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Issue 057
April 2012
TheNicheReport.com
Training Loan Officers Amid a Regulatory Tsunami
10 Bringing Up The RearDouglas W. Elmendorf, PhD, Director of the Congressional Budget Office
543116 Web 2.0 Marketing Secrets for Mortgage ProsConvert your agent 'fans' into 'referral partners!'
FEATURE ARTICLE! Don't Over PromiseEven at the cost of losing a deal
For Mortgage origination ProFessionals
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CLASSIFIEDSCONTENTS Issue 57 April 2012
PubLIShErS Robert Pegg [email protected]
David Pegg [email protected]
MANAGING EDITOr Stewart Mednick [email protected]
ASSOCIATE EDITOr Cathy Johnson [email protected]
ACCOuNTING MANAGEr Shawna Ingram [email protected]
ADvErTISING DIrECTOr Jessica Grizzle [email protected]
ADvErTISING SALES Heather Bopp [email protected]
PrODuCTION MANAGEr Henry Suchman [email protected]
PrODuCTION ASSISTANT Dawn Exner [email protected]
CArTOONIST Martin Bradford
COLuMNISTS & CONTrIbuTING AuThOrS Martin Andelman Doren Aldana Karen Deis Frank Garay Chris Jones Ralph LoVuolo, Sr. Rebekah Radice Chaibia Sarhrou Amy Tierce
Facebook's Timeline for Business PagesChAIbIA SArhrOuCEO, CS SOCial mEdiaNine big game changers you must know about
14
Web 2.0 Marketing Secrets for Mortgage ProsDOrEN ALDANAmOrtgagE markEting COaChSecret #4: Convert your agent 'fans' into 'referral partners!'
31
National Association of Realtors® 2011 Home Buyer Survey ResultsKArEN DEISprESidEntapartmEnttOOlkit.COmFirst-time home buyer statistics.
20
20 Insanely Easy Ways to Use Pinterest in Your BusinessrEbEKAh rADICEwww.rEbEkahradiCE.COmSocial media continues to evolve.
33
DEPArTMENTS
09 FrOM ThE EDITOr'S DESK
40 WhAT'S yOur MOrTGAGE IQ?
43 TIP OF ThE MONTh
26 ONLINE LEAD GENErATION
36 FrANK AND brIAN SPEAK
38 KEEPING uP WITh ThE JONES
50 ADvErTISEr DIrECTOry
54 brINGING uP ThE rEAr
PrIME & FhA pg 45
COMMErCIAL pg 45
rEvErSE MOrTGAGE pg 45
hArD MONEy pg 46
JuMbO pg 46
MuLTIFAMILy pg 46
SErvICE PrOvIDErS pg 4716 Don't OverpromiseEven at the cost of losing a dealrALPh LOvuOLO, Sr
Training Loan Officers Amid a Regulatory TsunamiAMy TIErCErEgiOnal viCE prESidEntfairway indEpEndEnt mOrtgagE
10
6 April 2012
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The Niche Report is approaching its fifth birthday this year. Robert Pegg and David Pegg had a vision and purpose back in 2007. I remember clearly when I received a phone call from Robert one sunny summer afternoon, asking if I was interested in writing an article for this new magazine that was just in a prototype form. I have lived my professional life in the development stage of new businesses, new departments in companies, new client accounts, and now a new magazine.
In this issue, I wrote a Tip of the Month column about Lessons learned.
What do new beginnings and lessons learned have in common? Well, this could be a philosophical question that may have been answered countless times over the last two thousand years by many philosophers, writers, historians and coaches. Yes, coaches.
The Niche Report has endured diverse and challenging market dynamics over the last five years. As a business, we have learned from practical application and observation of the market and the competition. Success is measured by not only subscription membership, but reader’s response, feedback and willingness to contribute articles. Ev-erybody wants to be part of success. This is why colleges pay top dollar for a winning coach for their basketball, football or other teams; to attract top talent to win. With wins, comes the stature of success.
Lessons Learned, start-ups, success… things common to starting and maintain a career in the mortgage busi-ness. As humans, we learn from experience, observation and formal education. You get a little of everything in The Niche Report. Articles every month written by experienced professionals, formally educated and industry seasoned executives and brokers.
Five years ago, the Pegg brothers had a vision and through lessons learned, experience and observation, an in-dustry leading magazine has been created; but you, the reader, are the real reason the magazine is successful.
2012 is a big year with the release of the Real Estate edition of The Niche Report, and the honing of columns and contributing writers raising the bar on article content for the Mortgage Professional issue.
So, how are we doing? How are you doing? How is The Niche Report providing coaching and guidance for your career? We want to hear from you! There are many ways to respond: Post on our Facebook page, send an email to us at [email protected], or post on our blog. Your input is a form of our Lessons Learned. Without your input, we would not have made five years running; and even consider another five moving forward.
Cheers!
Stewart Mednick
FrOM ThE EDITOr'S DESK
9TheNicheReport.com
MEMBEROfficial
You won’t find many people who will argue that a loan officer’s training should stop the minute
he or she gets licensed. In reality, that’s when the real education begins. But this on-the-job training has become more challenging given the amount of new and pending regulations confronting our industry. When it comes to
showing the ropes to new recruits, are we really doing enough?
To ask loan officers to figure out every regulatory issue on their own—whether it involves loan compensation rules, changes to disclosure forms, HARP or anything else—is asking too much. The simple fact is we’re doing loan officers and the future of our industry a disservice by not putting more effort into training, especially when the best minds in the business are having trouble figuring out the new rules themselves. In my opinion, the responsibility of giving loan officers a practical framework for understanding what to do, how to do it and why begins with leadership.
GIvE ThEM ThE ‘Why’My company conducts a weekly company-wide phone
call in which new initiatives or changes in procedures are addressed that relate to compliance. The real message behind this information is not “what,” but why. In a rapidly changing business environment, it is essential that everyone—and especially new recruits—understands the reason behind the changes in our business. When we all understand, we are all more likely to “buy in” to the change in practice.
This same strategy is useful when working with consumers. We’ve all faced frustrated borrowers in my line of work, folks who cannot understand why they are being asked to jump through extra hoops in order to buy the condo they just fell in love with. But when I explain the impact that a risky or incomplete mortgage can have on others, such as the condominium association, the angry borrower begins to calm down.
Whether it involves loan officer compensation, Dodd-Frank, RESPA or new GFE/TILA and HUD-1 disclosures, teaching loan officers the “whys” behind these changes is a big responsibility. I always wanted to understand compliance issues. I’ve had colleagues that would say, “To heck with that, I’m just doing sales.” But I wanted to know.
TrAINING LOAN OFFICErS AMID A rEGuLATOry TSuNAMI
by AMy TIErCE
10 April 2012
NMLS: 1652 EHO | EEONR-4
So I read – a lot. I spend at least two hours a day absorbing as much as I can about my industry. Frankly, I would rather do this myself so my sellers can concentrate on selling. By learning what I can and slowly passing on only the most relevant “chunks” of information, I am able to take a lot of worry off the shoulders of my team.
For example, recently enacted loan officer compensation rules were a very long, drawn out and difficult issue for lenders to get their heads around. From January to April, I read and spoke to everyone I could on this subject, but only passed on the most relevant and important material to my team, which made it easier to digest. It also had another benefit. When one of my loan officers had questions about a particular regulation, I could convey the “why” behind it.
rECONCILING CONTrADICTOry INFOIt would be great if our industry got to the point
where everyone had a two-year degree in mortgage finance. As it stands, loan officers in my state take a 20-hour pre-licensing class that certainly teaches them an awful lot about rules and regulations. But part of learning how to be a loan officer is in the “doing.” It’s simply impossible to put into context all the information we learn in class until we are actually working our business and seeing the examples unfold before our eyes.
Of course, with so much happening in our industry, continuing education courses are more important than ever. But suppose someone attends a class and comes back with information that conflicts with what we are trying to do. What happens then? Complicating matters is the fact that there are usually dozens of possible approaches to different regulation—and just as many gray areas, too.
For example, when it comes to self-employed borrowers, certain deductions are allowed to be added back in to increase the borrower’s net income. However, there is a variety of interpretations regarding what is allowable. Some will tell you that mileage can be added back in, and in fact, several of my loan officers were told this at a training they recently attended. Upon confirming this information with our underwriters, it was determined this in fact was not acceptable to most banks.
ON-ThE-JOb TrAINING, IN PrACTICEThe issue of training and education is made more
complex by one of the biggest challenges our industry faces today: How do we bring young people into the industry? It’s no secret that many of us are “aging out” of
the business, as the average mortgage professional is in his or her 50’s.
It might behoove us all to train loan officers much like stock brokerage houses of yore used to. It wasn’t unusual for a new college grad to join Morgan Stanley and spend eight weeks in the classroom before he or she was even given a desk and a pencil. But in our business, the real education starts when loan officers begin writing mortgage applications.
This is why mentoring becomes such a crucial piece of the loan officer’s training. It takes a long time to get comfortable in the sales process. And with so much emphasis up front on regulatory compliance, loan officers are often afraid to do something as simple as picking up the phone. Mentors, however, help ease the new loan officer into the process. At my office, I will pay for a loan officer to have an assistant if the loan officer can turn the assistant into a loan officer in a year’s time. This way, I have experienced loan officers helping new people cut their teeth and learning by example.
