Latest / Mortgage Marketing Radio / Ep# 21: Getting Mobile Friendly In Your Mortgage Business

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Ep# 21: Getting Mobile Friendly In Your Mortgage Business · Mortgage Marketing Radio

0:00
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1:17
Welcome to Mortgage Marketing Radio.
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Brought to you by the Mortgage Marketing Institute, your number one source for truth
1:24
in mortgage marketing.
1:28
Hey listeners, Jeff Zimper, your host of Mortgage Marketing Radio.
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Thanks for being here.
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Another great episode coming at you this week, episode 21.
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By the way, if you missed the last week's episode, go back and check it out.
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It's Katie Lance talking about how to get smart in social media.
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Okay, so this week, what are we talking about embracing mobile technology in your business?
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So my question for you is this, are you mobile friendly?
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Think about how much you rely on mobile and the expectations around being mobile friendly
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in today's world.
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And how can we get mobile friendly both from a consumer and realtor perspective?
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My special guests this week are Michael Keller, the president of Easy Mortgage Apps, who
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provide mobile solutions for the lending industry.
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And along with him is a client of Easy Mortgage Apps, Clint Morgan, senior vice president
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and chief lending officer of Ruaugh Home Mortgage.
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Now this episode is packed with ideas and concepts that are going to help you adjust and adapt
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not only your strategy for going mobile friendly, but actually give you tangible specific
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ways you can apply and integrate a mobile friendly process and culture in your organization.
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Again, as I said, both on the consumer and the referral partner side.
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And it's not just millennials who are active on mobile devices.
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You simply just today in today's world, you need to be mobile friendly.
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So with my special guest, we're going to talk about what it really means to be mobile
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today and how to embrace mobile activity in your business.
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And so a couple of highlights from today's session are number one, right, real specific
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ideas and how you can leverage mobile apps.
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What it means to actually truly have a native mobile app, what's the difference between
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a native mobile app and non-native and why that really matters, how to integrate mobile
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into your sales and marketing process.
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And you're going to get some really great advice from both Michael and Clint on best practices
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when developing and launching a mobile strategy in your business.
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As a matter of fact, a couple of other questions for you here is, what would it look like
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in your business if instead of receiving facts, notifications, and relying email exclusively,
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what if you could actually rely on a mobile technology to send push notifications to somebody,
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whether it's related to loan milestone changes, birthday messages, or really any push notification
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that you want to set up to happen automatically based on certain milestones or activities
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or rules that you put into place.
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That's just one idea that can happen with a mobile app and it can even integrate with
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your LOS, allowing for true automation, right?
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What about mobile capture technology?
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Imagine never having to request a fax for a condition or email, a condition request
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again, right?
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With a mobile platform like EasyMorgage Apps, what that platform can allow you to do is to
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take photographs of documents, automatically saved as a PDF and transfer them via secure,
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over the cloud.
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You know, no data is housed on your mobile device.
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So you've got compliance, you've got protection, and all those issues.
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How about realtor partners, right?
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How about communicating and keeping them updated on the loan status?
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That's often a handicap and kind of an area of weakness in the lending industry.
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Well, with a realtor portal in a tool like EasyMorgage Apps, communication is clear, it's
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effective, it's documented, right?
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And because it's all relying on the technology based on those milestones and rules that you
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set up where you can have the realtor receive the same notifications that the borrower may
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be receiving, and you can choose what the realtor gets for notifications or not.
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And the list goes on and on, right?
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Co-branding and so forth, company-specific branding, and so this can be a truly mobile
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friendly, great experience for you, from a company standpoint, and obviously deliver a truly
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great, easy, streamlined experience for your buyers and your referral partners.
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So I think you'll really enjoy today's episode.
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If you like it, as always, please leave us a review on iTunes, subscribe, and I hope
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you enjoy the show.
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So without further ado, let's transition into this week's show.
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Hey, Clint and Michael, welcome to the show.
