Latest / Mortgage Marketing Radio / Ep# 77: Training Buyers Agents How to Refer You and Turning Listing Agents into Referral Partners

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Ep# 77: Training Buyers Agents How to Refer You and Turning Listing Agents into Referral Partners · Mortgage Marketing Radio

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In today's highly competitive mortgage industry, building profitable relationships with
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the 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, it
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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
Chris 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.
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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.
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Hey listeners, welcome to this week's episode of Mortgage Marketing Radio.
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So glad you are here.
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If you ever need to reach me, did you know you can?
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Right?
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There's multiple ways to reach me.
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We've got a Facebook page, Mortgage Marketing Institute, just put that in the search terms.
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And we've got a private Facebook group there.
1:52
So you're welcome to join additional resources, networking, best practices and good content
1:58
to come through that channel there.
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So check us out on Facebook, Mortgage Marketing Institute.com.
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And hopefully by now you're subscribed to the podcast, likelihood as you are at Mortgage
2:06
Marketing Radio.com.
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And of course, you can always reach me anytime by messaging me on Facebook.
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Probably really easy to do that.
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You can send me an email, info at MortgageMarketingInstitute.com.
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And I'd love to hear from you, to hear how you're doing and how I can best help.
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What's the one big idea you're trying to implement through the rest of 2018?
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Because as I'm recording this, it's June of 2018, so we're at the halfway point.
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Let's time to check in, where are you at on the journey.
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Love to know how I can help you.
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If you're looking to get more real estate agents, capture more agents, convert them to referral
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partners and accelerate that part of your business, well, check out getpowerfulpresentations.com.
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It's our library I've done for you turn key classes that take you through a whole process
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and system for quickly and easily getting in front of maximum agents in minimum time
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and following a proven process to convert those agents to referral partners every time.
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And I literally say that with 100% confidence and evidence as such, it's not hype every
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time.
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Somebody successfully follows a plan in the process.
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We've laid out for them and get powerful presentations.
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They succeed in converting real estate agents to referral partners and getting referrals.
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One story just from last week, gentleman, out of New York first class he had ever given
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for agents was nervous as all heck.
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At 16 agents come to his very first session, very first class.
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And out of that, from his very first class, he had two agents we had never worked with
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before, who gave him referrals on the spot.
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And last I talked to him, one of those is actually got an offer in on a property.
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Names Robert Crane out of New York and he's with movement mortgage and that's his success
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story.
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So if it can work for him, it can work for you.
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That's a powerful presentations.com, you want more agents and less time.
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That might be a solution for you.
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That said, let's get on to this week's special guest, very thrilled to have my special guest
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here.
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Another gentleman in the mortgage business, a professional and somebody that you know,
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I just have tremendous admiration and respect for for what he's achieved, but also for
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the high standards he holds for himself and his team.
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Who am I talking about?
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Not another than Brent Palmer Brent Palmer sales manager and team lead with home street
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bank up in the Portland, Oregon area.
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And Brent's been in the mortgage business since 2002 and he is a president's club loan
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officer having closed over 200 million in loan volume throughout his career.
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That's right, 200 million, that's a lot of loans, right?
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And what we unpack on this episode is a lot of different things, a couple of the things
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they stand out for me is how Brent is positioning himself and his team in a very competitive
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market with multiple offers and how he's training as buyers agents to create a more
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referable process for him as a mortgage loan originator.
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So some of you I know struggle with, you know, probably agents being weak in how they
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refer you and look, that's on you, Mr. Mrs. Loan Officer.
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It's on you to train your realtors on how to make you referable on how to, you know,
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tee you up so that you have a better success at converting those referrals to you, even
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an array competitive market.
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So we're going to talk about that, how he wins deals in a rate sensitive environment, how
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he cross sells listing agents his whole process that he executes on that.
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And we're going to talk about a really cool tool called Reach 150, which links to all
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this including Brent's information is website is in the show notes reach 150.com if you
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want to check them out, it is a systematic referral management tool that allows you to automate
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and get online reviews across your various social media platforms.
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But more interestingly than that perhaps is the fact that is that they have what Brent
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refers to and you'll hear in this episode is the follow me technology.
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And to be cool, if the leads you're working, the agents you're targeting, if when they
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got online, right, all of a sudden what they started seeing was you popping up, right?
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The online reviews and ratings and testimonials you have from clients, the various, you know,
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stories that you want to tell.
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If you were able to brand yourself consistently across the web as people you choose that
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you wanted to identify and build more credibility and trust with, build more brand awareness
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with, if as people are navigating the web and going about their normal business, you
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were just magically popping up while they're surfing the web, that would be really cool
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because then all of a sudden you start to buy brain cells, you start to really influence
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people as you know what, you're a pretty big deal, right?
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And so what you're going to hear is Brent kind of talking about how he uses that to influence
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listing agents and to get a higher conversion ratio on clients and so forth.
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When we talk about a lot of stuff, right, purchase business, surviving and thriving with
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the disruption and change in the market's coming and how do you overall build a very stable
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referral business with 85% of his business coming from middle estate agents, lots to learn
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from Mr. Brent Palmer.
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So hope you enjoy that episode and if you like it and yet left us a review, do so somewhere
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you're listening to this, whether it's the blog, whether it's iTunes, Stitcher or somewhere
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else in outer space.
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If you're leaving that, send us a light beam signal so we get 400 years from now.
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And I'll be much appreciated about that.
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And with that said, let's get into this week's show, Brent, welcome to the show.
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Thank you.
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Thanks for following me.
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You bet.
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So I gave the list there's a little bit of a background on who you are in the intro,
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but why don't you give us your version, you know, how long you've been in the board's business
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and really what I'm more curious about is, you know, why?
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What is it that you enjoy about the business?
