Latest / Mortgage Marketing Radio / Ep #110: Going Digital + Local to Reach Consumers First and Win More Agent Referrals

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Ep #110: Going Digital + Local to Reach Consumers First and Win More Agent Referrals · Mortgage Marketing Radio

0:00
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.
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Go check it out right now, visit LOKestudy.com and download your free copy today.
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Hey listeners, what up, this is Jeff Zinfur.
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Once again, your humble host for another edition of the mortgage marketing radio podcast
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coming at you somewhere deep inside the speakeasy of Las Vegas, Nevada.
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Well okay, not quite yet.
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I'm working there.
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Maybe that'll be my new studio this year.
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If any speakeasy's in Vegas are listening, I'd love for you to be the host and sponsor
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of the mortgage marketing radio podcast.
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Imagine that we bring in special guests and we talk maybe bourbon and prohibition for
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a period of time on the podcast and drive eyeballs, drive people to attend to get to your
2:08
speakeasy.
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That'd be really cool if that actually happened, I don't know, I just popped in my head randomly
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out of nowhere.
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Alright, so let's talk about what's happening on this episode.
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First of all, as always, this episode is I want to acknowledge two different entities
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if you will.
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That first one is of course our growing membership over at the mortgage marketing.pro membership.
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Whenever anybody comes into my podcast community on Facebook, if you haven't yet joined the
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Facebook page for the mortgage marketing radio podcast, please do so.
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Go there.
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If you want to go deeper with us, that's the place to do it.
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Mortgage marketing radio podcast on Facebook.
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Now, but what's interesting is what happens in there as we have people share different content
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and stuff, I'll get some stories and success stories bubbling up of people that are, you
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know, I'll ask them, what's your number one focus for 2019 and 95% of the time, one of
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the two biggest focuses for most loan officers is how to succeed with the real estate agents,
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how to have more engagement, get more relationships, drive more referrals, bottom line succeed.
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Right?
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And there's a whole conversation that we can unpack around that, but here's what I know
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and you've guys been listening to be long enough.
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One of the things we do for our mortgage marketing.pro members is we provide a turnkey system.
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I say a system because that's what it is, a system to get you in front of maximum agents
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in minimum time and leverage teaching agent classes to get butts in the seats and loans
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in your pipeline.
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And I've been doing it for over 10 years, both personally myself, professionally for various
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companies that I work for and then helping other loan officers like you listening right
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now do that because realtors are hungry to learn.
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And if we teach them how to fish and help them, you know, do better in their business,
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then they're going to be inclined to be drawn to work with us compared to other value
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propositions out there, which might be the usual rates and service and I work weekends
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blah, right?
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So what?
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So if you want to learn more about how to succeed with real estate agents, grow your brand
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online with social media, run Facebook ads, hey, check out mortgage marketing dot pro
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to learn more there in a quick shout out this week to one of our members there, Shannon
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Brock Miller.
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She is actually from Alaska, wow, this teaching agent classes work in Alaska, you bet.
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And it works for Shannon Brock Miller on one of the coaching calls we just had, you know,
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she was feeling a little bit frustrated and her attendance was small yet the good news
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out of that small attendance, she got two loan apps, immediately following the class.
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Folks, if you, you know, how many times a month or a week would you do that?
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And if every time you did a class, let's just say all you got was two loan apps with every
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class.
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How many times would you do that in a month or a week, okay?
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So don't take my word for it.
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That's why I'm starting to share some of the success stories of our members like Shannon
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and some of the others you've heard about.
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So if you want to learn more, go check out mortgage marketing dot pro, I posted an eight minute
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video that gives you an overview of what it's all about.
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All right, we got that business out of the way.
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Then let's also give you a friendly reminder of my friends over at the industry syndicate
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industry syndicate.com.
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If you're looking for more good content podcast flash briefings, Facebook live video shows
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access to other thought leaders in mortgage and real estate, check out industry syndicate.com.
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I'm a proud member of theirs, they've got pretty much every podcast and, you know, good
5:21
content provider under their roof makes it easy for you to gain access and check out
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that content.
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So that's that.
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Okay.
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And let's move on now to this week's episode, my very special guest, president and CEO
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of housing wire Clayton Collins.
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Now some of you may know that I was recently blessed to have a article published in housing
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wire.
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They have a part of their, there's news letter.
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Their website is called pulse and it is the pulse of what's happening in mortgage.
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And this is real world, no fluff, right, no BS stuff about how to succeed as a mortgage
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originator today, articles, special guests, features and things like that.
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I was in there recently and my article topic was what I've learned from interviewing over
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100 of America's most successful low and originators.
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So if you want to check that article out, I'm going to put links in the show notes.
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Of course, you can go over to housing wire.com, look for the pulse, do a search for my name
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or something, check it out, it's good stuff in there.