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Thank you, Jeff.
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Hello, thanks for having us.
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Yeah.
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So I appreciate you being here.
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First thing, let's do this, because we've got two guests today.
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Let's identify each of you by voice, so we'll know when someone's speaking who that
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individual is.
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I will start with you, Michael, if you don't mind, from easy mortgage apps.
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If you wouldn't mind, for the listeners, just take a moment, intro yourself, who you
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are, and what you do.
6:04
Sure.
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Michael Callagher, president of easy mortgage apps.
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And we provide mobile solutions for the lending industry.
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We are the longest 10-year out there of LOS integration.
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We are the only truly native solution for lenders to customize with us and become partners
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with us to bring the process mobile for our consumers, buyers, agents, sellers, agents,
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the loan officer themselves, and other members of the ecosystem they want to bring in.
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Awesome.
6:35
Thank you.
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So, Clint, turn it over to you.
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Clint Morgan, senior vice president and chief lending officer of Rue Off-Home Mortgage
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based out of Fort Wayne, Indiana, primarily in Indiana, Linda the top lender in the state
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of Indiana with 140 loan officers through the various branches we have throughout the state
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I manage that team.
6:53
Great.
6:54
Well, I want to thank you both for being here.
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I know it worked for quite some time to get this together, three business schedules to
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bring together.
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So, let's get right into it.
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And I should point out, by the way, for the listeners that, Michael, I've got to give
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you credit because when you and I originally connected about doing this podcast, one of
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the things that you wanted to do was make sure it was relevant for the listener, whether
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you're a loan officer, you're a retail production manager, whatever.
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But you wanted Clint to be here because he's been a long time user of easy mortgage
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apps and it'd be relevant for him to speak to how he's using or benefiting from your product
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to help grow his business, recruit better, get better relationships with consumers and
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realtors out there.
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So, I just want to kind of set up the context for that and so, acknowledge you for having
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the foresight to think of that.
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Thank you very much.
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We often see these two types of views of a mobile strategy and one is to just check
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off the mobile box, okay, I have a mobile business card or I have an app I can tell people.
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And then there's what Clint has taken and really turned our mobile solution into and has
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been able to offer his loan officers and I thought for your listening audience out there
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to really understand what it means to be mobile and what it means to embrace mobile activity
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out there.
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Yeah, well that's a great place to start because when you hear mobile, friendly, all those
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types of buzzwords, there's a lot of probably perception about what that means and it's
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just like a mobile business card, that kind of stuff, but you guys obviously are doing
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way more than that.
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So, maybe if you wouldn't mind just talk about a few of the highlights of what your product
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helps a loan officer do in the marketplace and maybe that's better if Clint, if you
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want to take that one, how are your loan officers actually leveraging easy mortgage apps?
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So, we've found easy mortgage apps through a cooperative lender's one as we've found
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many vendors and like many independent mortgage banks we were looking for a mobile solution.
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We have primarily a purchased lender, 85, 90 percent of what we do is purchased and
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the vast majority of that is real through effort.
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So, we're always looking for ways to communicate with all those parties in the best possible
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way.
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So, we had already developed an automated email solution to notify the borrowers of how
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their loan was progressing.
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When we found Michael and his team and found how creative we could be with them, we started
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to mold and blend what we already had going with the easy mortgage apps solutions so that
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we could combine and maximize that mining communication with the buyer, with the listing
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agent, with the selling agent.
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So, what we do during the course of loan process on purchase transactions is keep the buyer
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abreast of how the loan is progressing and we narrow that down to key milestones that
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we want to kind of highlight and then in doing so, we do that through both email and then
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with the easy mortgage apps platform on the Rural Mobile Lab.
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We do the same, but the key component there is also adding the real through on both sides
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to the equation and keeping them in the loop as well.
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So, you're keeping, if I heard you correctly, it's about keeping the buyer informed and
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engaged during the whole process, right?