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You know, so I've been in the business going on 16 years now.
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I got in the business in 2002.
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The way I got in the business is I got out of college, all my education is in brush design
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and art and I couldn't find a job and I was working construction and kept, you know,
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down from job to job to job, answered an ad on monster, which I don't even know if
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monster is the same art, but answer an ad on monster and got my first opportunity in
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the industry at a subprime lender shockingly and quickly realized that that wasn't for me.
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And, you know, going through my wife and I's first purchase, I saw a loan off to help
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us through it that I just realized like it could be, it had to be better than this.
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Like this wasn't, you know, it was the goalposts were constantly being moved on us and
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the transparency was non-existent and so I talked to the realtor that was helping us
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which was fantastic at the time he introduced me to somebody that he had used and, you know,
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I went into the industry on the off side of things.
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So I started as a processor, processed for a few years, then quickly went to be a loan
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officer assistant for a couple of high-productive loan officers and, you know, stayed with them
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for a number of years and back, you know, helped them go start a net branch and quickly
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realized that if you're just honest with people, you're transparent with them and that you
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care about them and that you, if you act as if every loan that you're doing regardless
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of the circumstance was your own personal loan, that you would be able to guide them
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down the clearest path that's going to create the highest level of success and opportunity
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for them in the future, then you're doing the right thing.
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And so I'd go through it with that mindset today even, you know, and I'm not looking
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for, you know, setting them up for a refinance opportunity.
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I'm not looking for, you know, the, you know, I want the referral, of course, but I'm
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more so concerned about making sure that I give them the strongest financial stability
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that I would want for myself.
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And so, so then started originating at a, on my own, I started originating at the best
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time to get into the industry in 2009.
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And I say that in the most spacious way and came to work at home street and, you know,
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the leadership here and the platform has been amazing.
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They have fostered so much opportunity for myself that it's been incredible.
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And so about five years ago took over the role as the branch sales manager.
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I've got a team of about 16 loan officers that report through me that I helped daily.
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And then I've got my own originating team that I started about three years ago now that,
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you know, that work with me and some builders and realtor partners.
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And so, you know, things are, things are going great.
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I couldn't be happier.
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I'm cautiously optimistic about, you know, the future and the season that we're in.
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You know, it's just time to cast a wide net, keep our head down and do what others
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aren't so that we can prevail through it.
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Awesome. Thank you for sharing that.
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So, are you then also still producing some of your own volume?
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Oh, absolutely.
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Yeah.
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Never get too far away from the 103.
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And I know, like, you know, collectively in your career, you've probably surpassed
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now over 200 million in volume, but those that might be curious, whether it's units
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or volume, right, you're yourself personally, what is that looking like?
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Yeah.
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So, we're at about 100 units.
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Well, year to date, we're about 100 units so far and we're about 30 million years
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date.
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Last year, our team did about 220 units or so for about 75.
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And then the year before, we did about 198 units for just under 70.
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And so, you know, so, and I make up, I make up about 70% of that production individually
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and then my team through either, you know, referrals directly from me or builder partners
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that we work with, they kind of fill in the blank.
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So, I've got an amazing thing.
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Okay.
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Yeah, definitely.
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It's interesting.
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You've got, you know, your branch manager, as you said, 16 people and you've got your
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own producing team, I'd be curious to know, because I'm yours, you see it on a regular
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daily basis and you're up in, uh, or again, well, first question is, what's the market
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like up there?
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Is it like other markets, tight inventory, all that stuff?
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Oh, absolutely.
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Yeah, inventory is extremely tight.
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The market's really competitive.
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The wage gap to housing price is, you know, through the roof, I think I read something
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that we've surpassed Boston, as far as the average median income to the actual average
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housing price.
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So it's tough.
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You have to be creative.
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You have to be educational to the process so that the customer knows, you know, and understands,
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you know, what it means to buy a house.
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We're starting to see the market slow in some of the price ranges in the higher end.
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In that, you know, our, our kind of sweet spot here in Portland is that, you know, 350
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to 550 price range, they're, you know, there's still multiple offers.
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There's nothing on the table and there's more buyers and our houses for sale.
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So you've been in this game long enough to know that, you know, different markets have
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different requirements or demand on us as a loan officer and I'd be curious, you know,
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take on, you know, I heard somebody say a few weeks ago, I'll do respect, but the last
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several years, you know, respectively, it's been easy.
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The phone has been ringing rates have been low and I don't know what your take is, but
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it's like, it seems like 2018, just a while back.
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I don't know, when it was three months, six months ago, it's like, man, somebody hit
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the button and the market just like shifted, right?
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Now we got all these, the compressions, the margin compressions, is it harder to win
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a deal?
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Oh, absolutely.
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I think that, and I think who ever said that, I think that they're right on point.
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I think that, you know, the last five years have been easy.
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I think that, you know, it's some degree, there's a number of officers that, you know,
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that could be considered order takers, a lot of big things that, you know, that are,
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you know, doing a lot of refinance business that was, you know, kind of a great subsidized
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center of a business that is now all but gone.
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And then you have direct to consumer competition, you know, seven years ago, Quicken wasn't even
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on our market share reports.
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And now they're in the top five in purchase business, which is, you know, which is scary.
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You know, Quicken, they can do purchases in a way, they only do refives.
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And so you have to be smarter, you have to be more agile, you have to adapt, you have
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to have the digital strategy behind your, you know, behind your brand, that you can
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compete with these.
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You also have to know how to put a loan together so that when you're competing against somebody
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that is outside your market that might have a lower rate, you have to educate that consumer
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to what the difference is, you know, why are they not showing the appropriate prepaid?
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Why are they not showing the appropriate title fees?
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You know, why do they not know, you know, what an early issue fee is on a, on a new construction?
