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Writing Your Listing To Get Funded, Tips for Borrowers
By patio11
I'd like to offer some suggestions to the borrowers who might be wondering "Why can't I get money when other people do?" Partly, that could be because the numbers just do not add up (if you are a HR borrower living in a state rate capped at 12%, you will not likely be able to get funding no matter how well you write). But partly its because you're not optimizing your request by doing things like:
1) Understand that most Prosper lenders are here to make money. The Lender who is actually reading your listing wants to see indication that you will be responsible and repay the loan. People strongly associate clear writing with responsibility, so above all you want your listing to be free of spelling/grammatical errors, to have paragraph breaks (which make it much easier to scan -- remember, the average lender wants to make an invest/no-invest decision on you within 2 minutes or so, so they might not read every word), and to quickly convey the message "I am a good risk!"
2) Financial details matter more than personal details I appreciate that many single mothers, for example, are very, very proud of their children and wish to express this fact to the whole world. However, starting your loan request off with a four sentence description of your bouncing baby boy, or the town you live in, does not inspire confidence in Lenders that you will be able to pay off your loan. If you want to phrase this in a way such that it does, concentrate on how you are a responsible adult who has taken care of a child for X years, including paying for health care, baby food, diapers, etc, and making plans for their future, and that the fact you have been successfully handling this awesome responsibility for years proves that making your $150 a month payment is a piece of cake.
3) If your credit record is less than perfect, explain why. Lenders do not need to see all of the details and, in general, they do not need to hear a sob-story. Just explain calmly what is causing your score to be lower than the amount of risk you genuinely represent. Also include how you are planning to prevent a relapse in the future. Sample: "I had a delinquency from two years ago, where I had a sudden bout with illness and was unable to work for an extended period. My health has now recovered and I am taking steps to make things right with my creditors. I have negotiated with BigBank to pay $50 a month until my $600 debt with them is discharged, and will repay ObsceneInterest Inc with $1,500 of the proceeds of this loan."
4) Break out your monthly budget. Being able to write (and more importantly, stick to, but lenders can only see you write one) a monthly budget is a financial skill that will save you money for the rest of your life. It also demonstrates a large degree of responsibility and financial accumen, which makes you look better to lenders. When a lender sees, for example, that your Debt-To-Income (DTI) is high but this is because you are paying $450 a month in payday loans, and you're going to discharge those with your loan proceeds, saving you $300 a month, they're much more inclined to risk $50 of their hard-earned money on you.
5) Tell Lenders what your score doesn't One of the benefits of Prosper is that at least some of the Lenders here are willing to take into account factors that your bank wouldn't. For example, there is no checkbox on your credit report to say "Active in the PTA" or "Worked 2 shifts for a year to pay off mother's hospital bills" or "Stably employed for last 12 years at a major steel mill", but all of these things suggest a responsible adult who will be able to meet their commitments.
DON'T USE ALL CAPS - YOUR LISTING IS NOT A MILITARY TASKING, SO DO NOT MAKE YOUR ENTIRE LISTING IN CAPS. WHY?
* More difficult to read - From a practical standpoint, text in all caps is much harder to read because it eliminates all ascenders and descenders from words (those are the long lines in letters like “p,” “d,” or “h”). People tend to read entire words, not the individual letters. The ascenders and descenders help us recognize words. In all caps, the shape and height are the same. The tendency in reading all caps is to read them letter by letter, thus slowing the reading process and taking some time for figuring out the word that are formed with the letters.
* Takes up more room - Sentence are nearly 40% longer when printed in all caps.
* Digital Shouting - Before the computer came into existence, the typewriter was the one source of printing. In typewriting, it is common to see words in all caps as they serve as the words with heavy emphasis. Titles are most commonly seen in this state. Now many web users use computers in everyday conversation and messaging and need to express emotions by simply typing : ) Emotions are hard to express when typing, so what and how you type defines what you are trying to express. All caps for those savvy in the technology world is the digital equivalent of shouting, and is often considered rude. On the other hand, people are used to reading sentence case and is much more appealing to the eyes.
* Lose prospective lenders - Since it is more difficult to read, seems longer, and is perceived as rude, many simply do not read listings at all if they are in caps. Why turn away potential lenders for your loan when you don't need to?
* Use sparingly - Don't be afraid to emphasize IMPORTANT WORDS in a sentence but use them as an exception not a rule.
