Marketing Tips from the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau (CFPB)

When marketing your mortgages or your mortgage company, it's important to both be effective as well as comply with any regulations that may be set forth by the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau, or CFPB. According to the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau the marketing tactics set forth by mortgage companies may not be deceptive, and there are ways to market your mortgages while remaining true and honest to the consumers you may be looking to attract.

The best way to learn just how to market your mortgage company is to learn what to avoid first, as this will allow you to build a strategy that is both pleasing to those looking to apply for a mortgage as well as the protection agencies put into place for borrowers. These marketing tactics to avoid are:

• Advertising a fixed rate that will change over time – If an interest rate is fixed, it is a rate that won't change as time goes on, and advertising rates claiming to be fixed, but may change going forward, is a tactic deemed deceptive by the CFPB. There is an exception, however, and this is if the fixed rate is clearly stated to be only fixed for a certain period of time, and letting potential homebuyers know that these rates are subject to change once this allotted time period runs up.
• Comparing hypothetical rates to rates on an advertised mortgage – Comparing hypothetical rates to rates advertised on a particular mortgage is a marketing method deemed deceptive to consumers. What this does is leads consumers into falsely thinking that the hypothetical rates are actual accurate rates, when they are in fact estimates, and thereby misleads them into thinking current rates may be better.
• Misrepresenting a loan as a government loan – When marketing a mortgage, it's important that loans not endorsed by government entities are not labelled as such, as this is another marketing method deemed deceptive by the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau. Unless the loan in question is actually an endorsed government loan, claims of such should not be used in marketing.
• Claims that loan will eliminate debt – Claiming that a particular mortgage will eliminate, or could eliminate, debts to other lenders is another marketing strategy to avoid as it can mislead consumers into false information or promises.

When marketing mortgages, lenders should always keep in mind just how their claims may come across to the borrowers they're looking to attract, and be aware that they are responsible for how their advertisements or marketing tactics may be misconstrued. According to the CFPB, mortgage marketing and advertisement strategies are prohibited from misleading or misdirection borrowers into thinking that a particular mortgage is different from what it actually may be, so marketing tactics are always best kept honest in order to avoid future problems down the road. Advertised results should always be kept true to actual results, and this is done in order to eliminate any misunderstandings that may arise through digital or physical marketing. See more at Mortgage Disclosure Info from the CFPB.

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