Blend Intelligence Overview

Modified on Fri, Apr 11 at 4:32 PM

Blend requests Follow-Ups based on the information entered in the application and automatically sends them to the borrower upon submission. These "intelligent" workflows are part of the standard set of post-submission workflows enabled for a new customer.

  • Automated and Suggested Follow-ups
  • Blend Intelligence Follow-Ups Overview
    • Assets
    • Income
    • Real Estate Owned (REO)
    • Letters of Explanation (LOE)
    • Other

 

Automated and Suggested Follow-ups

Automated Follow-ups - are follow-ups automatically surfaced to the borrower, based on the outlined trigger logic. Customers have the option to configure each item, as noted in Blend Intelligence Follow-Ups Overview below, or opt out of the workflow to conform with their credit policy.

blend_lender_automatically_requested_follow_ups.png

 

Suggested Follow-ups - are follow-ups suggested for a loan team member to review and accept or reject. If accepted, it will send the follow-up request for the borrower to complete. Customers have the opportunity to opt out of using Blend’s suggested follow-up functionality as a whole if desired.

blend_lender_your_to_do_list.png

While loan team members cannot alter which follow-up requests are enabled for the lender as a whole, LOs can remove requests from an individual loan file, if needed.

To request any configurable change or to opt out of available workflows, please reach out to Blend Support.

 

Blend Intelligence Follow-Ups Overview

All documents detailed below will be available in Blend’s Docs tab for download or consumption via your current Blend-LOS integration.

Assets

Gift Letter

Automatically requests a Gift Letter to be signed by your borrower and borrower’s donor, inclusive of the following details:

  • Gift Amount
  • Date of Transfer
  • Donor name, address, phone number, and relation to borrower

Trigger Logic

Borrower indicates using a gift as a partial or full source of their downpayment.
tip 5.png Note: Gift letters are triggered by borrower-entered applications only.

 

Configurable Decisions

Display the lender’s logo on the Gift Letter. To be populated: Institution name, account type, and account number, Method of transfer.

 

Automated or Suggested Follow-up

Automated

 


Account Statements

Automatically requests Bank Statements (covering the last 60 days of activity) for each account a borrower manually enters in Blend.

 

Trigger Logic

Borrower manually entered asset information for an account.

 

Automated or Suggested Follow-up

Automated

 


Generated Asset Statements

Automatically generates Asset Statements (for the last 60 days of activity) for each account a borrower connected in Blend.

 

Trigger Logic

Borrower connected their account in Blend.

 

Automated or Suggested Follow-up

Automated

 

Income

Paystubs

Automatically requests Paystubs for the last 30 days. If applicable, we will also request an end-of-year pay stub.

 

Trigger Logic

To trigger Paystubs, the borrower’s current income source is the following:

  • Employment Pay
  • Military Pay
  • C-Corp, regardless of ownership %
  • Independent Contractor

Additionally, if the borrower’s employment period includes 12/31 and the borrower indicates any bonus, commission, or overtime income, we will also request an end-of-year pay stub.

 

Configurable Decisions

Ability to opt out of requesting up to 2 years of end-of-year paystubs (i.e. only request paystubs for the last 30 days, even if borrower indicates any bonus, commission, or overtime income).

 

Automated or Suggested Follow-up

Automated

 


W-2s

Automatically requests up to 2 years of W-2s for each relevant employer, depending on borrowers’ start date.

 

Trigger logic

Borrower enters any of the following:

  • Employment Pay, excluding Military Pay.
  • C-Corp, regardless of ownership %.

Blend evaluates the start date and uses February 1 as the cutoff date to determine which two years of W-2s are requested.

 

Automated or Suggested Follow-up

Automated

 


1099s

Automatically requests up to 2 years of 1099s.

 

Trigger Logic

Borrower enters Independent Contract Pay.

 

Automated or Suggested Follow-up

Automated

 


Personal Tax Returns

Automatically requests up to 2 years of Tax Returns. Only one set of tax returns will be requested for borrowers who indicated shared filing.

 

Trigger Logic

Blend uses April 15 as the cutoff date to determine which two-year tax returns are requested.

