Latest / Mortgage Marketing Radio / Ep. 131 - How to Close 212 Loans with Agent Teams and Client Events

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Ep. 131 - How to Close 212 Loans with Agent Teams and Client Events · Mortgage Marketing Radio

0:00
In today's highly competitive mortgage industry, building profitable relationships with
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real estate agents is essential for success.
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However, finding effective ways to secure agent relationships can be a challenge.
0:11
With so many mortgage loan originators vying for the attention of real estate agents,
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it can be difficult to stand out and establish meaningful connections.
0:20
Our new case study featuring loan officer Chris Coghill is a must-read.
0:25
This has closed a remarkable 36 million in funded loans from agent referrals.
0:31
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
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of the case study today.
0:47
You'll find actionable insights and practical tips that Chris used to close 36 million
0:52
in funded loans from agent referrals and how you can, too.
0:56
Don't miss out.
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Go check it out right now, visit LOKestudy.com and download your free copy today.
1:17
Welcome to Mortgage Marketing Radio brought to you by the Mortgage Marketing Institute.
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For a number one source for truth in mortgage marketing.
1:32
Hey, everybody, Jeff.
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Zimphur, welcome to do another edition of the Mortgage Marketing Radio podcast.
1:37
Can I tell you how much I appreciate you?
1:39
Have you ever heard that song by Van Morrison?
1:41
Have I told you lately that I love you?
1:44
Well, I definitely appreciate you for tuning in.
1:47
Listen, this is a labor of love, right?
1:49
It's not easy to produce a podcast consistently and heads up for those of you that might have
1:53
been just coming around recently.
1:54
I've been doing this since January of 2016 and I couldn't or couldn't do this without
2:00
your feedback, your input and letting me know that this makes a difference.
2:04
That's really what it's all about is making a difference in your life, your career, your
2:08
business, helping pave the way, help, help shave off some of the lessons, give you nuggets,
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right?
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My new slogan might be more ideas per minute than any other mortgage podcast out there.
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That definitely speaks true of the podcast episode.
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I just recorded today for you, which you're listening to right now.
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But before we get there, I got to give a shout out, as always, for somebody leaving a review.
2:32
If you haven't left a review yet on the inner webs, wherever you're listening to this
2:36
podcast, I'd appreciate it if you do.
2:38
I'll reward you with some podcast swag.
2:41
Get a free t-shirt from me.
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Here's the latest shout out from Fresh Guy, who says great content.
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Jeff always delivers high quality guests and content for anyone in the mortgage industry.
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Highly recommend.
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Fresh Guy goes on to say, I'm a pro member now as well and his site content is very thorough
2:59
and helpful for my business.
3:01
Fresh Guy, what up, what up?
3:02
You got t-shirts swag coming your way.
3:04
Here's how you do this, folks.
3:06
As you leave a review, hit me up.
3:09
Just message me on Facebook or email me podcast at mortgagemarketingradio.com.
3:14
Let me know you left a review.
3:15
Give me your address and your preferred t-shirt size.
3:18
We'll send you a little swag as a thank you because I do appreciate you and that lets
3:22
me know that you're listening and you care.
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The other thing, too, is Fresh Guy happens to mention that he's now a pro member and
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listen.
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If you guys have been listening for some time, I'm just going to cut to the chase.
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What are you waiting for?
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If you've heard me enough by now, you believe that I'm a big advocate of building your business
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both online and offline, locally, belly to belly, face to face with real estate agents and
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other referral partners, but also leveraging online and becoming a modern mortgage originator.
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What I find is most law officers are looking at how to bridge that gap.
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They're looking for how to quickly and easily get in front of maximum realtors in a minimum
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time and generate consistent dependable referrals.
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Well, we help you do that in the mortgage marketing pro membership as well as give you tools
4:04
training and resources to help you get started with video, Facebook ads, Instagram, YouTube,
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whatever it is you want.
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Hey, want to learn more?
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Fresh Guy checked it out.
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He's now a pro member.
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You can go to mortgage marketing.pro, check out the free video we put up for you there
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and explain everything if it's right for you.
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We'd love to have you in.
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Alright, let's get into this week's episode.
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My very special guest is Ryan Smith, a producing branch manager out of Madison, Wisconsin,
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and Ryan, by the way, shout out to you, man, appreciate you.
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You're a long time listener to the podcast as well and also shout out for your team, Danielle.
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I believe Danielle is the one who turned you on to the podcast.
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And so shout out to Danielle, I guess, especially because she introduced you to the podcast.
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So thank you, Danielle, for bringing Ryan and I together.
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And Ryan's a stud.
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Ryan's a rock star.
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Listen, in 2018, Ryan closed 212 units for 42 million.
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The year prior 2017 closed 168 units.
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So folks were seeing some growth.
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And this is where I got the idea of more ideas per minute than any other mortgage podcast
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out there.
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That's because I drill Ryan, right?
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I press him.
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I push him.
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He showed up with his game face on ready to go and prepare to talk about his main source
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of business.
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And we talk about a lot of different things here, right?
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But we really unpack one of the key areas of business for him is, yes, real estate agents.
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I have them unpack how he prospects real estate agencies going after teams, specifically,
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how he differentiates his value proposition, things like that.
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But also we unpack how he's leveraging client appreciation events.
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This is oftentimes, you don't hear a lot of loan officers doing this, right?
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Some you do, but not a lot, right?
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It's a big play in the real estate space.
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But listen, you need to start doing client appreciation events.
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Team up with other folks in your office if you need to to generate enough attendees.
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Team up with a realtor and combine your past databases, right?
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Whatever the case is.
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But Ryan, there's three events in particular that we talk about.
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We talk about his toys for tacos, which is an amazing idea.
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We talk about his summer picnic, there's a movie event, movie events he does also.
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And this is just a great crash course on what's working for generating your business today.
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What's working now?
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What's going to work long term?
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We unpack the Zillow conversation and all that kind of stuff.
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So this is a great crash course in how to be a, both a modern originator, but be an
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originator who still leverages the foundation of this business, which is relationship to
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get referrals to build your sphere of influence and build a very profitable, highly successful
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business.
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So I think you're going to enjoy this episode as much as I did interviewing Ryan.
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So without further ado, let's get into this week's show.
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Ryan Smith, welcome to the show.
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Thanks, Jeff.
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Appreciate the opportunity.
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You bet you so the listeners heard the formal intro before we got started, but I always
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like to allow you to tell your own personal version of the story.
