Home equity lending is the story moving in mortgage marketing today. National Mortgage News, citing TransUnion, reports second-quarter home equity originations rose 10.1% year over year to 757,000, with HELOC originations up 20.3%. Its headline puts the connection plainly: lead with equity as refis stall. This morning's jobs report, with payrolls up 165,000 per the Bureau of Labor Statistics, is a natural peg for a message about what borrowers can do while rates stay where they are.
The rate math explains why. Bankrate's 30-year fixed is 7.18%, the low of its 30-day window and inside a 90-day range of 6.67% to 7.57%. A borrower whose first mortgage rate is well below 7.18% has no refinance case, because replacing that loan would raise the rate on the whole balance. A second loan or line of credit leaves the first mortgage untouched, so the conversation for those clients is about the equity in the house, not the rate on the first loan.
The tactical move is a short equity-check message to your past clients, built around one question: what is the house worth, and what is left after the first mortgage. Offer to run the number for them rather than quoting a rate or a payment in the message itself. Quoted terms in a home-equity ad bring required disclosures, so keep the first touch to the offer to run the numbers and move the specifics into the conversation.
filter your closed loans to clients with a first-mortgage rate at or below 5.5% who closed at least 12 months ago, and send each one a two-line equity-check offer.