Conducting a mortgage survey is a critical step for both lenders and borrowers to gain insights into the mortgage process, understand customer satisfaction, and identify areas for improvement.
Whether you’re a financial institution aiming to enhance your mortgage services or a borrower looking to make an informed decision, crafting effective survey questions is essential.
In this blog, we’ve compiled a list of the top 30 mortgage survey questions that cover various aspects of the mortgage journey.
What is a mortgage survey?
A mortgage survey, also known as a property survey, is a detailed and comprehensive assessment of a piece of real estate’s physical boundaries, features, and characteristics.
A licensed land surveyor normally carries it out to offer precise information regarding the property’s measurements, structures, and any potential encroachments or boundary disputes.
Mortgage surveys play a crucial role in real estate transactions and property ownership by ensuring that the property’s description and boundaries align with legal records and documents.
What are mortgage survey questions?
Financial institutions or government organizations ask mortgage survey questions to collect opinions on topics such as the mortgage process, their knowledge about getting a mortgage, their experience with the lending institution, and their satisfaction with the services offered to them. It enables these institutions to understand the benefits and problems associated with mortgages and owning a home.
For example, a government institution wants to understand what the borrowers think, experience, and relate to the mortgage process. In such a case, a mortgage survey template can help the organization to collect information from the target audience. It will help them understand the level of knowledge the audience has about mortgages, awareness about the terminologies, and the challenges and concerns the borrowers face.
Importance of mortgage survey
A mortgage survey is a crucial step in the home-buying process that provides valuable information about a property’s boundaries, structures, and any potential encroachments or property lines dispute. Here are some reasons why a mortgage survey is important:
Property Boundaries
A mortgage boundary survey accurately defines the boundaries of your purchasing property. This helps ensure that the land boundaries you’re acquiring match the legal description provided in the property documents. Knowing the exact boundaries is vital to prevent disputes with neighbors and confirm that the property’s size matches your expectations.
Title Issues
A survey can identify potential property ownership and title company issues, such as encroachments from neighboring properties, easements, and right-of-way agreements. These issues could affect your ability to use and enjoy the property or lead to legal disputes.
Zoning and Building Compliance
A survey can show whether existing structures on the property, such as buildings, fences, or other improvements, comply with local zoning regulations and setback requirements. This information is crucial to avoid potential legal complications and costly modifications in the future.
Lenders’ Requirements
Many mortgage lenders require a land survey before approving a mortgage loan. Lenders want to ensure that the property’s worth matches the loan amount and that no potential issues could affect the property’s value or your ability to repay the loan.
Property Value
Property surveys can help establish the true value of the property. It ensures that the appraised value aligns with the actual features and boundaries of the property, providing a more accurate representation of its worth.
Negotiating Power
If a survey reveals unexpected issues with the property, you may have the opportunity to renegotiate the terms of the purchase with the seller. This could include requesting repairs, adjustments to the purchase price, or other concessions.
Peace of Mind
Having a comprehensive understanding of the property you’re buying gives you peace of mind, knowing that you’re making an informed decision and that there are no hidden surprises waiting for you after the purchase is made.
Future Plans
If you plan to make improvements or additions to the property, land surveys can help ensure that you adhere to property boundaries and other legal requirements. This can save you from costly mistakes and potential legal battles in the future.
Top 30 Mortgage survey questions for questionnaires
The following are the most frequently used survey questions related to mortgages. When used with good research design, these questions can be very helpful to financial and lending institutions to understand their customers better.
- Considering your complete experience, how likely are you to recommend a mortgage to your family or friends?
- Have you ever been taught about how mortgages work?
- Yes
- No
- Where did you learn about mortgages?
- In school
- In college
- Private financial institution seminar
- Government awareness seminar
- Other (please specify)
- On a scale of 1 to 5, how knowledgeable are you about mortgages?
- In the past 3 years, did you have a mortgage loan?
- Yes, I had or still have at least one
- No, I do not have any mortgage loan
- Please select the reason for getting a mortgage loan (the most recent one)?
- To buy a property
- To add/remove a co-borrower
- To take a new loan on a mortgage-free property
- To finance a construction loan
- To refinance an existing mortgage loan
- Other reasons (please specify)
- What was the type of property you got the mortgage for? (You can select more than one)
- Single-family detached house
- Mobile home
- 2-unit, 3-unit, or 4-unit dwelling
- Apartment
- Unit in a partly commercial space
- Townhouse, row house, or villa
- Standalone bungalow
- Other (please specify)
- Do you think the monetary value of the property you got the mortgage for has been appreciated?
