Latest / Mortgage Marketing Radio / Ep 153: Closing 180 Loans per Year Working Only 40 Hours a Week

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Ep 153: Closing 180 Loans per Year Working Only 40 Hours a Week · Mortgage Marketing Radio

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In today's highly competitive mortgage industry, building profitable relationships with
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real estate agents is essential for success.
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However, finding effective ways to secure agent relationships can be a challenge.
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With so many mortgage loan originators vying for the attention of real estate agents,
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it can be difficult to stand out and establish meaningful connections.
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Our new case study featuring loan officer Chris Cogill is a must-read.
0:25
This has closed a remarkable 36 million in funded loans from agent referrals.
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And in this case study, he shares his proven strategies for building strong relationships
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with real estate agents and leveraging those relationships to drive more business.
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To get your hands on this resource, head over to LOKestudy.com and download your free copy
0:45
of the case study today.
0:47
You'll find actionable insights and practical tips that Chris used to close 36 million
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in funded loans from agent referrals and how you can, too.
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Don't miss out.
0:57
Go check it out right now, visit LOKestudy.com and download your free copy today.
1:17
Welcome to Mortgage Marketing Radio.
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Brought to you by the Mortgage Marketing Institute, your number one source for truth in
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Mortgage Marketing.
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Hey, Listers.
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What's up?
1:27
Welcome to another edition of the Mortgage Marketing Radio podcast.
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So glad you are here.
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If you're a new listener or you want to communicate with me in any way, you can always email
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career within the private Facebook group there.
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So check that out also.
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And as always, if you're looking to grow your business in 2020, whether it's get more
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agent referrals in less time, you want to go deep versus wide with agents.
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You want to increase your business profitability, better manage your time.
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You want to succeed on social media, YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, you name it.
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We've got the trainings.
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Go check out mortgagemarketing.pro, check out the short video.
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Maybe it's for you.
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Okay.
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So let's get into this week's special guest, Amy Wolfe, who is a social worker for mortgages,
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as she calls herself.
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I told her she needs to brand that and I think she's going to.
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She is really coming at this with the correct heart.
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I think if you will, she's got a heart for people, which has led to her helping her
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be so successful.
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She's running about, I don't know, 180 units a year, mostly purchased business, 50 million
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in volume.
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She's been in for 15 years and we just have a nice can of conversation that really touches
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on a lot of different areas.
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We talk about her working with teams and the fact that she recently had to clean house
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and working some of the bigger teams because it wasn't a fit for her business model anymore.
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We talk about the Zillow conversation and her having to break free of agents who the
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value prop to those agents was her co-paying for Zillow leads and how she had the conversation
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with them about that.
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We talk about her team setup, her front end loan partner people, her process for utilizing
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video through the milestones of the loan process to really create an amazing customer experience
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and a lot of different other things.
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I think you really enjoy this multi prong discussion about how to be a high producing
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mortgage originator and still have a life, she only works about 40 hours right now.
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It's taken her some time to get there, a lot of learnings.
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You hear about her best practices and what she's planning for 2020 and how she actually
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decides who she works with as real estate agents, the criteria and how she has those conversations
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and actually she meets with most of her agents individually every single month.
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You hear more about that on this week's episode, so let's get into this week's show.
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Amy Wolf, welcome to the show.
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Thank you.
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So glad you're here.
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I knew you were incredibly busy and we were talking just before we hit record.
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You have a lot to be excited about being from Baltimore with what's happening in the
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Ravens, right?
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Yeah.
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And in full disclosure, I don't think I have any evidence of it, but I am from New England.
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Oh, shame.
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You did beat us, so that's right.
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That's right.
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That's right.
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A lot to be said about that.
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You know, I know I put a risk of myself whenever I bring that up because there's the haters
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out there and they just love to pile on, you know, but anyway, we're not here to talk
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about that.
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We're here to talk about you and your successes and originator.
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Give us a quick background there.
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How long have you been in the biz, average units and volume?
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Um, but in this is for about 15, 16 years now, um, history is I previously was a social
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worker, have my masters in social work and was slinging drinks at a bar late at night
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to help make ends meet and talk to a guy who talked to me in the giving this a go.
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So now I'm the social worker of mortgages, um, do about social worker of mortgages.
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That's cool.
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Yeah, man.
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Cool.
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I like that.
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Um, I would say do about 50, about 50 mil a year, um, and average loan size about
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225 out here in, in my neck of the woods over here in yeah, Frederick, Maryland.
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Yep.
