Are mortgage lenders your LinkedIn profile?
Confronted with excessive mortgage charges, 6.62% for a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage on the time of writing, and soaring home prices, lenders are turning to social media websites like LinkedIn to higher perceive debtors.
Kevin Leibowitz, president and CEO of Grayton Mortgage, informed Realtor earlier this month that whereas the lender doesn’t have “an official course of” for trying by a borrower’s social media accounts, they could nonetheless examine unofficially.
“It’s useful to have a look at LinkedIn profiles in the course of the utility course of,” Leibowitz informed the outlet. “It can provide a clearer image as to the job historical past, description, size of employment, locale, and so on.”
The data may be vital as a result of “typically, a borrower does not present a full image of what they’ve carried out for the previous couple of years,” Leibowitz defined.
He said that lenders might use LinkedIn to fill in gaps in employment and create an entire profile of the borrower.
So, whereas lenders primarily examine financial institution statements, credit score stories, and tax returns when assessing a borrower’s historical past, their notion of a borrower may be influenced by social media platforms like LinkedIn.
Associated: Barbara Corcoran Says This Is the Interest Rate Magic Number That Will Make the Market ‘Go Ballistic’
What ought to debtors do to maximise their possibilities of getting a mortgage? Mike Olson, a senior underwriter on the lender Second Avenue, informed Realtor.com that each element on LinkedIn ought to align with what’s written on a mortgage utility. This implies the identical job titles, places, and dates.
He additionally really useful refraining from writing posts “that might increase purple flags,” like posts about monetary stress or job loss.
The median price of a house bought within the U.S. within the closing quarter of 2024 was $419,200, up from $338,600 within the final quarter of 2020.