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You have to educate them to the process so that they understand and that that's your value
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proposition against what those other consumer or what those other companies are offering
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in regards to fee and rate that you might not be able to compete with.
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You know, it's, it's the analogy of Walmart versus Nordstrom, right?
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You go and you shop at a premium brand because you want that premium service.
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So on a, let's say on an average transaction, then I'd like to learn a little bit more
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about how you advise your team, your loan officers to what does that look like to actually,
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you know, demonstrate that or the term I use is your visible value.
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So are you saying when we come into competitive situation, if, you know, the conversation
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is, hey, I'm getting, you know, quarter or whatever, better rate quote over here, are you,
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know, are you then advising your team to be, to be asking for that loan proposal or whatever
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so you can actually do a true comparison or how, you know, how do you then better articulate
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that?
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I guess is what I'm asking.
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Well, the one thing that you want to try to do in any circumstances, get to the consumer
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first, you know, and, and I do think that that's why some of those direct to consumer
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lenders have, have a strategic advantage over, you know, a smaller independent or local
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broker, mortgage lender, whatever the case might be is because they can get to the consumer
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first.
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Right.
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So if you can get to the consumer first and you can educate them to the process, you can
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have a meeting with them, you can sit down with them, face to face or over the telephone,
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you know, via a web chat, whatever the case might be, it serves you so much better for
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that customer retention.
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They're less likely to go out into the market to see what else is out there.
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Most of the time, somebody is only going to shop a lender when they don't necessarily
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understand the process.
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You know, there's at least in our market, right?
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You know, of course we're rate driven and key driven, but realistically, you know, somebody
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that is educated to the process and understands the way that the, you know, the experience
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should be is going to be less likely to, you know, to stray.
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Now when you're not first to the, you know, when you're not first to the party, then
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yeah, it's important to, you know, and the thing I communicate is let's look at Apple's
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app.
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We saw one the other day that was from an internet lender that they were offering a crazy
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rate that just seems so out of market that it just didn't even make sense.
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And so, you know, send me the, you know, cost sheet, loan estimate, whatever the case
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may be.
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And let's look at it side by side, some variables, apples will come to find out, you know,
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for whatever reason, the lender was disclosing a fee that wasn't even in the right place
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as far as that would be equivalent to a discount.
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And we were able to identify that, explain that to the customer, show them, you know, what
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their return on investment would be if they paid that versus if they took just a normal
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car market pricing, how that fit into what their long term short term goals are.
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And you know, it's not always a strategic advantage for the customer to pick their own
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interest rate because they don't necessarily understand how that coincides with the fact
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that they only plan on being in the house for five years.
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Well, your return on savings for that discount point is well over seven years.
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So it's just, again, goes back to educating the customer.
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And fortunately, my mentors that trained me, I mean, that was one of the biggest things
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that they got through to my, you know, got through to me early on is don't sell rates.
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Talk about their goals.
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Interview the customer to find out what their plan is.
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How long they plan on being in the house is this their first house, their second house.
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Look at the testing.
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You know, statistically, you're only going to be in a house five to seven years.
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So, you know, sell to that rather than just letting somebody pick something off of a, off
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of a menu.
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Yeah.
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And how do you then in that scenario you talked about and you wanted to demonstrate the
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ROI of that kind of a total cost analysis, if you will.
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Are there any tools you use like that to help, you know, illustrate that visually to provide
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people, right?
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That kind of long term picture into their financial situation.
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Absolutely.
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You know, before it was old school, I had an Excel spreadsheet that I used that I could,
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you know, plug in.
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I'm kind of an Excel nerd in that and that I've got a spreadsheet for everything.
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And then, you know, we kind of graduated to, you know, we have quick qualifier.
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But most recently, probably for the last 18 months or so, I've been using mortgage
21:06
coach.
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So shout out to Dave, I don't know if he listens to your podcast, but, you know, his
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product has been amazing and it helped us tremendously be able to show customers side
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by side, you know, reinvestment strategies, tax savings, things like that.
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So yeah, that's, that's been a great tool that we, that I try to use in almost every
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circumstance, just to show the customer that there's multiple options.
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There's not just one, you know, line of financing that they're open to.
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You know, that there may be, you know, there may be an advantage going FHA if you have
21:43
a 740 credit score, you know, maybe, you know, it's rare, but, you know, let's take a look
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at, you know, the different options and mortgage coach provide that platform.
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Mortgage coach also gives a great platform to compare apples to apples, what another
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lender might be offering and where that actual cost is long term short term.
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Yeah, well said, by the way, that's a great description of some of the value I have.
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Mortgage coach offers and I did have Dave on the podcast last year.
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I'll put a link to the, in the show notes, to mortgage coach.
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It's great software.
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I was using it back in the day when you used to have to download it to your laptop.
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Yeah, luckily, we don't, we don't have to do that anymore.
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So yeah, good.
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Yeah, long time ago.
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But yeah, and then really that goes to the point of in what we're talking about is,
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you know, how do you win in today's market and it's tougher to win and people are
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double-aving you today.
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And so now how do you build that fence around people and to your point, which is education
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and again, that term visible value, you've got to have a way today to demonstrate your
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visible value that that really, as you say, education, I remember somebody else in
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the interview, they said they want to make sure that they're at every single call that
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they're educating the buyer about one thing that they didn't know about.
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I think it was Ed Connerky.
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And that's his goal and every call, educate him on one thing financially that they didn't
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know about before.
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And that will help you secure more clients.
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Yeah, I mean, look, we're not seeing lives, right?
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We're not brain surgeons or anything like that.
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You know, all those some loan officers probably, probably think they're saving lives, they
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would, you know, we're not.
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And so, but what we can be is transparent and educate them, you know, we tend to on our
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team and what I try to coach to the loan officers that are within a branch is that, you know,
23:34
be transparent with the customer, talk to them about the importance of getting credit
23:38
approved.
