CONSUMER INFORMATION SOLUTIONS
Occupancy Advisor
Key Benefits
• Loan Origination: Help determine whether
the property is occupied by the owner to
discover potential misrepresentation on loan
modifications, refinances, home equity loans/
lines of credit and/or reverse mortgages
Safeguard against potential
loan default
• Servicing: Determine occupancy to
mitigate risk during MSR acquisitions
A borrower’s intent to occupy a subject property can
be materially misrepresented in the loan process. In
recent years, approximately 14% of loans sold to Fannie
Mae included occupancy misrepresentation.1 Processes
used by lenders today to determine whether a property
is occupied by the owner are often cumbersome,
complicated and inefficient. Many times, investors and
mortgage insurance companies do not have the tools or
visibility to assess whether a property is owner-occupied
and are faced with loans that may become delinquent.
• Claims: Minimize the need to rescind
coverage with access to critical
occupancy data
Detect potential misrepresentation
• Account Management: Validate
occupancy status on delinquent HELOCs
with high utilization to suspend or freeze
the line
• Portfolio Review: Determine risk when
acquiring new loans to ensure due diligence
was performed and minimize putback risk
and losses
Occupancy Advisor™ helps to verify whether a property
(single-family, multi-family, condo, co-op, or apartment) is
occupied by the owner of record after the loan has been
assumed by the investor or covered by the mortgage
insurer. Multiple addresses across multiple independent
sources are associated with a single individual to provide
you with a more efficient source of occupancy validation.
Our unique data sources include:
• Credit – where bills are sent (i.e., credit cards)
• Property – where real estate tax bills are sent, whether
homestead exemptions are present, etc.
• Utility – where utility or other bills are sent, the service
location address, and the cases where the billing and the
service address are the same
1 Fannie Mae Mortgage Fraud Statistics, September 2014
Occupancy Advisor
Efficiently evaluate which loans may need further
investigation to verify occupancy
Occupancy Advisor provides a report showing a set of values indicating the likelihood
that a property is occupied by the owner. This includes the score, key model indicators,
reject codes, warning codes, and up to three additional modules. These modules include the
Consumer Services Database Module, Property Report Module, and FirstSearch Module.
Communications
& Utility Data
Input Property
225 3rd Ave, Apt 2B,
Anytown, NY 10021
456 8 Ave, Apt 512,
Anycity, GA 30309
Credit
Data
Property
Data
FirstSearch
Data
Communications &
Utility Module
Property Module
FirstSearch Module
Bundled telecomm
account addresses on
file match input address
Property tax bill match? Y
Homestead or Other
Exemption? Y
Most recent response
address matches
input address
Bundled telecomm
account addresses on
file DO NOT match
input address
Property tax bill match? N
Homestead or Other
Exemption? N
Most recent response
address DOES NOT
match input address
Scores near 100 = Non-Occupant
Scores near 800 = Occupant
Owner Occupancy Score
750
200
IF…I have a mortgage on 225 3rd Avenue,
AND my credit card bills come to the same address
AND my property tax bill is also sent to that address
AND I use power at that address
AND I watch TV there
AND I’m not currently associated with any other address,
THEN… I probably live at 225 3rd Avenue.
Contact Us Today
For more information, contact your Equifax sales representative or visit:
www.equifax.com/mortgage
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