Lately, we’ve been exploring connecting mortgage pricing engines to customer-facing tools through application programming interfaces (APIs). By feeding the most current rate data from your pricing engine to tools like mortgage rate tables and personalized rate dashboards, you get a way to turn your website into a powerful lead generation machine.

If you’re one of the many lenders using Optimal Blue or Loansifter (Optimal Blue’s mortgage-focused pricing engine), you’re in the right place. Today, we’re doing a deeper dive into using APIs in tandem with these platforms. These tips can help you optimize the APIs you use with Optimal Blue and/or Loansifter. 

Build the right budget

While Optimal Blue was built as an API-first ecosystem, that doesn’t mean it’s necessarily free to leverage application programming interfaces with the platform. Because Loansifter is now a subsidiary of Optimal Blue, you can expect similar added costs for your APIs. Using BankingBridge’s API with Loansifter typically adds $100 a month to your bill, for example. 

That’s a broad estimate, though, especially if you’re on the Optimal Blue side. Pricing varies depending on your use case, volume, and other factors. Talking with their team is the best way to get the information you need to build your budget.

Don’t stop there, either. Most pricing engines meter API calls. They log a call each time your system requests information from the pricing engine via your API. If your site gets a lot of activity on a certain day and your rate table consequently makes a lot of API calls, you might face an overage charge. 

Again, talk with the Optimal Blue/Loansifter team. They should be able to provide you with clear metering and overage rules so you know what to expect budget-wise. 

Be realistic about the timeline to get set up

Typically, you can’t get an API up and running overnight. It requires some special setup parameters (more on that next). You generally need to work with your pricing engine provider to get everything the way you want it.

The length of time you should plan for depends on what you want to do. If you’re trying to build multiple tools and you’re starting from scratch using the pricing engine’s API offering, it can take eight weeks or more. 

If you use a ready-made API — like RateFlow, our API to power rate tables, dashboards, and rate alert emails — things move more quickly. We can typically deploy API-powered tools on clients’ websites within a few weeks. 

Set your parameters carefully

You need to set up your API so that it consistently displays the outputs you want. That means precisely mapping inputs from your customer-facing tools to your pricing engine and back again. 

Most importantly, you want to make sure that when a lead provides details, it results in accurate rate information for them. That means making a plan for how the following data maps:

• Income
• DTI
• Property type
• Occupancy
• Lock periods
• Points

Work with your API provider or developer to make sure loan scenarios play out consistently and correctly no matter what data the lead providers. 

As you’re setting up the API, make sure the information you want to display actually will. In Loansifter, for example, you usually need to toggle which investors you want to to tap when providing rates. We have a help guide you can use to make sure you provide leads with a complete picture of their rate options without showing information you want to keep hidden. 

Using API providers that already partner with your pricing engine makes all of this parameter setup easier. With our RateFlow API, for example, we already have data mapping established so you can consistently show leads accurate rate info based on their specifications. 

Make sure you’re keeping information secure

Everything that’s in a web browser can be not just seen, but potentially exploited. It’s important to put a secure layer between what users can access and your pricing engine. 

Specifically, have your server make the API call to your pricing engine rather than your website. That way, your backend can act as a security guard, protecting you from having someone scrape your pricing data or make an excess of calls with your API. 

Protect your API keys by keeping them out of your source code, too. Use a secrets manager to safeguard those keys. Also, change your API keys periodically.

Finally, give your customer-facing tools the least permission possible for them to function. If you want to show pricing quotes to a lead, for example, don’t set up the API with loan lock permissions. 

Check that it’s working the way you expect

You want to make sure your customer-facing tools return the same information your LOs see when they use your pricing engine. Create a handful of test loan scenarios based on inputs you commonly see. Try to span the loan amounts, LTVs, and FICO scores of customers you typically serve.

Then, test that the information returned by your customer tool matches what shows in your pricing engine for each of those loan scenarios. Repeat this every few months to make sure everything is still working as you expect. 

Doing this kind of quality control helps your customer-facing tools function as true lead generation tools — not sources of disappointment. If they start showing incorrect information, your LOs have a hard road to climb with that lead. 

Get support for your API setup

If this feels like a lot of information, don’t panic. We’re here to help. We’re part of the partner network for both Optimal Blue and Loansifter (toggle to “Online Quoting Connections” to see us on the Loansifter site). We’re also API integration-certified by the Optimal Blue team. 

We can come alongside you to get your API established the way you want. We have extensive experience helping lenders leverage APIs to sync rate data from their pricing engine to live rate tables, personalized rate dashboards, rate alert emails, and more. 

We can help you get the information you need to optimize how your APIs work with Optimal Blue and/or Loansifter. And we can show you how easy all of this becomes when you use our API, RateFlow. For more information, book some time with us today.