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And so, uh, that was like, uh, how many units roughly, probably like 280, okay, 280.
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Wow.
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Nice.
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Good volume.
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Good volume.
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What's the main source of that business?
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Um, well, it's kind of an all-over.
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It's gone from real to referrals.
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Now we're told out of repeat business and really just staying in touch with their, uh,
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you know, our current clients and getting referrals from them.
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Mm hmm.
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So, um, core realtors, roughly that send you business?
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Yeah.
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Yeah.
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So we have, um, I have a lot of ones of the Tuesday realtors also that I work with.
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But, um, I have a really good name in the Frederick area and, um, you know, people know
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that we're going to close on time and give that great customer service and make them look
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good.
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So, um, you know, we've gone from, you know, work with a lot of large teams to cut back
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or work with more, um, like the ones of Tuesdays, we're with some large team still.
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So it's kind of all over the place.
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Yeah.
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So it's funny because the call I was just on, um, prior to this call, we were talking
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about, um, getting clear on identifying who you're like ABC player realtor referral partners
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are.
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And, uh, so, and we talked about the ones of Tuesday and one of the exercises was, you
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know, to have these L.O.s, uh, write down a list of all the referrals, the realtor referrals
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they got, um, how many volume amount and things like that.
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And part of the, the discussion was you probably have a lot of ones of Tuesday realtors who
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are just sending you the casual random deal here and there.
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And as you, I'm sure no being in this industry long enough, there's the conversation on, you
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know, going deep versus wide and, right, kind of, um, having more partnerships, right,
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with, quote, producing, so I'm curious like, how do you manage the ones of Tuesday, right?
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That's kind of a wider net of a bunch of cats, sort of, we got to herd, right?
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Yeah.
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We have, um, I have a, well, a system I use, uh, Jungo is my CRM, so I've been there, have
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a reminder for myself to make sure I remember to check in.
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Um, we also have drip campaigns that they're on and those kind of things, um, for realtors
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that I work with on a regular basis that maybe don't do a ton of volumes still.
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Um, I usually try to schedule once a month meeting with them.
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While they're here with me, kind of doing, I'm just kind of like a coaching call, um,
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or coaching meeting, you know, they're coaching me and I'm coaching them at the same time,
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um, you know, how can we work better together?
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Um, and we usually schedule a meeting for the very next, uh, you know, next month,
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right away as well.
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So that seems to work really well for me to go stay in touch with people.
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So how many realtors do you put on that program where you're trying to meet with them once a month?
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I mean, right now there's probably about 25 listed there currently.
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Um, you know, there's, I kind of did hit a reset button on, uh, and cleared it all
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fall just at the end of this year and said, um, you know, I'm going to kind of start
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everybody fresh again and make sure that I get everybody, you know, back, uh, back to make
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sure that they know about all of our technology that we have, um, a lot of drip campaigns that we
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have teaches them about, you know, what's good about working with our company and my team?
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And, um, you know, some people have been working with and I haven't told them everything
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because it's, you know, maybe forgot.
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So what's, what's the main focus then of that, of that meeting when you do meet with them?
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Is it, you know, all about you or like, you know, what are you trying to accomplish there?
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No, really, I want to get to know them.
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Um, I want to get to know them and I want to get to know like where their pain points are and,
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um, and how we, how we can help, um, I used to want to know how they wanted everything
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and I used to try to cater ourself in a team, but that's a most impossible.
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Like, so you work with 25, 30 people, like, I realized really quickly that I can't have 25 or
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30 different ways that we're going to operate as a team, so effective and efficient.
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Right.
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Um, so a lot of that's teaching them how we prefer, you know, for them to work with us.
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Of course, there's lots of different options, but also to really just get to know them,
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make sure they're fit for us, fit for our team, um, and then we're, uh,
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going to be able to work together in a partnership.
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So these meetings then, I, maybe I was incorrect in assuming, um, who, who you are scheduling these
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meetings with, um, in that you might like try and meet the, uh, have a repeat, meet agents over
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and over again every single month or is this kind of a vetting process?
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Some, how many are you trying to meet with repeatedly?
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How many do that kind of stuff?
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Um, I mean, the repeated ones, I'm going to continue meeting with them once a month,
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whether it, you know, for some people, it's, I've worked for a long time in our meetings
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of pedicure or our meetings, right?
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So it's really become friendship, social, all that.
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Yeah.
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For some people that say I want to come in, I need to update on my 50 leads and, you know,
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so everyone has a different, uh, use of their time of how they, you know, how they want to use it.
