🔑 I am not uncertain - The Letter X
Feb 22, 2021 9:30 pm
THE LETTER X
MONDAY IS FOR WINNERS
ISSUE #41
I don’t know about you, but I love me some Billions. Both the show and the money :-), but seriously Billions is one of my favorites.
Having worked at a multi-billion-dollar hedge fund for 4 years, the Axe Capital world really resonates with me (The work not the debauchery lol), and so I want to give you 10 Business Lessons that you can learn from Billions.
1. Take Action
2. Surround yourself with people smarter than you
3. Declutter your mind on a regular basis
4. Be relentless
5. Have a loyal supporter
6. Information is key
7. Give back
8. Be fearless
9. Be yourself
10. Be passionate
You can read more about this list here but as I re-watch the series these ten points resonated with me, so I wanted to share them with all of you.
With that, I hope you go out and crush this week and enjoy this week’s TLX!
Event Announcement
March 5th is the end!
March 5th is the last day for tickets and booking your rooms for EPM’s Broker Success Summit.
Join some of the best in the industry such as Barry Habib, Christine Beckwith, Katie Sweeney, Todd Bitter, Chasity Graff, Jackie Dunlap, Chris Griffith, Michelle Dugan, Ashley Miller, and many more as we mastermind around creating modern broker success in 2021.
Also, who can pass up a chance to hang out with Ric Flair and David Pollack!
This will be an in-person event with very limited seats so make sure you get your tickets today!.
Say Yes Every Day
Laura Brandao - President of AFR Wholesale
This week Say YES to forward thinking! Sometimes we find ourselves looking backwards or rethinking the way it was, but there is only one direction to go in life and that is forward, so this week forge ahead with the grandest plan you can imagine because remember, the best is yet to come!
Mortgage Rate X
MBS X
Diana Bajramovic of MBS Highway
Despite the ongoing impact of the pandemic on our economy, 2021 continues to be a banner year for the housing market. Recent record data from Redfin showed that 55% of pending homes were in contract within 14 days.
That's understandable, given that the National Association of Realtors reported that there was just a 1.9 months' supply of homes available at the end of January, which is a record low. With housing inventory low nationwide, bidding wars are happening around the country and buyers might wonder if they should bid over the asking price to win their dream home.
Thanks to MBS Highway's Bid Over Asking Price tool, they don’t have to make that decision alone. Loan originators can use our Bid Over Asking Price tool to easily show clients when they will recover the additional bid through forecasted appreciation and their own Automated Valuation Model (AVM).
Check MBS Highway out for yourself with a free 14-day trial.
// 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. //
Monday Mortgage Grind!
Time to Wake Up To The New Mortgage Rate Reality - Actually, the alarm has been going off for a while now. Previous posts pointed out the disconnect between the bond market and mortgage rates on multiple occasions in 2020. Near the end of the year, we warned against complacency in no unspecific terms.
Bloomberg - How California Became America’s Housing Market Nightmare.
Phoenix-area housing market booming - Real estate experts say the housing market is booming in Phoenix despite the COVID-19 pandemic and for sellers, it's a time to capitalize as offers get hotter.
Are you ready for 3D Printed Homes? - Most homes are built block by block, or brick by brick. But a demo house in Calverton, New York, was constructed scan by scan - its walls made using a giant three-dimensional printer.
Keeping on the 3D Printed track here are 7 of the Most Beautiful 3D Printed Houses and Cabins.
Barron’s - How Top Real Estate Fund Managers Are Preparing for a Post-Covid World.
Working remotely? - Baltimore, Topeka and Tulsa are among the places paying bounties of up to $15,000 to lure remote workers to town. The states of Maine and Alaska also dangle incentives for new residents.
MBA Advocacy Update Feb 22 - On Tuesday, FHA, VA, and USDA extended their foreclosure and eviction moratoria, as well as the deadline for borrowers impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic to request initial forbearance, to June 30. Read more…
January retail sales jumped a smoking 5.3% M-o-M and arrested a surprising three-month decline. This was the biggest increase since June’s 8% rise when the economy was exiting lockdown, and the fourth largest bounce since at least 1992. Spending rose in all categories including bars and restaurants! This suggests 21Q1 should be pretty good, and that consumers were confident enough to spend their stimulus checks, unlike last March. Go shopping!