- Yes
- No
- Don’t know
- In your opinion. What will happen to the prices of the properties in your neighborhood?
- It will appreciate a lot
- It will appreciate a little
- It will remain constant
- It will depreciate a little
- It will depreciate a lot
- Did you face any of the following challenges that made it difficult to pay the mortgage?
- Job loss
- Retirement
- Divorce or separation
- Business shutdown
- Illness or increase in medical expenses
- Death of someone in the family
- Payments of other mortgages
- Other (please specify)
- When you faced difficulties in making the payment for your mortgage, did you speak with a professional housing counselor?
- Yes
- No
- Please state if any of the following is why you no longer have a mortgage.
- I felt renting was better than buying a home
- I found lower interest rates
- Got divorced or separated
- Moved into closer vicinity to family, parents, etc.
- House maintenance was too expensive
- Death of a household member
- Others (Please specify)
- Is it possible to buy a home with a down payment of less than 10%?
- Yes
- No
- How much of your monthly gross income should be spent on housing expenses and debt payments?
- 34%
- 43%
- 51%
- 62%
- Don’t know,
- With what length of mortgage do you pay the least amount of interest over the life of a mortgage?
- 10 years
- 15 years
- 20 years
- 30 years
- Don’t know
- How many lending institutions did you do a comparison for before getting a mortgage?
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- More than 4
- How did you find the financial institution or the lender to get a mortgage from?
- Current bank
- A friend or a colleague
- Internet research
- Real estate agent
- Government initiative
- Other (please specify)
- What type of mortgage lenders did you visit before choosing the final one?
- A mortgage broker
- Credit union
- Mortgage bank
- Local bank
- Large bank (Eg: Bank of America)
- Other (please specify)
- Do you agree with the statement that you got the best mortgage deal?
- Strongly disagree
- Disagree
- Neutral
- Agree
- Strongly agree
- Please state your level of agreement with the statement: Mortgage is the best solution when buying a home.
- Strongly disagree
- Disagree
- Neutral
- Agree
- Strongly agree
- What changes did you see in your interest rate from the time you got the mortgage until you closed it?
- The rate of interest increased
- The rate of interest decreased
- The rate of interest was constant
- On a scale of 1 to 10, 10 being the most challenging, please state how challenging were the following parts of the mortgage process.
- Mortgage Terminology
- How the mortgage program works
- Understanding of the closing costs and rate of interest
- Eligibility criterion
- Paperwork and documentation
- Overall mortgage process
- Please state your level of agreement with the following statements: (Answer options: Strongly disagree, disagree, neutral, agree, strongly disagree)
- My mortgage lender is completely trustworthy
- My mortgage lender is very knowledgeable
- I am extremely satisfied with my mortgage lender
- On a scale of 1 to 7, 7 being the most important, how important were the following points when choosing a mortgage lender?
- Lowest interest rate
- Lowest monthly payment
- Recommendation
- Online reviews
- Best customer service
- Lowest closing costs
- Other (please specify)
- Considering your latest experience, when would you get another mortgage?
- 1-2 years
- 3-5 years
- 6-8 years
- 8+ years
- Never
- What is your current marital status?
- Married
- Separated
- Divorced
- Never married
- Widowed
- What is your highest level of qualification?
- Schooling
- High school graduate
- Technical school
- Undergraduate
- Postgraduate
- Doctorate
- Other (please specify)
- Please state your level of agreement with the following statements:
- Owning a home is a good decision financially
- Most of the mortgage lenders are very supportive
- Late payments do not have an impact on credit ratings
- You can stop making mortgage payments whenever you feel like
- How much change will occur for the following points in the next couple of years? (Answer options: significant increase, little increase, no change, small decrease, significant decrease)
- Household expenses
- Medical expenses
- Housing expenses
- Non-housing expenses
- Please state if you have any questions, concerns, or comments regarding mortgages.
LEARN ABOUT: Real Estate Surveys
Conclusion
A well-constructed mortgage survey can provide valuable insights for both lenders and borrowers. By asking the right questions, lenders can identify areas for enhancement, refine their processes, and ultimately enhance customer satisfaction. You can use QuestionPro for survey questions like income survey questions, Quantitative survey questions, Ethnicity survey questions, and life survey questions.
On the other hand, Borrowers can voice their experiences, concerns, and suggestions, contributing to a more transparent and customer-centric mortgage journey. Use these top 30 mortgage survey questions as a foundation to create a comprehensive questionnaire that benefits all parties involved in the mortgage process.
