How To Help Your Clients Eliminate Student Debt

Catalina from LoanSense explains how federal income-driven repayment programs can reduce student loan payments in as little as three weeks, directly lowering a borrower's DTI enough to qualify for a mortgage. LOs who regularly turn down buyers due to student-loan-driven DTI issues will find a concrete referral process here. Also includes brief promotion of the Hybrid LO / Bonzo platform.

Takeaways you can run this week

• When a buyer is denied due to student-loan DTI, refer them to myloansense.com/mortgageradio instead of issuing a flat decline — LoanSense files all federal program paperwork and returns a servicer letter showing the new, lower payment within 2–3 weeks, which lenders accept through underwriting.
• Pull your last 90 days of adverse-action files and flag every denial where student loans were the primary DTI contributor. Contact those borrowers with this script: 'I may have a solution for your DTI situation — it's a government program that can reduce your student loan payment and potentially get you qualified. Want me to send you a link?' Then send them to myloansense.com/mortgageradio.
• Never tell a student-loan borrower to refinance into a private loan — once privatized, there is zero interest forgiveness and payments are mandatory regardless of income changes. Use this as a client education point to differentiate yourself from online lenders pushing refi offers.
• Create one short video this week using this hook: 'Do you have student loan debt that's kept you from qualifying for a mortgage? There may be a government program that can cut your payment in weeks.' Reference LoanSense and include the link. Post to your social channels to surface latent leads in your existing audience.
• Subscribe to the LoanSense newsletter (opt in at myloansense.com/mortgageradio) to receive weekly student-loan content updates you can repurpose as social posts or client-facing emails without having to create them from scratch.
• Use the LoanSense affordability calculator on their website to show in-office clients a live estimate of their new payment and increased purchasing power (average user sees ~$74,000 in projected forgiveness) — making the conversation tangible before referring them to the full program.

The playbook

1. 1. Buyer presents with high DTI primarily from student loans and cannot qualify.
2. 2. Refer buyer to myloansense.com/mortgageradio — they enter basic info and run the affordability calculator.
3. 3. Buyer pays $197 upfront + $97/month for 3 months; LoanSense assigns an advisor and files all federal income-driven repayment paperwork on their behalf.
4. 4. Within 2–3 weeks, buyer receives a letter from their loan servicer showing the new, reduced monthly payment.
5. 5. Buyer brings that servicer letter to you; use it (not the credit report) to recalculate DTI and submit through underwriting.
6. 6. LoanSense provides DTI recalculations across all five loan types (FHA, USDA, Conventional/Freddie, VA, etc.) so you know the outcome before the letter arrives.
7. 7. After closing, LoanSense provides the buyer a post-close plan for long-term student loan management, preserving your relationship as their lender.

Worth quoting

“Dollar for dollar, every dollar we reduce your student loan by is now that increased dollar — we're decreasing your debt to income.”

“65% of first-time home buyers have student loan debt — it's the number one reason we're denying people.”

Best for

LOs who regularly issue DTI-related denials and want a referral partner that can convert those turn-downs into closeable files within 30 days.