Pre-listing Home Seller Behavior

A significant amount of MonitorBase’s resources are invested in collecting and analyzing consumer credit behaviors. We’ve uncovered some we think you’ll find interesting.

51% - The percentage of consumers that had one or more mortgage inquiry alert prior to a home listing event.*

132 - The number of days, on average, that a mortgage inquiry alert happened prior to a home listing event.*

1.5 - 2% - The percentage of your past clients that will apply for a mortgage every month.*

Let’s dig into this first one deeper. It’s revealing!

Essentially, more than half of the about-to-enter the sell-market consumers are applying for a purchase mortgage. It matters not whether the listing is being navigated by an agent or FSBO. With some 49% applying after the listing, we can impute that many consumers are highly confident about their ability to get approved. (Maybe a little too confident given the amount of paperwork required to close a mortgage nowadays, and how fast homes are selling. Originating early is sage advice.)

This also means that the home listing intent signal … also known as the “pre-mover” dataset … is predictive as well. Half of the time the mortgage trigger lead is the first intent signal, and half of the time the home listing is.

For Servicers, this information is compelling. Many initiate borrower-retention strategies when a payoff is ordered. This is almost always too late when a closing is pending with another lender. Knowing their customer is “making a move” … months ahead of doing so … can enable reach-outs while there are still opportunities for retention.

Over the coming year, success in the mortgage industry will be driven by abilities to mine leads upstream of competitors. Yes, home prices are still strong … and inventory is low in many areas … but there are cracks starting to emerge in the boom. Refinance volume is nearly gone (excepting a few cash-out transactions). Rates may bump up and down, creating short lived refinance opportunities. But not anything to stake a business-plan on.

Having insights about mortgage trigger leads … like those I’ve presented here … can certainly strengthen abilities to mine.

*Based on a 2017 sample of MonitorBase behavior models.