Another decision I have made is to not allow loan officers to work out of their homes. Of course, under certain circumstances they can work at home for a day—just not all of the time. Back in the day, many mortgage shops encouraged an at-home workforce because it lowered their overhead. Yet when my loan officers are at home, I lose touch with them. In order to lead by example, they need to see my example in practice, every day.
It sounds silly to me, but some companies do not have sales meetings – but a sales meeting is a perfect opportunity to talk about compliance and to allow your team to share strategy. By the same token, participating on the educational board of your local mortgage association is equally valuable, as well as working with real estate professionals to help them understand why the process has changed so dramatically.
Another educational resource that is largely—and perhaps, oddly—untapped is the regulatory agencies themselves. There is nothing stopping us from picking up the phone and calling regulators when we have questions about a recent rule or pending regulation. Even if you still don’t get the answer you want or need, at the very least it shows those who are responsible for enforcing rules that you care.
SOME GOOD NEWSThe complexity of new regulations is a huge issue.
It is extremely difficult for lenders and branches to figure - continued on page 42
12 April 2012
With so many Real Estate Agents and Loan Officers using Facebook to generate
business, there are some very big changes coming down the pipeline that you MUST know about!
Facebook Pages will automatically get upgraded on March 30, 2012. If
you want to preview what your page will look like, just go to your page and click on the “preview” button. I don’t suggest you publish it now, because there is a lot of prep work that needs to be taken care of first.
Cover photo – This is very important real estate on your page. All of your visitors will see it, so make sure that it’s branded and professional looking. Make sure to include your marketing message in it as well. That’s like
having your own billboard right there in Facebook! Your cover photo should be at least 399 pixels wide. The only downside to this change is that Facebook is very strict as to what you can and can’t put in this space. For instance, your cover image can’t include any of the following:
• Prices• Discounts• WebsiteAddresses• ContactInformationThey also don’t want you to include any calls to
action. So you can’t ask people to “Like” or “Share” your page, or anything that demands the user to take any action.
Profile picture – You can use a square profile picture that’s no less than 180 pixels wide. That can be a photo of you, your logo, or any other image that represents what you do.
Apps – In the older pages, we had the apps, likes, and photos under the profile picture on the left side. Now, they are located at the top of your page. You can actually choose to highlight and show whatever apps you want by changing their order. The only one you can’t change is the “Photos” tab. Facebook is putting it in the first position.
FACEbOOK'S TIMELINE FOr buSINESS PAGES
Nine big game changers you must know about
by ChAIbIA SArhrOu
14 April 2012
Messages – People now can send you a private message, just like they do in your personal timeline. That’s a great way for your clients and Fans to interact directly with you, facilitating more direct interaction between you and your fans. The only catch is that you can only send messages to users who have messaged you first.
Admin panel – Now you can see all of your Fans’ interactions with your page and see a list of people who recently ‘liked’ your page. You can also see your page’s ‘insights’ and ‘messages’ all from one panel.
Reach generator – We all know how difficult it is to get your page’s updates to show in your Fans’ newsfeeds. Actually, only 16% of your fans really ever see your posts. Well, Facebook launched a new product called “Reach Generator” that will allow pages to reach a minimum of 75% of their fans each month. Businesses will be paying Facebook for this product, but the benefits of having your posts seen by your fans and therefore creating fan engagement, which will lead to more exposure to your Fans’ friends, will be well worth it!
The default tabs are gone now – Up until now, you could still direct your page’s new visitors to a tab of your choice, for example a ‘Welcome Tab’. Now, with the new pages, all visitors will be landing on your timeline. With the timeline you can educate your fans about your history when you first started in the real estate or mortgage business. You can go back to your closings and post pictures or videos. You can add testimonials from
your clients or referral partners. The best thing about this feature is that you control what you put in your timeline for people to see. I like what the New York Times did with their timeline. You can go back in time and see all of the events with images and descriptions.
The new custom tabs have upgraded from 520 pixels to 810 pixels. That is extra space that you can use for more branding.
Another cool thing that I really love about the new pages is that you can pick any post or story, hover over it and make it wider by clicking on the ‘star’ icon, or you can pin it to the top of the page by clicking on the ‘pencil’ icon.
Chaibia Sarhrou is the CEO of CS Social Media, an Online & Social Media Marketing company specializing in the Mortgage and Real Estate industries. She has consulted with many top-producing agents and speaks at Real Estate and Mortgage companies to educate them on monetizing their social media efforts. Chaibia can be contacted at [email protected]
Don’t Overpromise
My father told people things that were not true. He told them what they wanted to hear, for the most part, because HE WANTED THE
DEAL. He did it within the laws of his time, but not with the same sense of consumerism that most of us have today.
When I was about 15 years old and working in my dad’s office on a day off from school, I learned a very important lesson that I share with you now. My father was a mortgage broker at the time. Well, that was just one of the things he did. Actually, he was a real estate broker, mortgage broker, builder and renovation contractor. People would find him because of his connections to other contractors, such as electricians, plumbers, roofers, carpenters, plasterers, heating installers and the like. He did no advertising of any kind. People would approach him because they wanted to own their own home and he had success in that field – success that his friends would talk about and cause them to refer prospective homebuyers to him.
by rALPh LOvuOLO, Sr.
Even at the cost of losing a deal
For the referring party, it was a win-win. When they referred someone to my dad, they would get to do the work on the house he would build for the customer. I have always suspected that RESPA was written especially for my father and his friends, but I’m probably exaggerating - maybe. When a prospect would approach him, he would find land for them to build a house on, get them the money to build the house, build the house, and place a permanent mortgage for them. Pretty sweet, huh? And for every step in the procedure he earned a fee, and that was even better, for him.
It was common for me to spend time at his office on days off from school, especially when I was in high school. On the day in question, he had a settlement scheduled in his office.
The layout of the office was the design of a railroad car with one room directly behind the other. You needed to go through an entire room to get into office behind it. The front space was a waiting area that had about four chairs for customers to cool their heels while waiting to see him, his secretary or business partner. The next space back was the general office space separated only by a wrought iron railing from the waiting area. The general office space had two desks hard up against the wall to the right, one for him and one for his secretary. They faced each other to allow for easier communication. The rest of the room was filled with side-chairs, filing cabinets and open cabinets meant for storage of all sorts of papers.
As you exited this room, proceeding toward the back of the building, there was a small bathroom to the left. The next room was the inner sanctum, the boss’s office. It had his very large metal desk, a very large executive chair, a lounge chair to take afternoon naps and three side-chairs. Very color coordinated, in tan and brown. The room behind was the former kitchen of the converted house, a room about 10 by 15 with a small desk and a peg board that listed all the projects being worked on. This was the office for my “uncle” Earl, who had been my father’s business partner for about 30 years. He was the one who oversaw the construction phase of the business while my father did the business end.
The settlement had only two people, my dad and the buyer – that was it! My dad and the buyer sat on the same side of the desk as my dad shuffled various papers that required signature.
“So Mrs. Conwell, here are the papers you’ll need to sign today. Just a few papers, it won’t take long.”
I could hear what was going on because I had taken up residence at his desk in the general space, facing his secretary.
As the settlement was over pretty quickly, requiring signatures on about seven documents, I heard him say, “Now this one last piece of paper says that if you don’t make your payments, you’re going to lose your house. Ok?”
“Sure Mr. Lovallo, I understand,” as she signed the paper.
“Ok, well thanks Mrs. Conwell, here are your keys and I congratulate you for what you’ve done. I hope you enjoy your new home.”
The buyer quickly left the office, passing right by me. She thanked my father’s secretary as she hurried toward and out the front door.
I too was in a hurry, but for another reason entirely, I wanted to know what that last piece of paper was. What could she sign that would cause her to possibly lose her house?
At this point of my life, you need to know that I had been immersed in the subjects of real estate and mortgages for a couple of years already. When my father had studied for his real estate license, more than a year before this incident, it was I who had tested him on his knowledge of the little red book that had been distributed by the New Jersey Real Estate Commission. I therefore needed to know and understand the questions in order to test him, and I did. So my inquisitiveness was not out of line, nor a venture into a jungle of unfamiliar ground.
“Dad, what was that paper you had that lady sign, the last piece, when you told her that if she didn’t make her payments she would lose her house?”
“Here, look at this son.”As I looked, I was taken a bit off guard. What I was
looking at was a Deed; complete in every regard except one thing that I noticed immediately, the date. This buyer, borrower, had signed a Deed to the property giving the ownership to my father. I found out that he did it all the time. That every transaction he performed was a combination of obligation and sleight of hand. It was perfectly legal. He had co-signed the note, putting himself at risk financially and protecting his risk with a simple magic trick.
Could you do what my father did in today’s business world? Absolutely not! More than that, my tendency over my lifetime was to inform my clients even more than was required. I never wanted to overpromise, under-explain, misinform, miss some unimportant fact or ever be accused of doing any of these things, at the risk of losing a deal or making a client uncomfortable. Long before the various legislative bodies across the land instituted all of the overregulation we are all exposed to today, I was over-careful about this very subject.
Never overpromise. Never try to perform magic. Learn from people like my father that truth, facts, complete information and forthrightness are the proper way to treat clients. Don’t do what some of your peers do when they under-quote a rate or shave a few facts or costs from a prospective closing.
