Loan Officer

“Ok, I screwed up and I think it’s going to delay the closing, what do I tell the borrowers and Realtors?”  

That was the question I asked my branch manager my 2^nd month in the business (over 2 decades ago). He gave me a formula that I’ll never forget.

This simple formula that I’m going to share with you today saved my bacon more than once over the years.

First of all, understand that things happen, and everybody makes mistakes.  We just don’t want to make the same mistake the 2^nd or 3^rd time.  We learn from it, make adjustments, and press on.

Also remember that successful agents, the one’s we get our referrals from, have several deals going on at any given time and as such, your “problem” or issue isn’t their first one and they also know that things happen sometimes. 

It’s the ‘struggle bunny’ agents that get all out of whack because they don’t have any other deals closing to make their own mortgage payment.  (who could blame them for panicking when it’s the only one that they’ve had for the last several months…)

So when something goes wrong that puts the closing in jeopardy of closing late, immediately call the agents and the borrower(s).

The important thing is to communicate, and here’s how you do it:

1. Here’s what happened.  Tell them exactly what happened.  Take responsibility. It’s what leaders do.

2. Here’s what we are doing about it / here’s where we are now.  Let them know what’s happening now and what action steps you are putting in place and your prediction of if and when it will solve the problem.

3. Here’s what we are doing to prevent it from happening again.  Tell them what action steps you are putting in place so this won’t happen on the next referral that they send over to you.

This formula helps to de escalate the emotions AND it helps you put together a better team / system for your ever growing business.

Trying to ignore the issue and / or hiding in the closet, well, that just never turns out well and it just adds to the stress that you may be experiencing.

It is seldom that I lose business relations when I follow this formula, and frankly, following this formula, my business is a well oiled machine because we continue to improve the systems and make sure the team are all “A” level players, all because of past issues.

Nobody likes it when things go wrong, but when it happens, do what leaders do… communicate.
The true key to all of this is, GET MORE REFERRED LEADS!!

It’s way more likely that you’ll close more loans when that is your focus.

How do you do that?

We’ll show you how to get more referred leads here on a quick zoom call.

Once you have more high quality referred leads, no 1 individual deal going sideways will ruffle your feathers as there are soooo many of “them” and only 1 of you. ☺

To your success and coolness,

Carl White

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