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Usually, depending on how long our relationship has been intact.
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Right.
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Um, but yeah, it's usually the same rivers over and over again.
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Um, also, um, you know, as I meet new agents, usually naturally through the transactions.
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So whether it's, uh, an agent refers me and says, oh, you have to work with my co-worker.
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They're great.
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You guys are going to be a good match or whether it's, um, you know, they have to do the listing
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agent and, you know, the transaction went well and I really enjoyed working with them,
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then we're kind of reaching out from there.
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I'm not doing a lot of co, you know, co-calling a big, long list of real estate agents.
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Right.
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So if I heard you correctly then, if you have roughly 25 agents, right, that send you business
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at various levels and frequency, are you then essentially having 25 agent meetings a month?
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Well, not necessarily 25 a month because some of them, you know,
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kind of fall off the face.
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But like, yeah, I might have three or four of them a day, uh, depending on who's coming in,
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the bigger teams that we work with, like just last week, I had a meeting with six
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villagers all at the same time.
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So sometimes it might be going to their office meeting and, um, presenting to them about,
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you know, a new program or the new technology that came out, um,
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because you're their partner.
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Yes, that's, that's, that's the word right there is that I, we want to work with people
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who we're going to be a partner with.
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Right.
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Um, so that's interesting.
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Let's talk about that for a second.
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How do you have that discussion?
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When is it, when do you typically try and have that partner discussion?
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And maybe what does that sound like?
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I probably have it right away, um, and maybe it's too thin.
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But, um, a lot of times I tell people like, this is their team.
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This is what we have to offer.
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You know, I've already heard about, you know, how they like things to go.
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And I tell them that like, I would like to partnership, I'd like to partner with you.
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I would like to work together to help you meet your goals, um, you know,
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but do you, let me interrupt for a second, my apologies.
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But do you have any criteria?
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Do you do any vetting of them?
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Um, how do you decide who you want to partner with?
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I do not.
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And I've been told a lot of times that I should.
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I should be a little bit more.
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Come on, come on.
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Right.
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Um, the, well, but it's more personality.
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Like, um, it's 100% for me.
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Are we a match?
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Like, yeah, I love you.
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Do I want to work with you?
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Do I want to see you in my office once a month or even more?
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I want to talk to you on the phone every day.
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You know, you're an energy vampire.
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Yes.
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Yeah.
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And so that's really what it comes down to is personality and making sure
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that, you know, they're going to be a good fit that, you know, my
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lone partners aren't going to, you know, cringe when the phone rings.
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There's no, it's not so much about, you know, having a minimum
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production criteria for you.
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No, what I've actually found is that for a lot of people who don't have their
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production, um, by working with us, the production increases.
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I'm sorry.
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We have a lot of agents that, you know, it's kind of fun.
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I'm coaching them and telling them, you know, showing them our technology
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and how it can help to increase their.
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Okay.
14:45
All right.
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So you've said a couple of things that maybe want to ask more.
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You said, help them increase production.
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Show them our technology.
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You loosely referred to an agent asking, hey, what's up with my 50 leads?
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How are you doing these?
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How are you helping an agent grow their business?
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What is this secret technology?
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Well, I thought it's not really a secret.
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I think everybody uses, you know, everything's always the same.
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But so we have our phone app.
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So we have the co-branded phone app.
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We use our simple Nexus and so sharing the phone app
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and using the co-branded phone app that really frees up the agent a lot
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in terms of them being able to apply right there,
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teaching, um, what most of what we do is educating, right?
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So we're teaching the client how to run their numbers ahead of time
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so they haven't wasted the agent's time,
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which leaves them more time to be, you know, selling other people.
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You know, talking to them or we do
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education seminars.
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So one way we do education seminars here
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where they can bring their clients in here.
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Usually, everything we do is basically through the CRM.
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So we're using, we document everything we do
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and then have a, you know, we close with you.
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We're going to invite you to four events a year.
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We're going to be in front of you when you call me back up.
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I'm going to refer, and you're, I'm going to refer the
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lead that you're just giving back to the agent that you are working with.
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Um, you know, so it's really just kind of tracking and, um, yeah.
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So how do you, uh, if I sound like I'm repeating myself,
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I want to get, I'm, what may not know about me is I like to get very specific, right?
16:29
Sure.
16:29
Um, how do you use the phrase help an agent grow their business?
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I heard that example there.
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You refer the agent back, but I mean, like on the front end,
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let's say you close the transaction with a, with a realtor,
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you know that you want to partner with them for your reasons.
