♣️ 900 Million in production - Are you playing the long game?
Apr 12, 2021 4:55 pm
THE LETTER X
MONDAY IS FOR WINNERS
ISSUE #47
Last week I had the great privilege of moderating the Top Producers Panel at the CMLA Lender “VEXPO”. These originators were just a little shy of 900 million in production in 2020, while others in their market did not fare nearly as well.
So what put them above? I am glad you asked.
There were some common denominators among them that I wanted to share with you and an understanding that they set their business up pre-covid to be successful. It is about being proactive instead of reactive, where your business can quickly pivot when the storms roll in.
Here are some key takeaways:
- Focused on being the Expert/Advisor in their market
- Had a niche/specialization (Major Key)
- Not enough to adapt; you have to ACT
- 2x & 3x their marketing efforts
- Focused on purchase and referral relationships, not refis
- Set expectations ALL THE TIME
- You need to have Extreme Ownership
- Be a leader to your team and your partners
- Have the mindset of not giving up
The most important takeaway of all is that all of them are playing the LONG-GAME. They are not looking for a quick ROI and are not positioned to be a “one loan” MLO. They are thinking long-term and building a legacy in their business.
I have interviewed hundreds of top MLOs over the last three years, and I can say the long-game vision is ALWAYS shared amongst them.
Are you creating that vision, or are you just worried about the next loan?
Enjoy this week!
Say Yes Every Day
Laura Brandao - President of AFR Wholesale
This week Say YES to staying curious. As children the world is a wonder and we ask so many questions but as we go through life we stop questioning and we lose our sense of curiosity. This week disrupt the status quo and Say YES to being curious!
Next Level Mindset
Are you using video in your business?
Bomb Bomb is a video service that, among other things, easily records and emails your videos. If you're trying to enhance the quality of your customer interactions, then strategic use of video is an absolute must for you. It is no longer sufficient to send email/text updates about the disclosures being sent, the file moving to processing, the underwriting submission, the approval, the appraisal being ordered and received, etc....video is the new standard.
And, if you're not already sending updates for every milestone throughout the loan, then stop reading right now and go create those milestone touch points.
Make the video generic and you never have to re-record! Don't use people's names, dates, time, or other specific messaging. Instead, say things like "Congratulations for executing the contract! Now you can expect to hear from our team and receive your disclosures within the next few days." This message can be used every time a new buyer goes under contract - whereas "Congratulations for executing the new contract, Susan! Now you can expect to hear from Katie and receive your disclosures by Tuesday" can never be reused again.
Don't forget the agents! When was the last time you sent a video message to a listing agent? When was the last time that list agent's preferred lender sent them a video message update? The answer to both is probably never.
Afraid to be on camera, you say? Everyone is nervous at first! Stop making excuses and record that first video. I promise, it gets easier and easier every time you hit that Record button! Or, you can forever live within your comfort zone and the LO down the street will send their video messages to your clients and realtors....
MBS X
Diana Bajramovic of MBS Highway
Forbearance has been a hot topic and many people are fearful about how it is going to unwind. We expect it to be more mild than many are expecting because people have a lot of equity in their homes that they are going to want to protect. Thanks to appreciation, if you’re not going to be able to make your mortgage payments, you can likely sell your home in a short amount of time before potentially foreclosing on that home and protecting the equity you’ve built. We’ve seen many job losses throughout the pandemic, but fortunately for the housing market, without sounding insensitive to those that have lost their jobs, 82% of those job losses are in the bottom 25% of wage earners.
It’s safe to assume that many of those individuals were not in the housing market at a large scale to begin with. Therefore, the job losses may not have as negativie of an effect on forbearance. All food for thought, the housing market is still on and will continue to stay on a very strong path.
Have you joined the Mortgage X Mastermind yet? It is our FREE Facebook Group.
The Vieaux
Brian Vieaux - President of FinLocker
Improving Your Borrowers' Financial Literacy
April is Financial Literacy Month, so I thought it was appropriate to explore why it’s important to improve your borrowers’ financial literacy and ways you can do this.