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And now onto my special guest Clayton, who's just a really an awesome guy who's got his
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heart where I think my heart is with you, with us as mortgage loan originators helping
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us succeed, survive versus just thrive.
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And so he and I have kind of a candid conversation in this episode about going digital plus local,
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the combination of the two to reach consumers first and to win more agent referrals.
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And that's really the game of the future folks.
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If you want to compete against the news lately about Zelo and so forth and they're growing
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bite out of the market, look, Zelo is going to fragment the market even more as well as
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some of these other disruptors who also have mortgage companies.
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But the difference that Zelo can't compete with is you being local in your local community
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and the combination of online and offline, digital plus local to engage and reach your
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local consumers, it's going hyper local folks to win the attention of consumer direct,
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but also to leverage that attention and your audience to better engage with agents, perhaps
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maybe provide them with some leads.
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How about that for an idea, but also as we mentioned earlier teach them the fish help
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educate them to do the same.
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And that's what Clayton and I talk about.
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And I want to make sure you also make a note of and check out their upcoming event engage.
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Marketing.
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Okay.
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It's a killer event.
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It's their second year doing it.
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So they've really got this thing nailed down.
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It's going to be let's see here June 13th through the 14th and it's going to be in Charlotte
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North Carolina.
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The website for that we'll put in the show notes links, but it's also engage housing
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wire.com.
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I plan on being there.
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I missed out on last year and I missed out on some incredible content.
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But this 2019 summit is focused on mortgage marketing and a purchase market, specifically
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focusing around how you can leverage technology, build referral relationships, leverage your
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past customer client database experience, and of course your online reputation.
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Folks, if you're not learning how to do those things in today's market, well, I'm sorry
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to say that maybe you won't be here next year.
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So do yourself a favor and get to one of the most relevant, current, topical mortgage
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events.
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That's not just a bunch of, you know, fluff and hype and people cheering and jumping
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on their chairs and touting how great a top producer I am, but actual, right, tactical
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ideas and implementation from people living and breathing it every day.
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So it comes with my highest endorsement, plus it's wicked, affordable, right?
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It's like five, 600 bucks, maybe max, depending on when you're checking it out.
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So go to engage.housingwire.com and, you know, register, I'm going to be there.
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Our fellow industry syndicate members are going to be there.
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You should be there too.
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So let's get into this week's show.
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Hey Clayton, welcome to the show.
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Good morning.
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Thank you very much, Jeff.
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You bet.
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You bet.
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Good morning.
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I love the connect with you.
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Finally, it's for me.
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It's been a long time coming because I've been watching with you guys have been doing out
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there.
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And I love the fact that, you know, you, from what I see are trying to add value, which
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is I'm trying to do, add value to the loan originators life, right, and all they have to
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deal with.
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So I'll allow you to give your intro.
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Who are you?
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What's housing?
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Why are all about?
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Yeah, absolutely.
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So at housing wire, our primary mission is moving markets forward.
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We serve one market, and that is the housing economy covering everything from real estate,
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housing finance and all of the services and technology and trends and regulatory happenings
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in between.
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So we cover a first and foremost news.
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And then we do data and analysis and other media formats like podcasts and video.
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So we're really trying to serve our audience of mortgage and real estate professionals where
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they are with the information they want, when they need it.
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And with the primary goal of furthering the entire housing economy and moving markets
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forward.
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So I'm Clayton Collins.
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I'm the CEO of housing wire.
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I've been leading the business for about three years now and couldn't be more excited
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about our growth and audience and engagement and better serving this mortgage industry every
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single year.
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Yeah, that's awesome.
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Thank you.
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And I'm on your website.
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So I'm going to be looking to that to pull out some questions for you.
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Of course, we'll put links in the show notes, housing wire.com.
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For those who want to go there, we're going to talk about resources for you listeners right
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now during the podcast and we'll give you links to those.
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All right.
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So here we are.
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When listeners are probably listening hearing this, it's 2019 already.
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You get exposed to a lot of different information.
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What do you, like if you had to, I'm a loan officer, okay?
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If you had to advise me in 2019, what do you see coming as big shifts or changes
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for the mortgage industry?
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Yeah, I think that a lot of the trends that we saw building in 2017 took place in 2018
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or continued through in 2019 and that is we're not going to see a massive change in inventory.
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So it's a competitive market.
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People are fighting for market share, not just at the lender level, but the LOs and
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realtors every day, fighting for that borrower, fighting for that homeowner.
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And that's a really real dynamic that comes through in the way you manage your business,
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the way you market yourself, the technology you adopt.
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And I think the kind of the mentality you have to have to be successful in the long term.
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So if I was advising you as a loan officer, I'd say don't only think about what you want
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to accomplish in 2019, think about where you want to be in 2021, 2025 and know that a lot
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of the decisions you make about how you position yourself, your personal brand, your corporate
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brand, the tools you adopt are going to influence your success this year, but also are going
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to be more impactful in future years.
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And that means to be successful now, you have to be successful in purchase.
