You may remember my story of a work colleague who went through the home building process on two different occasions with two different builders in a span of two years—and lived to tell the tale. The story behind their reason for doing so is more suited for a conversation accompanied by Earthly beverages of the participants’ choice.
This previous post, titled Building on a Foundation of Service, focused on the differences between the two builders. One builder was part of a huge national chain while the other was a small family-owned operation. The differences, which were not unlike those between large financial institutions and local credit unions, included things like first impressions, flexibility during the building process and customer service. For this post, I’d like to reflect on “flexibility.”
In summary: the large builder offered limited options and couldn’t make changes to the original plans. In fact, my colleague soon learned that all the builder’s homes are basically delivered as “kits” and assembled on site. In my mind, I’m thinking what if the pieces don’t all fit together? Yikes! On the other hand, the small builder never said, “We can’t do that.” They always listened to my colleague’s questions and ideas and worked on a solution for their unique needs (and not necessarily at a higher price, which was not the case with any add-ons, if even possible, with the large builder).
The key word I’d like to focus on is “options.” In the credit union mortgage industry, each member is unique, both in their wants and needs for a mortgage loan and their vital statistics, as I like to call them – income, credit score, down payment availability, etc. To assist the most members as possible with homeownership through the life of the loan (and beyond), credit union mortgage lenders must be flexible and offer options on various fronts.
Options are something myCUmortgage prides itself on as we strive to be the ideal mortgage partner for credit unions across the country. So much so, the team recently created a campaign using the acronym O.P.T.I.O.N.S. I was curious as to what the letters stood for, so I slithered over to visit my colleagues and get some answers. What I learned is that these options are valuable for both existing and prospective partner credit unions to know. Point your eyestalks here:
Offerings: You can provide members more options by expanding your credit union’s product offerings through the addition of FHA, VA and USDA mortgages without the added cost of increased staffing or overhead. Did you know myCUmortgage is the #1 VA CUSO mortgage lender for the 4th year in a row?* Just sayin’…
Partnership: A good mortgage partner should offer flexible partnership options to include wholesale and correspondent lending, for example, as well as a full-service, end-to-end solution that empowers you to scale or delegate as needed.
Teamwork: If you have the option to leverage the experience of the myCUmortgage experts, do it! They are trained in the credit union philosophy to address any staffing hurdles you face.
Insights: Through a good mortgage partner, your options can include access to digital marketing tools, automated loan notifications and CRM solutions, all designed to boost application conversion rates and grow your mortgage business.
Opportunities: Maintaining the status quo isn’t a good option for any business. With myCUmortgage, each of our partner credit unions has its own Partner Success Manager to help them spot and seize new market opportunities with roadmap planning and ongoing collaboration.
No File Minimums: Not having to worry about file minimums is an obvious option for credit union mortgage lenders to take. Get peace of mind knowing that you can rely on our secondary market funding solutions, even in fluctuating markets.
Systems: If you opt for a partnership with myCUmortgage, you and your members can navigate smoothly through our state-of-the-art loan origination system and mortgage servicing portal, ensuring a seamless experience for loan officers and members.
If you’re a current partner credit union, you’ve enjoyed and benefited from many of these options. Which of these have helped you get more members into homes? Please share! Which ones would you like to learn more about? Talk to your Partner Success Manager to get the options best suited for you and your members.
If you’re not a current partner, do we have the options you’re looking for? Which ones really stand out? Are there others you’d like to see? Let us know and be sure to visit our Options page to learn more.
It’s time for me to confront the biggest option I face on a daily basis: What to have for dinner! I’m open to suggestions – please share! (And it you want to take me up on that earlier mentioned beverage and storytelling, look me up at Partner Conference!)
* U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs – VA Home Loans lender loan volume reports.