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Tell us a little bit about Ryan Smith, what you're all about, and why do you still enjoy
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the mortgage business?
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Yeah, I appreciate it.
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Thanks for having me.
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Like I said, I am about 20 years in, coming up on 20 years into the mortgage industry.
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And you know, I've been with Guild for just about seven months now, so I work at Guild
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Mortgage.
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My father got two kids, two teenagers, loved golf, loved to boat, loved live music.
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And what I love about the mortgage business is it's ever changing every day is a new day.
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Look, for real, you know, every day is new, and I love that aspect of our industry, along
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with obviously helping people in the homes.
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It's a pleasure to be able to do that.
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Fantastic.
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How many years have you been originating?
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20?
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Coming up on 20.
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Yeah.
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Wow.
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That'll be my 20th year.
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That's the battle scars, right?
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Yeah, been through a couple wars for sure.
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No doubt.
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Give us a sense of 2018 units and or volume.
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Yeah.
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So 2018 was my best year, personally, it was 212 units and just over 42 million in volume.
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Got it.
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And you are in, is it Madison?
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Wisconsin?
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Yep.
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Madison, Wisconsin.
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Got it.
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Okay, great.
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Congratulations to you, by the way.
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That's, that's huge.
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So it was your best year ever in comparison.
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What was 2017 then in terms of units, you know, roughly?
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Yeah, I think 2017 was 168 for unit, which was like 36 or 37 million.
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Okay.
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So what do you attribute the difference in the growth there from 168 to 212?
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Well, I've been in coaching.
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So I'm a core guy.
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I've been in coaching for a long time and I felt, I feel like last year was kind of a
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culmination of a lot of the work that's been put in.
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I feel like my team was optimized.
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We were really clicking last year.
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That's a big thing, you know, when you're building a team to get to the point
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where everybody's truly on the same page and working in step with each other
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and last year, it just, it just all clicked.
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So along with, you know, a healthy market around here, yeah,
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it all kind of built up a lot of the coaching that I've done had all built up
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to last year and we caught momentum at the end of 17 and it just took off from
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there.
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Okay.
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I'm looking at your website here, but it's probably easier for you to tell me
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who do you have on your team that supports you?
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Yeah, the rules are.
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Yeah.
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So you've heard the terms loan partners, right?
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So I have a loan processor.
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I have a front end LP at Guild, they call them Eloise and then I have a team captain
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as well as a marketing coordinator who helps us with, you know, videos and online
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marketing, digital marketing, and also helps me with presentations and lunch
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and learns and happy hours and things of that nature.
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Who on your team is dedicated solely to you?
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Carol, Noel and Rebecca and that's a three person team in the loan production piece.
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Right.
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Right.
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I'm asking just to clarify, right?
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Because sometimes they're shared resources, like you mentioned, you're digital
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marketing support person.
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I imagine he or she supports other people just aside from you.
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Yeah, that's correct.
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Danielle is our digital marketing person and she supports my whole branch.
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We have four total originators, so she's pretty busy with all that.
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All right.
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So you have a dedicated loan processor and L.O.A.
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loan officer assistant who's dedicated to just you?
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Yes.
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Okay.
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All right.
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Cool.
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No, thank you.
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And again, I'm just articulating that for you listeners right now who are often asking
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those questions.
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How do I grow?
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How do I get to the next level without having a dedicated person, you know?
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How long have you had a dedicated processor and L.O.A.?
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That's a good question.
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I think probably three or four years.
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You know, a lot of shared resources building up to that.
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You know, six years ago, I didn't have anyone on my team and you just put building blocks
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in place.
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But I would say probably three or four years to have a fully dedicated team for myself.
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And do you recall what production level you are at units wise, for example, when you
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made the decision that you needed, you're undeticated people?
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I do.
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Yeah.
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I had taken a step back and done a little bit more management.
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And so I was my production was way down.
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I was doing about three loans a month.
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I got in the core.
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And for those of you who know the core, that strategy doesn't work well for the people
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that run it.
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And so they told me, you know, you got to get out of management, you got to get back
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into production.
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So it was kind of a rebuilding at that point.
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That was in 2011.
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So, you know, I started the process of building a team and it's hard to build a team when
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you're doing three loans a month, you know, it's hard to justify it, it's hard to take
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that leap.
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So sometime in 12, I think we hired our first person and just build from there.
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Of course, when you build a team, you know, there are, you go through some people occasionally
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and you got to get, you got to get, you know, in step with who you really want.
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And that was a process in it of itself, building the right team.
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So that took some time as well.
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All right.
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So you decided to get out of management.
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At this point, you're doing, you're producing self-producing about three loans a month and
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through the coaching, through the core, et cetera, you realize to in order to really grow,
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you've got to get a team.
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So is this your own money, you're investing to bring on these dedicated people?
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That's another great question.
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I run a branch.
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So I'm a branch manager and I have a P and L. So it wasn't coming out of my pocket in
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the sense that I was, you know, taking it out of my commissions, but it's coming out
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of my profit center.
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So it's a little bit different when you're a branch manager and you have a P and L.
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It wasn't personal money, but it was obviously being taken out of the P and L.
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Okay.
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Let me ask you a question this way then.
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At what point in terms of units production wise per month, would you suggest the loan
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officer seriously consider investing a percentage of their commissions towards a dedicated person?
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Yeah.
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The million dollar question.
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A lot of people about this, you know, because that's always the question.
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The people who are doing three to four loans a month, you know, think they've got to get
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to five or six before they hire somebody and the reality is they're never going to get
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to five or six or most of them won't get there in my experience without hiring someone.
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So I'm an all-in type of guy and looking back on it, I wish I had jumped a little sooner.
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I would say if anybody has some experience and they're bringing in leads and doing deals
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that they should jump in and hire somebody.
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Every time I've hired somebody, you know, my business has improved because of it, it will
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happen if you follow the system.
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So I don't know.
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I think that if you think you might want one and you see your passionate enough about
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getting there, I would go ahead and do it and take the plunge.
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Well, it's an interesting discussion in terms of like the ability to grow like you said.
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And it's a trap.
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I'm sure you see it firsthand as well, but it's this cycle, this vicious loop that LLs get
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caught in where, okay, now of originating four or five, six, eight loans a month, whatever
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that, it's in that sweet spot there, I think four to eight, where things get a little
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bit hairy and hectic.
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And yet they're having a hard time justifying that additional cost, you know what I mean?
