This month in Loan Product Advisor® (LPASM), we’re adding providers for asset and income modeler (AIM) so you’ve got more options to reduce your paper documentation burden and save you time. We’re also making feedback message updates, announcing changes to support accessory dwelling units (ADUs) and enhancing our AIM Check for Payroll Income API. Here’s what’s new:

New AIM Providers

We’re adding two new AIM providers, so you’ve got more options:

  • Experian Verify (EXPN) as a new payroll data provider to verify borrower income and employment information.
  • Plaid (PLAD) as a new asset data provider to verify borrower assets and employment information. Plaid will also be enabled for asset representation and warranty relief, direct deposit, rent payment history and borrower cash flow assessment.

Read full details in the February LPA release notes and check out the full list of February 2023 feedback messages.

Additional Feedback Message Updates

Streamline your processes with improved messaging and feedback from us. We’ve got new and revised feedback message updates coming soon for the following topics to provide more direction and clarity and to promote affordable eligibility:

  • Loan Assignment
  • FHA positive rental income
  • Freddie Mac Home Possible® eligibility
  • Data quality message enhancements

Click here to view these message updates or visit the Loan Advisor Resources and Learning web page.

Updates to Support ADUs

On June 1, 2022, Guide Bulletin 2022-11 announced the expansion of our policy for loans secured by properties with an ADU. This expansion provided the following benefits:

    • Additional flexibility by expanding eligibility from 1-unit properties with an ADU to 2- and 3-unit properties with an ADU.
    • Ability to use rental income generated from an ADU on a subject 1-unit primary residence when qualifying the borrower for a purchase or a “no cash-out” refinance when certain requirements are met.

      When we announced these policy changes, we hadn’t yet enabled collection of specific ADU data in LPA. Since then, we’ve made progress – we’re preparing a new LPA specification (v5.3.00), effective on April 4, that will include new data fields to capture the presence of an ADU on the subject property.

      This additional data will help you streamline your origination process when there’s an ADU on the subject property, by:

      • Offering greater alignment between feedback messaging and our ADU policy.
      • Eliminating manual reviews of the appraisal waiver decision by suppressing automated collateral evaluation (ACE) and ACE+ PDR (ACE plus property data report) eligibility messages when ADU rental income generated from a subject 1-unit primary residence is used to quality. You will see this benefit beginning on April 4, regardless of whether your loan origination system (LOS) has been updated to LPA v5.3.00.
      • Returning a purchase restriction if the ADU rental income generated from a subject 1-unit primary residence exceeds 30% of the stable monthly income.
      • Allowing you to identify when a 1-, 2- and 3-unit property has an ADU.

      Plus, with the additional data, we’ll be able to make more informed decisions about future policy expansion to give you greater benefits and flexibility.

      So, what can you do now ahead of the LPA changes?

      Keep Doing: You should continue to enter ADU rental income information generated from the subject property primary residence in section 1e of the Uniform Residential Loan Application (URLA). To deliver this information in the LPA request file, provide the value “AccessoryUnitIncome” for Unique ID 258.00-IncomeType for one borrower only.

      Stop Doing: You should stop entering ADU rental income for subject investment properties and non-subject properties in section 1e and instead, include the amount in the total rental amount for each real estate owned property in the REO section of the URLA.

      AIM Check for Payroll Income API Enhancement

      Already have a borrower’s paystubs and W2s? Our AIM Check for Payroll Income application programming interface (API) is being enhanced to allow you to digitally submit those documents using the same API infrastructure in place for receiving third-party data. Now, with minimal documentation and seamless processing through the API, you can have Freddie Mac assess a borrower’s income prior to submission to LPA.