Prosperity Becomes More Prosperous with Total Expert

Prosperity Home Mortgage is a full-service mortgage lender offering home buying and refinance loans. The company, which is based in Fairfax, Va., employs more than 500 mortgage consultants in branches throughout 49 U.S. states and the District of Columbia. It funded 26,681 home loans with a loan volume of $9.6 billion in 2022.

Like other mortgage lenders, Prosperity has found it much more difficult to make mortgage loans since the Federal Reserve began raising interest rates in an effort to lower inflation over the past two years. Its business has also taken a hit amid low sales of existing homes and new home construction.

To boost its business, Prosperity sought a platform that would add value to its real estate partners, mortgage consultants, and loan officers, according to Jelaire Grillo, the lender’s brand ambassador and customer relationship manager.

Prosperity had a legacy solution, but it was outdated and no longer fit with the company’s changing business model, according to Grillo. “We have a really unique business model because of all of the types of loans we do. We needed a solution that was fresher and would allow us to really build something out that could handle our business model.”

Prosperity eventually settled on Total Expert’s Customer Intelligence solution, which is providing the behavior and intent data needed to connect with customers at key moments of opportunity and unlock growth. By using Customer Intelligence to monitor their database, mortgage consultants are alerted when key engagement opportunities occur, such as when a prospect or customer lists a home or has credit pulled. Customer Intelligence alerts loan officers to take action and reach out with relevant communications and automatically triggers a journey that immediately begins nurturing the lead.

Prosperity implemented the solution in the summer of 2022, and it has really paid off.

Total Expert is much more intuitive, Grillo says. The solution also offers customization options, enabling Prosperity to continue to add value, build better relationships with its real estate partners, and surface opportunities to sales teams using different indicators, different journeys, and other lead indicators.

“There is a lot of business to be had, and there are existing databases, but oftentimes people will go into their databases and they’re not entirely sure where to start or who to focus on,” Grillo says. “Total Expert’s Customer Intelligence tool alerts allow us to monitor our existing databases, surface up those opportunities, and guide our loan officers in the best way to handle those opportunities.”

Prosperity customized the thresholds, such as loan-to-value levels or credit scores, to trigger the alerts for the mortgage consultants. All indicators are tested with pilot groups before being rolled out in full. The pilots usually run between two weeks and a month.

In the first six months, Total Expert Customer Intelligence triggered 27,904 alerts for Prosperity’s loan officers. Among those have been 8,247 credit alerts and 7,840 alerts for borrowers whose estimated equity grew to the point that they became ideal candidates for home equity loans. As a result of these alerts, Prosperity closed an additional $141 million in funded loans.

“We’re seeing a lot more traffic with our existing databases,” Grillo says.

As a result of the alerts, loan officers are reconnecting with some existing and pre-approved customers, including ones that have received offers from other lenders. In many instances, Prosperity was able to make new offers that retained the accounts.

In the coming year, Grillo expects Prosperity to focus more on rate alerts, using Total Expert to identify good times to offer new, lower rates to existing customers—heading off similar offers from competitors. This will be important as most experts expect the Fed to slowly start bringing interest rates down in 2024. 

The Payoff

In the first six months after Prosperity Home Mortgage started using Total Expert's Customer Intelligence tool, the lender has seen the following results:

• 27,904 total alerts;
• 8,247 credit alerts;
• 7,840 alerts for borrowers whose estimated equity grew to the point that they became ideal candidates for home equity loans; and
• $141 million in funded loans.