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Yeah, and I just think it's, I think what happens in my experiences, you're going to go
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four, then you're going to do eight, then you're going to do two, then you're going to do seven,
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and then you're going to go up and down because when you get success prospecting, you bring
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the leads in, you work the leads and you close loans and then the month that you close them,
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you weren't prospecting.
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So, I think you ride the roller coaster and I just think if you get to the point where
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you're actually bringing in leads, you know, you got to get to a point where you actually
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believe that you're going to be successful and you could see it happening.
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I think that the first tire is essential to keep you in prospecting mode and keep you
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out of working loans, you know?
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Yeah.
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So, your first tire is like perhaps a L.O.A. or dedicated proctor?
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Yeah, I think the first tire somebody answered in the phone and helping you with, you know,
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helping with a lead track or helping intake loan applications, helping your schedule, keeping
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you in green time as they say and keeping you going forward and always, always prospecting
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as well as keeping you organized, you know, that's the other thing.
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Sales people, most of the people I know aren't naturally super organized, so keeping the
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calendar organized, keeping appointments, you know, you know, confirmed and collecting
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documentation and, you know, doing all the things that most sales people, especially
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in this industry, don't like doing or aren't naturally good at.
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Any secrets to finding the right person?
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Man, I'm really blessed.
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I have an amazing team.
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I really do.
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My L.O.A. we joke about it all the time.
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She was running a restaurant before I hired her and that I was most interested in that
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because I used to work in food service, so I knew that she could multitask and deal
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with people and, you know, deal with people who aren't always going to be happy with
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what's going on and, you know, be able to handle a lot of situations.
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So I believe in this profiling, you know, I think you've got to find the right person
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and the right personality for the job.
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Other than that, I guess the advice I would say is try to interview as many people as
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possible and, you know, don't just jump on the first resume that you see, but you want
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to find somebody that is going to be good naturally at what you're asking them to do.
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Yeah, agree.
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And I'm glad you brought up the disc because I was curious about that.
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I'm a big believer.
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I use it a lot in some of the coaching that we do.
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And for those who are listening, want to learn more about the disc, I'm actually going
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to provide a link in the show notes to one of the places I used to go for the disc was
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Tony Robbins as a free disc.
16:33
Yep.
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That's what I used to.
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Yep.
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Yep.
16:37
Okay.
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So I'll put a link for you guys in the show notes.
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The cool thing is like you take your own disc, right?
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You get to learn about yourself, who you are, have your spouse take it or somebody else
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in your life, right?
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Because it helps with communication.
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Yeah.
16:47
But then also we take it on the team.
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Yeah.
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Well, we use it for hiring, but we also use it inside the team.
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Once a year, we kind of redo it, look at it, you know, I have to remind myself to pull
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that out sometimes and figure out maybe if I'm having a communication issue on the team,
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why and maybe I need to reread their disc and just kind of, you know, re-center myself
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on what is the best way that person needs to be communicated to?
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So.
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Absolutely.
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Good stuff.
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All right.
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Cool.
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So you mentioned, you know, as long as you look regarding hire somebody, bringing in leads.
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So that's a nice transition into bringing in leads.
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Common question, I ask.
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What's your main source of business?
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Realtor business, large majority of my business is working with real estate teams.
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I like to work with the teams.
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I would say second to that, it would be business people, you know, I mean, I mean, I mean,
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a B&I group.
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I'd still go and do that, work a lot with, you know, some insurance agents, accountants,
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attorneys, but mostly large majority would be realtors and, you know, past clients in
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my database.
17:51
Sure.
17:52
All right.
17:53
So I want to touch on though, you clearly specified teams, just make a note here, past
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clients.
17:57
Yeah.
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You are proactively pursuing teams versus individual agents.
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I started to a couple of years ago.
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Yeah.
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I just started to realize that, you know, while I have a team and different people do different
18:07
things to help our clients with the level of service we want to provide, I started to
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realize that people who run teams understand that and they understand when they refer to
18:18
different referral because they're referring the same type of service that they are trying
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to provide to that client.
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And what I find is that the client who generally wants or needs that and understands that is
18:30
going to appreciate that on my end as well.
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So, you know, they feel well taken care of by the realtor because maybe they have a
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transaction coordinator or, you know, some sort of assistant helping them get set up and
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taking care of them.
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And then they refer to a lender who has the same process.
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But I've just found over the years that it seems, it's like we speak the same language.
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Yeah.
18:52
Roughly how many teams do you work with right now?
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I would say considered legitimate teams, probably five or six.
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A couple of them are, you know, large teams in our community.
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And they make up roughly, again, you don't have to be exact because I didn't prep you
19:09
for any of these questions.
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But as I told you before, you never know where this is going to go.
19:14
That's all good.
19:16
Roughly what percentage of your business, your purchase business does those five to six
19:20
teams make up?
19:21
That's a good question.
19:22
I should get that official data, but my initial feeling on that would probably be over 50
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percent.
19:29
Okay.
19:30
Got it.
19:31
Got it.
19:32
Very deep.
19:33
But I really think there's value in this conversation right here.
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What's the seasoning or maturity level or, you know, time that you've been working with
19:40
those five to six teams?
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Are any of them newer or most of them have been established for some time with you?
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I would say most of them are teams that I've built over time.
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One specifically I'm thinking about one of my top, you know, business partners or referral
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partners.
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I did his first deal.
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So he was a listing agent.
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I did his first deal.
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We went to coffee and he just said, you know, I want to build a team and I think it's
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five years later, he's got a massive team and really just was one of those agents that
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you know, took it and ran with it.
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So it was very organic beginning, I guess, to somebody that literally, you know, did their
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first deal.
20:24
But I would say a couple of the other ones, two, three, four years, you know, you're always
20:29
trying to cultivate that.
20:30
The interesting part is just like in mortgage, realtors leave teams, right?
20:36
So agents get big and they want to start their own team and so that's a whole another challenge
20:41
for us is, you know, maintaining those relationships when they leave the team that we're in lockstep
20:47
with, you know.
20:48
Yeah, because they go to somebody else who's already got a mortgage lender set up and that
20:51
kind of thing.
20:52
Yeah.
20:53
Or they're starting their own team, right?
20:54
And they want to go off on their own and so now they're going to build a team and, you
20:58
know, sometimes I have success with that.
21:00
Honestly, sometimes they get influenced in a different direction and, you know, go back
21:04
to the prospecting thing.
