance volume was down in the first quarter compared with the fourth quarter of 2016. The possible culprit of the lower numbers is the higher mortgage rates. Mortgage rates are still a half-percent higher than the lowers we saw in 2016.

Recently I went to a car show and was blown away by all of the real-time stats available on the dashboards of the newer vehicles (and, of course, the new car smell). Things like individual tire pressure, exact engine temp, oil pressure, etc. were all available for the driver to see in on convenient place. It got me thinking about Mortech’s status page - just like a car’s dashboard, the status page is a real-time look into Mortech’s system performance.

Really, you should think of Marksman as your vehicle to retrieving fast accurate pricing, giving a glance at all of the different services Mortech provides. Whether it be Marksman Rates, Lead Posting Services, or email marketing just to name a few, all have a real-time status to show on this page. If Marksman is your vehicle, then think of this status page as your personal dashboard. Not only does this page help us be more transparent with you about availability and performance of Mortech products and services, but allows you to quickly and easily check on the status of your 'vehicle' without having to call your 'mechanic' - your Mortech account manager, in this case. 

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.