Servicing
Your next loan is already in your portfolio: Three ways to recapture successfully
Lenders are always looking for new ways to find their next prospective loan — especially in a fast-changing market. However, instead of looking outward, the answer may already be in your portfolio waiting to be recaptured.
This blog outlines three strategic ways lenders can efficiently recapture customers. By combining data-driven solutions with automated digital technologies, lenders can easily execute on opportunities to reconnect with their customers across their portfolio, and better position their organization to thrive in an increasingly competitive environment.
But first, it’s essential to understand the scope of opportunity available to today's homeowners.
Growing your business can be as simple as connecting with your customers on new opportunities
Recapture strategies can only work if customers are ready or willing to make a change. The 2025 ICE Borrower Insights Survey was recently conducted to understand better what today’s borrowers are looking for from their lender. The good news: when it comes to retention, two-thirds of respondents stated they were highly likely to return to their previous lender for their next mortgage.
However, lenders need to also be mindful of competition and speed to close. In the same borrower survey, 66% of respondents said they explored offers from two or more lenders before selecting a lender. In this highly competitive market, lenders will need to stand out from their competition by leveraging data from their portfolios that provide insight into their customer’s current homeownership options and reconnect with them regarding new mortgage and loan-related opportunities.
Maximize refinancing opportunities
Nearly one in four respondents to ICE’s borrower survey are considering refinancing within the next year. This represents a significant opportunity, particularly as many recent homeowners are carrying higher interest rates from previous market cycles.
However, retention rates reported in the June 2025 ICE Mortgage Monitor reveal fewer than one in four refinancing borrowers were retained in Q1 2025, including just 23% of cash-out refinancers and 26% of those adjusting their rate or term.
This data underscores the urgent need for lenders to enhance their recapture strategies to position themselves for success as refinance opportunities arise. Reaching past borrowers with timely, personalized offers – driven by smart data – will be key to capturing their attention and loyalty.
Tap into record home equity levels
U.S. mortgage holders entered Q2 2025 with a record $17.6 trillion in total equity, including $11.5 trillion in readily accessible funds while maintaining a solid 20% equity cushion. With 48 million mortgage holders eligible to tap into their equity and an average of $212,000 available per homeowner, the demand for home equity loans and HELOCs presents cross-selling opportunities.
The recent ICE borrower survey confirms this trend, with nearly a quarter of respondents considering a home equity loan or HELOC within the next year. Recent declines in HELOC interest rates have made these financing options increasingly attractive to borrowers who may be reluctant to refinance their low-rate primary mortgages. Home equity lending continues to be a growth opportunity for lenders, specifically for those who retain servicing.
Lenders who previously assisted their customers in securing low-rate mortgages are well positioned to reconnect about leveraging their home’s equity. To do so effectively, they must act with urgency. This starts with the ability to leverage their data to proactively identify high-potential borrowers and deliver customized offerings before competitors engage with them first.
Prepare for a potentially improved purchasing market
When interest rates eventually decline, the housing market needs to be ready to capitalize on new loan opportunities. With inventory levels steadily rising and home prices softening nationwide, an improving housing affordability market may prove compelling to prospective buyers.
While the market remains unpredictable, lenders need to be preparing for an acceleration in home purchases in the future as consumers begin to make their long-awaited moves. Those who cultivate strong relationships with their past borrowers in the interim will be well-positioned to capture repeat business when home affordability improves.
How to recapture customers successfully with differentiating, personalized experiences
Successful recapture strategies require a systematic approach that leverages data-driven insights, personalized engagement capabilities and streamlined conversion processes. The following considerations provide a roadmap for optimizing your recapture efforts in today’s market.
- Identify high-propensity customers with business intelligence
The foundation of successful recapture lies in correctly identifying customers who are most likely to make a significant move. This requires combining multiple data sources to create comprehensive borrower profiles that reveal potential refinancing, home equity and purchase opportunities.
For example, first-time homebuyers who locked in a low-rate years ago may now be ready to make the move to a larger home or a new community. Life events – such as a growing family – can motivate homeowners to seek a larger property, even in a higher-rate environment.
Lenders can identify and engage these potential borrowers by using business intelligence capabilities to help combine loan-level servicing portfolio data with up-to-date market rates, home values and property characteristics. Lenders who retain their servicing possess valuable borrower information that can serve as the cornerstone of their recapture strategy, with the ability to categorize customers based on key factors such as loan type, interest rate sensitivity, home equity status and life events.
After identifying high-propensity customers–like that first-time homebuyer mentioned previously–lenders can set up automated alerts that notify loan officers when there is an equity opportunity, when market rates drop or if there is a new life event (i.e. a new job) that might indicate the homeowner may be ready to take the next step.