23:39
You know, we try to do, we do a tremendous amount of purchase business primarily over
23:44
refinance, right?
23:45
So we're competing in a multiple offer situation.
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I want that customer to have the best advantage going forward in that regardless of what their
23:53
down payment is or whatever case may be.
23:55
So we try to, in every circumstance, I think I would joke that we hold their approval letter
24:05
hostage because I need to make sure that I know definitively that I can get them approved.
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And in most cases, we actually send those to underwriting so that we have credit underwritten
24:16
approvals that gives us the advantage in a very competitive market to have short closing
24:21
windows because that loan has already been processed underwritten.
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Now we go get an appraisal pedal before we close.
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And it also takes the stress out of the home buying process once they're emotionally attached
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to a house, right?
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A person gets emotionally attached to a house once they find that house.
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And so by doing all the heavy lifting up front, now it's just, now it's just fun, now it's
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exciting.
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And a lot of the drama is taken out of it.
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You know, we also communicate with the lifting agents, you know, call them, hey, that
24:54
offer coming your way, wanted to let you know what the circumstances are, you know, want
24:59
to tell you a little bit about the buy it.
25:01
And that helps as well, you know, you know, we get beat out so though, but it definitely
25:07
any little leverage that we can be in this market helps.
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And the biggest thing that probably helps one anything else in mortgage in general is
25:16
consistency, right?
25:17
If you're trying to do 10,000 things, you know, for a week at a time, you're not going
25:22
to be successful.
25:23
We have a very tight structured process that we run extremely consistent and yeah, I
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want to talk to you about that because you and I talked about that on the initial call
25:35
we had.
25:36
And I wrote down from those notes that you train buyers agents and you're also, you
25:40
touched on cross selling agents, but can you articulate maybe more specifically kind
25:44
of how you train buyers agents, whether that's, you know, training them on how to refer
25:48
you or etc.
25:50
Yeah, I'm very fortunate in the referral partners that I have are very loyal to us.
25:56
You know, in fact, one of whom I actually came really close with and got ordained and
26:02
married him in his life last summer.
26:04
So it's, you know, so we really take the approach of family and, you know, the people we
26:11
work with.
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I don't work with, you know, 20 realitives.
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I work with five, but those five are extremely loyal.
26:21
They understand our process and we're constantly reaching out to new realers, right?
26:27
We call the listing agent on every transaction.
26:29
We offer, you know, our services, but we want to be more of the team that is DOE, right?
26:37
I want to be selective of the partners I work with because I want to have them have a
26:42
like-minded vision to what mine is.
26:44
And that is above all other things, the customer, it's not about, you know, the desk friends
26:49
who I can give you, it's not about the marketing or the money, the zero or any of that stuff.
26:54
Because at the end of the day, that doesn't close loans, that, it just doesn't.
27:00
And so it's important to me to have like-minded agents that are more concerned about the customer
27:07
and more concerned about, you know, getting that transaction closed, having high conversion
27:12
rates.
27:13
And so when we train them, what I mean by training is, you know, we talk to them about
27:18
the process.
27:19
When they refer a customer over, what can they expect?
27:22
They can expect that our communication, they're going to the DCC on all the emails.
27:27
I let the customer know.
27:28
I'm an DCD agent, so they're in the loop.
27:31
I schedule weekly calls with the agents to check in with the approved buyers that we
27:37
have together to give them updates, to receive updates.
27:41
I'm proactive.
27:42
We have a digital app that we use so that I can get letters out on the fly.
27:46
I make myself available.
27:48
You know, this is the shocking thing, right, as long as there's, you know, I work Monday
27:52
through Friday, I work nine to three and then, you know, it's like you're lying to yourself.
27:56
You don't do that.
27:57
I work seven days a week and the reason I work seven days a week is because I'm trying
28:02
to provide the most opportunity for my customers, my family and my referral partners by
28:07
hand.
28:08
And then I'm out.
28:09
I want to retire.
28:10
I don't want to do this until I'm 70 years old.
28:14
So, you know, we provide an experience to them.
28:19
You know, we let them know that when they submit an offer, we want to be copied on that
28:23
offer so that we can reach out to that list of the agent correctly, proactively.
28:27
And then, you know, for a few select ones, I do building champions, coaching myself,
28:35
and I've been doing that for a few years.
28:37
And so shout out to building champions, Michael Regans, my coach, fantastic.
28:42
And so they've given us some tools that we share with our realtor partners to give them
28:46
a taste of kind of what that is, you know, helping them with the simple business plan
28:51
quarterly.
28:52
You know, looking at what their three pillars of production would be and how they might
28:56
be able to find improvements in that strategy.
28:59
And so giving them value beyond, you know, marketing dollars, you know, helping them find
29:06
them.
29:07
Yeah.
29:08
I'm also looking at my notes and something about you in terms of listing agents, cross-selling
29:12
listing agents, which it just sounds so, I don't know, it sounds repetitive for me
29:16
to have to keep bringing this up again, but I guess I'm consistently surprised by the
29:21
amount of loan officers that don't cross-selling listing agents.
29:24
But you, something about a thank you card that you send listing agents during the transactions
29:31
that right?
29:32
Yes.
29:33
Yep.
29:34
So we send out a thank you card that kind of introduces our team to the listing agents.
29:41
We also implement some follow me strategy with, you know, with internet marketing so that
29:48
they, you know, that they can see us on a day-to-day basis, whether they're shopping for
29:53
shoes or, you know, whatever the case may be, there's some great SEO tools that you can
29:58
use for that.
30:00
And then, you know, we pick up the phone and then we call.
30:03
The other thing that we do is every single Wednesday, like clockwork, we send out a file
30:09
update.
