Acre Affordability - How One Broker Saves an Hour Every Day
Automating affordability can save an hour out of a broker's day.
Another week, another rate rise
With six base rate changes in the last nine months, it seems like the lenders are sent scrabbling to revise all their products almost every time we’re ready to recommend one for a case.
On top of that, recent changes to the Bank’s affordability rules have added to the general state of flux and seem to have given a licence to lenders to constantly change their own definition of what is, and isn’t, affordable for our clients. Indeed, the variability in bank or building society’s affordability assessments has increased greatly recently, and we expect it to continue to do so.
It was only a couple of years ago that I spent an afternoon with one of our early clients watching how he was handling cases (an important part of how we learn how to make the best possible mortgage software for brokers). He spent upwards of an hour of that time repeatedly keying the same case into different banks’ intermediary portals to try and find one that was willing to lend to a particular client.
From that pain, Acre Sourcing’s in-built, automated affordability was born.
Every time a case is loaded into sourcing, we apply our state-of-the-art product and criteria filters to the results. But we don’t stop there. We also call out to over fifty lenders, to get the most accurate assessments of how much each is prepared to lend. No estimates, no guesses based on income multiples and most importantly, no rekeying.
Best of all, it takes less than 30 seconds to get a comprehensive set of answers – and when that’s done, you can exclude all the unaffordable options in a single click. What better way to ensure you’re recommending the right product for the customers?
How does it work, you ask?
We’ve integrated with BrokerSense to provide this seamless experience. Their technology quite literally types in the case details to each bank’s website and takes a screenshot, so you have the proof of research you need. You won’t need a separate account or login to take advantage of this –
Acre’s taken care of it. And that’s not the only thing we’ve taken care of – we’ve also covered the bill for you, so your affordability searches are included within your overall subscription.
So, whilst we can’t control interest rates or how often lenders feel like changing their rules, we can take one of the most boring and laborious tasks in the typical broker’s day and automate it for you so you can get back to doing what you do best – finding the right new mortgage for your clients.
As for the original broker who spent so long keying affordability, he assures me he’s now saving an hour a day on average. Just think about what you could do with that time back in your life.
Learn more
Want to know more about how you could be saving time and money whilst providing better advice for your customers? Book a demo of the Acre system today by clicking here.