10:09
That's correct.
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We use it primarily and again, we like it best because we're able to kind of vocalize
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with Michael and his team what we're looking for or where our idea is, the butt of an
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idea and build from that.
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And so, we primarily use it for files that are already in process.
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So, customer has already under contract and moving forward has an application signed.
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That's the first time that they're going to enter into the mobile app and every email
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that they receive, notifying them of how they're files progressing will also have download
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links for the mobile app because the mobile app can send push notifications along the
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way and they can interact with it as well, learn more about their loan through that service
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without having to be, it's integrated well with our LOS, which is encompassed, but it's
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not one and the same and there is some separation, we kind of like that.
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Yeah, and so, Michael, earlier, used the word called truly native and I'm not sure what
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everybody understands what that means, so could you explain a little bit because I think
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it makes sense to clarify what that does mean and from a branding perspective and from
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kind of a continuity of user experience, right?
11:20
Exactly.
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And 98% of Dow 500 companies apps are native and what Clint's solution is is hitting the
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consumer buyer's agent, seller's agent immediately and giving them the roof off experience and
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to mirror and match what they're used to, you want to mirror and match what they're doing
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in their daily lives and those apps typically are Dow 500 companies and because they're native,
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we want to give them the same look and feel and you can tell the other one would be a
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responsive website, so it does look and feel a little bit like an app, but you can definitely
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tell its website E, that would be the word for it, whereas native solution is, you can
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tell when you're inside it, you're inside a real app, the biggest difference is one turn
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around time on your ideas because each is individually coded to the phone, you're talking
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a lot more sophistication on the type of people you need to hire to be able to build that.
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And some of the leveraging of the operating systems on the phone are the benefits of being
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native.
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One is security, you can always say that a native app is much, much more secure than the
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website you have resting inside your shell.
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In number two, the, again, leveraging native parts of the phone, we leveraged the calendar
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button, but I've noticed the fingerprint login is a world of a difference.
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What we're trying to do is eliminate any friction, and when I go around and see some of the
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passwords, these loan officers are putting in 14, 18 digits long, I say no wonder it can
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be a turn off to go in this app, or when you read USA Today and Realtors atop 20 apps
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and you realize how many they have, and if they have to remember passwords and they happen
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to set the hours as a long one, no wonder they're not going in.
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And if we can get real rock buyers, agents, sellers, agents, and consumers into the app,
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like Rua, 22 times over a 30 day period, that's because with the fingerprint login, it's
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as easy as opening up the app, applying your finger, and now you're in and you have a transparent
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look of just like Uber, where you've been with Rua, where you are now, and where you're
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going.
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So that's a fingerprint security, much like the iPhone has for functionality?
13:41
Well, that's what it would leverage the iPhone.
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Okay, so it's using its native, okay, got it.
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And that's your point about truly native, obviously.
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Yeah, exactly.
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And you need to be truly native to give your consumers a near and match the behaviors
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they're used to in your long-term mobile solution, and that's what we want to be for Rua
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and other lenders.
14:03
Okay, so just to clarify, I mean, I happen to have some familiarity with the term responsive
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design, like you talked about, I want to just clarify that for a second.
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What you're saying is that a lot of other mobile apps, let's say specifically to the
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mortgage space, because that's what we're dealing with, mobile, quote unquote, air quotes,
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apps in the mortgage space, aren't native for mobile, meaning, this is how I understand
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what you're saying is, your technology will adjust based on the end user's device,
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meaning am I on an iPhone or some type of an Android?
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Is that true?
14:35
Sure.
14:36
Okay.
14:37
And so that's where that comes in different than your typical what you call mobile friendly,
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which is a responsive design, which all that does is reduce the image size or resolution
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of that website to be down to a mobile friendly screen size, correct?
14:52
Correct.
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So when you develop, it's easier to start off with a mobile responsive.
14:58
Yeah, it's quicker at all that, yeah.