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But there's going to be a time when the rates are in the right place for re-ify again.
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So be thinking about that long term strategy of what your client makes looks like, what
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your referral makes looks like.
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Your marketing mix looks like to position you for success in future years, not just in
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2019.
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So it's interesting you say that there's going to be a re-ify opportunity down the road.
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I've heard that a couple of times.
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You have some data that supports that, did you want to touch on?
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We know the factors that influence interest rates.
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And we're probably going to not kind of test market bottoms again in terms of venture
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rates, but we're also not going to see an upward, I continued upward trajectory.
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We've seen a recent, and by the time this podcast airs, we'll see where rates are, but we've
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seen in recent weeks here in early December, have seen a slight dip in rates and borrowers,
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especially in the jumbo category, there actually is a little bit of a re-ify opportunity right
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now.
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And in everything's relative, right?
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So first time homebuyers coming into the market in 2018, who did a 30 year fix with a high
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four or five handle on it, their re-ify opportunity might look very different than my re-ify opportunity
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because I purchased it in 2016 and have a rate that's going to be pretty hard to beat.
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So that's a, I think it's all relative, right?
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What do you, and I'm just going to throw some questions at you because you do have access
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to a lot of information and data and things like that.
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So then what do you see happening, all right, so use your example of when you bought, right?
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You may recall, so I moved to Vegas, now it'll be a year in January, I moved to Vegas
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from Orange County, right?
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Sold the house, took some chips off the table, and I haven't bought yet, right?
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I'm renting here, and so I just actually upped for another year in this wonderful house.
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But I go back and forth a lot on that because, you know, we're both closely tied to the
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industry and I'm eyeballing markets and overheated markets and things like that.
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So what's your take on pricing, you know, for housing coming in 2019, 2020?
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Yeah, I mean, coming like on the initial, like kind of lead in on that question,
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like the vision to buy, I'm firmly of the belief that consumers need to make smart financial
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decisions, but housing has a lot more influences than purely financial.
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And there are situations in people's lives and their families that were home ownership
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just makes more sense, and home ownership does provide a lot of intrinsic value to communities
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and the grounding of families that I think people have to take into account when making
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that rent versus buy decisions.
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It's not always just an interest rate decision, though please don't let me discount the
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importance of making like smart financial decisions, like if you can't afford it, you can't
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afford it.
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That's the first and foremost.
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But thinking about pricing and affordability coming into 2019, that's largely going to
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be driven by demand of first time home buyers.
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And I don't want to get into the whole like millennial conversation, but there's still
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a massive wave of wage earning, income earning, single and dual income families that haven't
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purchased yet.
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That's coming up the pipe, and we saw data this week that housing wire published, I believe
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it was 10 million millennials purchasing homes in the next 10 years, that's a wave that
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you can ignore.
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And that's certainly not going to be equally distributed across the country.
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I think there's going to be pockets that are much more impacted by that first time home
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buyer boom than others.
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Millennial generation is aging to a point where our home ownership makes more sense, and
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that's not the last generation to come, that's going to value home ownership.
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So I'm in the firmly of the belief that it's going to be a demand based affordability
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equation, and unless new home starts can catch up, then we kind of face a continued competitive
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market where affordability becomes a major part of the decision making process for first
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time home buyers, and for people who have growing families or want to relocate, we're seeing
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a lot less job relocation in this market right now than we saw in prior decades, and
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largely because of affordability, because there's great job opportunities in San Francisco,
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but I think you have a little bit of a grasp of what the wages have to be to even afford
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to step foot on the peninsula or anywhere close to it.
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I was talking to somebody, I think it was yesterday in Palo Alto, of course, the center,
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the hub of tech.
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I think the median price for a house there is like 1.3 I think.
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That's crazy, man.
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Even if you have an amazing job at Facebook, it's still not going to be like, it's an
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age or small part.
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Yeah, exactly.
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So clearly, then you are bullish on the housing market, moving forward.
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I'm bullish on the stability and continued growth of the housing market.
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I think there's some headwinds, there's some challenges, we'll fight through them.
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Inventory affordability rates margin on lending, competitiveness in the realtor space and
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technology coming in, there's going to be disruption, there's going to be competitiveness,
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people are fighting for market share, there's going to be losers, but when you kind of go
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up the level, I think we're in a, there's some parts of this market that are very healthy
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and that there's a competitive nature, a competitive healthiness that will support a growing
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housing economy for years and decades to come.
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All right.
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Transition a bit and talk about winners and losers, if you will, in the coming year because
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you know, market, compression, margin, all that kind of stuff, we've heard in all the buzzwords
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and I'm seeing it, you know, on a real front of my face every single day, you know, the struggle,
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if you will, on the street, loan officers, like you said, you keep using that word, competitive
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market and I'm seeing and feeling it every single day.