21:05
You always got to be prospecting because you never know what can happen to the business
21:09
partners you have.
21:10
Well, there's a couple of lessons I want to highlight from why I asked you those questions.
21:15
Number one, that agent who's now this big team was a new agent.
21:19
You did his first deal now five years later, you're still working with him.
21:22
So that goes to the question that people often ask, should I pursue new agents as a loan
21:28
officer?
21:29
Yeah.
21:30
That one worked out pretty good.
21:32
I love new agents.
21:34
I love meeting with new agents.
21:37
We try to bring them into our office and meet with them as a team and, you know, we obviously
21:42
are starting that meeting on more of a base level of how can we help you, you know, maybe
21:48
some education, you know, give you the basics of mortgages and loan programs if they want
21:53
it.
21:54
Yeah.
21:55
A lot of the new agents come in and just start smiling because they love the fact that
21:59
while they don't know what they're doing, they're going to have someone that takes care
22:01
of them.
22:02
So I love working with new people.
22:04
Yeah.
22:05
I mean, first of all, they're green, they're eager, right?
22:07
They don't have any of the bad habits, perhaps yet.
22:10
But is there any way, I don't know about you, but sometimes I know I like to think that
22:14
and this might just, I hope this doesn't sound like egotistical, but, you know, sniffing
22:18
out a good realtor versus a not good realtor.
22:21
Do you have like a radar for that or a process, you know?
22:24
I wouldn't say that I have a process, but I think through some question and answer, you
22:27
can figure that out.
22:28
Even, I mean, not, not just in real estate, but any salesperson, you know, do you have
22:33
what's your process?
22:34
What's your business plan?
22:35
What's your plan?
22:36
Yeah.
22:37
What are you going to do?
22:38
Do you have a plan?
22:39
Yeah.
22:40
And, you know, before Zillow, and, you know, I know you've had some recent episodes about
22:44
Zillow and different lead sources before those lead sources, you know, you meet with a new
22:48
agent and you ask them that question and they usually was something along the lines of
22:52
my sphere, you know, and they didn't really have a plan and now a realtor can become a
22:57
realtor and start doing a lot of business right away if they can buy leads and create
23:03
that lead source right out of the gate if they want to.
23:07
So it's interesting.
23:08
I've seen some agents go from new to six, seven, eight, nine, ten million in the first
23:13
18 months and prior to online lead sources, that was not possible or if it was a very small
23:20
majority or minority.
23:21
Yeah.
23:22
Let me ask you this question.
23:24
When you meet with the agent under the prospects of, let's say, potential partnership,
23:28
right?
23:29
We'll set us on how they came to it.
23:31
Let's just say the understanding is we're going to talk about a potential partnership.
23:34
How long do you wait, you know, to see momentum from that agent or do you have, you know,
23:39
how do you handle that process?
23:41
And what I'm dealing with is the classic question of met with the agent, crickets, nothing, you
23:45
know what I mean?
23:46
How do you address that?
23:47
I think that that's a constant struggle for everyone, you know, you have to have a plan.
23:51
I've struggled with this over the years, but you have to have a game plan, right?
23:55
We all go to coffee, we go to lunch, we go have meetings, what do you do after that?
23:59
So that's where the core has been great.
24:01
You know, I have a follow-up plan.
24:04
I try to regularly communicate with them.
24:06
Again, it's just, I look at it like it's just relationship building.
24:10
You know, I met with them, great, we got along, you know, now what?
24:14
So we have a little marketing program that we plug people into just to stay in touch with
24:20
them, to let them know that we can cover them on the weekends, to let them know a little
24:25
bit more about the process, to invite them to our events, you know, and we kind of plug
24:30
them into our marketing strategy.
24:33
But yeah, it's a constant struggle because you do get to the end of the year and you realize
24:37
you met with a lot of people, how many of them are you actually still in communication
24:41
with?
24:42
Because you really can only have so many relationships, right?
24:44
So I'm a go deep type of guy, I'm not great at the wide net strategy, tried both and,
24:52
you know, I've just found that I'm a lot better when I can go deep with somebody and get
24:57
to know them and, you know, earn that trust legitimately and build a solid relationship.
25:04
Okay, what's your process then for marketing two agents?
25:07
How do you get those meetings and stuff?
25:10
First and foremost, I communicate directly with all the listing agents on every deal.
25:15
I make a phone call to them as soon as the contract comes in, introduce myself, introduce
25:20
our process, I ask them if there's anything I need to know about the home that would be
25:24
of use and I ask them how they want to be communicated to and let them know that I'm going to do
25:30
my weekly updates status call to them.
25:33
Usually they say something along the lines of, wow, you know, nobody does that.
25:38
And then, you know, you still hear that opening, right?
25:41
Yeah.
25:42
Right?
25:43
So you look for the opening, right?
25:44
And then, you know, depending on how they react, I usually try to start setting the
25:47
table that I want to meet them.
25:49
And every week when I'm calling them, I'm updating them, but I'm marketing to them.
25:54
I want to meet them and get to know them as well.
25:57
So that would be first and foremost, that's how I meet most of my new agencies off of transactions
26:01
where we do a good job, we kind of earn that meeting.
26:05
Do you ever get the pushback, hey, I'm a listing agent, appreciate it, but all the time.
26:10
Yeah.
26:11
How do you handle that?
26:12
Yeah.
26:13
I usually say, well, you know, people selling homes are usually buying homes, right?
26:17
And, you know, let me see if I can help you market your home first of all.
26:23
And if anything, I would love to meet good people.
26:26
So that's great.
26:28
We'll probably run across each other at some point down the line.
26:31
And it would be great if we at least had met and talked for 10 minutes.
26:35
You know, really that's kind of, I just try to convert it that way.
26:38
Sometimes it works.
26:39
Sometimes they're pretty opposed to it, but, you know, Madison is probably 500,000 people
26:44
if you take all the surrounding areas and it's a pretty small town when it comes down
26:48
to our industry.
26:49
So, yeah, I usually just say, hey, we're going to see each other again.
26:52
I'd love to meet with you for a few minutes and, and you got friendly, hugely in Madison.
26:57
Everybody's friendly up here in Wisconsin.
26:59
It certainly are.
27:00
It's different than New York City, man.
27:02
That's pretty true.
27:03
Yeah.
27:04
Okay, so let's transition them.
27:05
Thank you for sharing all that.
27:06
I want to transition into what I thought was a really cool thing that I see you.
27:09
I saw you doing.