When I was associated with the NY Association of Mortgage Brokers, I met a number of unsavory characters. Hopefully most of them are no longer writing business. But recently I heard from one of them who was having a hard time writing forward business so they decided to enter the fray of reverses. Do I think
their unacceptable behavior has changed? You know the answer, as well as I do.
Be honest with your referral sources. Be forthright with your clients. To be a member of the society that helps people either purchase or refinance their “home” is a worthy profession. In order to keep it at a high level of integrity we need to do the right thing, all the time, even at the cost of losing a deal.
Ralph LoVuolo, Sr. President, Mortgage Motivator, a consulting firm on the cutting edge of the mortgage business to help people achieve their true potential. LoVuolo Sr is one of the founding fathers of the New York Association of Mortgage Brokers and a two term president. Additionally, he served as Parliamentarian for six years on the Board of Directors of the National
Association of Mortgage Brokers. LoVuolo, Sr. can be reached at [email protected], or visit him at http://www.mortgagemotivator.com
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The 2011 NAR report called “Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers 2011” has just
been released, with a huge amount of information that will help you plan where you should be spending your time and your marketing dollars! While this info is from 2011, what it
does is identify trends. In 2010, 51% of all home purchases were made by
FTHB. In 2011, it was 37%. The 2010 numbers are skewed because of the First-Time Home Buyer Credit offering.
Overall, the numbers have significantly changed AGAIN. Since the report provides stats on first-time buyers, repeat buyers, FSBO, and investors, this article is strictly about the first-time home buying segment, how the stats compared from 2010 to 2011, and a little commentary from me on why the information is critical in your business planning efforts.
First-time home buyers made up 37% of all homes purchased…
2011 FTHB by Area 201046% Northeast 56%35% Midwest 51%34% South 46%42% West 52%
Tip: Still, over one-third of all homebuyers are buying for the first time. In this article, you’ll also learn that 92% of FTHB researched the Internet (websites, social media, blogs) before deciding which home to buy and which real estate agent to use. I suggest that you align your marketing with the way FTHB find information – but more on that later.
Living arrangements prior to buying their first home…Prior to buying their first home, 77% of FTHB
rented (i.e., an apartment or a home). This is up 2% from 2010. 19% lived in a home—a decrease of 2%. Broken down by marital status:
NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF rEALTOrS® 2011 hOME buyEr SurvEy rESuLTS
First-Time Home Buyer Statistics
by KArEN DEIS
20 April 2012
NicheReportAd.indd 1 9/13/11 4:08:42 PM
NicheReportAd.indd 1 9/13/11 4:08:42 PM
2011 Living Arrangement 201049% Single Female 52%47% Single Male 55%37% Unmarried 67%58% Married 45%
Tip: Over three-quarters of first-time home buyers are living in apartment complexes, and it is still the number one way to market to them even before they start the home search process. You can purchase apartment complex mailing lists at www.apartmenttoolkit.com .
Marital status of FTHB…The big change is the increase of married couples
buying their first home.
2011 Marital Status 201054% Married 48%12% Unmarried 12%21% Single Female 23%12% Single Male 15%
Tip: If you are holding home-buying seminars, consider segmenting them into “Couples Only” or Singles-Only” First-Time Home Buying seminars. You may want to segment the “singles-only” by “divorced FTHB’s.” Each segment has its own set of home-buying and loan-approval issues.
Median age of FTHB…This is about the same as last year.
2011 Median Age 2010 9% Age 18-24 11%52% Age 24-35 56%20% Age 35-44 19%
Average income of FTHB…Big change here. A single male’s income significantly
decreased while a single female’s income increased slightly.
2011 Income 201073,200 Married 71,20069,800 Unmarried 62,60046,300 Single Female 46,10047,900 Single Male 52,800
Purchase price range...No big changes here over last year, however the lower-
priced homes have had a slight increase. This is probably due to the fact that the home values have been decreasing.
2011 Price Range 201010% < 75K 6%12% 75K > 100K 11%12% 100K > 125K 15%14% 125K > 150K 15%10% 150K > 175K 12%
Tip: While some areas are more affordable than others, 48% of FTHB purchased a home at $150,000 or less. This is a great reason to meet with your real estate agents. Ask them to review all their listings and see if they can negotiate seller incentives or special financing options like FHA and USDA (if the property qualifies).
Moving distance from current residence...The distance from where a FTHB is living now to
their new home is 12 miles. That has not changed over the last three years. It’s the same if living in an apartment or with parents/family.
TIP: If you are marketing to apartment complexes, consider the location of the complex in relation to the housing price ranges for FTHB. Check to see if the subdivisions within a 12-mile radius have housing prices at $150K or below. If not, you may not want to market to those complexes.
hOW WE SEE IT
22 April 2012
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Information source prior to buying a home…The typical buyer who used the Internet is 42 years
old (up from 37 yrs. In 2010) with an average income of $83,700. The typical buyer who did NOT use the Internet is 60 years old (up from 57 yrs. in 2010) with an average income of $60,300. Those using the internet took twice the amount of time to find a home versus those that did not use the web. Interesting?????
2011 Info Resource 92% Searched for home on web prior to buying88% Searched for Real Estate Agent online53% Yard signs40% Open houses28% Newspaper ads17% Homes magazines 5% TV/radio
Tip: If you are spending money advertising in your local homes’ magazines, or if you are paying to publish rates in the newspaper, you may want to reallocate your money to online marketing instead.
Financing the home purchase…It’s the same as last year—95% of home purchases were
FIXED RATE Mortgages.
2011 Types of Financing 201030% Conventional 27%54% FHA 56%6% VA 7% 5% Other 5%
Tip: When it comes to fixed rate mortgages, be different than everyone else and instead of offering a 30-year term, give them an alternative 25-year fixed rate option. The payment is a little higher per month, but the interest savings is significant
($30K for $100,000) and they build up equity quicker. Think about this—if only LO’s had offered more 25-year fixed rate mortgages in 2005-2006, there would be a lot less people upside down on their homes.
Source of down payment…The percentages have increased over the last three
years, indicating that people are buckling down and saving more money.
2009 – 61% from own savings – 22% Gift Funds2010 – 74% from own savings – 26% Gift Funds2011 – 79% from own savings – 26% Gift Funds
Tip: Fannie, Freddie, FHA and VA have their own “gift fund rules.” For example, there are five different ways funds can be gifted for FHA loans. They are complicated and just one little error will hold up your closing. Mortgage rule updates can be found at www.MortgageCurrentcy.com
FTHB tenure in resale of home...
2011 Resale Tenure 20102% Sell home 2-3 yrs. 3%12% Sell home 4-5 yrs. 16% 3% Sell home 6-7 yrs. 4%15% Sell home 8-10 yrs. 14%
Tip: It used to be that the average time people plan to sell their home and buy another one was 7 years. Looks like the two new timeframes are from 4 to 5 years, and from 8 to 10 years. Plan to stay in touch with past clients for the long haul. That’s where a database, along with a killer email marketing system, will be a key component of your business.
FINAL MARKETING TIP: Consider meeting with your real estate agents. I’d bet you that they have never seen this report, let alone broken it down by the first-time homebuyer category.
Use these stats to help you create a game plan between the two of you—based on the tips I’ve provided after each statistic.
Karen Deis, President, ApartmentToolKit.com, providing apartment address mailing lists and marketing systems for attracting leads from apartment complexes. Why market to apartment complexes? Because the address never changes, but the people who live there do, so you are constantly marketing to new people.
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Niche Report 051011.ai 5/10/2011 10:22:45 AM
In previous articles, we’ve been discussing the use of social media sites (like LinkedIn, YouTube, and Facebook) to get exposure, connect with your target
audience and ultimately generate leads. After consulting with dozens of Real Estate Agents and Loan Officers, what I’ve found was that they were all so busy using the techniques to get new traffic and positioning themselves as the expert, that they forgot the main reason why we do any of this. What is the true value in any business? Well, it’s my goal to make sure that by the time you finish this article, you will have a new appreciation for what I’m talking about, which is….List building. The only real asset in any business is the list – lists of prospects, lists of clients, lists of JV Partners, etc.
Let’s get this straight out in the open right now, because I know that some of you are thinking it. I’m not talking about buying a list of prospect buyers (cold leads), calling it your list, and spamming them with your emails. I’m talking about building your own list of people who have raised their hands and given you permission to email, contact and market to them. There is a huge difference
between a cold list of leads and a warm list of people that already know, like and trust you!
A few days ago, I received an email newsletter from a Loan Officer with all kinds of mortgage rates, statistics and graphs. It was very boring and had no personality whatsoever, but that’s another issue. The problem now is that I don’t remember giving this person permission to put me on his mailing list. I’m not even interested in buying a house anytime soon. I was wondering how he got my information. Then I remembered I was giving a presentation at his company a few months ago so he must have picked up my card at that event.
Do you think I’m the only one receiving these emails from him? Am I the only one with this same reaction? Absolutely not! More importantly, are you guilty of doing something similar to this? It’s ok…. After today, you will be armed with some very cool techniques and ways of building your list the right way.