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How do you then move that relationship forward?
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Um, one thing is is at the end of the closing.
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Um, I get a video from the customer.
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Um, you were asking earlier if I'm big on social media.
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So yeah, so we get a video from the customer,
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and we try to share that out on social media with both me and the agent.
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Let me ask you, how do you capture that video?
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Are you just putting the phone in front of them at the closing table?
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Or what are you doing?
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Yeah, literally.
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It's just hey, um, would you mind telling us about how you, uh,
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mm-hmm, how the transaction works?
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I do like it.
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Tell us about your experience, right?
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How was your experience with, yeah, with me and realtor X, right?
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And they start.
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And a lot of times, um, they end up in tears.
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Um, and when you have an emotional person who they, you know,
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you've really helped them, um, you know, it's great.
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And I think that, you know, I think just helping agents to realize, like,
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doing small little things like that have a big impact.
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Um, so you're going to capture that video.
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And then the hope is they're going to mention the agent as well,
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because it's part of the team.
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But um, then of course you're going to share that video with the agent.
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They're going to be blown away.
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Yeah, I would share it with those meetings.
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They'll get tagged, open it.
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And then, you know, I was going to ask you, where do you share your, uh,
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Facebook, your business page or where?
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Um, so I tend to share my stuff from my personal page.
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I'm marketing people if I send them the app,
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then they put it or send them the video,
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then they put it on our business page.
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Uh, sometimes I send it to the agent and they share it, you know,
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so it really just depends on where I'm sitting,
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where the closing was and how I can get on there the quickest.
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Um, so, um, yeah.
18:23
Okay.
18:24
No, I like that.
18:25
Sorry, oops, sorry.
18:26
One of your videos started to play.
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Uh, this is the video that came up, by the way,
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calling all millennials.
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Let's go buy a house.
18:35
Yeah.
18:36
So that one, I think is, I think that that's just, uh,
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you know, a normal little video that was like, you know,
18:43
that's not the testimonial video.
18:45
No, no, but um, it's an example of your active on social, it's a video.
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It got a couple hundred views and it's pretty cool.
18:53
It's done well.
18:53
Yeah.
18:54
Well, thank you for sure.
18:56
So how much video are you doing?
18:57
What other types of video do you do?
18:59
Um, I mean, that's basically, I'm trying to get more in a video.
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That's one of my goals.
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I just did my goal setting for this year and one of my goals
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to do the videos at each spot.
19:10
Um, sure, milestones.
19:11
Yeah, right.
19:12
And, um, and also those would go out automatically through your CRM.
19:16
Yep.
19:16
Mm-hmm.
19:17
Okay.
19:17
Yeah.
19:18
Um, and then also to have the question and answers.
19:20
I listen, I listen to myself sometimes.
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And then also I learn partners on like, man, we say the same thing every day.
19:26
Right, right.
19:27
Um, so the education pieces, uh,
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I'd be like, there's a video for that.
19:31
Yeah, yeah.
19:32
Well, if you want to learn more about that, then yeah.
19:35
No, love it.
19:36
Yeah.
19:36
And so those who might go on your website or your business page or something.
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Yeah, and even the head will just go on the,
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the phone app that we have, the phone apps has been really popular.
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So yeah, I've heard good things about that phone app,
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but I'm trying to remember if I had them on in the past.
19:49
If not, I'll have to.
19:50
Yeah.
19:51
Um, okay, you mentioned something here.
19:54
I'm looking at my notes from the last time we chatted,
19:56
which is, um, uh, and you did allude to it earlier in our conversation.
19:59
But I have written down with, with quotes, clean house.
20:03
Biggest teams not a fit anymore.
20:05
I wanted to unpack that a bit as to why.
20:07
Because a lot of people are thinking like, how am I going to grow my realtor?
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I'm going to go work with teams.
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Tell us what are we doing?
20:13
I think that like, like, right now we're working with one large team.
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And it's going great.
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Our vision is the same.
20:20
Um, you know, for some of the larger teams that I worked with in the past,
20:24
like they had multiple lenders that they were working with.
20:27
And, you know, like for me, a big thing is partnership.
20:30
And like, I want to grow something together.
20:33
And it's hard to do that when, you know,
20:36
there's all these different lenders that are also involved.
20:38
No, not that we have to be exclusive with any person.
20:40
Because you really can't get this in, you know,
20:43
but, you know, I want to have somebody that we really have a good partnership with.
20:47
Um, you know, sometimes, um, even looking back at like, um, the costs for things.