27:10
I forget where I saw you post this, but your past client strategies.
27:13
This is one of those key three pillars of business you mentioned, right?
27:17
It's past clients and it's one of those things everybody knows, but not everybody does.
27:21
So there's a couple of things I wrote down.
27:24
I'm trying to decide where to, let me just do this.
27:27
You consistently do client appreciation events at various times throughout the year, right?
27:32
Yeah.
27:33
Okay.
27:34
What I'm looking at is you do movie events.
27:37
You do an annual toys for tacos.
27:39
All right.
27:40
Let's talk about that.
27:41
Okay.
27:42
Some are picnic as well.
27:43
We'll come back to that.
27:44
But what's up because everybody kind of knows what the movie event is.
27:46
I've talked about it before.
27:47
Yeah.
27:48
Posted it.
27:49
But anyway, so tell me what toys for tacos is.
27:51
Yeah.
27:52
So I poached this idea sitting at a core summit.
27:55
Greg Gayle actually down in Arizona was talking about it.
27:58
I believe he said something in passing that he didn't event.
28:02
And I just kind of poached it and started doing it.
28:05
And what it is is we have a local organization in our county, the road home.
28:10
It's called the road home and they help homeless families.
28:14
And so we put in a rent event around it around Christmas time saying, hey, bring, bring
28:19
an unwrapped toy or a donation and we'll buy tacos and we hired an authentic taco truck
28:24
comes to the office.
28:25
We do it right here in the office.
28:27
So we're bringing people in here and we, you know, have fun with it.
28:32
I wear a Santa Claus costume and people bring toys.
28:35
Is this like Christmas tacos?
28:37
Is this in December?
28:38
We do it in, it's in the first, I believe the first week of December is generally when
28:42
we do it.
28:44
Really organic.
28:45
It's not super, you know, scientific.
28:48
We decorate the office and, you know, do some fun things.
28:51
But legitimately a taco truck right out our front door, people pull up, they just grab
28:55
toys and then grab some great tacos.
28:58
Usually people start hanging out.
29:00
It's kind of grown.
29:01
So now it takes over the whole day.
29:02
We've got people in and out of the office.
29:04
It turns into kind of an open house.
29:06
Yeah.
29:07
Same, you know, in the end of the day we take, you know, several pickup trucks or a trailer
29:11
to load a toys over the charity and, you know, it's awesome.
29:14
It's a great event.
29:15
Well, it's a, it's unique.
29:16
They are clients engaged in it.
29:18
It's a unique thing.
29:19
I mean, who would think toys for tacos, right?
29:21
That immediately gets your attention.
29:23
And who doesn't love a taco, you know, even in December.
29:26
Yeah.
29:27
That's funny, man.
29:29
I like that.
29:30
Great idea.
29:31
So how long have you been doing that one?
29:32
I think we're entering our sixth year.
29:35
This will be the sixth one.
29:36
Yeah.
29:37
And so you get a parade of, is it one day you do it or is it over the course of several?
29:41
Just one day.
29:42
One day.
29:43
All right.
29:44
So you get a parade of people coming in.
29:45
Like lots of people coming by, dropping.
29:46
A lot of people.
29:47
Yeah.
29:48
I mean, the business community supports it as well.
29:50
I mean, a lot of our realtor partners, business partners come.
29:53
Yeah.
29:54
But we also have a lot of clients that come and, you know, they'll bring toys.
29:57
Some of them go, you know, crazy and bring a lot of toys and some of them just bring
30:01
money and put it in the donation bin.
30:03
And it's really become a big thing and people look forward to it.
30:07
A few times the news came out and put it on the news.
30:11
Yeah.
30:12
It's been fun.
30:13
It's, you know, a couple of us wear costumes and have fun with it.
30:16
It's a great time.
30:17
Yeah.
30:18
Yeah.
30:19
You said you're Santa, man.
30:20
You're Santa all day eating tacos, right?
30:21
Exactly.
30:22
That's awesome.
30:23
All right.
30:24
There's another one you do.
30:25
A summer picnic.
30:26
Have you already done that this year?
30:27
Yeah.
30:28
We did it a couple weeks ago.
30:29
Three weeks ago, I think.
30:30
All right.
30:31
So tell us about that.
30:32
Where do you do that at?
30:33
Yeah.
30:34
We took a park, you know, just a park centrally located in Madison.
30:39
And again, we rent a pavilion.
30:41
It's got, you know, it's a city park.
30:44
So it's got all the places for kids to play.
30:48
We grill out and have a organic picnic meaning, you know, it's food in Nesco's and, you
30:55
know, not really a catered event, but the food, you know, we throw out a salad and
31:00
whatnot.
31:01
Then we have, we had a client who ran a ice cream truck.
31:05
So we hired them to come and set up the ice cream truck.
31:08
And so it's, it's a cookout with an ice cream truck and yard games and face painting that
31:14
you're the girls in the office added face painting for kids, the huge hit.
31:19
The best part about that one is just seeing the families, you know, seeing people come
31:24
out, hang out.
31:25
We set up yard games.
31:26
It's a great time to sit and chat with people.
31:29
That's what we said.
31:31
The realtors get to spend more time with clients than we do.
31:34
And that's that's one event, you know, we don't get to drive around in the car with them
31:37
and show them homes.
31:38
We're usually meet with them once or twice.
31:41
Yeah.
31:42
And, you know, this is a good way for us to stay really connected to them.
31:46
So these are all your past clients.
31:47
Are you inviting all your realtors or how do you select?
31:53
We invite business partners and a lot of the realtors we've worked with, we've done
31:59
business with them.
32:00
So they're clients.
32:01
Okay.
32:02
So it's like you would also, you would also go to the realtors, you've worked mutual
32:06
clients and say, hey, invite your clients to this also.
32:09
Yeah.
32:10
Now, we haven't, I mean, that would not be opposed to that.
32:14
We haven't really taken that angle.
32:16
It's mainly our client base and we market it solely on our own merit.
32:20
Okay.
32:21
So it's like doing email, what else are you doing to promote it?
32:25
A lot of video.
32:26
We do email, video messages, try to also have fun with that one too.
32:31
So, you know, try to make the video funny and get them intrigued to come out and have
32:36
some fun.
32:37
Yeah.
32:38
And I've seen you on video, by the way.
32:39
You're good on video and guild helps you guys, apparently, with video, huh?
32:42
Yeah.
32:43
They have a good platform.
32:44
Guild has a great marketing program, marketing department.