The first thing you should do is define your market. Who do you want to attract to your list? Do you want to attract home buyers? Referral Partners? You can attract
ThE ONLy rEAL ASSET IN ANy buSINESS IS ThE LIST
ONLINE LEAD GENErATION
26 April 2012
both; it’s just a matter of having them on different lists and different follow-up sequences. Obviously, you’re not going to talk to them the same way. Let’s take this one step further. Exactly which type of “home buyer” will you be targeting? Your conversations, tone and relevant content will be extremely different depending on if you are targeting first-time home buyers, investors, affluent buyers, etc. Do you see why having a targeted niche is a very important step in this process?
So, with that in mind, who is your ideal client? What types of loans do you specialize in? This is critical to know before you start building your list. If you have a broad target, your message will be general and will not resonate with ANY of your prospects – simply because they will sense that you’re not talking directly to them. When your message is broad, it loses a lot of power. You actually give the illusion that you don’t know enough about your audience and their particular needs.
Think of it like this. If you have an eye problem, would you go to your family doctor, or to an optometrist because you believe that he specializes in your particular needs? Do you see my point? Now that we know whom we are targeting, we need to get them onto our list so that we can follow up with them until they buy. Once that happens you can move them onto a different list, where you will be communicating with them differently in order to get them to send you a referral or become a repeat customer.
In order for you to build your list, you need four critical elements:
1) Traffic2) Landing Page (also called Squeeze Page)3) Offer4) Auto-Responder
Let’s break these down piece by piece and go over them in more detail.
TRAFFIC – This is NOT an easy subject to discuss in one article. There are entire home study courses devoted to traffic generation. If you could choose one subject to become a master at, choose traffic. Because once you master it, you are set up for success! Here are a few things you can start doing immediately to generate more traffic to your list-building page:
• Youcanwritearticlesandembedalinktoyouropt-inpage where people will give you their info to learn more about that subject.
• IfyouhaveaWordpressblog,thereisagreatplug-in that allows people to get onto your list when they want to leave a comment. This plug-in is called www.optincomments.com and it will integrate with most auto-responders.
• YoucanalsoenableFacebookCommentsonyourblog,which will help your blog go viral. If a visitor is logged into Facebook (most people are always logged into Facebook when they’re online), all of his connections will see the interaction.
• Agreatwaytobuildyourlististhroughwebinars.Holda webinar educating your prospects about the home-buying process and what to look out for. Guess what the webinar registration page is? It’s basically a page with an opt-in form, to capture the registrant’s info. Later you can export that list and import it into your auto-responder.
• Here’sacooltip:Getareferralpartnertodoanexpertinterview on your webinar. Let’s say that you want to educate people on how to boost their credit score to qualify for a house with better rates. Find a credit repair expert who has a list and ask him to send an email blast to his list, directing them to the webinar registration page. Once they register, you own that list. So, not only are you bringing value to your existing list, you are growing your list and also giving exposure to the credit repair guy and positioning him as an expert in both lists (yours and his).
• YouTube–Inapreviousarticle,we’vetalkedabouthowyou can include a call to action in your videos and how you can add a live link that will direct your viewers to your webinar, blog or landing page. Make sure to review that article for more ideas.
• Twitter–Youcancreateagreetingmessagethatwillbesent automatically to your new followers. Make sure to
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put a link to your landing page with a brief description of your offer. If your followers are interested, they will click on the link. From time to time tweet about your free offer and include a link to it.
• LinkedIn–Afewmonthsago,wetalkedabouthowyoucan use LinkedIn to grow your business. I will not be able to talk about all of the ways you can use LinkedIn to drive traffic to your landing page, but a very easy one is to just list the URL of your landing page as your website on your LinkedIn profile and call it something like “7 Mistakes Home Buyers Make.” Please review the LinkedIn article for more cool strategies!
• Facebook–ThelasttwomonthsI’vebeenwritingaboutFacebook Ads and how to use them to get your perfect, targeted leads. Please review both of the last two articles for more tips.
LANDING PAGE – The one and only job of this landing page is to get the visitor to give you their name and email address, or sometimes just their email address (the less you ask of them, the more likely you will get it). We will have time later to extract all kinds of information that we will need from them as we go, but for now we just need the minimum that will allow us to initiate the conversation.
This landing page must have several important elements:
• Opt-inform–Thisistheboxwherethevisitorswillputtheir names and email addresses.
• Powerfulheadline.Thisshouldbeacompellingheadline and should match your ad. Let’s say you are using Facebook Ads to drive traffic to this page;
whatever title or headline you had in the Facebook Ad should be present in the landing page. The same with the image of the ad. A lot of people complain about low opt-in rates, once the visitors get to their landing page. A big part of that is due to the landing page not matching with the ad.
• Privacypolicyandtermsofservice–Youalsowantyourlanding page to be Google friendly. If you’re gathering people’s information, you have to have a ‘privacy policy’, especially If you’re driving traffic to that page from Google Ads – otherwise you will be violating their terms of service.
OFFER – What are you going to give your visitors in exchange for their name and email address? This should be something of value that they really need or want. Going back to your market, if you really know who they are, you will know what to present to them that will be a ‘no brainer’ for them to opt-in.
• Includeanimageofwhatyou’regivingaway.Peoplearevisual, and showing them a nice picture of your offer will give it more perceived value. You can offer them a downloable PDF, MP3, CD or video. Again, the offer has to be of value to your target prospects.
AUTORESPONDER – You have several companies to choose from such as iContact, Infusionsoft, AWeber, Mail Chimp, and many others. I personally use AWeber, they are perfect for what my company needs.
I know this is a lot to cover in this short space. Please spend some time growing, segregating and nurturing your lists!
Please send me any questions or comments to [email protected] . I will answer every one that I receive!
Chaibia Sarhrou is the Founder of CS Social Media, an Online & Social Media Marketing company specializing in online lead generation. Chaibia consults with Top Producing Real Estate & Mortgage Professionals to help them set up and monetize their online & social media presence. Also, she regularly speaks at Mortgage & Real Estate Companies to educate them on using the internet to grow their business.
Sign up for Chaibia’s FREE Webinar on “Powerful List Building Strategies Every Realtor & LO MUST Know.” Go to: www.cssocialmedia.com/listbuilding NOW and sign up!
See for yourself!
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Steve Peterson Sierra Pacific Mortgage
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ONLINE LEAD GENErATION
In last month’s article, we talked about how to build a herd of Real Estate Agent fans on
Facebook. So, now that you've got fans, we need to find a way to engage them so they'll watch your videos, "Comment," "Share," "Like," and ultimately send you actual referrals that close. It's not enough just
to have "fans"; the secret to getting more referrals is dependent on your ability to convert more of your agent "fans" into "partners." Here's how...
10 TIPS FOr TurNING yOur AGENT "FANS" INTO LOyAL "rEFErrAL PArTNErS"
Tip #1: Share quality, relevant content – at least weekly, if not daily. When it comes to getting people raving and commenting on your Fan page, content is KING! Content is what causes people to either turn up the volume or change the channel. Make it short, punchy, and most importantly, something "remarkable" - worthy of a remark.
As a quick reminder, here are the top five most compelling topics for agents:
1. How to attract more quality listings2. How to sell their listings FAST and for TOP DOLLAR3. How to generate more qualified, motivated buyer leads4. How to improve their success rate at their listing
presentations5. How to attract more referrals and repeat business
If you can teach them how to improve in any one or all of the above areas, you'll get their attention!
Tip #2: Try ending a status update with a specific question. In other words, rather than ending with a statement, end with a question. Questions hook the mind and invite people to interact with you. Invite your agents to share their thoughts, feedback, ideas, tips, etc.
Tip #3: Reply to your own questions to get the ball rolling. If there is a comment linked to a particular post, people will be inclined to read it. When they see that your comment is asking for feedback, they're more likely to
WEb 2.0 MArKETING SECrETS FOr MOrTGAGE PrOS
Secret #4: Convert Your Agent "Fans" into "Referral Partners!"
by DOrEN ALDANA
TheNicheReport.com 31
oblige. This can often create positive momentum to tip the scales of fortune in your favor. All you have to do is say something like this: "Hey, what do you think?" Oftentimes that's all it takes to get the ball rolling.
Tip #4: Reply often to your fans’ comments/questions. When people comment or pose questions, you want to jump in there as soon as possible and reply back with your comments. If there are multiple people commenting, be sure to put "@Name" at the beginning of your comment so people know who your message is intended for. For example, if you're replying back to Ralph, you would start your comment with "@Ralph." Make sense?
Tip #5: Respond to their comments quickly. Unless you're on vacation, set a goal to respond within a day or two. Ideally, reply the same day. Responding to comments in a timely fashion lets people know you're interactive, responsive, and "plugged in" to the conversation - not distant.
Tip #6: Ask questions about a photo. This is a great way to elicit feedback and comments. I learned this clever little trick from my buddy Carl White, who's an absolute marketing genius. Upload a photo of yourself with some easily recognizable landmark in the background (i.e., bridge, tower, sign, etc.) and then ask, "Where am I in this photo? The first ten people to respond with the correct answer will win free movie tickets for two!" Then invite the winners to come to your office to pick up their movie tickets, scheduled fifteen minutes apart. What a great way to build rapport and cultivate a relationship with more agents!