With a more complete picture of the customer and the property, lenders can more accurately identify potential opportunities, create personalized offers based on those borrower indicators and send precision-timed campaigns. This data-driven approach allows lenders to deliver the right offer, through the right channel, and at the right moment. - Automate personalized campaigns to engage customers
Once the criteria for potential recapture opportunities are identified, lenders can integrate these actionable insights into marketing campaigns to increase visibility and response rates.
Consider this example: Two years ago, a customer closed on a 30-year mortgage of $400,000 at a 7.00% interest rate. If the rates fall to 6.25%, there’s now an opportunity to engage the homeowner about refinancing their loan into a new 30-year term that could save them ~ $250 per month. A lender can set up automation to generate a file with the loan data and potential savings and initiate a marketing and engagement campaign with the customer, as well as notify their loan officer. This campaign can include personalized refinance details, such as the new rate and estimated monthly savings, allowing the loan officer to engage with a compelling, data-driven offer.
Generic communications fail to capture attention in today's competitive marketing landscape. Having that deep portfolio insight helps lenders deliver hyper-personalized campaigns tailored to each customer's financial circumstances and needs. - Drive sales to turn more leads into loans, leading to recapture
Once customers are engaged, the key to conversion is driving interest to action. This means giving loan officers the on-the-go tools they need to efficiently engage with real-time information.
Loan officers need to be able to connect with customers through seamless communication. One area to drive conversion success is having an intuitive point-of-sale portal or mobile app that allows for an easy interface between the customer and loan officers. These digital tools not only drive timely interactions — they also help loan officers nurture relationships, respond faster to questions and invite or remind borrowers to apply.
If you’re not staying connected through the transaction, you risk losing those opportunities to competitors who are actively targeting your customers.
Customers benefit from seamless recapture tools with ICE
ICE facilitates seamless customer engagement by offering intuitive tools that improve communication and processes, allowing lenders to identify opportunities, track customer responses and integrate touchpoints into their broader recapture strategy. These capabilities provide coordinated and effective engagement efforts, improving the overall customer experience.
To support portfolio retention, ICE offers a powerful, consumer-facing digital solution called Servicing Digital that is integrated with ICE’s loan servicing system, MSP®. ICE has also integrated Servicing Digital with its point of sale to simplify the customer experience by allowing the homeowner to complete applications within the servicing portal. Customers filling out an application through Servicing Digital will have many of the form fields automatically populated with their data from MSP, reducing the effort required by the borrower. Once the application is submitted, the borrower can upload and review the necessary documents in the Servicing Digital portal. The homeowner then receives continuous communication alerting them to when they need to take action with automated notifications.
Customers can engage with messages that resonate with them and take action with self-service capabilities
By combining actionable insights with real-time automated marketing, lenders can create a personalized customer experience that fosters a lasting and potential lifelong connection.
Servicing Digital features a designated banner message area where personalized home equity loan and/or refinance opportunities stand out. Customers encountering tailored messaging while making payments or checking loan statuses are more likely to engage when compared to another lending organization who may be reaching out with generic messaging.
ICE’s engagement solutions not only streamline recapture processes on the back end, but they also help better inform customers’ decision-making once they are ready to make a move. This includes:
- Comprehensive financial transparency: Customers can view their property’s value-based data from ICE AVMs, assess home equity status, explore current rate options, and conduct “what-if” scenarios for refinancing. This visibility helps customers make informed decisions and enhances lender credibility.
- Further tap into that equity potential: Leveraging an integration with Validate, ICE’s property valuation tool, customers can snap and upload photos of the interior and exterior of their home using computer-vision technology. A condition-adjusted AVM can automatically determine the property’s value and available equity.
- Timely marketing tailored to their needs: Automated alerts are provided to loan officers on:
- Equity opportunities: Alerts when a customer's loan-to-value ratio drops below 80% due to property appreciation, creating mortgage insurance removal or refinancing opportunities.
- Rate-drop alerts: Notifies when market rates fall significantly below a borrower's current note rate (typically 75+ basis points).
- Life event indicators: Identifies borrowers whose changing circumstances (growing family, rising income) may indicate readiness for a new home purchase.
- Effortless loan application process: Customers can seamlessly apply for refinancing, home equity or HELOC loans within Servicing Digital directly from their mobile device. A simple application – pre-populated with their loan data – accelerates loan processing and creates a better experience for the customer. The application is instantly submitted to the Encompass® loan origination system for a loan officer to review and begin processing, and borrowers receive status updates via Servicing Digital.
With the right tech stack in place, lenders can leverage the technology and data needed to succeed in recapturing on multiple fronts, while customers feel valued, understood and in control, with a smooth process that paves the way for long-term relationships.
Contact us to see how ICE can help you maximize opportunities across the customer life cycle.
Related resources
Follow us on Linkedin
Access Mortgage Monitor reports
2025 Borrower Insights Survey report