High Touch Servicing: A Win-Win-Win All Around

High Touch Servicing: A Win-Win-Win All Around

By Dick Hebl, Vice President/Servicing Operations

For every one person who undergoes a foreclosure or declares bankruptcy, hundreds of other homeowners and small businesses are quietly working hard to stay afloat during the lingering recession.

In a time when housing prices have plummeted and unemployment is rampant, borrowers need a more personal, high-touch approach that enables them to weather the economic storm. A new, more flexible approach not only helps financially strapped borrowers, it also helps community development lenders improve the performance of their loan portfolio. And that’s crucial for leveraging scarce community development dollars.

CRF has come up a fresh, more personalized approach to loan servicing that helps community development lenders build trust and rapport with their borrowers while reducing the number of loan defaults. Our “smart” servicing monitors loan activity more closely, allowing lenders to spend more time meeting the needs of their borrowers and communities.

Let me illustrate by telling the story of Dave Moser.

Dave owns Triangle Warehouse, a trucking and storage company in Greensboro, N.C. He has a business loan from CRF, GE Money and People’s Self Help, a local non-profit. Faced with a cash flow shortage, Dave contacted our servicing department and asked if we would modify his payment schedule temporarily.

We worked with Dave and reduced his minimum loan payment for six months simply by obtaining more collateral. Dave used the extra cash to seize a new business opportunity – liquidator inventory management. Now Triangle Warehouse is more profitable than ever.

A “high-touch” approach to servicing gave Dave the leeway he needed and prevented him from defaulting on the loan, which would have put his credit rating and employees at risk. And it enabled him to take advantage of a new opportunity to improve and expand his business.

Now that’s what I call a win-win-WIN!

CRF is now providing loan servicing to lenders with non-traditional residential and business loans that require a higher level of servicing, such as community development financial institutions (CDFIs), cities, municipalities, and regional economic development organizations. For more information, go to CRF Contract Loan Servicing.