Tip #7: Give a prize for the best comments. It's amazing how fun and effective this strategy is! And yes, I learned this one from Carl too. One time Carl posted a photo of two sexy ladies who were dressed up in skin-tight police uniforms. In the photo, Carl is being arrested with his hands handcuffed behind his back. With his head turned to look towards the camera, you could see a sheepish grin on his face. It was priceless! It makes me smile just thinking about it. Along with the photo, he wrote a little note asking his fans to come up with a "caption" for the photo and announced that the best submission would win a video camera. As you might imagine, he got a tidal wave of comments on that one!
Tip #8: Put a call to action (CTA) at the end of every video tip. If you don't tell your audience exactly what you want them to do next, chances are they won't do anything. That's why it's so important to have a clear, concise call to
action at the end of each video. For example, if the video teaches your agents how to profit from expired listings, your CTA might sound something like this: "As an added-value service, we can provide you with a free, completely done-for-you Expired Listing Campaign that’s battle-tested and proven – so you don’t have to go through the hassle of doing all this stuff yourself. This offer is only available to a limited number of qualifying Realtors®, on a first come, first served basis. To see if you might qualify, call us today!"
Tip #9: Offer done-for-you tools in your CTA. As the previous example depicted, offering a ready-made template can make your call to action even more irresistible. Now they have an even BIGGER reason to contact you because you're going to hand them a valuable template or tool they can use to grow their business. This can really turbo-charge your results!
Tip #10: Deliver the done-for-you tools at the face-to-face meeting. Remember, the whole point of offering your tools and templates is to get a face-to-face meeting with your agent. If you just give the tools away by email without requiring a meeting, they now have one less reason to meet with you.
Here's a little script you might find helpful: "If I could show you how to attract more quality listings and sell them faster for top dollar, would you be open to meeting with me for 30 minutes in the next week or two? What works better for you, this week or next week? Which day would you prefer, ___ day or ___ day? Just so you know, the primary purpose of this meeting would be to ask you questions about your business so we can determine how, and if, I can help you grow your business. Fair enough?"
So there you have it! I've just given you ten proven strategies for converting your herd of Facebook agent fans into loyal, committed referral partners. In next month’s article, I’ll teach you how to use "Consumer Tip" videos to explodeyourrepeatandreferralbusiness.Staytuned....•
Doren Aldana is considered by many to be the nation's leading Mortgage Marketing Coach. Since 2005, he has been dedicated to helping mortgage professionals attract more clients with less effort, regardless of market conditions. Among Aldana’s latest innovations is a completely done-for-you video marketing solution that allows you to instantly deploy powerful videos through social media that attract mortgage clients like crazy. To see a free demo, visit: www.Done4UVideoMarketing.com
32 April 2012
As social media continues to evolve so do the tools. Stepping up to the plate with
a fierce vengeance is the new social media darling, Pinterest. Haven’t heard of it? Let me give you a quick description before we dive into the “why” behind using Pinterest within
your business.
WhAT IS PINTErEST?Pinterest is a simple way to capture and save any
picture you find on the web. Now before you think it’s just another version of Facebook, let me explain. Pinterest is at its core a visual experience. It takes magazine clipping online by offering a way to explore the web, consolidate your favorites and then share your eye-catching photos with your network of followers.
While Facebook has a wall, Pinterest has “boards” that are nothing more than buckets of similar content. For example, you might create a board titled “Kitchen and Bath
20 INSANELy EASy WAyS TO uSE PINTErEST IN yOur buSINESS
Social media continues to evolve
by rEbEKAh rADICE
Designs,” and then add content by pinning (capturing) pictures of kitchens or bathrooms that you find attractive. As you pin items onto your boards, anyone following you is able to see that pin and either LIKE it (sound familiar?), comment on it or re-pin it onto their own board.
Since you are already used to capturing pictures and articles on everything from planning a wedding to your next vacation, Pinterest has an endless amount of uses!
TheNicheReport.com 33
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Why uSE PINTErEST FOr buSINESS?If you’re currently using Facebook, Twitter or
LinkedIn for business marketing, Pinterest is a new tool you will want to strongly consider. Growing at lightning speed, Pinterest’s numbers are impressive to say the least. According to recent statistics, Pinterest has over 10 million registered users, nearly 12 million monthly unique visitors each month, and over a fifth of their users connecting through Facebook.
Oh, and did I mention that each “pin” leads you directly to the website where the pin originated? Think of the possibilities!
PINTErEST MArKETING FOr rEAL ESTATE
1. Tell a story about your city – This is a great way to use pictures you’ve taken around your city and highlight some of your favorite locations. Give buyers relocating into the area a good look at what certain neighborhoods or communities in your city look like.
2. Home styles & architecture – Architecture and style are so different from one state to the next. Whether the homes in your area are New England colonial, Spanish Revival or Cape Cod, providing pictures will allow buyers to connect with the look and feel of your city.
3. Historic locations – Historic locations such as buildings, churches and monuments are a fun way for anyone new to your area to better understand the history. What “insider” details can you share that offer unique insight into your town’s past?
4. Local business spotlight – Create a board that shares your favorite vendors such as local supermarkets, gas stations, hairdressers, pet store, auto repair, plumbers, electricians and more!
5. Top things to do in your area – Spotlight fun things to do or attractions to see within your area. Choose the top
sites exclusive to your neck of the woods.
6. First-time homebuyer tips – Pin your blog posts or links back to pages on your website. What questions do first-time homebuyers have? Answer those on your blog and you have ongoing content for this Pinterest board!
7. Tips to prepare your home for sale – If you are selling a home, what do you need to know? Help prospects make an informed decision by answering questions about prepping their home for sale, how the appraisal process works, specifics about the community and how to correctly price their home.
8. Curb appeal – Curb appeal means different things to different people. Pin colorful landscapes, cascading waterfalls and lush gardens to display the various looks within your area.
9. Staging tips – Pin stunning before and after photos that encourage re-pinning (think of retweets on Twitter) and paint a vivid picture of what a seller’s home should look like to offer maximum appeal to buyers.
10. Mortgage process – The stages of the mortgage process can leave anyone swimming in a sea of questions. Offer answers to FAQs about the loan application process, what to avoid and how to make an informed decision.
11. Guide to your city – Create a guide by pinning your favorite parks, museums, neighborhood restaurants and nightlife. This can be anything you deem awesome enough that someone new to the area would want to visit.
12. Pet-friendly locations – As a dog lover and someone who frequently travels with my two little guys, I am always on the lookout for pet-friendly places to hang out. Pin restaurants, hotels, coffee shops, bars, dog parks and any other pet-friendly location in your community. Believe me, they will love you for it!
13. Decorating on a dime – Everyone is looking to save wherever they can these days. Offer home decorating “do it yourself ” tips that are easy and affordable. You can also pin shops within your area that sell unique but inexpensive home décor.
14. Home improvement ideas – From a complete kitchen makeover to DIY, pin home improvement projects that inspire and advise!
15. Gardening tips – For new homeowners, learning basic gardening skills is important to the care and upkeep of their home. Provide tips on how to cultivate a stunning
20. Pictures of annual activities – Pin pictures of popular annual events such as fundraisers, school events and town hall meetings that someone new to the area might be interested in attending.
Most importantly, have fun with it! While we all know that using social media as a business-marketing tool is exciting, injecting ‘you’ into your social efforts is vital. Yes it’s great to connect with your past clients and prospects in an environment where you lead the conversation, but simply “pushing” out business info isn’t enough.
Pinterest gives you one more way to find and connect with your target audience and offers a little insight into your personality. What are your likes, your hobbies, your passions? Don’t be shy to share!
Get Started!
Rebekah Radice is the Manager of Industry Engagement for Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate. A self-proclaimed social media junkie and avid blogger, Rebekah has trained thousands of industry professionals on how to build, maintain and grow their online and social media presence.
garden and landscape.
16. How to make a move with children - If you look at moving as an exciting adventure full of fun and new possibilities, your children will be more apt to get on board. Help clients moving into your area go through this change minus the drama by offering the how-to’s of a smooth move.
17. Cool coffee shops in your area – As a self-diagnosed coffee addict, I am always on the lookout for local coffee shops with a cool, funky vibe. I love anything with big, comfy chairs and a quiet atmosphere. Where do you enjoy spending your time? You can bet your clients will too!
18. Moving day tips – When you’re making a move, you can use all the tips you can find. From checklists to supplies, planning a move is a huge undertaking. Pin tips on how to find free boxes, how to best pack breakables and how to budget for all moving expenses.
19. Things to do for free within your city – What sites can newcomers enjoy for free in your city? Whether it’s a museum or a beautiful garden in the heart of the city, pin colorful pictures of your favorite locations.
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36 April 2012
Over the past four years we've been traveling across the country teaching mortgage and real estate professionals about marketing. Most of
our focus has been on video blogging of course, because, well, we're really good at it. We do however cover several topics of interest within the wonderful world of e-marketing, so if you get a chance to catch us somewhere someday, please show up and say hello – we'd love to tip a cold one with you.
At any rate, we've spent a lot of time with a whole bunch of salespeople talking about marketing and generating leads, and there's always those certain few people out there that just don't get it. It doesn't matter how awesome the marketing nugget is that we lay out – they seem to go out of their way to find a way to pooh-pooh the whole idea and dig in as to why it won't work for them. Must be a dreary life you live there, Eeyore – no worries though, I know you have a lot of friends, I meet them every day!