32:47
They put out good looking content.
32:49
I mentioned Danielle earlier, she's, she's our in office marketing coordinator.
32:55
She edits all the videos.
32:56
We have built a little studio in the basement and, you know, she has to make sure she's
33:00
following all the rules and get everything approved.
33:03
But we bought some video software and, you know, twice a week I go down in the studio for
33:09
a couple minutes and shoot a video and.
33:11
Yeah.
33:12
Well, listen, for those listening who don't have that resource, look at that, don't let
33:15
that be a roadblock for you because there's plenty of people right in your backyard who
33:18
can edit video.
33:19
You know, you could set it to five or obviously people know that.
33:21
I just, you know, hit up young people, you know, and I mean, whether it's your
33:24
safety kids, that's circle of influence, go to the local college, whatever you don't
33:27
own.
33:28
I don't want to hear the BS excuses about, hey, I don't have that.
33:30
Yeah.
33:31
You don't, you don't need that.
33:32
I mean, and our setup is is a green sheet and a few lights.
33:36
I mean, it's not when I say studio, you know, we're, we're adding pieces to it.
33:39
But it, for years before that, it was, it was, I mean, at one time it was cell phone,
33:44
you know, someone standing with a cell phone in front of me.
33:46
So I would say the messages just do it because I think there are a lot of studies.
33:51
I'm not a marketing major, but there are a lot of studies about the more organic, the
33:54
video or more raw, the video, more people watch it and like it.
33:58
So, right.
33:59
Right.
34:00
Something to be said to that too.
34:01
Exactly.
34:02
All right.
34:03
So those are all good ideas and those obviously I'm going to assume, you know, it's probably
34:07
a dotted line for business, but you can track that's an organic way to generate business
34:11
referrals for you.
34:12
Right?
34:13
And so, you know, we have had a, a, that's been a challenge for us is figuring out how
34:19
we're going to fully track business that comes in from video marketing.
34:23
Sometimes you know they called off of it because they tell you they saw your video about
34:27
refinancing.
34:28
You know, I did a refinance video last week, sent it to my clients, 19 people emailed me
34:32
back in an hour.
34:33
Obviously I can track that.
34:37
But I've done, I've done other videos where, you know, all of a sudden someone you haven't
34:40
talked to in six years or haven't had a lot of communication, we'll call you.
34:45
And you know, I don't can't directly attribute it to the video or to the thing they saw
34:50
online, but usually that's what I chalk it up to because I stayed in front of them in
34:54
a relevant way.
34:55
You know.
34:56
Yeah.
34:57
Right time right place.
34:58
I want to quickly ask you about the video email, 19 people called you.
35:00
Are you using, what do you use to send that out of that Bob bomb or something?
35:03
I use bomb bomb.
35:04
Yeah.
35:05
I used to use cold video when I came to guild.
35:06
They like bomb bomb.
35:07
So, both great companies.
35:09
Yeah.
35:10
Just wanted to clarify for those listeners, they're like, how does he send that video?
35:13
Yeah.
35:14
Yeah.
35:15
Yeah.
35:16
Very easy.
35:17
It integrates right into your email.
35:18
It's amazing how easy it is.
35:19
Yeah.
35:20
Well, that's awesome.
35:21
19 people called me.
35:22
Fantastic.
35:23
Something I wrote down letter from the heart.
35:24
That was just a reminder for me.
35:25
You know what that is.
35:26
Tell us what that is.
35:27
Yeah.
35:28
That's a, that's a core teaching, right?
35:29
I think I don't know if it came from, but even before the core, obviously, but it's
35:33
an organic letter that you send out to your clients.
35:36
Your realtor is your business partners.
35:39
And I do it once a quarter.
35:41
And my stance on it is, is I'm just trying to relate to them as a person and a friend,
35:46
not necessarily always marketing myself.
35:49
I do want to stay connected to them in a personal way.
35:52
So, I write letters about my family.
35:54
I write letters about experiences I've had or lessons I've learned or books I've read.
36:00
And send it out.
36:01
You know, it's a little outside of my comfort zone.
36:04
Be honest with you.
36:05
And so, I have the team here pushing me to write the letter and put in deadlines around
36:10
it.
36:11
So, I do it.
36:12
But, yeah, I do it.
36:13
I share it with my wife.
36:14
She helps me edit it, you know, because it's usually something personal about our family
36:16
or about something we're doing.
36:18
And it's amazing how many people relate to that.
36:21
You know, everybody, I get emails and calls about whatever I wrote about.
36:25
And those are my favorite because they're usually really, really genuine reach outs.
36:31
I'm trying to understand, getting a little more, what I'm thinking of, and this might
36:34
not be accurate is, you know, you get those, like, annual letters from people at Christmas
36:37
time.
36:38
Here's what our family's been doing.
36:39
Is it similar to that?
36:40
It's not really.
36:41
No.
36:42
I mean, some people might do that.
36:44
The last letter I wrote was about my son 16 years old.
36:49
He's driving now and it's amazing to me how fast that went, first of all, and second
36:55
of all, how much I don't get to drive in the car with him anymore.
36:59
So, I used to take him everywhere and that's where we would talk.
37:03
And I just tied it into, hey, you know, just a little message of something on my mind.
37:07
And, you know, if this, if you can relate to this, you know, in some way, you know, and
37:13
I usually try to tie it into, you know, keep the message consistent.
37:16
They're not long letters.
37:17
I've sent some out about music.
37:19
You and I chatted a minute ago about music.
37:22
I'll send out, you know, cool musical experience I had, or, you know, and I'll get people
37:26
reach out to me and say, you know, I love that band too or something like that.
37:30
Miracle morning, I wrote about that when I read that book.
37:33
I had people reaching out, you know, asking about more, you know, I still have people
37:37
tell me that they read that book and changed things in their life because I sent the letter.
37:42
I don't want to take credit for that, but, you know, those are, those are cool, uh, ways
37:46
to stay in touch with people that is different than me, you know, marketing to them with a,
37:51
a note about refinancing or something.
37:53
Hmm.
37:54
I love that, man.
37:55
That's, that's awesome.
37:56
That's, that's, that's good.
37:57
It reminds me the question of what can you do that fill in the blank, Zillow can't do,
38:02
Amazon mortgage can't do, you know what I mean?
38:04
They can't do any of that kind of stuff.
38:05
They can tell you if you're out of toilet paper, but, you know, um, which kind of leads me
38:13
to, uh, let me see here.