30:10
We've got six milestones within the file.
30:13
And so we're proactively giving them the app.
30:15
We're giving them estimated due dates on the items that we haven't achieved yet.
30:20
And so, you know, and then we call at the end to say, hey, how did we do?
30:25
You know, is there anything that we could have improved in our process?
30:28
Is there anything that, you know, stands out that maybe the lender you're working with
30:33
now doesn't do?
30:35
Or is there anything that your current lender does that we're not doing, right?
30:40
So we're always looking for ways to improve the process, improve the structure.
30:44
And also, it goes back to service, you know, and so I would say that, you know, I track
30:50
everything, right?
30:51
Going back to the Excel spreadsheet from a nerd, you know, 33% of our business was past
30:57
client last year and 75% of our business was purchases.
31:01
So that means that we have a lot of return customers that are purchasing houses for multiple
31:07
times and then, you know, a large portion of our business is customer referrals.
31:12
So we take that stuff very seriously.
31:15
And the listing agents are an important thing.
31:18
We've added new agents to our mix that I wouldn't consider would be our A top referral
31:23
partners, but, you know, got a referral from one the other day that was a listing agent
31:28
and she sent a customer over to us.
31:31
And so, you know, picked up the phone, called her, thanked her, sent her a card in the mail
31:35
yesterday, added her to our SEO marketing.
31:38
So she's going to, you know, know what we're about, where she's going to have our name
31:44
on the front of her mind.
31:46
And hopefully we'll get more referrals from it.
31:49
Okay.
31:50
A couple of things I want to unpack in there about the listing agent thing.
31:53
One, I'm going to come to the SEO discussion in a moment, which I believe is reach 150,
31:57
right?
31:58
Correct.
31:59
Okay.
32:00
So before I go there, though, I wanted to maybe just real quickly understand how you identify
32:08
or choose to, what is your, what is your, besides the reach 150 thing, which of course
32:13
is the online kind of follow me software, we'll talk about a second, but what is your
32:17
process for going after a listing agent, I guess is what I'm saying, you're on a transaction,
32:21
we know we should cross the listing agent, you're servicing the heck out of them during
32:25
the transaction.
32:26
That's awesome.
32:27
But do you have any criteria or process by which you, you go by to say, hey, that's one
32:31
listing agent I want to meet with to try and partner with or what does that look like?
32:35
Yeah.
32:36
I mean, the first step would be do they answer their phone because you would be amazed
32:39
at how many dulls, right?
32:42
So you know, you've got a mental checklist, right?
32:44
If I have a listing agent in front of me and I have a purchase contract and I go, okay,
32:47
I got to call this person.
32:49
Okay.
32:50
So the first thing I call and introduce myself, did they answer their phone or did I leave
32:53
a voicemail?
32:54
You know, I would say probably six to one, I leave a voicemail.
32:57
They don't answer their phone.
33:00
And then if they do answer their phone, great.
33:02
And we have a good conversation.
33:03
Is that would that be considered a quality conversation where they felt that there was
33:08
value that you know, did I feel at the end of that conversation, I could solicit them
33:13
to say, hey, you know, we're going to go through this transaction.
33:17
I've just told you the steps that the commitments that we're making to you after this transaction.
33:23
I'm going to check back in with you.
33:25
We don't want to be you know, we're not looking to replace anybody or be your primary lender,
33:30
you'll know our process and we would love to have you refer us clients so that you can
33:36
have them share in the same experience.
33:40
So answering the phones the first thing, then it's just the matter of the quality conversation.
33:44
And then beyond that, it's kind of judging it from, again, consistency, right?
33:50
So you're doing your weekly file updates, I call the agent that closing just like you
33:57
call the borrowers closing, you know, congratulating them on their transaction and then that provides
34:02
another additional opportunity to judge that conversation on how it's going.
34:08
And so, but the biggest thing is did they answer their phone?
34:15
Or do they love these phones, right?
34:17
Yeah.
34:18
Yeah, exactly.
34:19
Yeah.
34:20
I wonder the other.
34:21
Okay, so let me, let me throw this at you because I'm sure some people are thinking,
34:25
you know, hey, I appreciate that brand, but really I'm a listing agent.
34:29
How do you respond to that one?
34:31
So then that's fine.
34:33
So as a listing agent, I totally understand that.
34:37
You know, I think that there's opportunity that if you have a transaction that you feel
34:42
is going sideways, share, share our experience with that buyer's agent to, hey, maybe these
34:49
guys can come in and they can help you out with the deal.
34:53
In fact, the better part of my afternoon this morning is taking one from a large, a large
34:58
bank and taking that deal over and it's 100% because it's actually coming from the listing
35:05
agent.
35:06
Um, listing agent, Paul Brent, see if he can, see if him and his team can help.
35:11
I called the loan officer out of respect, so, hey, what's going on with this stuff?
35:16
And, you know, through that conversation, realize, hey, I can help.
35:19
And so, you know, it's more so if they're exclusively a listing agent, I would say don't
35:26
let that discourage you.
35:28
I think that that creates opportunity and again, in the season that we're going into, you
35:32
know, passing that wider net as I've been bold and, you know, turn those, you know, turn
35:41
those challenges into opportunity where, you know, like I said, you might not get a referral
35:49
and you might not get a referral for a couple years, but if you state consistent, the activities
35:54
that your system presents, those will eventually pay off.
35:59
And so, you know, yeah, no, that's good.
36:01
And it's not going to work every time, but, but again, yeah, I think, you know, you're
36:06
talking about a process, right?
36:07
And so most, most people are kind of, you know, winging it, gunshot, all this kind of
36:10
goes random, no process, but you're, you're following a very, actually, executable consistent
36:14
process every time.
36:15
So it scales.