Okay so here's what we've noticed about the typical Eeyore salespeople – they don't listen. Before the message
is completely transmitted, they've thrown up a force field causing them to “miss the point.” We're hoping in this article to convey what's usually missed by our beloved Eeyores out there. Either way, whether you consider yourself an Eeyore or not, please read and maybe even re-read this article to thoroughly digest its content because if you do, and you take it to heart, you'll explode your business – trust me.
So I'll give you the message in short and then I'll explain how it all comes together. In short – call the people in your database every single day and ask them for the business. Ask if you can help them personally or if they know of anyone that could use your help. Simple, right? Then why aren't you doing it? In our coaching class the first thing we establish, using a simple spreadsheet, is how many times a day the student needs to physically “on the phone or in person” ask for the business. Sales is a simple math equation. Ask for the business the appropriate number of times a day and you'll achieve your income goals. Don't and you won't – simple.
What you really need to understand is that even if
TO ThOSE WhO JuST DON’T GET IT
by FrANK GArAy
you're sending out some sort of newsletter or even a video, you still need to pick up the phone and talk to the people in your database. And yes, Eeyore, even if you're having some success with it despite the fact that you don't call, you still in fact need to call the people in your database. Why? Because if you don't, rest assured that there's some 20-year-old snot-nosed kid in some e-mortgage sweatshop with a laminated script thumbtacked to his cubicle talking to your clients on his stupid headset phone thingy stealing your hard-earned clients right from under your nose. I'm telling you right now that you need to start calling at least five people a day in your database. Don't think so? Well then yes, Eeyore – the sky is falling.
So let's talk marketing. Most mortgage and real estate salespeople use some sort of “drip campaign” to stay in touch with their database. Okay, I'm going to make a bold statement here. I believe that automated drip campaigns train the people in our database to ignore us. There, I said it. See, the people in our database are no different than us. In fact they're exactly the same as us. With that in mind, I want you to think about something. When was the last time you went home after a long day's work, grabbed a cocktail, opened the laptop and started to read an e-newsletter someone sent you? Please don't bullshit me and say you do – because I think you probably have never even read your own e-newsletter, let alone someone else's! So the question is: if you don't read them, why in the world would you think anyone else does?
Now some of you might say, “Hey Frank, don't you sell an e-newsletter system?” Yes. Why? Because no matter how many times we teach otherwise, most salespeople simply won't work at producing their own content, and something is better than nothing. But I'll tell you this. If this is you, you'd better read what's going out in your newsletter so when you're on the phone five times a day talking to the people in your database, now you'll have something to talk about before you ask them for the business.
Now let's talk video. We believe in it. Why? Easy. You're better than a newsletter. You in living color with your pretty little face and your sweet little voice providing something of value is about 4,345,637 times better than some pre-canned newsletter. People like you. Let them see you and hear you. Here's the problem. You're a typical salesperson and you don't know what to say. Look, it's easy. I can show you how you can provide something of value every week in the form of YOU on a video.
Now I know that your default would be to talk
about something in your industry. You know, Japanese candlesticks, moving averages, interest rates, stuff like that. Although these items might not be so bad to talk about once in a blue moon, it's pretty boring stuff. In fact unless you're in the process of getting a loan or buying a home, it's pretty much nauseating. If your goal is to nauseate the people in your database – rock on. So if you get the chance, catch one of our free webinars on video marketing. We do them pretty much every Friday. Watch our show at www.TBWSDailyShow.com and you'll see when we're doing them and you can register.
So let's bring this home with the full message. Here's the secret sauce to getting more business than you can possibly handle, even in this supposed depressed market.
1. Send out a marketing piece every week. Preferably you in the form of a video blog providing something of value that has nothing to do with your industry. But even if it's a pre-canned boring news letter – or a freaking post card, I don't care – just get it out.
2. Follow up by calling at least five people a day in your database, every day, five days a week. Talk a little about the marketing piece that went out, or about something you feel is important for them to know. Then before you hang up, ask them if they need your help with anything, or if they know of someone who might need your help.
So Eeyore, if you would have waited just a little longer before you threw up the force field and opened your mind and let the full message get in, you would have been in a much better position to get something from it. And what you would have gotten was a simple system that will work beautifully whether you use video or not.
Bottom line guys – get on that damn phone and call the people in your database every single stinking day and ask for the business. If you do, you'll blow up. If you don't, you'll starve and complain that nothing works and the business sucks right now. The choice is yours, choose wisely.
Thinkbigworksmall.com (TBWS) was founded in 2007 by a group of highly successful real estate and mortgage industry entrepreneurs. Born in the most battered market in the real estate and mortgage industrys history, Thinkbigworksmall.com was conceived after decades of observing how the most successful professionals always seem to work smarter not harder. Frank & Brian can be reached at [email protected]
TheNicheReport.com 37
FrANK & brIAN SPEAK
We’re awash in technology. Today is like nothing I can remember in any
field, in any time. Maybe things were like this when Gutenberg invented the printing press, where for four thousand years of recorded history nobody had anything to read, and all of a sudden there’s Barnes and Noble.
Well, no, probably not.Last week I caught myself using my Android phone
as a mobile hotspot and watching the Apple new iPad announcement on my iPad 2 at a stoplight. Perhaps I’m a little obsessive about this stuff, but I bet I’m not too different from most of the rest of you. The things that we are treated to as almost our natural rights are beyond any imagining of the brightest and most creative minds of any age of history.
I tweet. I post on Facebook. I pin. Yes, I PIN. You gonna make something of it? I use the internet obsessively and constantly. Right now I’m in the auditorium of a play practice dress rehearsal (I’m due on stage in a couple of minutes), writing on my MacBook and using my phone for internet. I have ESPN up behind this window and I’m checking the scores from various tournaments as I type. Is this you?
If it isn’t, it’s likely your clients. How many of them email you the rates they saw on someone’s website, or tell you what their house is worth by checking Zillow or one of the other sites? How many search for their houses online? Get financial news from e-newsletters? Text and email and DM you? Most of them, if not all of them.
A couple of months ago I wrote about an interview I conducted with a group of real estate agents. It was illuminating. After the group interview I got a chance to go riding on the home tour with a smaller group, and continue asking questions. After a while, the topic got around to technology and what a difference that had made in their lives and livelihoods. To a woman, they all said that their clients used technology at least as much as they used the knowledge base of the real estate agent; some even said that they used it to contradict them. All of them had clients that went out to see houses without them, having found them on the internet. All of them said they had clients that would bring lists of houses that they wanted to see, rather than leaving that up to the expertise of the Real Estate Agent.
You won’t be surprised to hear, they didn’t like this all that much. But these were professionals, people that had been in the industry for years. They weren’t upset that their clients knew more than before. They were upset that they knew the wrong things, and thought they knew much more than they actually did, like someone that’s researched
DON’T LET TEChNOLOGy ruIN yOu
by ChrIS JONES
38 April 2012
KEEPING uP WITh ThE JONES
gall bladders and thinks they should be holding the knife in surgery.
One of them then said something I thought profound: “They know more, and they think that knowledge is going to give them an edge in the buying process. But it doesn’t. And then they’re frustrated that the process isn’t going as smoothly as they want it to. What they don’t understand is that smooth is what I do, and when they cut me out of it, I can’t do what I do.”
It occurred to me that I had seen something similar with my own clients. In an effort to communicate with them more efficiently, I had relied less on what made the process smooth for the client, and more on what took less effort for me. The clients went with it, of course. It was easy for them, too. But they were less satisfied and more antsy. They called with problems and (especially) concerns far more often.
Then, a miracle happened. I went back to the future, and started bringing my clients to my office, just once, somewhere early in the process. I called them at least once a week. The complaints, the problems, they disappeared.
I want to propose that we’re in danger of losing something important. We are obsessed with doing things faster, with having more and bigger. What if the part
of the transaction that we speed up destroys the part of the transaction that made it worth doing? What if “friending” people makes having friends harder? What if the conventional wisdom, that technology makes us all happier, is wrong?
May I propose a seven-day reassessment? Here’s what you can do. Take a chunk of every day and stop using any technology more advanced than a phone. It can be an hour, a morning, an afternoon, but take some time every day for a week to see people face to face, and speak with them with your own voice. Track the results. See if it makes a difference. See if perhaps doing things more slowly and less efficiently actually makes you more satisfied with your results.
And let me know what you find. You can tweet me.
Chris Jones, branch manager with City First Mortgage Services, is a nine-year industry professional in brokering and banking, with a background in financial services, national politics and Main Street entrepreneurialism. He is the author of the forthcoming book, The Six Channels of Marketing, available in January. Chris lives in Lehi, Utah, with his wife, Jeanette, and their eight children, and can be found at www.lehimortgages.com, [email protected] or (801) 850-3781.
KEEPING uP WITh ThE JONES
WhAT IS yOur MOrTGAGE IQ?
Do you use Twitter to let your clients and real estate agents know what’s happening in your corner of the mortgage world? Well, one of the new features that has just been added to MortgageCurrentcy.com is “automatic tweets,” where you can just click and like magic, it appears on your Twitter feed. I’ve included a couple
of them here. Please feel free to steal them. Fannie Appraisal Economic Life: An appraiser states
the remaining economic life of the home is 20 years. Does my loan term have to be 20 years or less?