20:53
Like I think we talked last time about a little bit about Zillow.
20:56
Yep.
20:56
And, you know, I mean, you know, I let my model change where I was listening to each
21:03
real estate agent and saying, what do you want?
21:06
Oh, you want this cool.
21:08
Let's do it.
21:08
Let's do it.
21:09
Let's do it.
21:10
And before I knew it, I'd spend a lot of money on Zillow and not really
21:15
getting a good return on it.
21:16
Um, and so I had to cut that out.
21:21
And, um, so you had to approach the agents and say this doesn't work anymore?
21:25
Yeah, it was, it was actually a cool conversation.
21:27
Because for some of them, they're like, you're right.
21:30
Number, you know, we're looking at these numbers together.
21:33
And, you know, for some cool, they're like, yeah, you're right.
21:37
Now, see, that right there is a lesson for listeners.
21:39
The sheer fact that you could have that conversation and that the agent,
21:44
you both looked at the numbers and that he or she agreed instead of an agent
21:49
what often say, well, if you're not going to pay for my Zillow leads, somebody else is,
21:53
that is not a partnership.
21:56
That's right.
21:56
Yeah.
21:57
And so the fact that the agent agreed to do that with you means you, um,
22:01
obviously had a great relationship and you still work together?
22:04
Yep.
22:04
We do.
22:05
Yeah.
22:05
And then you're saving some money.
22:07
So we do.
22:08
Yeah, and it's good.
22:09
And like, I'm, you know, I think we drop down from, you know, a lot to,
22:13
maybe we're doing like a hundred dollars or something.
22:15
Wow.
22:15
Very minimal team time.
22:17
And, you know, and yeah, we do all kinds of different stuff together.
22:22
Not the cost money, but like our value is in the team and in the customer service
22:28
and the repeat business that you're going to get when you work with us.
22:30
So that's kind of more.
22:34
So all right, that leads me to the question.
22:36
And a lot of like my interview style is like, we'll, we'll talk about something that'll
22:40
open up a file in my head and be like, oh, ask this question.
22:46
What you just said there makes me think about how you do articulate your value proposition,
22:52
right?
22:52
Kind of early in that relationship process.
22:54
And I asked that in the context of relevant to the Zillow thing is that
22:59
I've feedback, I've been given in the past is that these, quote, top producers, right?
23:05
The closing on time, you know, incredible service customer experience
23:10
that those agents say, well, yeah, dude, those are the basics, right?
23:15
I need you to help me.
23:16
No, I mean, so what do you say to that?
23:19
Well, I mean, for me, it's like doing the basis and doing them right is really what it comes
23:23
down to.
23:23
I think that, you know, one of the teams that we just again working with, you know,
23:28
they were like, yeah, I know that I'm losing a lot working with some other lenders because
23:33
they're not willing to sometimes do the, the hand holding or looking at the maybe a little bit
23:41
harder to file or give the credit suggestions.
23:44
So for most people, it's like, when I walk in, I'm like, hey, I'm the social worker of
23:47
mortgages, right?
23:48
I'm here to actually help people.
23:49
You're gonna brand that.
23:51
Yeah, I should brand it.
23:53
And it really is like, we're looking at what are their goals?
23:55
What can we do?
23:57
I did.
23:58
I mean, if I go back five years ago, I was swamped running around in circles just trying to help people
24:04
that didn't want to be helped.
24:05
So I had to make a lot of changes to my model.
24:08
I was like, to define what does it mean if you're needs some credit help?
24:14
What does that look like and how do I make sure I'm not wasting my time working with someone
24:18
who's never going to get there or who's not serious about it?
24:22
So we had to put, you know, some parameters on that.
24:25
But I think that's one of the really big things is that we're going to help,
24:28
we're creative, we know all the grant programs, you know, we
24:34
just really knowledgeable in everything that there is there to offer.
24:37
So we're going to close a lot more loans than
24:40
maybe the next place is, which makes some more money as well.
24:45
So you have a reputation of somebody who
24:49
can get things done and as a person of their word.
24:52
If we can't get it done, they say no one can get it done.
24:56
But, or I'm at least going to point it in the right direction of someone who can.
24:59
So, you know, like there's some weird things that, you know,
25:02
I just had to give one way that was like the, you know,
25:05
modular home that had been moved and, you know, they thought they, you know,
25:09
like, yeah.
25:11
And like, so there's nothing that I can't do, but I'm still going to at least point
25:14
in the right direction.
25:15
Not a miracle worker, you're a social worker.