36:16
So your team can follow it and, yeah, you're not going to have about a thousand, but I
36:19
mean, if you get one out of three listing agents who wind up sending you, you know, a
36:23
deal or two a month, well, hey, that multiplies over time, you know, absolutely.
36:27
Do you automatically, aside from 150, reach one, fit too much that we'll get to next?
36:32
But do you add any listing agents to any kind of outbound drip campaign or anything you
36:37
might have?
36:38
Yeah, we, we do add the listing agents to our CRM, you know, we try to, we try to keep
36:45
it super soft.
36:46
I'm not trying to spam them.
36:48
I don't want to, you know, I don't want them to have to opt out, but I do want to stay
36:53
in front of them.
36:54
So they probably get emails twice a year on the listing agent side of things.
37:00
So it's very soft, you know, as far as direct contact during the transaction, though,
37:08
we're, you know, we're adding them like we'll talk about in a minute with the follow
37:12
me, which is fairly new to us.
37:16
And so, you know, but we've seen good success with it.
37:18
I've had agents actually send us screenshots of like, hey, this came up.
37:23
But we don't try to spam them as much as they want or as they, you know, we don't try
37:29
to spam them as much as others.
37:31
And we try to keep our communication, how would you say it?
37:36
We try to keep it light and we try to keep it real.
37:40
We're not trying to represent it, represent ourselves as something or not.
37:44
Just be authentic.
37:45
You know, yes, authentic.
37:47
There we go.
37:48
My brain wasn't working.
37:49
Yeah, we try to keep it authentic and real and, and, you know, we want to help you.
37:55
But if you've got somebody totally understand it and, you know, our paths will cross at
37:59
some point.
38:00
I'm sure of it.
38:01
Yeah.
38:02
No doubt, no doubt.
38:03
Okay, cool.
38:04
You know, when you told me about this, I was like, well, wait a minute, wait a minute.
38:07
Stop, stop, stop.
38:08
I need to know more.
38:09
So I got on their website and did some digging and, um, man, this is pretty impressive.
38:13
Um, give us, you know, us listeners, just a simple loan officer, uh, overview of what
38:20
it is and how you use it to write, attract real real referral partners, et cetera.
38:26
Yeah.
38:27
So reach 150 that's core is a referral part of a referral or, or review platform similar
38:32
to Zillow, Yale, Facebook, whatever the case may be.
38:36
However, it, it allows you to, um, not necessarily scrub that review, but have access to that review
38:45
prior to it going, um, to the masses.
38:48
So not every transaction is perfect.
38:50
And so if a customer has feedback that you maybe can have a coaching opportunity on, it
38:56
gives you the opportunity to have that versus, you know, that dreaded one star on Yale.
39:02
Um, and so it also, their company reach 150, uh, does a ton of SEO and, uh, search engine,
39:13
uh, optimization.
39:14
So when somebody is searching for validation to a loan officer, you know, and I strongly
39:19
believe that, uh, the millennial customer base doesn't get referrals the same way as, you
39:26
know, previous generations that they are doing research prior to even asking their friends
39:31
necessarily about a home buying experience.
39:34
And so, you know, it helps put you in front, um, and optimizes where you come up in organic
39:42
searches.
39:43
Um, the other thing that we just recently kind of explored on this, uh, is the follow me
39:49
technology that reach 150 offers in that you can, if you have a customer, whether it's
39:55
a pre-qualified buyer, uh, you have a realtor that you're trying to court, uh, or do business
40:01
with, um, or you have a targeted area that you just want to market to.
40:08
You can use their tools, um, to either enter an email that will ping back to an IP address
40:13
that will find them, uh, and then put, uh, just organic, uh, advertisements, whether it's
40:21
recommendations or postings or pictures or whatever the case will be, uh, to those targeted
40:26
demographics, whether it's an individual or an area or a city that you're looking at.
40:31
So it's been pretty cool.
40:33
And again, I have to, you know, none of these things that I do, Jeff, or not, like some
40:38
kind of like mind blowing original thought, you know, you, everything in this industry
40:44
has been done before and we just borrow from, you know, other people make it systematic
40:51
and make it consistent and, you know, and see if it pays off for us.
40:56
So, um, and, and so far it's been good and, and the feedback that we've gotten, um, is
41:03
great because obviously we don't go out there and say, hey, by the way, we're going to
41:07
put your email into a follow me technology and you're going to see random reviews pop
41:11
up when you're on Amazon.
41:13
Um, but we've gotten screenshots that saying, hey, you know, there's the Palmer team and,
41:20
uh, and that's been pretty cool.
41:21
So you can see from that that the process works.
41:25
Yeah, that's really cool.
41:27
So if I understand you correctly, then that follow me technology is technically, it's really
41:32
a targeted advertisement.
41:34
Um, and what is that, is that showing reviews, then, is that what it shows?
41:39
You can say, yeah, we have it show reviews, um, or recommendations, you know, client testimonials,
41:45
um, but you can also create ads as a realtor.
41:50
I don't know if, you know, they could, uh, if they have an open house in a, in a targeted
41:54
area, whether it's Portland or, or in whatever market, uh, they can actually target specific
42:00
zip down the zip codes, I believe, uh, and, and create advertisement that way.
42:05
So there's a few different things that they do.
42:08
The thing I love about it is, it's super affordable for the, for the targeting that it allows.
42:17
It, it's one of the most affordable ones that I've seen.
42:20
Yeah.
42:21
That's why I was why when you told me about it, I was like, we got to talk about this.
42:23
So, uh, links in the show notes for it, but it's reach 150, that's the number 150 reach
42:29
150.com and go there checking out, they're going to demo video, all that stuff.
42:33
I'm just going to dive it into it myself, uh, we'll probably have them on the podcast
42:37
at some future date because we have another folks similar to them on, um, very, very cool
42:42
though.