(Tweet) Fannie does not require the mortgage term to have any correlation to the remaining economic life of the property.(Tweet) However, property deficiencies must be addressed in the appraisal report and carefully considered by the underwriter in the analysis of the acceptability of the condition of the property.
WhAT'S yOur MOrTGAGE IQ?by KArEN DEIS
Fannie/Freddie Self Employment: Can you use business funds for a purchase on a 95% LTV?
Yes, but this subjects the business to full review. Use
the Fannie Cash Flow Analysis Chart when you submit the
loan to underwriting.
• Themoneyfromthebusinesswouldneedtobe
deposited into the borrower's personal accounts –
documenting the source of the large deposit.
• Thenthebusinessneedstoshowthesourceoffunds
– this can get complicated with large deposit activity
in the business accounts. You are better off with
VOD.
• Thebusinessbeingthesourceofincomealsoneeds
to show it can sustain the withdrawal of funds
through its documentation.
• Youwillneedaletterfromthebusinessaccountant
stating that the withdrawal of funds will not impede
the business operation or income.
40 April 2012
If You Know the Rules --You’ll Rule the Market!... because it’s not about rates anymore --
it’s about knowing how to get the deal closed!
7-Day Trial SubscriptionMortgage Talking Points® Flyers/Email for Your Real Estate Agents
Handy Charts & Checklists for you and your staffOrigination & UW Rules & Regs INTERPRETED in plain language
“Ask the Experts” Help Desk
MortgageCurrentcy.com • 800-231-4787
Compliance: Copy of Credit Report: Can loan officers give borrowers a copy of their credit report?
(Tweet)The FCRA does not prohibit a lender from providing the consumer a copy of their credit report (Tweet) nor does the act require the lender to do so. Your employer may have policies prohibiting the practice for various reasons.
Fannie/Freddie HARP 2.0 - How do we determine LTV if no current appraisal is required?
You enter in a value as you have always done – Fannie will either issue a PIW and accept the value, or require some level of appraisal.
Freddie will issue an HVE ratio. This must be within tolerance set (.20 with high or medium confidence) or you will need to rep/warrant value. Lender policies may differ for both with regard to value entered and appraisal requirements.
USDA Conventional Credit Rule: What does it mean that if a borrower qualifies for “conventional credit,” they cannot get an USDA Rural Housing loan?
This issue has caused much controversy over the years, but that should have ended with release of AN 4594. No longer is the definition of “conventional credit” left up to the varied interpretations by both lenders and USDA RD field staff. (tweet) Finally there’s a clear picture of how RD defines conventional credit and who qualifies for USDA loans (Tweet)…and I think they did a great job in clearing up this issue.
The goal with this AN is to maintain regulatory compliance with 1980-D while at the same time not forcing a good loan to other products as a result of misapplying the “conventional credit” rule. USDA RD wants the good loans too, and the intent of this AN is to help ensure just that. Better quality loans mean better performance, and a better chance of funding fee and annual fee costs being reduced over time as a result of better loan portfolio performance.
If an applicant fails at any of the “tests for conventional credit qualifying,” then they are eligible for a USDA RD GRH loan. The USDA RD field offices can no longer create or enforce their own set of rules with regard to this issue. While in many cases well-intended old habits are hard to break…this AN sets forth guidelines that apply across the United States and must be adhered to.
Note also that the AN states, “Approved participating
lenders should make the determination of whether the
applicant is capable of meeting such criteria. Form RD
1980-21, ’Request for Single Family Housing Loan
Guarantee’, requires both the lender and the applicant
to certify that the applicant is unable to secure credit
from other sources upon terms and conditions which the
applicant can reasonably fulfill. The certification can be
made if the applicant does not meet the requirements to
obtain a traditional conventional credit loan”…as defined in
this AN. (You’ll find a Mortgage Talking Points™ USDA
and the Meaning of Conventional Credit: Who Qualifies
on the MortgageCurrentcy.com website.)
FHA Student Loans: What payment percentage or estimate do we use on a student loan that doesn’t have a payment amount on the credit report?
FHA does not allow for payment estimates. You will
have to contact the loan servicer and ask for a payment
schedule. (I've had to do this several times and they were
able to provide it.)
FHA Credit Counseling: If a borrower is participating in a Credit Counseling plan, would that disqualify them for an FHA loan?
Here’s what you’ll find in FHA Handbook - 4155.1
4.C.2.i Consumer Credit Counseling Payment Plans:
(Tweet) Participating in a consumer credit counseling program does not disqualify a borrower from obtaining an FHA-insured mortgage (tweet), provided the lender
documents that
WhAT IS yOur MOrTGAGE IQ?
42 April 2012
• oneyearofthepay-outperiodhaselapsedundertheplan,
• theborrower'spaymentperformancehasbeensatisfactory and all required payments have been made on time, and
• theborrowerhasreceivedwrittenpermissionfromthe counseling agency to enter into the mortgage transaction.
TOTAL Scorecard Accept/Approve Recommendation
The borrower's decision to participate in consumer credit counseling does not trigger a requirement for additional documentation, as the credit scores already reflect the degradation in credit history. No explanation or other documentation is needed.
VA Original Documents: Does VA require original docs, as opposed to faxed forms such as VOEs, VOD’s etc.?
The only original document requirement is for the Certificate of Eligibility (which actually no longer applies now that we get them online) and the Note and Trust Deeds.
From the VA Handbook, Chap 5, 3d - Use of Imaged Documents:
When submitting loan documents to VA, lenders may use imaged documents. However, in contrast, lenders must submit the original Certificate of Eligibility and security instrument. In the event of an onsite VA audit of closed loans, lenders must be able to provide the audit team members with printed copies of requested files or on-line access to records at the auditor’s request.
Note: Lenders are expected to continually monitor
the integrity of their imaging system to ensure consistent quality and to prevent unauthorized alteration or destruction of records.
Written and contributed by Karen Deis of Mortgagecurrentcy.com. Provided monthly by www.mortgagecurrentcy.com- interpreting the Rules and Regulation Changes for loan officers, processors, underwriters, and owners/managers. Mortgage Talking Points TM, charts and checklists included.
out what to do. However, because there has been so much contraction in the industry, the lenders that are still in business are far more willing to share advice with each other. There’s a general sense that there is enough market for everybody.
Technology is also proving to be a very good aid for educating and training loan officers. My company frequently utilizes online educational programs offered by our investors as well as those operated by mortgage insurance, title companies and other educational organizations that provide online courses.
When it comes to ensuring regulatory compliance in the actual mortgage process, we put rules into our origination software so that the loans don’t get processed unless they meet certain criteria. While this in itself does not seem like an effort to educate the loan officer, the loan officer is still responsible for knowing why a transaction was halted and faces explaining the problem to the particular borrower.
Five years after the beginning of the mortgage meltdown, I’m encouraged by the growing emphasis on compliance. At last year’s Massachusetts Mortgage Bankers Association conference, we had a panel on how to lead a compliant, thriving sales culture. Personally, I found it compelling that the word “compliant” was on the front end of that idea.
In this environment, we should all be concerned whether loan officers are receiving adequate training. While every loan officer has a unique identifier on every loan application, in the end, it is usually the loan officer’s company that faces the music when errors occur. For this reason, it is especially incumbent upon those of us who are in positions of leadership to explain the “new rules” to current and incoming loan officers – they are the ones who most need to know.
Amy Tierce is a regional vice president for Fairway Independent Mortgage. She is based in Needham, Massachusetts, where she oversees the New England market. A former board member of the Massachusetts Mortgage Bankers Association, Amy has more than 20 years of experience in the mortgage industry. She can be reached at [email protected].
- Training Loan Officers continued from page 12- What's your Mortgage IQ continued from page 41
I have been an advocate of ‘learning experiences’ for most of my life. I do not believe
in failure; I believe in a learning experience. For those of you who have read my column, I often speak of experiential learning, or a lesson learned. Now, I want to develop this idea into an actual process that
can be implemented and used daily, and it takes minutes to accomplish. The benefit is a method to document, improve and refine an activity until it meets your standards of success.
In this first part of a multi-part article, I will explain the basic constituents of the Lessons Learned process. In the subsequent parts, I will discuss each component in more detail.
What is a Lesson Learned? It is a way of documenting (literally or mentally), analyzing, and improving a process or action to obtain the desired results. Everything we do - every action we perform
- either meets, exceeds or fails to meet a preconceived goal as the intended outcome. If the goal is met, no lesson is needed to be learned, because we have mastered that process; goal met. If the goal is exceeded, then we raise the standard for that action and the goal will be met in future performance. However, if the goal is not met, then how do we determine what corrections need to be made and where in the process are the corrections implemented? The PARALLEL System for Lessons Learned can help.
PARALLEL is an acronym meaning: Participant, Action, Result expected, Actual result, Lesson Learned, Educate, Lean the process.
This process is divided into three phases, or segments, of actions. The first is the Core. This is where the action is defined. The participant, action and result are defined here. The next is the Beta. This is where the action is analyzed and improvement is formulated. The actual result and lesson learned are analyzed to create an action for improvement. The final phase is Fit. This is where the process is refined, honed and calibrated to work as
TIP OF ThE MONThLessons Learned, Part I
by STEWArT MEDNICK
TIP OF ThE MONTh
TheNicheReport.com 43
TIP OF ThE MONTh
efficiently as needed or desired. This is where educate and lean processes are enacted.