 

Configurable Decisions

  • Option 1: Always request tax returns, except when the borrower has C-corp income.
  • Option 2: Always request tax returns, except when the borrower has employment, military, SSN, or C-Corp pay.

 

Automated or Suggested Follow-up

Automated

 


Business Tax Returns

Automatically requests up to two years of Business Tax Returns

 

Trigger Logic

Borrower enters Business / Self Employment Income

Business Tax Returns

  • Self Employed
  • NOT Sole Proprietor
  • >= 25% ownership

 

Blend evaluates the start date of the income and uses April 15 as the cutoff date to determine if one or two years of Business tax returns are requested.

 

Automated or Suggested Follow-up

Automated

 


K-1s

Automatically requests up to two years of K-1s depending on the type of business and ownership percentage.

 

Trigger Logic

Borrower enters Business / Self Employment Income

  • S-Corp, LLC, or Partnership business type
  • < 25% ownership

 

Blend evaluates the start date of the income and uses January 1 as the cutoff date to determine if one or two years of K-1s are requested.

 

Automated or Suggested Follow-up

Automated

 


Tax Transcripts

Automatically requests Tax Transcripts (4506-C) to be signed by each borrower. With the latest version of the form, only the primary borrower is required to sign the form. The co-borrower does not need to sign.

 

This follow-up is not enabled by default. Reach out to Blend Support if you wish to enable it. When enabled, it will always be requested.

 

Configurable Decisions

The following configurations can be made via the Setup panel at the lender level:

  • Number of years to request - last year, last 2 years, last 3 years.
  • Mail 4506-C to a third-party address. If left unselected, the 4506-C will be mailed to the financial institution.
  • Pre-fill field 5 (IVES Participant Name, Address, and SOR Mailbox ID)
  • Pre-fill field 6 Transcripts requested. Can only request one transcript.
  • Pre-check the following items on 4506-C:
    • Return Transcript (6a)
    • Account Transcript (6b)
    • Record of Account (6c)
    • Form W-2, Form 1099 Series, Form 1098 Series, or Form 5498 series transcript (7)

exclamation_mark_lightbulb.png Tip: If you use Equifax as your IVES tax vendor and have implemented the 4506-C Tax Transcripts follow-up in Blend, you can opt-in to integrate with Equifax to request and receive Tax Transcripts directly from the IRS within Blend. Refer to Tax Transcripts Integration to learn more.

 

Automated or Suggested Follow-up

Automated

 


Annuity Award Letter

Automatically requests an Annuity Award Letter.

 

Trigger Logic

Borrower enters Other Income - Annuity.

 

Automated or Suggested Follow-up

Automated

 


Deferred Compensation Award Letter

Automatically requests a Deferred Compensation Award Letter.

 

Trigger Logic

Borrower enters Other Income - Deferred Compensation.

 

Automated or Suggested Follow-up

Automated

 


Pension Award Letter

Automatically requests a Pension Award Letter.

 

Trigger Logic

Borrower enters Other Income - Pension.

 

Automated or Suggested Follow-up

Automated

 


Social Security Award Letter

Automatically requests a Social Security Award Letter.

 

Trigger Logic

Borrower enters Social Security Income.

 

Automated or Suggested Follow-up

Automated

 


Rental Agreement

Automatically requests a Rental Agreement for each investment property.

 

Trigger Logic

  • Borrower enters Rental Income
    OR
  • The borrower enters owned real estate and selects a Property Use of “Investment/Rental Property”

 

Automated or Suggested Follow-up

Automated

 

Real Estate Owned (REO)

Mortgage Statement

Automatically requests a Mortgage Statement for each relevant property (owned properties with outstanding mortgages and/or subject property that is being refinanced)


Trigger Logic

  • Borrower indicates real estate owned with outstanding mortgage payments (If configured as “all properties”)

  • The borrower applies for a refinance (If configured as “refinance”)

 

Configurable Decisions

Lenders can select whether Mortgage Statements should be requested for:

  • All properties (default configuration)
    OR

  • Refinance

 

Automated or Suggested Follow-up

Automated

 


Other Financing Statement

Automatically requests a statement to validate any Additional Financing.

