Overview
What is Home Borrowing Power?
Home Borrowing Power provides homeowners with an estimate of their available borrowing potential, helping them make informed financial decisions. Many account holders are unaware of the equity they have built over time—this feature highlights their borrowing options, making it easier to access lower-interest financing for home improvements, debt consolidation, or major purchases.
Where do users see Home Borrowing Power?
Home Borrowing Power is seamlessly integrated into multiple areas of the homeowner’s digital banking experience:
Home Banking Tile - Displayed within the property summary, providing a quick view of borrowing potential.
Homeowner Dashboard - Listed as one of the primary actionable data points, ensuring easy access for homeowners.
Offers Tab Often tied to relevant loan offers, such as home equity loans and HELOCs, encouraging users to take advantage of their available equity.
Learn more about the My Home Tracker features that include Home Borrowing Power
What are the key benefits?
Many homeowners underestimate their equity or are unaware of how to leverage it. Home Borrowing Power provides a clear path to financing with potentially lower interest rates than traditional loans or credit cards.
Common Use Cases:
Debt Consolidation – Reduce high-interest credit card balances by leveraging home equity.
Home Renovations & Large Purchases – Use equity for home improvements or other financial needs.
Strategic Financial Planning – Gain insights into borrowing options to plan for future expenses.
Configuring Home Borrowing Power
Financial institutions can customize borrowing power settings to align with their lending policies and ensure accurate estimates.
1. Global settings
Set the max loan-to-value (LTV)
This setting defines the maximum loan-to-value ratio your institution will lend against. LTV determines how much of the home's value can be borrowed as a percentage.
Typical values range from 80% to 95%, depending on your institution's risk tolerance and loan offerings.
2. Exclusions
Institutions can exclude certain account holders based on specific criteria:
Confidence Score – If a property has a low confidence score, borrowing power can be hidden.
Property Type or Size – Restrict borrowing power display for properties that do not meet lending criteria.
These settings ensure only qualified users see Home Borrowing Power, aligning with institutional lending policies.
3. Display Settings
Once global settings are defined, institutions can configure how Home Borrowing Power is displayed to users.
Home Borrowing Power can be presented in various formats, depending on your institution’s preference:
Displaying as a low-to-high estimate using the Low Range Chimney Estimate and High Range.
Present it as what's available with or with an appraisal, where the low end represents the max amount you will lend with an AVM, and the high range is your overall maximum home equity loan (implying that an appraisal is required)
Example Configurations
Configuration | Description | Use Case |
Low to High Estimate | Uses Chimney’s Low & High Range AVM estimates. | A simple way to display an estimate range to owners. |
Appraisal-Based Estimate | Shows a low-end estimate (AVM) and high-end estimate (appraisal required). | For institutions that lend higher amounts if an appraisal is performance. |
Single Value | Hide one range to display a single estimate | Great for reducing simplifying the data for the end user. |