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So, who's going to survive, whether it's company or loan officer, I, you know, think I want
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to address for the listeners is this, there's a lot of fear going around, there's a lot of sky
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is falling and maybe you could maybe set us, readjust us a little bit in that the sky isn't falling
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and so how do we then, how should we be best prepared?
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What should we do as individual loan officers, let's say, to be best prepared and less fearful?
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Yeah, and I think there's definitely some, some bifurcation there of people that are embracing
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the competitive market and people who have a rightfully fearful, but the competitive, the success,
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the most successful LOs and realtors that we're talking to now, you think about a way to double
19:23
down on their strengths and in a purchase market, it is incredibly important to know where your
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business is coming from, how do you double down on that channel while also continuing to test out
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different, the marketing referral channels to be prepared if there is a shift in the market,
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so you're not kind of left with your main business or some drying up. So, in this purchase
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market, I think it comes back and I'm certainly not going to say that this is my quote, but nobody
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wants a mortgage, people want a house, so that means that more than ever, the realtor and lender
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relationship is incredibly impactful. You have to think of this entire housing economy as a business
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that is trying to put people in houses and that comes down to not pushing credit, not only talking
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about your rate and pricing, how are you better partner for your realtors and referral sources?
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How are you not just like being there and being ready when they say new business, how are you
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sending them business? And that's where we start to see the major bifurcation of successful
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purchase LOs and the LOs who are kind of just getting by. Are you valuable to your referral sources
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and are you sending them business? Are you reliable? Are you closing loans on the timeline that
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you promise? And I think those are the factors that we're hearing from top performing LOs and
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realtors who work with top performing LOs that are really helping top great A producers
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continue to stay in that bucket and not fall to the bottom in the competitive market.
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There's a lot in there, a lot of different questions. The first one that comes up for me is
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then are you saying that the smart loan officer should instead of just looking at the realtor as
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a place to get leads or get referrals, start looking at how the loan officers can self-gen. Start
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generating your own leads online. Absolutely. We're seeing top performing loan officers create their
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own brands and social presence and marketing campaigns. You see that every single day in the
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institution that you work for and that's really powerful. If you have borrowers coming to you
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for that pre-qual and it seems to be an increasing trend of prospective home buyers understanding
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that they need to note that they can finance or can afford to buy a property before they start
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going and looking at 30 homes with a realtor. I think it's an increasingly common that the lender
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is the first point of contact. I'm not saying it's the majority yet but it's increasingly common
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and taking those initial touch points and partnering those borrowers with real estate professionals
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that you trust and have a relationship with can increase the probability of close on those initial
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touch points but also hopefully when that realtor is the initial touch point on a future transaction
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you're the first call because you're not only a reliable partner you're also someone who brings
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them business and it becomes more of a partnership is what we kind of keep consistently hearing.
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So can we I'd love to get a little bit more specific in terms of what L.O. should be doing
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to fulfill that. Wrote down from our last conversation in the notes here. Digital plus local
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equals I think enablement if I could read my own notes. Adopting tools and things like that. So
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any kind of recommended whether you see like hey people are doing x, y and z on this social platform
23:07
or whatever any kind of a coaching moment for you here. Yeah I mean I'm certainly I run a media
23:14
company and I have a unique vantage point and gets to talk to a lot of smart people but I'm
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certainly not the the one who's out on the street lending or speaking to clients every day.
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So take take take that for for what it is but on the digital plus local kind of idea it's very
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different by the type of lending institution we're talking to. I mean we have the fortune of
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having relationships with with small brokers or small broker owners who don't have the support
23:42
of a corporate technology branding or marketing team and then top producing L.O.s at a top five
23:49
top ten non-banks with massive technology but budgets and marketing strategies behind them.