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So I think the benefit of what I really want to kind of extrapolate from all this is
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the benefit to the end user, the experience, you know, and that's obviously a key part
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of how do you differentiate yourself today is what's that end user experience like?
15:15
It is a much more user friendly, more streamlined user experience to have an in app, or I'm
15:22
sorry, a truly native app design than a responsive design, right?
15:27
Right.
15:28
A user interface is like a joke.
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If you have to explain it, it's not good.
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Yeah.
15:34
If you still got to like expand, like do the whole thing where you expand out so you can
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see it versus that.
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Yeah.
15:39
So hopefully everybody kind of understands that when you're actually using a true app, right?
15:41
It's actually built to be run on mobile, not just, you know, as that's kind of own extension
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of our website.
15:47
Two degree.
15:48
Just to correct that, the mobile responsive will expand and it will behave as close to
15:53
what happens a website can.
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So it will feel like an app to a degree, but the user at the end of the day can tell
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it's not the same as their JetBlue app or their Best Buy app or another app Amazon app
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that they might be in.
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Okay.
16:11
So it's a really cool app.
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You've spent a lot of time in money building it, which is great.
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Let's bring this back front and center to loan officers and, you know, how are they using
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this kind of a day in the life?
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So I can see, you know, obviously you guys will custom brand this.
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We do co-branding.
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That's always an interesting topic to talk about.
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Tell me about, you know, the co-branding aspects, how this works between L.O. and Agent,
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how would I kind of present this to an agent, you know, if I had this co-branded app, what
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does that mean for me that I can now do in the market wants to take that?
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We only go ahead with that one.
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We only have a couple of companies using co-branding and they really didn't start using it until
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we charged per realtor per month.
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And that was the only way they could figure out from a compliance standpoint how to have
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something tangible that where the realtor could pay for half of the monthly payment.
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Those companies that are using it are leveraging the realtor's IDX in it and allowing loan officers
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to promote the sharing of apps from real estate agents.
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Typically, a company will do more of the branding of the real estate agent based on the L.O.S.
17:26
in that file.
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Once they go into process, a consumer will be able to log in and see that real estate agent
17:34
that they're working with, buyers agent or sellers agent.
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And then the real estate agent knows when they refer business, they're getting the Uber
17:42
like experience and they're also getting their contact information at the touch of a
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finger tip literally with the fingerprint log in to be able to be contacted, not just
17:52
for the current deal, but for new business or new questions on future real estate transactions.
17:58
Okay.
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Let me put this back to Clint, for example, for a moment.
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In the topic of millennials and everybody's talking about how they are so tech savvy and
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we need to meet them where they're at.
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So, do you have any kind of use cases from your team, your loan officers on how they're
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either leading with this in their sales processes or where and they integrate it into their
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sales process, if at all?
18:23
Yeah, I definitely can.
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We use this piece as a one form of communication with our customers.
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If this is where they want to communicate with us, then we absolutely embrace it.
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It's fully functional.
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It works just as well as an email does for us or a fax machine does for us.
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It's not what we lead with always, but it's there and it's present during the course
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of their loan file.
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So emails are the primary line of communication.
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But if any point, it switches to text message, it switches to the mobile app that they
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want to use that to its fullest, we embrace it.
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But again, what we find is it's supplemental to the file because there's so many moving
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parts and because it's difficult to do the full transaction through the mobile app.
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What we find is that customers did download it.
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They did check up on a random Monday night at 11 p.m. that they wanted to make sure their
19:15
loan was locked and when their estimated closing date was and who their listing agent was
19:20
on the transaction because there's interaction there.
19:23
And then when they finish the file, when they close it out and they get a survey on how
19:28
we communicated with them, they rave about not only the email communication, keeping them
19:32
abreast of how the file was progressing, but the fact that there was a good mobile solution.
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So we, as a company, when we were looking to go into mobile, took a look at several vendors
19:42
that were out there and what they could do for us and how they existed prior to us contacting
19:48
them.