38:14
We got to wrap it up in just a few minutes, but, um, again, I'm looking at my notes.
38:17
So I wrote down from, from the last conversation we had is if I'm correct, maybe this was you
38:23
saying this, that agents are tired of your calls on, you know, Mondays, right?
38:27
Like, hey, what's up?
38:28
You got any leads from the weekend for me, right?
38:31
Which I know the core obviously teaches calling on Monday or Tuesday, right?
38:34
Mm-hmm.
38:35
So I'm just curious if you approached those calls differently or what?
38:38
Yeah, I've tried to change my strategy, you know, I was never good at the, uh, I don't
38:43
think I still am good at the, the generic Monday call, um, you know, did you work or play
38:49
this weekend?
38:50
Um, you know, do you have any clients I can help you with?
38:53
I'm trying to get better at that, but again, I was saying earlier, I like to go deep.
38:56
So I'm looking for ways to stay in touch with people legitimately and, you know, honestly
39:02
to stay in relationship with them.
39:05
I'm also trying to find the people that I feel like we have genuine connection and interest
39:10
and become friends.
39:11
And so my phone calls are more along those lines, you know, and, and then when I'm calling
39:17
newer agents, I am legitimately asking them, is there anything you need help with right
39:21
now?
39:22
Is there anything that I can do to help you?
39:24
Um, we're using, uh, you know, we're using different strategies in, in, you know, trying
39:29
to help them market their homes.
39:31
So list reports is something that I use.
39:34
I'm sure, um, you've probably talked about that before, but, you know, the nice thing about
39:38
that is it's a, it's a way for me to communicate with agents.
39:41
That's something that's free to them that they can use to market a home.
39:44
So I'm calling and talking about those things, um, I use home bot, uh, my clients and the
39:51
nice thing about that is I get a lot of people that reach out to me and want to know is the
39:55
value in home bot accurate.
39:56
So I can call the agent and ask them to do a CMA.
39:59
Mm hmm.
40:00
Again, hopefully adding value to the agent to let them know the client might be interested
40:03
in selling.
40:05
But yeah, I'm, I'm trying to find connection versus more generic calls.
40:10
Mm hmm.
40:11
So if you're doing differently or testing out, we're moving in the second half of 2019
40:15
or looking forward to 2020, anything you're doing, you want to talk about there?
40:19
Um, I would say that we're really focusing on my team, the speed and efficiency, um,
40:25
you know, as, as the world of the market just changes and becomes, um, faster and more
40:31
technologically advanced, we've got to stay ahead of that.
40:35
So, you know, we're doing, uh, 17 day guarantees, underwriting, pre-approvals, you know, a lot
40:42
of people are doing this, but we're trying to put our buyers in the best position possible
40:46
to make the strongest offer and what we're finding is agents love that.
40:50
So my team specifically right now is focusing on efficiency, speed, over communicating, um,
40:57
you know, all of the things that we should always be doing.
40:59
But at the same time, we're a relationship business.
41:03
We're trying to also take advantage of day one certainty and, um, you know, all of the,
41:08
the pieces of technology that are available to us to actually make a mortgage, uh, efficient
41:14
and quick.
41:15
Yeah.
41:16
Um, you know, you got to have the right people in place to be able to do that before I had
41:20
a team, I would have never been able to tap into that, but we're trying to really, really
41:24
focus on that because that's the future, you know, I'm reading and hearing that, you
41:29
know, 10 day clothes is coming within 10 years, right?
41:32
So if that happens, how am I going to stay relevant?
41:36
If I want to be the relationship guy, well, I've got to be the relationship guy that can
41:40
do the 10 day clothes or whatever it ends up being, um, you know, loan commitments don't
41:45
need to be 30 days.
41:46
Now they're 20 days or less, right?
41:49
And you have to be set up to do that.
41:51
So everyone on the team has to be ready to be able to perform with that.
41:56
So we're doing weekend coverage.
41:59
I'm trying to to let realtors know that that we're available on the weekend to my team
42:03
rotates someone's on call every weekend and we send out a video and a, you know, social
42:09
media posts saying, Hey, Ryan's on call this weekend or Rebecca's on call this weekend.
42:15
And if you need anything and what we'll have is agents who we don't work with, we'll
42:18
need a pre approval Saturday afternoon and they will reach out to the person because
42:22
they got my email.
42:24
So little things like that, just trying to, trying to be different and unique and not
42:29
the same as, you know, who our competitors are, which are not, are not doing any of those
42:33
things.
42:34
Yeah.
42:35
It's interesting.
42:36
I think that's the, you know, the big questions comes back to, uh, like I said, you
42:40
know, what can you do that Zillow can't do, for example, because we know they're in the
42:43
mortgage business now and are going to continue to be and I know you caught any of this,
42:47
but in men, connect happened in Las Vegas this past week.
42:50
And one of the little snippets I saw shared was the Rich Barton, the CEO of Zillow, um,
42:55
basically said, you know, he firmly believes that the consumer should get, uh, the real
42:59
estate transaction in one place, both find the home, close the home and get the mortgage
43:04
all in one place, um, comma, he doesn't, he, he is not trying to displace or get rid of
43:10
real estate agents.
43:11
He's, you know, he basically said real estate agents aren't going anywhere.
43:15
And this is like a whole different other, another debate we don't have time for.
43:18
Um, I think what I'm taking away, why I'm saying all this is this is, is that because
43:23
will they get a percentage of the market?
43:25
Yes.
43:26
Right?
43:27
I mean, look, uh, quick and, right?
43:28
Does a ton of business have they displaced all the other mortgage professionals in the
43:32
country?
43:33
No.
43:34
Right?
43:35
Neither will Zillow mortgage.
43:36
Because there will always be people looking for the value, right?
43:39
And, and, and people will always look for that value.
43:41
There will be that percentage that look for nothing but price and efficiency and speed.
43:45
And we all want efficiency and speed, but we want, we want value and expertise at the
43:48
same time.
43:49
Yeah.
43:50
So I think that our agents, I think the key there is the agent.
43:54
The agent wants, the agent wants certainty.
43:58
And at least in, in Wisconsin and in Madison, when, when our agents here, quick and pre-approval,
44:04
they're, they're doing their best to let their client know they should really consider
44:07
someone local and someone that they can go sit down with.
44:11
Um, and we have their support, I feel in our community.
44:15
And I think that will continue.
44:16
But you're right.
44:17
People want a relationship.