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But when it comes to the digital plus local kind of empowerment theory we're seeing that the most
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successful L.O.s are focused on what differentiates them and that personally so that that's the
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local side that's that's the relationships with your referral sources with your past clients
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with realtors with everybody in your community that is that when when you're having a a bar
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where a lead that's coming through a referral source you're you're there you're in the community
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you know them you know the you know the the neighborhoods you know the the properties you know
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how to serve that client best the digital side is this is the support that either you're putting
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in place in advance as an independent broker owner or as a or or if you're joining a large
24:45
non-bank and looking for somebody who can support you in areas you need we don't expect
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that every L.O. has the time or experience to implement a thoughtful digital mortgage platform
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even even kind of the easier front end tools to drive leads from a website but we know that
25:07
infrastructure is really important so we're the digital plus local ethos is that that digital presence
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in the tools and the the backbones of a initial digital application or full digital mortgage are
25:21
incredibly important but that alone is not going to displace the power of loan originators
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in communities working with past clients and referral sources and the the most successful
25:34
lenders and the most successful originators will be the ones who understand the the power of not
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only having that digital infrastructure but also having a a market facing presence and
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know how to serve a particular community and referral base yeah you know it's very interesting
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so it really it really comes back to the things we've been saying all along I was just you know
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the the old cliche high-tech high-touch right just popped in my head and that this is is proving
26:03
to be true as well personal branding as well as as important as it's ever been perhaps even more
26:08
important today so all right let me pivot for a little bit because all right I think we've got
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with the issue of what does a loan officer need to do to stay relevant you know you've got to
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you know you've got to be present you got to show up in your local market you have to engage with
26:21
your referral partners realtors etc even deeper go deep versus why let's say become more valuable
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it's not as we know the old it's not about rates and service and can you close on time all that
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jazz what's your take then I'm just I'm just in through a question at you zillow mortgage
26:36
you know I had I had a clever privilege of interviewing Tom Perry on on Monday and I asked him
26:42
you know does he believe zillow wants to displace realtors and I thought that Tom's response
26:49
that like any somewhat intellectual person will look at their their multiples that the that
26:57
the zillow stock trades on and look at the multiples that really trades at and say that
27:02
it would be completely irresponsible for for Spencer ask off to go to his board and say like
27:07
we should become a realtor because we're going to see our multiple cut in half um I tried to draw
27:14
a parallel to their recent acquisition of a mortgage bank and was trying to think through
27:22
well with that mindset of hey digital media companies are digital information companies trade
27:29
it higher multiples than lenders and realtors that seems to be relatively true in the public markets
27:36
why would how do you justify how do you rationalize that acquisition well one the market didn't
27:42
receive that acquisition extremely well it wasn't like there was a pop in the stock
27:46
remember correctly it's actually yeah slight tank um so what's what's the play there um
27:55
and I don't know yet um I just know maybe they know or don't know maybe they're just rolling the dice
28:01
you know yeah I uh I don't know the play um I do think that there are it's not as apples and oranges
28:09
as saying that digital media and information services companies trade it x multiple and
28:14
and uh loan origination and real estate companies trade it why I think there
28:20
isn't I think in a zilo type scenario there is an arbitrage opportunity where a
28:26
a fully digital mortgage or real estate company which trade out of multiple that's closer to a
28:32
digital business than a than a traditional brick and mortar business um so I think there's a few
28:40
uh I would um I'd love to have a long conversation with Tom about that um I'm a former investment
28:47
banker so like the the thoughts on talking about uh we're businesses trade and the kind
28:52
of corporate strategy to influence um even dot multiples is narrowing into my heart
28:58
we're getting out of finance man but um that that's one that uh I think there's a little there's
29:06
some gray area there well let's roll it back to you know be aware I mean should should a
29:15
loan officer feel feel threatened let me put it this way um you know you see all these other people
29:22
talking about um uh you know realtors you're funding your demise by paying zilo what's your take
29:28
on that because my my here's my thought that I actually answered this on on a Facebook page what
29:32
you're like you know this this loan officer was commenting that you know he's got these realtors
29:36
that are paying you know zilo a couple thousand bucks and whatever it is the number it's like if
29:40
they're paying zilo big bucks if it's a smart realtor it's because they're getting an ROI
29:44
yeah right and let's face it zilo is the internet when it comes to real estate by and large
29:49
safe would you agree with that assertion yeah okay I mean 180 million visitors a month right
29:54
for me and mls yeah they're they're it yeah um so so how do do loan officers need to be quote you know
30:02