Cultural Outreach reports that “NextGen buyers are not confident in the home buying process. In fact, one in every 5 buyers is not confident in understanding ANY STEP of the process.”
However, financial literacy issues are not confined to young consumers. Creditcards.com recently reported 64% of Gen Xers and 61% of Boomers are not receiving financial advice. What’s troubling is more consumers got their financial advice from family and friends than financial websites. Yet, the majority of respondents found financial advisors and financial institutions more trustworthy than their family and friends.
While improving your borrowers' financial literacy will go a long way to helping them become eligible for home loan products with better rates and terms, and ultimately financially responsible homeowners, providing personalized financial advice is time-consuming.
Here are a few ways to improve the financial literacy of your borrowers:
Denim Social provides a solution developed specifically for finance and mortgage companies with compliance oversight that will identify relevant articles that you can post to social media to generate leads, drive engagement, and build trust as a financial advisor with consumers. For example, if you wanted to curate content on credit, you could select “credit score” and “credit report” as your keywords to identify articles. You could also build a financial literacy email campaign by linking to articles on home buying and the mortgage process topics. Drop each of your homebuyers into the email campaign when they become leads or after pre-qualification to improve their financial literacy while they are getting mortgage ready.
Creating your own content will help to position your company and originators as thought leaders. Generate ideas for articles that should be published on your website and promoted through social media and email by researching other reputable companies such as GreenPath Financial Wellness, Federal Trade Commission, and TransUnion. Source freelance writers through websites like Fiverr if there’s no-one on your team who has the skills or time to write.
In addition to providing a full suite of tools to get borrowers mortgage ready, FinLocker provides an extensive library of educational videos and articles on credit, the mortgage process, homeownership, college funding, auto loans, and credit cards. Consumers use the tools to build credit, save for their costs to close and reduce their DTI in the platform that can be white-labeled with your company or brand to keep you top-of-mind while your borrowers get mortgage ready.
Be Empowered
Have a Vision for Success
𝗕𝗲𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗵𝗮𝗽𝗽𝘆 𝗶𝘀 𝗮 𝗰𝗵𝗼𝗶𝗰𝗲.
I know you may not think so. We of course know bad things will happen to all of us and that we will need to move from that bad feeling back to happiness in our due time.
This is why at 𝟮𝟬/𝟮𝟬 𝗩𝗦𝗖 we unwrap the 𝗣𝗼𝘄𝗲𝗿 𝗼𝗳 𝗣𝗼𝘀𝗶𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗶𝘁𝘆 from a psychology study by Barbara L Fredericks that teaches how quickly we move into our "Broaden and Build" mindset is how successful we can be and examines what keeps us in a negative mind space.
So my wish for you is to Be Happy Today!
– Christine Beckwith
Have you signed up for TLX-M? TLX Masters is a new opt-in membership where you can receive more specialized content from me on a more frequent basis. If you would like to sign up for the new subscription you can do so here.
The price of ketchup packets has risen 13% since 1/20, as their market share has exploded at the expense of tabletop bottles. Catsup is the most consumed table sauce in the US with about 300,000 tons sold to food service in 2020; more is eaten at home. With higher prices, ketchup sales for the first time exceeded $1 billion in 2020, up from $870 million in 2019.
The economy continues to roar back to life. The Institute for Supply Management’s services index rose to a record high of 63.7 in March, and in the process blew away the previous high of 60.9 of 10/18. This is great news as the recovery in services has, for obvious reasons, lagged well behind the manufacturing renaissance, and that index hit 64.7 in March, its best reading in nearly 40 years!
The price index for personal-consumption expenditures rose 1.6% year-over-year, and the core index, which excludes energy and food, and is the Fed’s favorite measure of inflation, rose just 1.4% over the same period. This means prices in 2/21 were only trivially higher than in 2/20, prior to the onset of Covid-19, despite $3.1 trillion in stimulus monies! Y-o-Y inflation will soon appear but primarily because prices collapsed last spring.