If small changes in price lead to large changes in quantity demanded, think pizza, the item is elastic. Some goods, like gasoline, are inelastic. A change in that price does not alter the amount driven. Some things are infinitely inelastic, like electricity on a freezing day. The price per megawatt hour of electricity in Texas rose from $25 to $9,000, and natural gas went from $3/million BTUs to $165/million BTUs!
Since recordkeeping began in 1939, the 4.3 million net jobs created in 1946, the start of the post-WWII expansion, was tops. However, the recently passed $900 billion Covid-19 relief bill, rising vaccination rates, and now $1.9 trillion stimulus from the Biden administration means 2021 GDP growth of 5%, and creation of a record breaking 4.5 million jobs, maybe more. Regrettably, we will remain five million jobs below the pre-pandemic level.
Total American Express cardholder spending (an admittedly well-heeled group) fell 15% in 20Q4 Y-o-Y, compared to 19% in 20Q3 Y-o-Y, and 34% in 20Q2 Y-o-Y. Travel and entertainment fell 65% in 20Q4 Y-o-Y, an improvement from -69% in 20Q3 Y-o-Y and -87% in 20Q2 Y-o-Y. Non travel-related expenditures actually rose 4% in 20Q4 Y-o-Y, compared to a 1% decline in 20Q3 Y-o-Y, and a 13% skid in 20Q2 Y-o-Y.
Have you joined the Mortgage X Mastermind yet? It is our FREE Facebook Group.
The Vieaux
Brian Vieaux - President of FinLocker
How To Profit From Giving Borrowers A Personalized Homebuying Experience
Borrowers come to you at all levels of financial preparedness.
First-time homebuyers often have student loan debt, an average credit score, a high DTI, and not enough savings to cover their down payment and closing costs. How are you getting each borrower mortgage-ready without putting pressure on your already strained internal resources? Or do you decide to pick off the easy-to-close applications and ignore your long-term pipeline?
Applications from past clients looking to refinance or purchase a new property are not guaranteed to be easy to close, either. They can return to you with their finances in a different shape to what they were when you financed their last home purchased.
Fintech is making it easier and affordable for lenders to provide a customer-centric mortgage process that adjusts to each borrower’s timeline enabling them to personalize their homebuying experience.
Select the right solution, and you’ll have the opportunity to create customers for life by nurturing each borrower through whichever cycle of life they are in when they contact you.
What’s more, if you do it right, you’ll create evangelical brand loyalists, and referrals to their family, friends, and neighbors will follow. Most consumers buy or refinance a home every five years, so you can’t build your pipeline for the next two years on retention.
Almost half of the consumers only consider one mortgage lender before deciding where to apply. To build a profitable pipeline, you should aim to provide a home financing experience that garners recommendations from each borrower. Borrowers who you helped overcome credit or debt challenges on their way to mortgage readiness will be more inclined to promote your business.
FinLocker not only had the tools and resources to get your borrowers mortgage-ready at their own pace, but it’s also a brand loyalty driver. White-labeling your FinLocker will keep you top-of-mind with every login so that you’ll be the only lender your borrowers will want to recommend and return to for future financing.
To learn about FinLocker you can schedule a demo anytime!
Non-QM X: Highly Qualified Non-QM News
Tom Hutchens - EVP of Production at Angel Oak Mortgage Solutions
We are only two months into 2021 and non-QM is off to a great start. As a result, non-QM lenders have been on a hiring spree to meet demand and support lofty growth expectations this year.
It’s no surprise to say that finding experienced mortgage professionals is difficult, especially in today’s environment. That’s why large non-QM lenders like Angel Oak are taking another approach: Hiring younger, entry-level operations trainees and individuals with nearly no mortgage experience at all.
Recent college graduates or those who’ve been laid off are struggling to find employment right now. That, mixed with increasing demand for non-QM, makes these individuals ideal candidates for lenders who are able to put in the time and effort to teach them all the aspects of the mortgage business.
Over the long-term, this strategy only enables non-QM lenders to grow and ultimately deliver on growth expectations. The younger hires are able to relate to and attract the next generation of millennial homebuyers, which we expect will be a major area of non-QM growth going forward. We also believe service workers play a big part in the successful rollout of non-QM. As a people-focused product, these candidates will only enhance non-QM lenders ability to provide superior customer service. Both of these attributes translate well into the non-QM industry.