25:16
There you go, you got it, you got it, yeah, yeah, we get it, we'll get it done.
25:24
And yeah, we're going to keep our word no matter what, yeah.
25:27
So tell me a little bit about your team in terms of,
25:29
are you the primary or only originator?
25:31
Yeah, well, as of until like two months ago.
25:34
So, yeah, so for gosh, I guess we've had a team now for six years.
25:40
So, it's always been me as a loan officer.
25:43
I have a licensed loan partner.
25:46
Actually, and now I have three loan partners.
25:51
One of them, the Spanish speaking.
25:56
And I just recently brought on a loan officer who's doing half
25:59
loan officer and then half loan partner.
26:01
So, half the stuff that he's bringing in his own business.
26:04
And my job is to make the phone ring, bring the clients in, make it rain.
26:09
Their job is to do all the, I mean stuff, yeah, I don't want to do it.
26:15
Stuff that makes you look good.
26:16
Yeah, exactly, exactly, yeah.
26:19
And I have this jotted down from our last conversation in terms of your process.
26:23
Like, let's say you get a referral from an agent.
26:25
Somebody who is inquiring about buying just kind of quickly walk us through
26:29
because people are really curious about when you have loan partners,
26:32
who owns what and where you bowing it out.
26:35
Yeah, so we've obviously changed his own things constantly.
26:38
So we've changed that quite often.
26:40
But right now, I think we've got it pretty good.
26:43
So, Lee comes in.
26:44
I've got me and I've got my guy, his name's Charlie,
26:47
but he's kind of a front end with me.
26:50
So, if I'm on the phone, he's going to start taking some basic information
26:54
until he gets them over to me or we're sending him the phone app
26:57
or the link to do the online application.
26:59
Our job is just to quickly vet and make sure,
27:04
like, is this, is this a lead that we want our loan partners to be spending time on?
27:09
So, you know, if it's below a certain credit score,
27:13
we're done with it, you know, or if they say,
27:15
well, I haven't had a job in four years, you know, okay, well, you know,
27:18
like you said, not a miracle worker.
27:20
Right.
27:21
So, we're just kind of just making sure that the loan partner is spending time
27:24
with they should, as soon as that's been determined,
27:27
we send a list of documents that we need.
27:30
So, we really do the really big on doing the real true pre-approval, not a pre-qual,
27:36
ask them for all their documents.
27:38
One of the things that's really worked for us is,
27:41
when we send a needs list, I copy my loan partner,
27:45
they immediately respond with an intro and a coupon that says,
27:49
$100 dollars off if you get your documents in the V within 24 hours.
27:54
Oh my gosh, I love that.
27:55
And it works.
27:56
It's great.
27:57
But, I mean, $100 dollars off of what no one ever asks, but, you know,
28:00
we do whom $100 dollars off of our, you know, origination fee.
28:03
But the point is, is that they get their documents in clicker.
28:07
Yeah, I mean, truth is, it could be anything.
28:08
It could be like a gift card or something.
28:10
It could be anything.
28:11
I don't, maybe, maybe not.
28:13
I don't know if that's an expert, but you know.
28:16
Yeah, exactly.
28:18
So, then the loan partners, we're viewing everything and
28:21
make it your income assets and all that's right.
28:24
For my license loan partners, a lot of times, they're doing the structuring.
28:27
Some of my loan partners are bringing it back to me to structure.
28:32
And then we, and then once they're pre-approved,
28:35
we reach out to them once a week.
28:38
So, our pre-approval reach out day is every Thursday.
28:41
Just to say, hey, are you going to be
28:45
out shopping this weekend?
28:47
And if you are, you know, do you know,
28:49
which house and kind of help get you a letter or update docs or answer questions.
28:54
And then hopefully they're under contract.
28:57
Who's doing loan status updates with the agents?
28:59
So, the loan status are the loan partners as well right now.
29:02
And that's one of the things we're getting ready to start doing video.
29:05
So, if they're in process, like actually under contract,
29:09
Monday and Tuesday is our day for that.
29:11
So, you know, we're trying to get an update from our process
29:15
from Monday morning, first thing.
29:17
And then, you know, whether it's Monday afternoon,
29:20
depending on how much stuff piled up over the weekend for you.
29:24
But by Tuesday, you've gotten a video out to the entire team,
29:28
letting them know the status update on the file.
29:31
And we're getting ready to start that.
29:33
We made that with the loan off.
29:35
I just brought in that's what he used to do.
29:39
And I was like, I love that.
29:40
So, is that a specific video for every file?