42:43
I like that.
42:44
I mean, talk about, like you said, in today's world, with, with social proof and media
42:48
online, plus there's a social media integration that makes it easy.
42:51
Yeah.
42:52
It's funny.
42:53
You brought this up because I, I teach a brand new class for realtors and I talk about
42:56
online reviews and I'm just reading here.
42:58
It's like, you know, one of the challenges is getting people actually give you a review
43:01
and then how do you get that across your sites and reach 150 looks like they make that easier
43:06
for you to do.
43:07
Yeah.
43:08
And reach 150, you know, the one thing with them, not to make this reach 150, but they
43:12
are one of the few platforms where, uh, the customer doesn't have to sign up for anything,
43:18
right?
43:19
Right.
43:20
Yeah.
43:21
They have to face those accounts.
43:22
They'll have to, they'll account, you'll have to have a Yelp account and then Yelp, even
43:26
if you do get reviews, half of them, they kick out, um, so, you know, so it, it works
43:32
really well.
43:33
It's very, very simple.
43:34
We have seen the highest amount of reviews, um, from customers from reach 150.
43:41
We do just to be perfectly clear though.
43:43
We try to, um, send people to multiple different platforms with, uh, within our, within our
43:49
sphere.
43:50
So we, you know, are constantly rotating between Yelp Facebook and Zillow, um, just because
43:56
when we first got reach 150, I was skeptical at first because I was like, okay, you know,
44:01
here's a, you know, I'm looking at my own mindset is, you know, I'm super skeptical of,
44:08
you know, this site that I haven't heard of, you know, then I knew that they would allow
44:12
me to scrub those recommendations or reviews.
44:15
So we still try to keep it organic because most customers want to see your brand or your
44:24
product reviewed through multiple platforms to give them validation, um, that you're the
44:29
real deal.
44:30
Right.
44:31
Right.
44:32
Right.
44:33
Um, absolutely.
44:34
Okay.
44:35
Cool.
44:36
So like we said, link in the show notes reach 150.com.
44:37
It's not a commercial, but hey, we're all about bringing you valuable resources that can help
44:39
you.
44:40
Um, so before we wrap up, you, um, open up what, uh, talking about, you know, if you can
44:44
get to the customer first, obviously, that's a win.
44:47
And what that may be curious about is if there's anything you're doing to get to the customer
44:52
first, for example, you know, if you're, you're doing things on social media in a strong
44:56
way, video content, or is you getting to the customer first largely through that real
45:01
to referral channel, um, if there's anything you wanted to comment on getting to the customer
45:06
first.
45:07
Yeah.
45:08
Getting to the customer first, um, we do a lot of social media.
45:12
Um, we do targeting, uh, advertisement through social media.
45:15
I try to control my lead gen, um, opportunities through things that are just to me and my team.
45:23
Um, so I try not to participate in co-branding or co-marketing, um, one because, you know,
45:31
that's a sticky subject right now.
45:33
Two is that it's super expensive, um, so, you know, so what can I control, right?
45:39
I can control my content through Facebook.
45:42
I can control, you know, trying to be involved in my customer's lives, um, and not spamming
45:48
them, but keeping them aware of what I do, um, you know, and, and so we have a Facebook
45:53
page, um, for Paul and my team, and then I have my own individual product page.
45:59
I try to, at all possible, if I've got a great experience and I connect with a customer,
46:03
I get them, um, connected socially, uh, and then other than that, you know, we use our
46:10
referral partners quite a bit.
46:11
You know, we work with a lot of builders.
46:13
We work with, um, a couple really good, uh, realtor firms, uh, really one here in Portland
46:20
that, uh, that do lead gen and they believe in our process and they, you know, believe in
46:26
our conversion rates.
46:27
And so we get, you know, a lot of customers that way.
46:31
Um, and then, uh, we don't have any, like, kind of crazy special sauce, but, you know,
46:36
we, uh, we definitely stand for them.
46:38
Well, you're executing well, and that's really the key.
46:40
A lot of people hear ideas and, you know, they go on the back burner and don't turn anything
46:43
about it.
46:44
Um, I guess real quickly on the Facebook thing, um, I'm looking at your, your business
46:49
page, you got 27 reviews, uh, mostly five stars.
46:52
That's awesome.
46:53
Uh, how do you balance between business and personal page?
46:56
Are you putting some business related stuff on your personal page?
47:00
Yeah, I definitely put, uh, I put my, I share everything back to my personal page.
47:05
So if we do post something on our business page, I share back, um, to, uh, my personal,
47:12
um, if there's something that is unique or something I feel is, uh, urgent to, you
47:18
know, to my sphere of influence, I'll put it just on my personal, um, you know, I tend
47:24
to see, uh, higher analytic view, if I, if I share back, we also have our team members,
47:31
you know, we encourage them to share through, but we try to, uh, originate all of the
47:37
activity through our Facebook page.
47:39
Um, I had a Facebook manager for several years that helped create content, whether it
47:46
advertising or whatever.
47:47
I've just recently taken that back myself and then, um, home street has helped me tremendously
47:53
with our, um, internal marketing department, uh, start generating some boosted posts
48:00
and marketing.
48:01
I encourage my realtors, but if they've got a listing, send me the Zoolink and I'll share
48:07
it and, you know, help them or if they've got to come in soon, you know, so again, that
48:12
goes back to the part of the training of working with that agent and, and, you know, being
48:17
a partner in their business.
48:19
Right, right.
48:20
And yeah, you'll post the listings or whatever on behalf of agents, right?
48:24
Yeah.
48:25
By the way, I got to give you a shout out, um, I'm on your business page right here, which
48:28
is if you're on Facebook, it is, uh, I believe it's facebook.com forward slash Brent Palmer
48:34
does loans, um, is the actual URL.