 

Trigger Logic

Borrower indicates owning the subject property

 

Automated or Suggested Follow-up

Automated

 


Home Insurance Policy

Automatically requests Homeowners Insurance Policy for each relevant property

 

Trigger Logic

<HOI - All Property> Borrower indicates owning real estate. Each owned property will get a separate HOI request.
<HOI - Refi> If refinance, always request HOI.

 

Configurable Decisions

Lenders can select whether the Homeowners Insurance Policy should be requested for all properties or only the refinance property

 

Automated or Suggested Follow-up

Automated

 

Letters of Explanation (LOE)

Large Deposit LOE

Automatically requests a Large Deposit Letter of Explanation with the source of deposit and supporting documentation, as applicable.

Possible supporting documentation includes proof of sale, pay stubs, 2 months of bank statements, or other.

 

Trigger Logic

  • Borrower’s connected assets or manually uploaded bank statements in Blend have deposits that are >=50% of monthly qualifying income (MQI) and MQI >= $800. See LOE Large Deposit Detail for Blends MQI calculation.
    tip_5.png Note: Triggered by borrower-entered applications only.

  • Blend will not request an explanation if it can detect that the deposit is a direct deposit, SSA income, IRS refund, or pension income. If a transaction has a transaction type, Blend uses that to detect the source of the deposit.

 

Configurable Decisions

  • Require borrower(s) signature on LOE (the decision is applicable across all Blend LOEs).
  • Trigger Large Deposit LOEs as automatic follow-ups or suggested follow-ups, requiring LO to review before sending to the borrower.

 

Automated or Suggested Follow-up

Automated or Suggested

 


Credit Inquiry LOE

The Inquiry letter is used to explain all credit inquiries in the last 120 days.

 

Trigger Logic

  • When the lender pulls credit OR when credit is automatically pulled at borrower submission.

 

Configurable Decisions

Require Borrower signature on LOE (the decision is applicable across all Blend LOEs).

 

Automated or Suggested Follow-up

Automated 

 


Late Payment LOE

Automatically requests a Late Payment Letter of Explanation with a borrower-provided reason for each late payment.

 

Trigger Logic

  • Requires credit pull in Blend.
  • Borrower’s credit report has any non-medical late payment within your configured look-back period.
  • The look-back period is configurable only at the lender level.

 

Configurable Decisions

  • 120 days, 6 months, 1 year, 2 years, always
  • Require Borrower signature on LOE (the decision is applicable across all Blend LOEs)
  • The look-back period over which to request LOEs on non-medical accounts that had a late payment.

 

Automated or Suggested Follow-up

Automated

 


Public Record LOE

Automatically requests a Public Record Letter of Explanation with a borrower-provided outcome for each public record (judgment, tax liens, bankruptcies, etc.).

 

Trigger Logic

  • Requires credit pull in Blend.
  • The borrower’s credit report has any public records listed.

 

Configurable Decisions

Require Borrower signature on LOE (the decision is applicable across all Blend LOEs).

 

Automated or Suggested Follow-up

Automated

 

Other

Suggested Follow-ups

Automatically suggests relevant conditions for the loan team to accept or reject as a follow-up to request from the borrower(s). These follow-ups will only be shown to the borrower if a loan team member has “accepted” the suggestion.

 

Trigger Logic

  • Blend’s algorithm infers relevant conditions based on loan information and the loan team’s previous behavior.
  • Demographic information, names, and contact information are omitted from our analysis.

 

Configurable Decisions

  • Lenders can opt-out of having Blend trigger follow-up suggestions for the loan team’s review.

    exclamation_mark_triangle.png Note: Large Deposit LOE is not part of the set of predictive follow-ups, it can be configured as automated or suggested regardless of your decision for predictive follow-ups.


     

Automated or Suggested Follow-up

Suggested

 

 


Custom Request

Automatically requests lender-specified documents from all borrowers

 

Configurable Decisions

Lenders can request any document to be configured to be asked of all borrowers post-submission. For example, a Borrower’s Authorization Form.

 

Automated or Suggested Follow-up

Automated

 

 

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