29:43
Yep.
29:44
Literally, he's just, he sits there.
29:46
And so, each loan partner, we just, you know,
29:48
let's say they're working on five, seven files, whatever it is.
29:51
And they're just, hey, team, just wanted to give you an update.
29:54
It could be me giving the update a certain spot.
29:56
That's kind of one thing we're trying to figure out.
29:58
It's better for me to be, but I can't do,
30:01
I'm not going to do every week to do 30, 40 videos.
30:04
That's just crazy, right?
30:05
So, how are those videos being sent?
30:09
Bomb bomb is what we're using right now.
30:12
Got it, got it.
30:12
And those would be like a desktop computer, whatever,
30:14
over email versus a mobile phone.
30:16
Okay.
30:16
Yes, yes.
30:17
I love that.
30:18
That's good.
30:19
It's good personal connection there, you know,
30:21
with the video.
30:22
And it stands out.
30:23
Not many people are, it still blows my mind.
30:25
How many, how many times I hear that loan officers
30:27
don't do status updates?
30:28
It sounds like that'd be impossible today to survive.
30:31
We were talking about that today.
30:33
It's so fine.
30:33
Like, things that now are just like,
30:35
second nature to me, like, I can't imagine not doing it.
30:39
They're showing people not doing them.
30:40
And it's right.
30:41
It's simple things like that.
30:43
It's not rocket science.
30:44
No, it is not.
30:47
Oh, I was going to ask you, and of course,
30:49
I did not prep you for most of these questions.
30:51
So, I appreciate your flexibility.
30:54
But when I hear you talk, right,
30:55
I'm starting to, you clearly know your business really well.
30:58
I'm curious if you have a sense of,
31:01
I'm going to ask you about, like, conversion numbers.
31:04
And if you don't know, that's fine, because, right?
31:06
But I'm curious if you have a sense of, like,
31:08
what your app to funding conversion ratio is,
31:12
for one example, or other numbers you might know,
31:15
you want to share?
31:16
So, it's funny, is that I am not a numbers person.
31:19
I'm sure.
31:20
I'm correct.
31:21
So, I'm literally the year today,
31:24
where I was meeting going over the P&L,
31:26
and I like, so how's the summer looking?
31:28
And I'm like, I'll know when you send me my list at the end of the month.
31:31
So, I'm not a numbers person.
31:34
I have no idea that's one of the things I probably should work on.
31:38
I just, I'm a hard worker.
31:39
Right.
31:40
Just care of itself.
31:41
And, yeah, I've never had the count.
31:43
And, yeah.
31:45
Well, let's put it this way.
31:46
You're not dissatisfied with the number of people you're converting.
31:49
No, I'm not.
31:51
Right, right.
31:52
That's right.
31:52
I should have thought of that advance.
31:54
You're social worker, not an engineer.
31:56
Yeah, yeah.
31:57
You probably have a high eye on your dis profile, right?
32:00
Yeah, 99, I and a 99 C.
32:03
All right, there we go.
32:04
I'm sorry, yes.
32:06
It's good to say, it's probably a 99 eye to 99 S.
32:09
Do you know where your D is?
32:11
Well, the very first time that I think I did,
32:13
I think it was a, I don't, it was low.
32:17
It was no judgment.
32:18
It was almost nothing.
32:19
I can't remember.
32:20
Because I'm not a numbers person, I can't remember.
32:22
I know the chart, it was really low.
32:24
The other two were 99.
32:25
The red was really low.
32:26
The green was, yeah, there you go.
32:29
Yeah, that's awesome.
32:30
It just goes to show you, right?
32:31
Like, there is no one profile for success as an originator.
32:35
I think, you know, if I were to be a sumptive,
32:37
obviously one of the reasons why you're successful
32:39
is you keep using the word, you know,
32:41
social worker for orgages that we call.
32:43
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
32:45
Because you care about people.
32:47
That's it.
32:48
You know, and that shows up differently, for sure.
32:52
That's cool.
32:52
What are some of the other things real quick?
32:54
I know we're running out of time.
32:55
That you're planning on doing differently.
32:58
Anything new, anything kind of big sitting there?
33:01
I mean, I think that the biggest thing is really the videos.
33:05
You know, I'm starting to do some education in the county.
33:09
The couple of the libraries would have reached out to me
33:12
and asked me if I would do some training sessions.
33:15
You know, sort of like the phone's ringing inward
33:17
instead of me reaching outward, which is, you know,
33:20
only took 15 years.
33:22
Pretty cool.