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And what we liked about Michael and his team was just the customization of it.
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We already had a way.
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We already had a method, a working method to communicate with our customers.
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We wanted to bring that in a mobile friendly environment and we were able to do that and
20:00
kind of make it our own.
20:02
We mentioned a little bit about the company branding for our app, which would be downloaded
20:06
on the app store or Google Play.
20:09
You would search for a full mortgage, download the app and you'd be hard pressed to find
20:14
where it was an easy mortgage product.
20:17
It's very, very completely branded and even loan ulcers within our company aren't aware
20:23
that it's done from a third party.
20:25
And so we definitely like that.
20:27
And again, from the real estate community side, email, again, primary method, as is for
20:32
everybody, but a realtor that works with us often may have five or six transactions
20:38
going.
20:39
So we're keeping them abreast of how those files are progressing.
20:42
But in the app, they've got the ability to log in and then every file that they're associated
20:47
with whether it's on the listing side or the selling side, they can see immediately all
20:51
those files individually and how they're progressing and where they're at.
20:54
Yeah, see that's what I think is really cool because as a loan office, they're always
20:57
thinking about how can they stand out, how can they differentiate myself, user experience,
21:02
or using that word over and over again.
21:04
And those are some definitely ways to do that because as I'm reading into some of the
21:08
functionality, obviously the first step is get somebody to download the app.
21:11
It sounds like as a loan officer, if I'm communicating with my client, my borrower, that's, as
21:17
you kind of pointed out, that's going to be part of my talk track when I engage with
21:21
them.
21:22
How do you like to receive updates and notifications?
21:24
Do you prefer email, phone call, in app, mobile?
21:27
And so, my guess is that if there's an easy way for people to get, you know, simple
21:32
in-app mobile notifications, you get a pretty high acceptance rate on that.
21:37
Is that a fair amount?
21:38
You do, absolutely.
21:39
In fact, we don't even, we don't really broach the concept of the mobile app until they've
21:44
signed disclosures and turned in their file.
21:46
And so that first time when that application is submitted into our operations team, they
21:51
get an email with the first update from Roof.
21:54
They call them loan milestone updates and then immediately following, they get a separate
21:59
imitation to what the Roof mobile app does and how it can benefit them.
22:02
And so that's where we see a high download rate.
22:06
And then again, as those emails come to them and we limit the communication line and that's
22:11
by design.
22:12
And that's partly by design with Michael's team is that we didn't want to, you know,
22:16
we work with an encompass and there's 12, 15 milestones that may exist in a file.
22:23
We didn't want to expose a customer to each one of those milestones.
22:26
We wanted to use it at application when they were submitted to underwriting, when they're
22:31
initially approved, when their appraisal is cleared, when they're clear to close.
22:36
And then we recently added when the funds have been wired and as well as when the closing
22:41
disclosures been received, the closing disclosures undertrade was a big piece of the puzzle
22:45
of being able to kind of communicate with a customer and making sure that they're aware
22:50
of the pieces around that and how that impacts the timeline for their file.
22:54
And we leveraged the mobile app to do that.
22:57
Yeah, that's really cool.
22:58
So just to clarify, I know you said in Compass, Michael, you integrate with most of all the
23:03
LOS is out there, all the LOS is all the LOS is great.
23:07
And just to just follow up and Clint really deserves praise in this area and so does
23:14
Ruof.
23:15
But we used to rely on loan officers going out and telling their consumer about the mobile
23:20
app.
23:21
And the disconnect there was a verbal communication to promote or nudge a nonverbal action.
23:28
And out of nowhere, Ruof started passing everybody first to 500, first to 1,000 consumers
23:34
downloading it.
23:35
And as he said, people actually in the process that are closing.
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And what it was was they were the first ones to really embrace putting the communication,
23:46
the app existed within their current communication.
