Housing News

Homebuyers May Soon Get Some Peace: New Law Will End Unsolicited Calls After Mortgage Applications

If you've ever applied for a mortgage, you might be familiar with the frustrating, and often overwhelming, experience that follows.

Hours or even minutes after submitting your application, you may be relentlessly bombarded with calls and texts from lenders you've never heard of.

This flood of unsolicited offers is the result of a controversial practice known as “trigger leads.”

Thanks to a new law signed in September, it's about to come to an end.

The bipartisan “Homebuyers Privacy Protection Act,” which will take effect on March 5, 2026, is a victory for consumer privacy and peace of mind during one of life's most significant financial decisions.

“This new law is a major victory for mortgage borrowers that will protect them from the barrage of unwanted calls, texts, and emails they too often received immediately after applying for a mortgage,” Bob Broeksmit, the president and CEO of the Mortgage Bankers Association, said in a statement. “It will create a more efficient, responsible, and respectful homebuying process when it goes into effect.”

What are trigger leads?

When you apply for a mortgage, your lender performs what’s known as a “hard inquiry” or “hard pull” on your credit. This is how the lender gets much of the important credit information it uses to decide on whether to lend to you.

This action serves as a “trigger” that tells the major credit reporting bureaus (Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion) that you are actively shopping for a loan. For years, these bureaus have legally packaged this information, including your name, contact details, and the fact that you’re seeking a loan, and sold it as a “trigger lead” to other mortgage lenders.

The impact and consequences of this sale can sometimes be felt almost immediately in the form of unsolicited contact from lenders trying to compete for your business.

In some extreme cases, some lenders even use high-pressure sales tactics or misleading claims to try to secure someone’s business.

Many people who have experienced this are overwhelmed, confused, and wondering how their private information was so quickly accessed and used by companies that they did not seek out.

This new law takes direct aim at this situation and intends to end it almost entirely.

What changes will this new law bring for mortgage applicants?

Under the new law, credit bureaus will be prohibited from selling trigger leads to other companies in nearly all circumstances. To put it simply, the digital “for sale” sign that was previously placed on your data when you applied for a home loan will no longer be allowed.

There are exceptions. If the prospective borrower already has an established financial relationship with a different company, meaning if you apply for a mortgage with a lender that is not the bank that you do your banking with, the bank may be able to contact you to see if you want a mortgage, this is still permissible.

And the bureaus can sell your information if you actively opted into receiving marketing offers.

Otherwise, you should no longer be contacted by competing lenders when you apply for a mortgage.

The new law is expected to significantly reduce the number of spam calls, emails, and texts received by mortgage applicants.

There are eight states that already restrict the use of trigger leads in some form - Connecticut, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Rhode Island, Texas, Utah and Wisconsin. Idaho and Arkansas also recently passed laws that limit trigger leads.

And on March 5, 2026, this new law takes effect nationwide.

Ultimately, this legislation is designed to protect consumers, allowing them to navigate the mortgage process with less outside noise.