33:22
Yeah, yeah, only 13 years, only 15 years.
33:27
But now, I mean, there's, you know, right now,
33:29
I feel like, you know, it's not broken.
33:31
Not trying to fix the, you know,
33:34
you have a good quality of life.
33:36
Give us a sense of like how many hours a week.
33:41
Well, now I have a good quality of life.
33:43
All right, before we go back a couple of years.
33:46
Yeah.
33:47
Is that because you built a team?
33:49
Yeah, I built the team and then I built a team
33:53
and then my team broke and then I went to, oh boy, I have to
33:58
like I was working crazy again.
34:00
And now I've got a good solid team.
34:02
And, you know, I, one of the things that I did that,
34:06
I think it's the smartest thing I ever did is right now,
34:08
I'm sitting in an office, but this is not where I sit every day.
34:11
I, I sit in here whenever I have meetings.
34:14
But I moved myself out into the pit and I sit in the pit
34:18
and I know what's going on at all times.
34:21
So I'm out there making my realtor calls and doing what I, you know,
34:25
my tests for the day, but I'm out there with everyone else.
34:28
One of the things I lost touch with my team
34:32
and when it broke, originally.
34:35
But right now I'm working, you know, 40 hours, 45 hours.
34:40
And I feel like in this business, that's great.
34:43
I work hard, but I play harder.
34:46
I'm going a lot, vacation a lot, taking extended weekends here and there.
34:52
Yeah, it's a good life.
34:54
When did you, we kind of closed down on this, but
34:57
I don't know how far we have to go to answer this,
34:59
but I'm trying to get the context of when you hired your first assistant,
35:02
like how far in your career and what advice you might have.
35:07
It was probably about, she's eight years ago.
35:12
It was the very first person I ever started working with.
35:15
And he makes sure they're knowledgeable.
35:19
I mean, he knew more than I did.
35:21
He was, he's been the business 30 plus years.
35:23
He still works with me.
35:26
And he kind of, he called my eyes.
35:29
Like he knows everything.
35:30
He's like that man behind the little, you know, Kurt.
35:33
And, you know, so we've grown together.
35:38
Make sure that you're going to get along,
35:41
that there's a mutual respect for each other.
35:45
And yeah, let me ask you this.
35:47
Would you, knowing what you know now, would you have hired sooner?
35:51
Yeah, well, I actually tried, it's funny because I tried to.
35:54
I went to my boss at the time.
35:56
We'll mention the company where I was working.
35:57
I said, hey, I really need an assistant
36:00
because I wasn't willing to give up on my customer service.
36:03
Like, you know, I want to give the customer the service.
36:06
She said, you're not closing enough yet.
36:07
And so I can't close more, unless I get an assistant.
36:10
I said, I'll pay for him.
36:11
She said, no.
36:12
So then we left, both of us.
36:15
And now I sit where I sit now with all my different assistants and helpers.
36:20
You know, sometimes I wonder if she even knows what I'm doing now.
36:24
And it's like, man, I can kick myself in the butt for not.
36:26
That is the catch 22 that often the management has.
36:30
You know, they'll, you're not doing enough, quote,
36:32
but it's like, how am I ever going to grow if I don't free myself up?
36:35
Yeah. And I was always willing to put my money where my mouth was,
36:39
that I was willing to, oh, you know, I don't need to make
36:42
quite as much so I can show you what's going to happen.
36:45
Yeah, make it up in volume.
36:46
Yeah.
36:47
Yeah.
36:48
Very cool.
36:49
Awesome. Well, this is a lot of good lessons today.
36:50
I really appreciate the conversation.
36:51
I know you're busy.
36:53
And where, if people do want to reach out to you, where do you want to send them?
36:55
Like social page or where do you want to go?
36:58
Yeah.
36:58
You can get me going to social.
37:00
It does any well fun, what Maryland for Facebook and direct mortgage loans.
37:07
So, all right, we'll put links in the show notes for sure to your Facebook page
37:10
and maybe your website as well.
37:11
But once again, Amy, thank you so much for being the social worker of mortgages.
37:16
I love it.
37:16
I'm going to, I'm going to definitely have to, you know, trademark that one.
37:20
I want to see that branding.
37:21
And then there's a meaning behind it.
37:22
Let me tell you what that means.
37:23
You know what I mean?
37:23
I think that actually has some good play for you.
37:26
So, and listeners, you know, as always, we appreciate you tuning in.
37:29
If you like this episode, please leave us a review.
37:31
And we'll see you on the next one.
37:33
Bye for now.
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