44:18
They want advice.
44:19
You know, you're borrowing hundreds of thousands of dollars.
44:22
You know, you, you need to know that you're not just clicking a button and borrowing that.
44:26
You should get some advice.
44:27
We don't invest our own money.
44:29
You know, you should, you should, you know, I don't think you should do your own taxes.
44:32
I think you should pay a professional to do those things.
44:34
And I don't think that's ever going away.
44:36
I think it's going to condense things and it's going to make things harder to stay relevant
44:40
and stay, stay in that position.
44:43
You know, it's always going to be there, my opinion.
44:46
Yeah.
44:47
And you know, it's funny about that.
44:48
And you look at the so real, real G and the partnership with Amazon and CEO of movement.
44:54
Casey Crawford came out and I thought made a nice highlight about that is that.
44:58
So, so what's happening there?
45:00
What's happening there is, first of all, all they're trying to do is give some credits, right?
45:04
To buy Amazon stuff or whatever.
45:06
If you choose a real G realtor.
45:08
But with that still keeping the realtor front and center to the transaction.
45:12
Yeah.
45:13
So that tells me that's how somebody like you, those that are listening for the noise that's, you know,
45:18
you know how this is.
45:19
There are always people that saying loan officers, whoever are like saying, pursuing agents suck.
45:22
They're bad.
45:23
They're terrible.
45:24
Right.
45:25
All the noise we hear about why agents are terrible.
45:26
Well, yeah, there's some bad agents out there, right?
45:28
Like the podcast you just listened to before with Michael Helixen, why are you working with a bad agents that, you know?
45:33
Yeah.
45:34
You're going to be at the center of the transaction.
45:36
There's bad sharpeners.
45:37
There's bad everything.
45:38
You know, you every industry has good and bad.
45:41
Right.
45:42
And you're right.
45:43
You should seek out.
45:44
You know, that's why we work very hard at our reputation, our online presence.
45:48
It's very important to us because you should seek out.
45:51
When you go to a restaurant, what do you do now?
45:53
You read Yelp.
45:54
You find out the reviews.
45:55
Should I go there?
45:56
They serve good food as their service good.
45:58
You know, that's what the consumer's doing now.
46:00
They're revealing that.
46:02
People tell me all the time that they were referred by their agent, but they read about me online.
46:06
Yeah.
46:07
That's like great.
46:08
I welcome that.
46:09
Please do, you know?
46:10
Well, let's, let's, I want to highlight that real quick because I, I had overlooked.
46:12
I wanted to bring that up real quickly because that's a, that's a salient point for what we just said.
46:17
We know people are going online researching.
46:19
They're googling long keywords like, you know, mortgage in, in Madison, Wisconsin.
46:24
Even if they use mortgage broker and met, you know what I mean?
46:26
You want to come up with those, those, those keyword terms.
46:28
But you said something critical, which is even if a realtor's referring you, they're still going to hop on Google and do a bunch of research.
46:35
And they're finding the Ryan Smith team at build mortgage here with 85 five star Google reviews.
46:41
Man, that, that's awesome.
46:42
That's credibility right there.
46:43
I appreciate it.
46:44
That's something that we've worked really hard on.
46:46
And, and they're all, they're all organic, you know, they're people using our names and talking about their experience.
46:52
And I just had two people call me yesterday and say they, you know, frustrated with where they're at.
46:58
And they read my reviews and want to talk about, you know, getting the same level service that everyone wrote about.
47:04
So I don't think that anybody these days calls.
47:08
Well, I shouldn't say that.
47:10
I don't think that that many people call without at least looking you up.
47:14
Yeah.
47:15
And figure out who you are.
47:16
Oh, 100%.
47:17
100%.
47:18
Sure, it's real quick.
47:19
How do you get those people to post online reviews?
47:22
Is there a process or a system?
47:24
Yeah.
47:25
So after alone closes, right around the time the first payment is, is do, we do a courtesy call to them to make sure they know where their payments going.
47:32
And they've gotten their paperwork and they're set up.
47:35
We asked them how we performed for them.
47:37
You know, we, we, we set an expectation in the beginning of what our goal is.
47:41
And I, I plant the seed that at the end of this, I'd, I'd like to ask you to provide an honest review online.
47:48
And so I asked them legitimately, how, how did we do?
47:51
And good, better and different.
47:53
I asked them to fill out a review online and share with the public.
47:56
And most people say, yes, not everybody goes on and does it.
48:00
But usually if they say they will, then we track that and we, we check to see if they've done it.
48:06
And then I'll make one more call if they haven't done it a month later to say, hey, would you please mind providing us a survey.
48:12
And usually, you know, we'll get decent percentage.
48:15
We'll go out there.
48:16
We started that a few years ago.
48:18
And we lost some of them when I transitioned to guild, but, you know, it's, it's a great way to provide honest feedback.
48:24
And I am truly looking for honest feedback.
48:27
If somebody says something wasn't right, that's fine.
48:29
I want to know about it because it's going to help us improve.
48:32
And they also love hearing that.
48:34
Are you using a software for that? Are you just like sending them a link or what?
48:37
I have a link.
48:38
I just email it to them and say, okay, if I just send it to your email right now.
48:42
And yours is, is it Google only?
48:44
Are you giving them choices?
48:45
I asked for Google.
48:47
And that was strategic several years ago because I feel like people Google for a mortgage versus going to Zillow or something.
48:53
I have some Zillow reviews, but not many.
48:55
And I don't, I don't, I think our people are generally googling that.
49:00
So yes, I only go, I only ask for Google.
49:02
We do get Facebook reviews and stuff, but Google is what I'm seeking.
49:06
Yeah, 100%. Smart strategy, man.
49:08
Cool. Awesome.
49:09
All right. Well, look, this is, we've got a lot of nuggets shared in here, man.
49:12
So for you listeners, give a shout out to Ryan Smith on the socials on the web, whatever.
49:16
If you like this episode, leave us a review.
49:18
Ryan Smith, I can't say enough, man, for you making time to be here.
49:21
Appreciate it.
49:22
Appreciate your time, Jeff. I'm a big fan of the show and keep doing what you're doing.
49:25
Appreciate what you do for our community.
49:27
Thank you, sir. I appreciate that.
49:28
And listeners, as you know, I appreciate you.
49:30
If you'd like to leave us a little love, do that, you know where to do that.
49:33
Subscribe if you haven't yet.
49:35
And we will see you on the next one.
49:59
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