The situation
An originator in Tampa specializing in low-down-payment FHA buyers. The challenge: half the inbound leads were sub-620 credit and weren’t immediately bankable. The originator had been turning them away or giving generic credit advice, losing the relationship — and the eventual loan when their score improved.
What got shipped
Three workflows from the FHA Loan Specialist sub-niche:
- FHA calculator on every landing page — replaced a generic calculator with the snapshot’s FHA-correct calculator (UFMIP financed, LTV-based MIP).
- Credit-repair partner referral workflow — sub-620 borrowers entered a partnership track with a credit-repair vendor. Their progress was tracked via shared CRM access, and the snapshot fired re-engagement triggers when their score crossed thresholds.
- DPA program library by ZIP — borrowers entering the funnel received down-payment-assistance program info matched to their location automatically.
Illustrative outcomes
Over 90 days:
- FHA calculator scenarios on the site rose to ~2,100/month, driven by paid traffic to FHA-targeted landing pages.
- Email-capture conversion from calculator interaction averaged ~9%.
- Total pre-quals issued grew 38% over baseline.
- 44 sub-620 borrowers entered the credit-repair referral program per month.
- 12 of those credit-repair borrowers crossed the 620 threshold within 90 days and converted to a pre-qual — loans that would have been lost without the partnership.
What worked
The credit-repair partnership was the unique edge. Most FHA originators turn away sub-620 borrowers. By creating a tracked partnership instead, the originator captured borrowers competitors had dismissed — and the relationship was strong by the time the score crossed the threshold, because the borrower had been in regular contact for 60-90 days during their credit work.
The DPA library by ZIP improved conversion materially. Florida has multiple DPA programs (Florida Assist, HFA Preferred, HFA Advantage, county-level programs) that most originators don’t actively educate borrowers on. When the snapshot’s intake form captured the borrower’s ZIP and the response email included DPA-program-specific info matched to that ZIP, conversion to pre-qual lifted measurably.
What we’d do differently
We’d add the VA calculator and VA Loan Specialist page into the funnel mix earlier. Tampa is a high-veteran-population market, and the originator was leaving VA opportunity on the table by being FHA-only positioned. The snapshot supports running multiple sub-niche positions; this originator could be FHA-primary and VA-secondary.
Caveat
This is an illustrative scenario. The credit-repair partnership specifically depends on having a credible, reputable credit-repair vendor in your market — not all credit-repair vendors are trustworthy, and a bad partnership damages the borrower relationship instead of helping it. Vet the partner before turning on the referral workflow.
“Borrowers who'd been told 'come back when your credit is better' actually came back after the credit-repair partnership. We built a community pipeline that competitors don't have.”