48:37
Yeah.
48:38
You can't change.
48:39
I didn't realize that you can't change that after you create it.
48:42
So, hey, man, you can work more straight forward than that.
48:46
Right.
48:47
Well, that's true.
48:48
I mean, that's the root of it.
48:50
That's what we do.
48:51
We do loans.
48:52
Yeah.
48:53
But you can also search with the Palmer team mortgage.
48:55
But you put something on there on the business page, which is, uh, you guys are doing, uh,
48:59
or did.
49:00
This was Wednesday.
49:01
He did a barbecue, a block party.
49:02
Why it's park.
49:03
What is that?
49:04
Yeah.
49:05
Home development.
49:06
Kind of new development.
49:07
Yeah.
49:08
So that's one of our builders that we work with and real their offices.
49:11
So again, you know, um, they were marketing that.
49:14
Uh, it was in partnership with Northwest National Gas that.
49:18
That helps a lot of the builders out here.
49:20
And, um, it was in a established subdivision.
49:23
And, and so, you know, they, they gave away a barbecue.
49:26
So we wanted to kind of get that word out there, share that and, uh, and boost that post
49:31
as much as possible.
49:32
And actually, we had a great turnout.
49:34
Um, it was kind of nice to have a lot of the neighbors that we had done previous loans.
49:38
My partner Beverly, uh, she does a ton of new construction.
49:42
And, uh, and so, you know, we got to see a lot of the clients that, uh,
49:47
that we had worked with in the past.
49:49
And so it was, uh, it was the fun event.
49:52
That's awesome.
49:53
And, and I got to give you a one quick little shout out and plug there.
49:56
You on that, um, little barbecue thing that you're hosting.
49:59
Uh, this is an idea somebody gave me years ago.
50:01
And so for those listening, I always want to pay it forward with this idea.
50:05
You, we, we called it a happy hour head shot.
50:08
And you were doing something similar.
50:10
Uh, you're giving also a way professional free head shots.
50:14
I assume for realtors.
50:15
Yeah.
50:16
Yes. Well, I can't take full credit for that.
50:18
That was not part of our, uh, that was the, uh, that was hardcore.
50:23
It's the real, the real, the real, the real, the office that was doing that.
50:26
But yeah, that was their idea.
50:27
That was a, and they actually got a lot of real,
50:30
there's some through that, that needed head shots.
50:32
So, yeah.
50:33
A lot of them.
50:34
Yeah.
50:35
Got more.
50:36
Yeah.
50:37
And I got a lot of traction to, uh, to the event and, uh, you know,
50:41
and, and Chris did networking opportunities.
50:43
So yeah, they, they had good success with that.
50:45
Yeah.
50:46
So anybody wants an idea right now and what you can do in the next couple of weeks
50:49
to get a bunch of realtors out, host a happy hour head shot,
50:51
hire professional photographer, spend 500 bucks or whatever.
50:55
Get a, get a co-sponsor title, let's go.
50:57
Whatever, right?
50:58
And host a happy hour head shot, man, after some drinks and get your head shot.
51:01
Yeah.
51:02
You're going to get agents out. Trust me.
51:04
Very cool.
51:05
And of course, the last thing is, is you interject personality into your Facebook page,
51:08
which is awesome.
51:09
I love the reference you got there to from, uh, Ron Burgundy.
51:13
Uh, that's really great.
51:14
Awesome.
51:15
Yeah.
51:16
Love it.
51:17
Love it.
51:18
Now people have to go to your page to see it at the Palmer team mortgage on Facebook.
51:22
So that is awesome.
51:24
I appreciate that.
51:25
You have shared a lot of pearls of wisdom today.
51:27
And as I said, everything we talked about will be in the show notes,
51:30
links to your pages, all that fun stuff.
51:32
So, um, I guess the last question I would have.
51:35
Yeah, good.
51:36
Yeah.
51:37
The only thing I was going to add is I'm an open book.
51:40
So if there's long officers out there, they're like, gosh, anything he said
51:44
sounds, sounds great.
51:45
Or, you know, this guy is just full of BS.
51:47
Whatever it is, you know, regardless of the market, reach out to me.
51:51
Share whatever I have, whether it's our checklist or, you know, our systems.
51:56
Um, you know, I feel like there's enough business out there for enough great loan officers.
52:01
And anything that we can do to, you know, create our own market share.
52:06
I'm happy to help in.
52:07
And, uh, you know, and, and so I'm, I'm an open book and total abundant mindset that.
52:13
You know, I just want to see great loan officers succeed.
52:16
And so, you know, please don't hesitate to reach out to me directly.
52:21
Um, if I'm assuming that my stuff will be in there in your, in your podcast.
52:26
So I encourage people to, you know, to do that if they're interested in the other things that we talked about.
52:33
Yeah, absolutely.
52:34
We appreciate that very much.
52:35
I guess while we're at it, if somebody don't, we don't want to email you.
52:38
I'll, I'll put the Facebook page in there like I said in your website.
52:41
But how about an email if you want people to reach out?
52:44
Yeah, so Brent. Palmer at home street.com.
52:49
And, uh, yeah, you can feel free email me.
52:53
Awesome. Well, thank you so much for making time.
52:55
I know you're busy.
52:56
You got a lot of stuff to get back to.
52:58
And just appreciate your being sharing with the community.
53:01
Appreciate it.
53:02
All right, Jeff. I appreciate your time as well.
53:04
Yeah, my pleasure. And for you listeners, hope you enjoyed this episode.
53:06
As always, feel free to leave us a review anywhere you're listening to this.
53:10
And we appreciate you. So we'll see you on the next one.
53:13
Bye for now.
53:14
Thanks for listening to Mortgage Marketing Radio.
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One more truth in mortgage marketing.
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