Synergy One Lending
Based in southern California, Synergy One Lending is a national lender with branches in regional markets across the U.S. Their mission is to modernize the home lending experience, which includes focusing on investments in technology to provide digital lending experiences for homebuyers.
The Challenge
Synergy One was excited to start using Fannie Mae’s positive rent payment history feature because it supports their strategic initiative to responsibly expand homeownership opportunities to more borrowers. To realize the full benefit of incorporating the new enhancement into their workflow, the leadership team identified two key considerations that would enable its success. First, they needed to ensure prospective homebuyers were aware that they offer renters the option of using their consistent rent payments to help them qualify for a mortgage. Additionally, they needed a solution that would help their loan officers connect first-time homebuyers to the opportunity and highlight the benefit of digitally verifying their information.
The Solution
Synergy One is integrating the power of consistent rent payments within their existing Advantage enterprise marketing messages to homebuyers. By creating this branding consistency, they are capitalizing on the benefit of positive rent payments as one more “advantage” of doing business with Synergy One.
To bring this new benefit to market, Synergy One is creating a multichannel awareness campaign that will reach multiple target audiences, including prospective homebuyers. The lender is also marketing the feature to real estate agents, who have a strong influence as trusted advisors to homebuyers, to amplify the message. The campaign is grounded in direct customer emails, website promotions, social media, and online advertising. They are focused on the best user experience to drive customers to a landing page that discusses how to boost the mortgage evaluation using rent payment history.
This cuts through all kinds of segments and demographics. It makes the homeownership goal more approachable.
Synergy One CEO Steve Majerus explains, “We’ve branded this the Renters Advantage because it speaks directly to the market segment that will benefit from this innovative feature.”
Supporting their sales force with resources is also a cornerstone of their rollout. Loan officers are provided custom Renters Advantage flyers to promote the use of positive rent payment history and given case studies of successful outcomes in internal meetings and newsletters to share with potential homebuyers. Sales teams are provided with scripts to drive customer conversations.
An important part of their plan is ensuring the customer experience aligns with marketing messaging. Synergy One tailored their customer-facing digital process to encourage the use of verification of asset (VOA) reports, which are needed to assess rent payment history. Synergy One’s online point-of-sale system incorporates messaging about the VOA process at the beginning of the online loan application. “We provide a totally digital application that allows borrowers to enroll in our electronic asset verification service, which enables us to quickly assess and increase a borrower’s purchasing power,” says Majerus.
This has led to successful results, with Synergy One’s VOA adoption rate by prospective homebuyers ranging from 73% – 78%. The lender continues to monitor and evaluate messaging to determine what will drive increased adoption for digital verification, with the ultimate goal of creating a frictionless and successful homebuying experience for their customers.
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