23:49
And while we over 100 other lenders we work with were still a little bit hesitant to release
23:57
it to their consumers out there, we were able to use the data from Ruof to the others and
24:04
say, look, they're not even getting any support tickets.
24:07
These consumers are going in every piece as we built it out and a lot of what the app
24:12
is today is feedback from many different users of the app, many different enterprises we
24:17
work with would ask for customized pieces or different ways to do it.
24:22
But what it proved was the consumers are a lot smarter than you think when it comes to
24:27
apps.
24:28
They're in apps.
24:29
They know what they're doing.
24:31
If they need to hit the black back button and go back in, they will do that.
24:35
And it really proved sometimes that people were so immersed in the actual mortgage process.
24:41
They were overthinking some of the simple activity and the number one advice if you're ever
24:46
going to develop your own app no matter what it is, is really keep it simple.
24:52
And the more simple it is, the more that's the immediate expectation of a mobile user.
24:58
And I think that's where that was an eye opening piece and why we're eternally grateful
25:04
to Clint and Rue Offport saying, you know what this app is doing everything it's supposed
25:09
to do?
25:10
It's about a time we let everybody know about it.
25:12
And the reward was the amount of downloads they have and they still leave the race and
25:17
there's some big horses in there, but it's just, it's a complete mindset there in his
25:23
communities, in his, in his areas where people must be associating not just a great service
25:29
but seeing it through the app and track.
25:32
And I think Tim, that's a great point.
25:34
And Kudos, do you guys, Clint, for recognizing that I like the way you articulated that
25:39
Michael is, right?
25:40
Trying to drive a, a, you know, what did you say, not a digital action from like a verbal
25:46
request, right?
25:47
Where it seems to be a disc.
25:48
A nonverbal, nonverbal reaction from a verbal request or verbal not.
25:53
Yeah.
25:54
So we're speaking into somebody's ear and saying, hey, go get on your phone and search
25:58
the apps to, you know, all that, that's a real pain.
26:00
But if it becomes part of a normal onboarding process, right, that makes it easier.
26:05
But I think the bigger story here is there is a certain desire almost to the point of
26:11
expectation.
26:12
We're probably getting there now in the mortgage space where people are studying to have
26:15
an expectation around mobile friendly, right, technology.
26:20
And I think you're seeing that with the amount of downloads when people realize it's available.
26:23
Yeah.
26:24
We've always, we've always taught that you communicate with your customer the way they
26:27
want to communicate with you.
26:28
If they start texting you, you don't always return it via phone call.
26:32
You don't always send them an email.
26:33
You, you text them back, saying with a phone, if they, if they're calling you and you're
26:37
trying to text them back, that's not always going to work.
26:39
And so you meet them where they are and how they want to communicate.
26:42
And we've, we've definitely embraced that.
26:45
And like I said, I mean, there are other vendors out there that are kind of using mobile
26:48
apps like business cards.
26:50
And we could use it for potential prospects that we meet on a Sunday at Open House.
26:54
And we thought about that and we even tested it.
26:57
But what we found is that even though we've stripped away some of the features, because
27:02
like Michael said, we wanted to keep it simple.
27:04
And so when his team came to us and said, hey, we've got these 20 features.
27:07
We said, that's great.
27:08
I'm glad you have 20 features.
27:09
But I only want to use these four because these are the four that are the primary pieces.
27:14
These are the four that match up with what we're already doing.
27:16
So there's synergy there that we can kind of build from.
27:20
And so as we do that, and we like the way that there's not a lot of moving parts to it.
27:27
We like the way that we build from a stable foundation if we want to build out from it.
27:31
And we like and our customers seem to like that they're coming to it by choice.
27:37
So it's on a mandate.
27:38
It's not like you've got to use our mobile app to obtain a mortgage through our company.
27:42
But it's a great add-on and it works well with the other systems that we have.
27:45
The loan officers specifically here for the retail managers.