I don't even want to use the book just to awake aware uh but I want to stop the like the fear
30:07
and the margaring because it's like everybody's like you know yeah the anti-Christ zilo it's like
30:12
we don't know yet for real quick and I'll let you respond for instance you probably know this
30:16
as well the zilo ibuyers right um instant offers and now they're competing with open door
30:20
what what people perhaps aren't talking about much yet is this could be an opportunity for people
30:26
now we don't know about the mortgage piece yet but the agents clearly with the ibuyers and
30:31
the open doors they're only listing back about 1.5% of those properties that they take in as you
30:35
heard Tom's example he has a realtor who got 300 leads and listed 15 properties so maybe it's
30:42
okay to wear the zilo badge and take a little bit more money for the lead flow which is the hardest
30:46
part of this job yeah I think as a business owner I don't like the idea of putting all your eggs
30:55
in any one basket back from a from a sit from sales channels from leads for marketing strategy
31:02
I think that you have to do lenders originators anybody selling anything has to do the same thing
31:09
zilos doing and I it appears that zilos testing right now they are they're testing the waters
31:14
in the mortgage market they're testing the ibuyer market they're they're playing with things so
31:20
you have like just like we're talking about disruption innovation in the mortgage industry they are
31:24
they are testing innovation they are testing strategies and I think that's what realtor
31:30
person fellows must do as well and it um I think of the uh there's like a there's a cartoon that
31:38
shows like a a manager on the edge of a cliff um on like a plank and he's holding a gun and his
31:43
top salesperson is on the other side and like like he's gonna shoot the top salesperson and
31:49
clearly fall off the cliff zilo directly attacking um their core revenue source is bad business
31:58
so until there's like a the market completely shifts um they're they're driving their revenue
32:04
from realtors and lenders you can't directly attack your client base unless you have a
32:12
so you don't feel they are directly attacking your client base right now
32:16
I think they're testing strategies that that have some that that could be threatening but they're
32:22
haven't done anything yet yeah that like completely like takes the legs out from underneath
32:28
the the realtor market and so if if I were a realtor today I would certainly be
32:36
working with all all of the sources of of leads and business and um and testimonials and reviews
32:43
that that I could find I think that putting all your eggs in one basket um is is dangerous and uh
32:49
and I think that they take some diversification and and um and lead sourcing and and marketing effort
32:55
to to properly build a business that's sustainable for the long term and different market conditions
33:01
and uh if you're driving all of your leads and putting all of your buck all of your budget into a
33:07
a single business source then yeah I'd be nervous whether that's zilo or somebody else
33:12
but uh if you build a properly diversified funnel then uh then you should be able to kind of
33:20
tweak and pour gas on certain sources when the time is right but pull back um if somebody's
33:25
threatening your business model um or not or not delivering returns um so uh do you think zilo
33:32
is trying to make a play for being a national mortgage player I don't know the answer to that
33:37
yeah that's something we uh I mean our editorial team um our editorial team uh Jacob Gaffney and
33:44
our reporters have definitely uh researched and talked to sources and speculated on um but there's um
33:52
if uh I'll tell you right now I don't know if uh zilo is going to become a national mortgage
33:56
player and I don't know how amazon is going to enter the mortgage market but um I know everybody is
34:01
very curious about both of this and with that said even that all that noise um my my suggestion is
34:09
I'd love to hear your two cents on this what are you going to do about it and it rolls back to
34:13
what you just talked about earlier which is double down on your local presence your local brand and
34:18
your referral partners right I mean control what you can control control you can control and
34:23
know your strengths um yeah like technology can disrupts like technology can be very disruptive
34:31
but technology has its strengths and has its weaknesses um there if if you're putting your
34:37
whole income into a uh like doing a job or a process that can easily be replicated by technology
34:44
yeah I wouldn't sleep that well at night but um if your business if you're value that you
34:50
bring to your ultimate client no matter what you're selling or what service you're offering
34:54
um if you add any value through expertise or personal relationships double down on on that
35:01
because uh that that's the hardest part that's the hardest thing for technology to disrupt
35:06
and uh I'm I'm firmly I'm I'm much I enjoy talking about enablement much more than
35:12
than disruption right now anyway I'm a I'm an early adopter of technology I know I know you are
35:18
as well and if you are willing to to test solutions and um figure out how new tools whether that's um
35:27
marketing channels or or loan operation agencies whatever whatever it is like if you can test new
35:33
tools of your how those tools make you better um you can win market share in the near term and set
35:38
yourself up for a better position um for for future market um turn disruption or change whatever
35:45
you want to call it yeah so what I'm what I'm hearing you say is um and for those listening this is
35:51
the time to listen up pay attention is so so know your strengths double down on the local uh
35:57
business local meeting your referral partners community get involved the whole personal brand
36:01
thing we talked about content marketing but then also look at those tools or platforms by which
36:07
you can um make some small bets maybe it's Facebook ads for example right make some small bets to
36:12
get to the consumer first because everything I'm reading and presentations I'm doing it's all
36:16
about whoever gets to the consumer first is really who wins yeah yeah that's uh in a I mean I think
36:23
the other the other thing we're hearing from our our clients that are our marketing um to
36:29
to potential home buyers and from our clients who are providing services and solutions to folks that
36:35
are uh marketing to potential home buyers is that there are um that value-based messaging is really
36:42
working right now and uh and that it's not I'm not talking about like the um love thy neighbor
36:48
kind of like values I'm talking about what does your client value do they value speed do they value
36:54
technology do they value a handshake do they value um breakfast and lunch or bagels since their