Initial weekly jobless claims, a proxy for layoffs, were 719,000 for the week ending 3/27/21 and 658,000 for the prior week! These are the two lowest readings since the pandemic began, and they have been gradually trending down since 1/1/21. The four-week moving average is 719,000, its lowest reading since the week ending 3/21/20. However, we have a long way to go. In 2019, the weekly average was just 218,000.
The Edumarketer
Ginger Bell - Author, Speaker, and found of Edumarketing
Keep Your Background Simple
How many times have you gone to watch a video and couldn’t stay focused on what was being said because the background was too “noisy”? Or because there was something in the background that made it look like something was sticking out of the person’s head so you were fixated on that? These are common things to miss when setting up to record your videos or even editing in post-production.
When you’re setting up to record videos, there are three important things that you need to pay attention to - audio, lighting and background. It’s important to remember that when it comes to the background, less is more. The less clutter you have in the background, the more your audience will be able to retain and engage with your content. Here are a few tips for keeping your background simple:
Find a Clean Background
Find a plain wall that isn’t covered in pictures or decor as that would be too distracting to your viewers. maybe you have a table or something against it for depth. The biggest thing to remember is that you don’t want the space to be busy where your head is going to be.
Get Rid of Clutter
If there are a ton of surrounding items in the shot, move them out so that they don’t take the viewer’s attention away from you and what you’re sharing with them.
Shoot a Couple Takes
Before jumping into recording, shoot a couple of small clips and review them to make sure that there aren’t any distracting objects or items that look as if they are part of your body.
Beyond The Numbers
Fobby Naghmi, EVP, National Sales Mgr. of First Option Mortgage
Have you ever been captivated by someone telling you a good story? You know like “Hey I connected with some old friends and we all decided to go on this amazing fishing expedition at a remote lake in upper northern Canada. We had to fly in in on a seaplane because there are no airports anywhere! The lodge was spectacular, and everyone got a rustic cabin to stay in. These cabins are hidden beneath these huge spruce trees that cover the entire area. But the best part happened at night, I got to see the Northern Lights for the first time.”
I mean doesn’t that sound better than “Hey, my buddies and I went on a fishing trip to this cool place in Canada…you should check it out!”
Which trip would you go on?
When I first began recruiting candidates to join my company, or I was prospecting for a new real estate agent, so often I’d fall into the same trap and say something like “We have the best rates, and we will close your loans on time!” Y-A-W-N!
But once I began telling the story about the company, the people who make up our support team, where the company started, where we see ourselves going, and how “you” fit into that story. Not only could I talk for about 25-30 minutes just on those bullet points, but my listeners were more engaged with what I had to say. And pretty soon my business began to grow.
When we share our stories with other people, it’s so important to make sure the other person sees and feels what we’re seeing in our head. The obvious is just that, obvious. Like in the fishing expedition story at the top, I never actually say anything about fishing.
Mortgage X Marketing Manifesto
"Mortgage Calculator" (the most popular mortgage-related search phrase on Google)
Search volume for the phrase "mortgage calculator" is up to 4.1 MILLION searches per month based on March 2021 data from SEMrush.com.
It's, by far, the most popular mortgage-related search phrase.
Homebuyers are looking for a good calculator to help them understand what they can afford.
If you don't have one, they're going elsewhere online to find it.
Places you don't want them going, like Zillow and Bankrate.
Give your clients a great calculator that you can plug right into your website and any other marketing.
No downloads. No ads. No hassle.
Just a solid resource that accounts for all the most important details related to calculating an accurate monthly payment estimate.
Learn more and get yours at: https://SuperCalc.io
Use coupon code — myfreecalc19 — at checkout to make it 100% FREE.
Thanks, and I'll catch you on next week's The Letter X!
I hope you enjoyed TLX #47! Now go crush this week!