Each phase is a follow-on part of this series for future Tip of the Month columns. Each segment has a specific purpose. Each segment is a leg of the “three legged stool” that needs to be equal to each other or the stool will not be balanced or even stand. If one phase of this process is ignored then the entire process will not yield the results necessary.
Here is a diagram of how the cycle would look when implementing this process to an action to be improved:
The cycle is performed always when the action is in motion. What do I mean? Let’s take a very simple example:
I shoot a basketball into the hoop. Now, if I make the shot, then I have mastered the process and no Lesson Learned is required. If I miss, then I analyze the imperfections in my process and learn, then retry the event and master the process. If I do not make the basket the second shot, then the process is again implemented and then, with the new lesson learned and the corrections implemented in my action, I attempt another shot. This process is repeated as frequently as needed or desired. In reality, this process happens all the time within our natural innate learning process. Humans learn effectively through repetition. This process is a graphic representation of how our brain engages in a learning process.
I am the Participant in my example. I shoot the ball into the hoop is the action, and my desired result is to make the shot. If I come up short, then the actual result is different from the desired result and I learned that I need
to shoot the ball harder to cover the distance to reach
the hoop. I shoot again and make it. I memorize that
amount of effort I need to make the basket form that
distance and this is the educate portion. I learn to jump
when I shoot, to turn and shoot or to dribble and then
shoot, and now I have leaned the process to perfection
and after multiple cycles, I have mastered the process.
I recommend that you start analyzing everything you
do on a daily basis that does not yield a desired result.
Implement this process and see if you can improve to the
point of mastering. Next month, I will detail the Core
phase of this process.
Stewart Mednick is a seasoned mortgage banker and
published author. His writing focuses on relationship
development, personal empowerment, customer satisfaction,
marketing and sales techniques. Stewart is available for
consulting, personal coaching and training sessions. If you
have a comment or a question for Stewart, contact him at
651-895-5122 or [email protected]
hOW WE SEE IT
44 April 2012
PrIME & FhA
Financing may not be available in all states. The above summaries are intended for Mortgage Professionals only, and not intended for distribution to consum-ers, as defined by Section 226.2 of Regulation Z, which implements the Truth-In-Lending Act. Information is subject to change without notice. Refer to each lender’s information on products, program, procedures, representations, and warranties for details.
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- continued from page 54
brINGING uP ThE rEAr
details of her experience working for Mr. Elmendorf after her dismissal by writing a letter to Senator Grassley, the Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Committee.
In that letter, Lan explained that during the fall of 2010, while working at the CBO, she was told not to publish or incorporate any data about the U.S. housing and mortgage markets… nothing about the foreclosure crisis, nothing that might spoil the CBO’s “forecasts,” and I use that term extremely loosely.
Here’s what Pham said that she was told in no uncertain terms by CBO leadership, among many other equally damning things…
• Statementscouldnotbemadeattributingthedeclineinproperty tax revenues to foreclosures and the decline in home prices.
• ForeclosureshadnoimpactonU.S.homeprices.• ThedeclineinhomepriceshadnoimpactonU.S.
household wealth.• TheemergingforeclosurefraudproblemsinSeptember
2010 were due to “media sensationalism,” and “the kind of event of the moment where we should be adding skepticism,” and “not just repeating the hype in the press,” and discussing it “lacks judgment about what is important.”
• “Alternativeviewpointsaresuppressedorquestionedas ‘pessimistic’ by CBO Director Doug Elmendorf. Economic facts inconvenient to the CBO's forecasts of economic growth, recovery and other estimates are omitted or suppressed so the desired message may be delivered.”
• Andfinally,theimplicationshaveprofoundfinancialand economic consequences that would be of compelling interest to Congress, and the public, but the CBO sought to silence a discussion of such risks that in reality have been materializing.
Okay, so this doesn’t need any further qualification… you did it… in your role as Director of the Congressional Budget Office, you deliberately withheld and even masked and knowingly distorted information vital to the current and future wellbeing of the United States of America during the most severe and damaging national economic emergency since the 1930s.
You lied to Congress, if only by omission. You withheld critical information from the President of the United States, or at least I’m going to pray you did, because if you didn’t… if your conspiracy to see this country’s economy so substantively disrupted as to become utterly destroyed, with trillions of dollars in middle-class wealth eviscerated to such a degree that there is no hope for it to return in my lifetime,
actually involved the White House, well then… Dear God, sir… what have you done?
What have you done to lives of hundreds of millions of Americans citizens… to the elderly, the destitute, to those too young to be able to speak out or defend themselves - to say nothing of what your suppression of information has done to untold numbers of people around the globe?
Do you not realize how many lives you’ve destroyed by your actions… how many have taken their own lives because of what you’ve done in your capacity as director of the CBO? How many are today being forced to grow up without mothers and fathers because of what you engineered and accomplished?
As someone who, during this exact period of time in this country’s history, has devoted almost all of my time… seven days a week, and more often than not 16 hours a day… to writing about these facts as you worked to keep them concealed, you have robbed me and my family personally of hundreds of thousands of dollars. When I think of how many times I was asked why our government wasn’t saying what I was saying in countless articles… “they had to know,” people asked almost daily… “why is it that they do not say a word?”...
I am physically sickened by what you have done, by what you have allowed to happen. You, a graduate of Princeton with an undergraduate degree in economics, a Masters in Economics and then a Doctorate in Economics, the last two degrees from Harvard? You cannot claim ignorance or feign indifference.
I suppose I’ll never know who else was involved in what you’ve done to this nation by manipulating and withholding such information from Congress, from the president, from the American people and from the world. You are a traitor to my country. You should be incarcerated for the remainder of your life at a minimum… were it up to me, you would be tried and held accountable.
And even as you saw the impact of your decision to withhold information grow and continue to do harm to the Obama presidency… even as you saw the economic conditions worsening so dramatically, you just turned your back on tens of millions who today live on food stamps and with no hope of employment for years to come? Beg this country’s forgiveness, and pray for your soul.
Martin Andelman is a staff writer for The Niche Report. He also writes an almost daily column on ML-Implode called Mandelman Matters. He also publishes a Monthly Museletter and you can follow “Mandelman” on Twitter. Send your responses to [email protected].
TheNicheReport.com 53
I’ve been writing this column every month for… I don’t know… it has to be three years now, or darn close.
And as those that read it know, I select an individual each month and basically call him or her out for being a “rear end,” or a miscreant, if you prefer. It’s not a particularly difficult task; unfortunately,
it seems that unsavory characters are ubiquitous these days.But, usually I manage to chastise my victim using
humor… and if that’s not possible, I can always fall back on prose laced with a heavy dose of sarcasm. In point of fact, I’ve become fairly well known for my use of sarcasm in such columns. Just today, for example, I was on the phone with a fairly senior member of the Obama Administration… someone who works in a senior policy position at Treasury but shall remain nameless… and during that conversation I was told that my article one month last year “really pissed off my son.”
I apologized… said that it wasn’t meant to be personal, and that I had no plans to do anything like it again. “Don’t worry, you’re only a ‘REAR’ once,” I explained.
A few months back was a real challenge, however, when my chosen REAR was Edward DeMarco, acting director at the FHFA, the conservator for the spectacular failures that are Fannie and Freddie… the GOEs, I call them - “Government Owned Entities.” It wasn’t hard to choose him, he’s a mammoth REAR END, to be sure. But, it was impossible to be funny, and my best shot at sarcasm was to suggest that “the DeMarco problem,” could be easily handled by simply shooting the man at dawn. That came across as being
brINGING uP ThE rEArDouglas W. Elmendorf, PhD, Director of the Congressional Budget Office
by MArTIN ANDELMAN
- continued on page 53
brINGING uP ThE rEAr
sarcastic, right? I’m pretty sure it was intended that way…. I mean, DeMarco’s well-publicized obstinacy related to
Fannie and Freddie doing more to mitigate the carnage being caused by the foreclosure crisis is nothing short of maddening. For one man to be the proximate cause of so much human suffering, well… he should have to be a despotic monarch. And when you consider the fact that Fannie and Freddie are zombies, as companies go - bankrupt… insolvent… ruined beyond all hope - it’s not like holding out is accomplishing anything positive. It’s simply a case of taxpayers foreclosing on taxpayers, and therefore decimating the accumulated wealth of American taxpayers.
It’s truly crackerjack work, no question about it, and assuming you’re working with a fully developed adult human brain, it should make you want to chew on glass or lay down in traffic. That President Obama is helpless and DeMarco’s power reigns supreme, well… don’t get me started.
The point is… it’s not the least bit humorous. In Oceanside, California, just during the last four weeks, there were 14 foreclosure-related suicides and murder-suicides, and six of the dead were children. Are you laughing? Me either.
So, this month I’ve chosen the Director of the CBO, Douglas W. Elmendorf as the REAR, and if you don’t already know what’s driving my choice then you may want to stop reading now, and go do something else… because what you’re about to discover is flat-out repulsive… no, worse than that - treasonous? I don’t want to come off as being too extreme, but...
You see, Lan T. Pham, PhD, who was a “senior staffer financial economist” at the CBO, and who was fired after less than three months on the job, went public with some of the
54 April 2012
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