37:00
office I don't know but figure out what they value and that's what and that's what drives the messaging
37:06
and um and I think from uh there's a little more like on the b2b side but there's it's never
37:13
been easier in like in history of the world to just start a company or we want to technology um
37:19
and having a local or a national voice um and I think that buyers are starting to become aware of
37:25
that so some brand and consistency start to become some of the values that that people do care
37:32
about and uh know that you're gonna be there um and I guess this lesson kind of applies to both the
37:38
the homeowner and the the b2b side of our industry is your clients want a partner um they want
37:45
they're not buying a software they're not buying a loan once they want someone that's going to grow
37:50
with them and um I know when I sign a technology contract I'm not just looking at
37:56
the the tool that's in place today but what's the roadmap like where are we going together
38:00
like I don't want to buy your sign of five year um deal with you today and then like come back
38:05
to this relationship in 2022 and say like oh we're still using the same exact platform like no I
38:11
want to know that you're investing in your technology in your tools and we're growing and evolving
38:15
together uh and I am of the belief that homeowners home buyers have that same value or value that as well
38:24
and they're looking for a realtor and lender partners that will be there when they're ready to
38:29
re-fi so um come back to the beginning of our conversation you get a first time home buyer today
38:34
there's gonna be a time when the market is different when their family or their um people staying
38:39
home longer too that that's that's a re-fi um that's a re-fi opportunity so like someone that will
38:44
grow with them and build that relationship and and not just um and not just answer the phone
38:50
they call but maybe every now and then send a proactive um email or phone call or at least see
38:55
see a kind of a friendly face in the community is something that um something that home buyers and
39:01
and clients of all shapes and sizes um yeah top of mine top of mine to your point about people
39:09
staying in homes longer they're not they're not you know moving as often as they used to and
39:12
really that's just this that goes back to you as a as a mortgage loan professional um having a true
39:18
business and that's one that's relational versus transactional um the the big technology plays
39:24
they can afford to be transactional right because of the efficiencies they have in their system
39:28
us the little you know independent broker loan officer out on the streets i got to be relational
39:33
and i got to build a fence around my people or else yeah i'm gonna you know i i said it the other day
39:38
it's like um displacement disruption it's like if you you will i was talking to realtors i think i
39:43
said um unless you disrupt yourself right you you will be disrupted by market efficiencies by
39:50
technology and stuff like that yep okay just knowing the importance of knowing when uh what is
39:56
disruption and what is distraction and knowing how do you like when do you focus your like you have
40:03
to test new things and new new marketing channels new technologies um new new relationship but um
40:10
like i think it's also with like coming back to my earlier comment has there been easier to start
40:14
in a business or or launch a product um know what's a distraction and know it's actually like
40:19
worth like spending your time on i i know as a as a business owner most important asset i have is
40:25
my time and the hardest thing to do is know when to the same no just move on and i i'm confident that
40:31
is a uh a dilemma or a consideration that every loan officer should have um because the most
40:37
important thing they have is time um when should they be spending time on the phone when should they
40:43
be spending time in the community when should they be time sitting back in a desk their door shut
40:46
thinking about their long-term strategy of how they position themselves and their business to be
40:51
successful in future years um so i i i really do think that uh like focus on disruption but avoid
40:58
distraction um think about the long-term um double down your strengths um i'm not alone
41:05
originator but i get to talk to a lot of smart ones and that's what i'm hearing and so that's the
41:09
message i would share that's awesome all right so let's talk about how housing wire can help
41:13
loan officers along that journey i know you've got first of all the website housingwire.com
41:18
what are some places and then we'll talk about your event uh coming up in 2019 engage but where
41:24
would you direct loan officers to look um on the housing wire page to get connected and start
41:29
engaging and learning yeah so so housing wire we've been around for a little over 10 years now um
41:34
we're serving four and a half million annual unique visitors of our 50,000 people on our daily
41:38
newsletter list historically we've done a really good job at serving the the executive side of
41:44
the lending industry from from original original executive servicing secondary market
41:49
it real estate executives um in the last couple of years we've really made a concert effort to
41:54
better serve loan originators and and realtors and where we're putting in place um news coverage
42:00
and products to really support that initiative so earlier this year we launched new newsletter
42:05
called lending life um we had a group of L.O.s come into our office did a focused group ask
42:10
them what they wanted how frequently they wanted it what information when to make them better at
42:15
their um better their jobs more impactful for their partners and in a little bit of content they
42:20
can share on social or email out to their realtor relationships took that information
42:25
launched lending life so if you go to housingwire.com and in the top right corner um do the
42:32
subscribe now drop down for newsletters and uh you'll see lending life there and can register
42:37
it's a two day a week newsletter 100% complimentary um and uh with the sole purpose of engaging our
42:45
the loan officers in the in the mortgage industry and um trying to build a real community so
42:50
we're sending that email directly from our editor-in-chief so Jacob Gaffney sends sends the email
42:56
if you don't like something or if you love something or if you have an idea respond it goes directly
43:00
to Jacob's inbox and he gets to um to have those interactions so uh we're really trying to
43:06
build a community it's this isn't some like you hit reply and you get a uh uh do not like no
43:13
no response that's like we're real people here we're trying to serve real people in the in the mortgage
43:19
