5 Text Templates to Move Clients Through the Home Financing Journey

The Kelly Zitlow Group of Cornerstone Home Lending is dedicated to excellence and providing their clients with an honest, well communicated, and knowledge-based lending experience. The client-centric focus has resulted in Kelly Zitlow being ranked in the top 1% of mortgage lenders in the nation.

As times changed and technology advanced, it became clear their clients and real estate partners wanted to text.

“We had to find a way that my team and I could engage with our clients via text messaging without using our personal cell phones. TextUs was the answer,” said Zitlow.

With TextUs, Cornerstone was able to proactively reach out to clients to move them through the home financing journey, create templated outreach workflows to save time, and sync messages to Salesforce to ensure all team members are on the same page.

In a fast-paced industry like mortgage lending, the more time your team saves automating repeated activities and delegating rote actions to technology, the more time they have to spend with clients — building meaningful relationships and moving them towards their dream homes.

“It allows us to engage with our clients in the format they want and has made our process more efficient. We can answer quick questions and avoid phone call tag or missed emails.” said Vanessa Salerno, Client Support Coordinator at the Kelly Zitlow Group of Cornerstone Home Lending.

“We have text message templates that move clients through the entire process. These templates include video messages, reminders, status updates, follow up, and online review requests. We leverage technology to create a smooth, well-communicated experience for our clients and real estate partners. TextUs is part of our communication strategy, and we use it daily,” said Salerno.

Templates don’t have to be boring or formulaic. This Cornerstone team has many engaging templates, but clients love the ones that includes a picture of the team celebrating when they close on a home.

“They always respond to those. Sometimes we get a photo back of clients getting their keys or entering their home on moving day. It builds a strong connection, let’s them know we care, and they weren’t just a number. They are a family — we’re honored to guide them through the process, and we’ll be there the next time they want to buy or refinance, too,” said Salerno.

5 text messaging templates Cornerstone uses for key points in the home financing process:

Setting up an initial call:

Hi {First}, it’s a pleasure to meet you. Are you available this afternoon for a quick call to go over your home financing goals?

Thank you for a referral: 

Hi {Realtor First}, thank you so much for the introduction. We look forward to guiding your buyer through the process and promise to take great care of them.

Post-referral follow up with client: 

{Realtor First} mentioned you’re eager to start the process, are you available this afternoon to hop on a call to discuss next steps?

Text with paperwork: 

Here’s the link to get started on your home loan pre-qualification, along with a list of the documents needed. Let us know if you have any questions.

Nudge to get paperwork filed: 

Hi {First}, I wanted to confirm you received Kelly’s email from yesterday with next steps. Let us know if you have any questions!

Quickly and easily direct contacts’ attention to important information you’ve sent through other channels.

Now more than ever, a multichannel approach to communication is crucial. Prospects’ time and attention is spread so thin, it’s likely they miss important messages even if they’re eager to communicate with you.

The team at Cornerstone found that sending a quick follow up text message to a voicemail or email can help direct people’s attention to information they might otherwise miss.

“Voicemail tag is frustrating, and emails get missed. People are busy, and texting reminders keep them on track with what’s needed to help them achieve their home purchase or refinance goals,” said Salerno.

Additional templates Cornerstone uses to help their contacts focus and make sure important information doesn’t slip through the cracks:

• Hi {First}, just left you a detailed voicemail going over the next steps to complete the home loan pre-qualification application. Please listen and give me a call or shoot me a text if you have any questions. Have a great day!
• Hello there, wanted to make sure you caught the email I just sent — please read it closely and connect with us if you have questions.
• Hi {First}, thanks for reaching out — here’s a video that gives insight into the loan process and shares a bit about how we work. Let me know what time this afternoon is best to schedule a call.

These simple messages not only get quick responses but make voicemail, email, and video marketing outreach more effective, too.

What’s more, texting helped Cornerstone get out of the spam folder. “If your email goes to spam, clients start thinking you aren’t true to your word. They think you don’t reach out when you say you will. So, once I started realizing some of our emails were going to spam, I would text right after and say, ‘Don’t forget to check your spam folder.’ It helped people to catch it, and know that we do what we say we’ll do.”

Manage follow up across multiple users.

With a small but busy team, remaining agile and flexible helps keep communication flowing. If one team member is out or helping another client, someone else on the team can jump in, pick up the conversation, and keep business moving.

Managing communication between clients, realtors, and a busy internal team also requires precise coordination. “If a client emails, I can jump into Salesforce and send her initial text template along with a 60 second video of Kelly explaining our process. It gives that personal touch until they talk or meet. It also keeps our entire team aligned in Salesforce no matter the form of outreach we use.”

Sync data seamlessly with Salesforce for a single source of truth.

The sheer volume of communication required to help a client get to the finish line in a smooth manner can be overwhelming.

Without a unified system that allows teams to track and share information and gain insights into best practices through analytics, it’s easy to get lost, waste time, and even lose business.

“TextUs logs all our text messages in Salesforce. It helps keep our messaging consistent and allows the team to be aware of where the client is in the process, so details don’t fall through the cracks,” said Salerno.