What Mortgage Lenders Need to Know Before Trigger Leads End

In a National Mortgage Professional article published September 5, President Donald Trump signed the Homebuyers Privacy Protection Act into law, officially curbing the practice of selling mortgage “trigger leads.” The law was signed September 5, 2025. (nationalmortgageprofessional.com)

When It Takes Effect:

The new law goes into effect 180 days after enactment, which means it will become active on March 5, 2026. (jdsupra.com)

Will Soft Pulls Continue to Be Used?

• Yes. Soft pulls don’t count as hard credit inquiries and they don’t trigger trigger leads under current practice. The exceptions are that the originating and servicing lenders are able to continue to utilize trigger leads.
• After the law takes effect, soft pulls will remain a useful tool, especially in early stages like pre-qualification or screening. Because trigger leads are tied to hard inquiries, using soft pulls helps avoid triggering the lead sale mechanism.

Benefits of Continuing to Use Soft Pulls:

• They preserve borrower privacy by avoiding hard inquiry flags. Soft pulls don’t drop a public inquiry on the credit report, so consumers are less likely to be contacted by the originating or services lender, which is still allowed under this bill.
• A soft credit inquiry does not impact and lower the borrower's credit score while a  hard credit inquiry does.  This makes a soft credit report a major tool for helping borrowers understand if they can be approved for a loan without hurting their credit score. 
• They are often cheaper than full hard pulls, and provide a view into the consumer's credit profile. Often assisting in qualification and pricing of the loan early in the proceess.

Is Soft Pull Worth the Cost?

• The upfront cost of soft pulls is lower, which means less risk when doing early screening or qualification. If many applicants drop out early, the soft pull saves you from paying for hard pulls that may not convert.
• Soft pulls may give you less complete information, so you might need to follow up with hard pulls later in the workflow. 
• Even with this trade-off, soft pulls may help reduce wasted marketing spend, improve compliance, and protect borrower trust, making them a strong cost-benefit choice.

Possible New Workflow Suggestion:

• Begin with a single-bureau soft pull to do preliminary credit screening.
• If that looks promising, move on to a second bureau or cascade through bureaus for more detail or verification.
• Finally, when you're ready to lock in pricing or make firm offers, do the hard pull(s) as required.

Our Take:

This law will shift how lenders think about early stage credit checks. Soft pulls are positioned to remain central in the process. At Informative Research we see this as an opportunity. It’s a chance to refine workflows to be more efficient, compliant, and trusted by borrowers. If you haven’t already, now is the time to map out what your soft-pull and hard-pull thresholds are, estimate the conversion loss if any, and build in the compliance review to your strategy.

Call to Action: Contact us at Informative Research to schedule a strategy review. We can help you adjust your workflow, evaluate cost and benefit trade-offs, and make decisions that protect compliance while keeping your borrower experience strong.