FormFree® announced that mortgage lenders using AccountChek® verification of asset (VOA) reports in conjunction with a Freddie Mac Loan Product Advisor® (LPA℠) solution will soon benefit from an enhancement that takes loan applicants’ 12-month on-time rent payment history into consideration when assessing eligibility for qualified first-time homebuyers.
Lenders using FormFree’s AccountChek with LPA will immediately benefit from this enhancement once it is announced in the July publication of the Freddie Mac Single-Family Seller/Service Guide
ATHENS, Ga. /Mortgage and Finance News/ — FormFree® announced that mortgage lenders using AccountChek® verification of asset (VOA) reports in conjunction with a Freddie Mac Loan Product Advisor® (LPA℠) solution will soon benefit from an enhancement that takes loan applicants’ 12-month on-time rent payment history into consideration when assessing eligibility for qualified first-time homebuyers.
The enhancement, which is effective once announced in the Freddie Mac July Guide Bulletin, is designed to expand sustainable homeownership for the millions of Americans by taking their rent payment history into account when assessing eligibility. The expansion of rent payment history can increase the number of mortgage loan applicants who receive an Eligible/Accept recommendation in LPA.
“Freddie Mac is focused on offering value to our clients and improving the borrower experience as we continue to modernize the mortgage process,” said Kevin Kauffman, Freddie Mac Single-Family Vice President of Client and Partner Delivery. “FormFree has been a strong partner on this journey by helping lenders assess credit eligibility for qualified first-time homebuyers.”
LPA will automatically identify on-time rent payments – including those made via mobile apps like Venmo, Zelle and Paypal – within AccountChek VOA reports and take them into consideration when assessing eligibility for qualified first-time homebuyers. Only on-time rent payments will be considered; LPA will not assess late or missing rent payments.
“Freddie Mac’s move to have Loan Product Advisor consider rent payment history in its assessment is part of a much larger push for more equitable home financing practices,” said FormFree Chief Customer Officer Christy Moss. “People of color, who have disproportionately low homeownership rates and are overrepresented among credit invisible consumers will be most positively impacted by this enhancement to LPA.”
“FormFree takes great pride in helping borrowers communicate their ability to pay and equipping lenders with the tools to confidently and efficiently verify borrower credentials,” continued Moss. “We look forward to supporting Freddie Mac as it continues to deploy technology that improves access to sustainable credit for homebuyers.”
Lenders can leverage rent payment history assessment through LPA asset and income modeler (AIM) when they order AccountChek reports of any length, including 30-, 60-, 90- and 180-day reports. In supplying LPA with 12 months of rent payment history, AccountChek has established safeguards that ensure the collection of extended rent payment history does not expose lenders to non-rent transactions, such as large gift deposits, that occurred more than 90 days in the past.
“FormFree remains committed to developing and supporting solutions that correct the racial homeownership gap,” said FormFree Founder and CEO Brent Chandler. “Using FICO scores alone to evaluate creditworthiness excludes a large swath of minority homeowners who pay their rent on time and responsibly manage their finances without borrowing money from creditors. Direct source financial data is the key to understanding consumers’ true ability and FormFree applauds Freddie Mac’s efforts to help lenders finance homeownership more equitably.”
For more information, visit https://www.formfree.com/rent/.
About FormFree:
FormFree® is a market-leading fintech company whose revolutionary products AccountChek® and Passport® make for a more inclusive credit decisioning landscape by enabling lenders to understand people’s true ability to pay (ATP®). Our vision is to leverage source data and data-driven intelligence to usher in a new era of transparent, fair and liquid credit markets. To date, thousands of U.S. lenders and brokers have ordered millions of FormFree’s patented verification reports representing trillions of dollars in loan verifications. FormFree delights borrowers and lenders with a paperless experience, dramatically reduces origination timelines and offers automated analysis and standardized delivery to lenders and investors using a secure ReIssueKey®. For more information, visit https://www.formfree.com/ or follow FormFree on LinkedIn.
Learn More: https://www.formfree.com/
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