It’s important to note these aren’t temporary positions. These positions present an opportunity to build a career in the mortgage industry which is growing at a rapid rate. Want to get involved in the action? Feel free to reach out.
Empower Hour
Commercial, Multifamily, and Real Estate Trends
Brian Stoffers – Deb & Structured Finance at CBRE
Industry Professional to Watch!
Amorette Moe Hernandez – Arizona Lending Specialists
Make sure you tell Amorette that you saw him in The Letter X!
The Edumarketer
Ginger Bell - Author, Speaker, and found of Edumarketing
Set a Realistic Budget
There are some elements of video creation which are going to be more costly than others. If you don’t have a plan and don’t know what you want for the outcome, you may end up hiring a video production team that either under delivers or ends up costing you more.
Find the Right Video Production Team
If you are going to shoot your own video with your own equipment, look for a video production team that offers a monthly video production service. If you want explainer videos created work with a team who can help you storyboard.
If you're thinking of cutting costs by whipping up a quick video on your smartphone with your employees as cast and crew, keep in mind that when it comes to brand perception, a poor-quality video may be worse than no video at all. There are things to consider like lighting, editing, music, thumbnails, call to actions and more that can really make a difference. Don’t get me wrong. An educational video on your smart phone is not a bad thing. You just want to make sure you have some guidance through the process and spend the money to have it professionally edited ad produced if you don’t have the know-how.
Create a Video Marketing Budget
If you don’t already have a video marketing line item in your budget, you should add it. Seriously, cut something else. Video is really that important. Especially long term. I have seen loan originators get leads from videos they posted on YouTube five years ago. Video, especially informational videos have a long marketing impact and if you are posting on YouTube, they get seen by people who are looking for answers to their questions.
The benefit of working with a good video production team is that they value their work and will produce good videos for you. Or they should anyway. If you can find a video production team that has a background in the mortgage industry, even better. (Yes, that was a shameless plug, but we’ve created everything we do out of a need in the industry, and we LOVE helping our loan originator clients create educational content videos!)
So, enough about us. Seriously create a plan and budget for creating videos. You don’t have to do a full documentary to see results. It’s kind of like dieting. Consistent changes over time produces great results. Just do one video a week. Just one. Plus, they only have to be about 3-5 minutes. I know you can talk for that long!
Beyond The Numbers
Fobby Naghmi, EVP, National Sales Mgr. of First Option Mortgage
I’ve always loved the saying “Break bread together” …just feels good even typing it! Its origins run right into the Bible with Jesus actually having to break the bread for the last supper with his disciples. Over the years it’s come to represent a coming together of people who have been at odds with one another, but now with the breaking of the symbolic bread, are working towards a better union.
I think the reason I love it so much is due in part to my Pakistani roots. As with other 3rd world countries, food represents the greatest gift that can be shared with another. When a guest comes to someone’s home, no matter how much or how little someone may have, it has to be shared. The guest cannot leave without eating something. It’s considered a disgrace to the host should the guest not eat something. That’s my people! We love breaking bread with one another.
So next time someone asks you to break bread with them, please appreciate the symbolism that that gesture implies. And if you need someone to break bread with, look me up!
Mortgage X Marketing Manifesto
5 of the Most Competitive Mortgage Keywords in Google for January 2021
Mortgage keywords are some of the most competitive and expensive keywords
when it comes to marketing on Google (organic and ads).
Regardless of whether or not you rank high in search engines, knowing what people
are searching for can help you determine what to build content and resources around
for any of your marketing efforts.
Here are some of the most popular key phrases, their monthly search volume, and
how much they cost per click (SEMrush data for January 2021).
1. Mortgage Calculator — 4.1 MILLION searches per month; $1.54 per click
2. Mortgage Rates — 1 MILLION searches per month; $4.35 per click
3. Refinance Rate — 246K searches per month; $9.61 per click
4. FHA Loan — 201K searches per month; $3.28 per click
5. VA Loan — 49K searches per month; $15.86 per click
Be sure to reference these keywords and create content around them in your
videos, blog content, and social posts.
And don't forget to include a call-to-action that drives consumers into a dynamic,
gamified lead form, otherwise all those valuable clicks will go to waste.
Thanks, and I'll catch you on next week's The Letter X!
I hope you enjoyed TLX #41! Now go crush this week!
