Loan Officer

Do you kind of feel like that “mortgage wind” is blowing you a bit sideways?

Here’s a little known weird fact:  A sailboat actually moves faster with the wind blowing from the side rather than when it’s going downwind.

See, when it’s going downwind, it can only move as fast as the wind.  When it’s blowing from the side, it can move multiples of the wind speed.  A few years back, a catamaran sailboat set a record speed of 50.8 mph, with a wind speed of only 18 mph.

So how does this help us close more loans?

The last few years, the wind has been at our back.  Rates low, plenty of equity in existing homes, and plenty of money floating around… 

… but let’s face it, it was easy to get “sluggish” and just sit in the easy chair and let loans just fall out of the sky.  

“How do I close all these referred leads” was the biggest challenge.

The challenge now is, getting back to actual prospecting. You know, those things that we used to have to do for every loan…. it’s getting back to “normal” now.  The last handful of years have not been normal.  Rates in the 2’s and 3’s are not even close to normal for those that have been at this for a few decades.

This is actually welcomed news to many of us.

Just like going through the mortgage meltdown of 2008-2009, most loan officers fell off the face of the Earth… they didn’t know how to prospect or they simply chose not to do it.

But here’s the thing, those of us who did prospect ended up making way more money after the meltdown than before it.  I didn’t have my first 7 figure income year until AFTER that challenging time.  We made more on each loan and closed way more loans because only a handful of us were left, there was like no competition.
I’m confident that history repeats itself and I’m confident that you will do record speeds during this “side wind” time… well, assuming of course that you know how to prospect and actually do it of course.  I believe in you!

I’ve never found prospecting to be hard at all. 

It’s a simple 4 step process that we use with our Loan Officer Freedom Club members that I’m happy to share with you <no charge>.

I’ll give it to you here on this demo call.

See ya on the inside and let’s enjoy some sailing ☺

Capt. Carl White

Right about now we could all use a bit of good news and here it is…

It’s easier to get people that are referring you a couple of deals to send you more deals, than it is to get people who are sending you no deals to send you deals.  

In the past, I would spend a ton of time, money, and resources to get somebody referring to me for the first time, all while essentially ignoring those that were sending me 2 or 3 referrals a year or had done so in the past, and then stopped.

I get it, it was a “duhhh” moment for me too!

So, what can you do to get this to work for you right now and right quick? 

A couple of quick steps…

1.  Get a list of all referral partners that are currently referring to you (even if it’s just a couple).

2. Look to see how many referrals they have sent you the last 12 months, and then see how many purchase deals they have closed in the last 12 months.

Basically you are just looking at what % “at bats” you are getting from them… every time they close 10 new buyers, what % of the time are they giving you a shot of talking with that buyer when they are a prospect.  (79% of those prospects will close with the 1^st loan officer they talk to).

You can look up the agents’ buyer side production via MLS which any title company, appraiser, or your favorite real estate agent can help you with (or there are subscription services these days where we can pay to have access to look up any agent’s buyer side production reports).

If you are already closing 50% or more of their current buyer side deals, that’s evidence that what you are doing is working and there’s likely no tweaks that need to be done.  Most of the time this is not the case.

Most of the time we discover that the LO is getting less than 50% “at bats”, and 94% of the time it’s simply because they aren’t asking for the business; asking for referrals.

So how do you ask for referrals from an agent that does refer to you, but you aren’t getting at bats for at least 50% of all their buyer clients?

Simply meet with, zoom with, or call them with a simple script….

“Hey Realtor Susan, I really appreciate your referrals and would like to work with you even more often.”

“What would I need to do that every time you get a buyer lead, you break out in a cold sweat thinking I have to get this lead over to <your name> because she / he will close me on time, give me great communication during the loan process, and follow up on my leads like green on a pickle so I (the agent) get even more closings from the leads that I (the agent) already has?” 

“What would I need to do to get even more of your buyer referrals so I can work with you even more?”

Then shut up and listen to what they say.  Almost always it’s simply an issue that they aren’t thinking about you because you aren’t talking with them frequently enough.  A very, very easy fix. 

You just have to have a plan, and then follow that plan.  Without a plan, you are a blind person trying to play pin the tail on the donkey.

That’s why we have the Daily Success Plan.  It’s a simple plan that we map out and discuss with all of the top producers in our Loan Officer Freedom Club.

I’ll be happy to give you a free sample of what that looks like here:
Free Sample Daily Success Plan

Not knowing what that looks like could be costing you… and costing you big… And right now is not the time to be operating in the dark. 

Now is the time to be pro-active.  We can’t do things like we did last year, it’s different now, so we have to do different things.

Talk soon.

Carl White