industry and um trying to create a real community there um so that's how we're trying to
43:24
serve our lives um and i think one really one reason i was really excited to come on the
43:29
podcast with you today is i think we see marketing as a as a key differentiator and it like
43:35
incredible um incredibly important part of overall lending strategy especially as we kind of
43:42
pivot um to a more origination focused market with a few um with a few headwinds so last year
43:49
we launched engaged top marketing which is a summit of the top marketing minds in the mortgage
43:54
industry um we had that first event in September here in Dallas and uh it was a it was an awesome
43:59
success brought out um marketers who typically spend their time at industry events um working the
44:06
booth they're setting up uh dinners or coxel hours for their for their a's and then their sales
44:11
team um we actually brought we said no no no like there's no expo hall like this is for the marketers
44:16
we wanted marketers to like come and engage with content and come and engage with each other
44:20
and build relationships and take something back and makes them more impactful at supporting
44:25
the loan originators that that they essentially work for as as marketers and um it was a great
44:32
success we're doing um engage dot marketing 2019 um coming up June 13th and 14th in Charlotte
44:39
North Carolina and uh hope to bring out the the top marketing minds from across the mortgage industry
44:46
and give them a really tightly focused um programming and content schedule that that's focused on
44:53
competitive differentiation in a purchase market um uh marketing tactics that aren't based
44:59
around pricing and arising rate environment um technology and tools that are helping
45:04
elbows and marketing teams uh differentiate themselves and build stronger relationships not just
45:10
with their um borrowers and uh and past clients but also with their referral sources um so
45:16
this is all about this is four marketers um with the content advisory board so buy marketers
45:23
and it's all about supporting loan origination in the mortgage industry so it's just for
45:27
originators no realtors um so we we'll bring it so we'll have some realtors attempt that's more for
45:33
like uh so we'll have them participate on panels talk about how they're how they're how the
45:37
relationships um uh really uh kind of how we can optimize the relationship between the realtor
45:43
and lending community um but we're going to be tightly focused around loan origination um we
45:49
we see a pretty big realtor interest in our housing wire content around loan origination so uh
45:56
we'd love any realtors that that want to join but this is really for the marketers in the mortgage
46:01
industry and um realtors want to come in and join us more the barrier we'd love to have them
46:07
that's awesome and uh by the time people are listening to this i believe we may have a link in
46:12
the show notes if we don't we'll update it when it does come out um but that's awesome so
46:16
that's June 13th 14th Charlotte uh engage and of course you can always go to the website and learn
46:22
more at housingwire.com subscribe to the newsletter there for sure also you guys uh quick quick
46:28
mention here i see there are you now have a podcast can you tell us about that real quick yeah
46:33
i think that would kind of what i mentioned in the beginning we want to serve our audience when and
46:37
where they they want to consume our information and um so a few of our journalist um Jacob Gaffney
46:43
Caroline Psylley um a few of our other journalists have been have been experimenting with a few
46:48
hot podcasts um we've done a specialized podcast on reg tech and then we're doing like a
46:54
weekly update on the top news stories so um i know uh what unfortunate part of living in Dallas
46:59
i spent a lot of time in my car so i get to um get to absorb a lot of podcasts and i know a lot of
47:05
our our realtor readers do that as well um and then our our corporate readers you spend a lot of time
47:12
on the road or are listening to podcasts on planes so we want to provide uh content to our audience
47:18
when and where they want it and uh podcast or part of that strategy yeah there's good content on
47:23
there and you mean you can go right to the website listen to it download it i'm looking at episode three
47:27
talking about zelo bfa tech and all that stuff so uh what i love about what you guys are doing um
47:33
it's just you know we need to be educated as mortgage professionals obviously educated about our
47:38
craft our business and how to how to speak intelligently and professionally but then also
47:42
educated about what's going on in the market to your point our discussion here today how do we take
47:46
that information that knowledge and then pivot and adjust for what's you know our sense of what's
47:51
happening in the market so good stuff um and jake was being able to get some some great
47:56
guests and it was had been Carson on there and oh really executive so uh it's the conversations
48:03
there aren't aren't exactly about the the day-to-day challenges of loan origination but you know
48:08
i know that those are the the decisions that are being made and what Ben and his team are the
48:13
decisions that impact this market this year next year so we we love when our our most and
48:18
foremost engaged loan officers really want that knowledge or thirsty for it so uh we'll take
48:23
um industry leaders like Ben any day of the week that want to that want to talk to our audience
48:28
and i'll tell you what just real quick for me as with my loan officer hat on um the reason why
48:33
i listen to things like this these educational kind of sessions is those are talking points for
48:38
me and realtors if i'm meeting with a realtor and then maybe the subject of zelo comes up well
48:43
i want to be able to intelligently speak about that right and so that's why we we we listen to
48:48
podcasts and get access to you guys like at housingware.com and all that jazz so awesome man
48:53
listen um i'm gonna put links in the shown us all this as i said appreciate you being here thank
48:58
you for sharing your knowledge and thank you for helping right the loan officer community rise
49:02
up man and play at a higher level no it is our honor and our privilege and thank you very much
49:07
for having me today you bet and as always listeners uh we appreciate you so if you like this
49:11
episode you know what to do give us a little love out on the inner webs leave us a review and
49:16
we appreciate you as always thank you for tuning in we'll see you on the next one
49:20
thanks for listening to mortgage marketing radio one more truth in mortgage marketing
49:26
get more free training and resources at mortgagemarketinginstitute.com
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