Equity Alert

An equity alert is the broader industry category for any monitoring service that watches homeowner equity positions and notifies the loan officer when actionable thresholds are crossed. Multiple vendors offer this as standalone tools (MonitorBase, Stikkum, Cascade Alerts charge $50-100/LO/month) or as features inside mortgage CRMs.

What equity alerts watch for

• HELOC eligibility — typically when LTV drops below 75%, opening a Home Equity Line of Credit opportunity
• PMI removal threshold — when LTV crosses below 80%, the borrower can request PMI cancellation
• Cash-out refi opportunity — when sufficient equity exists for a meaningful cash-out (typically $50K+ available cash)
• Rate-and-term refi candidacy — when current market rates drop 0.75% below the borrower’s existing rate (the 0.75% rule)

How equity is calculated

Vendors pull current home value from a combination of public tax records, AVM (Automated Valuation Model) feeds, and recent comparable sales. Mortgage balance is tracked from the original origination data plus amortization schedule. The alert fires when (current value × allowable LTV) – current mortgage balance crosses a meaningful threshold.

Standalone equity alert vs CRM-integrated

Standalone tools require the LO to log into a separate dashboard, export alerts, and import them into their CRM workflow. CRM-integrated alerts surface in the LO’s existing dashboard alongside the borrower’s full history and conversation context, with one-click actions (call, text, drip campaign). The integration matters operationally: standalone tools require manual workflow, CRM-integrated alerts get acted on within hours of firing.