27:48
I mean, we really tried to implement this from the top down.
27:51
So it wasn't like we reached out to our loan officers and said, hey, we've got a new mobile app.
27:55
You need to go out there and sell it on the street.
27:58
It was, this is already integrated in.
28:00
It's an available piece and we're going to sell it to the customers through our normal lines of communication.
28:06
They like that.
28:07
You know, loan officers are very difficult to get into separate systems, right?
28:11
So if I've got, I've got to keep track of my prospects in this system and I've got to use my LOS for this.
28:16
And I've got to use my mobile app for this.
28:19
We try to remove all those pieces away.
28:21
So it's just, it's there if you need it and it's easy and it's all synchronized.
28:26
It's not something where you've got to keep different tabs on different things and different systems.
28:30
Yeah, speaking of that, how are you tracking the communication that's going on between the LOS and the mobile apps?
28:38
That all residing in the LOS?
28:39
My life can speak to it, but yeah, so we basically connected the two together.
28:43
So for compliance purposes, all that history is in the LOS in terms of what was sent and all that.
28:47
Yeah, the mute app is, it records everything.
28:50
So at the end of the day, you can have a PDF of every communication.
28:55
We have the ability for loan officers to send prequals.
28:59
I'll let the barbecue saver, but I did originate at one point in.
29:05
Okay, there's got to be a story there of the barbecue saver.
29:08
It's Murky's law.
29:10
It's like a real, just know when you're doing something that you're really enjoying.
29:15
And that's when they asked for a new prequal or a new pre-approval, you know, the words of change.
29:20
But it was always seem to be when I was at a barbecue during the summer.
29:24
And you have to go and leave and drive the right back.
29:27
And the fact that we deliver it is incredible.
29:30
But just the fact that that piece of technology is out there and wasn't available years ago is something,
29:37
you know, the baffles mean not everybody uses.
29:39
So what does that, what does that look like then?
29:41
So I'm at, and by the way, that's a great reference because I've been there as well, you know,
29:44
out of the barbecue, the kids party with Blurstay, whatever, you know,
29:48
like, oh, I got to go prequal this, you know, this agent called me.
29:52
So for an end user, I can definitely kind of speak to how that, how that looks and feels.
29:56
So again, I mean, it's simplicity.
29:59
So we're encompass users, whatever LOS you're using, that's where you're doing the work to run findings
30:05
to make sure that something and to verify documents and to make sure that a customer is qualified, right?
30:10
And like anybody, we've got separate pre-qual letters, pre-approved letters that we use.
30:15
But within the mobile app, and this is really one of the only reasons that a loan officer in particular
30:19
would log into the mobile app because primarily the users are the consumers, the buyers or their realtor.
30:26
But when a law officer has access to all those files, they've issued a pre-approved letter
30:31
maybe on a 2B determined house for a certain price.
30:35
The customer has that in hand, the realtor knows they have that in hand.
30:38
Well, now it's Sunday and they're narrowing it on a home.
30:42
And the listing agent is requiring a more specific pre-approved letter for that home.
30:46
So we've already done the work.
30:48
We know from an LOS that we've got a customer that's pre-approved.
30:53
It just needs to be a little bit more fine tuned as far as the letter.
30:56
So we got with Michael and his team.
30:58
We put our specific letter exactly as it exists outside of the app into the app.
31:03
So a loan officer can log in, punch in some fields as far as the subject property address,
31:08
the loan type, the loan amount.
31:10
Again, synchronized to our specific loan programs within a compass that we use.
31:15
And it synchronized really to any LOS and can both that into a letter on their app
31:20
and then email it out directly from there, from the barbecue.
31:23
Wow, that's cool.
31:25
Saving and barbecue.
31:27
And I also want to point out this is really underwear.
31:30
There is a shift in society.
31:33
I think the cable company's really the ones that moved it with on demand.
31:38
What we have is two parts of our app.
31:39
We have the push notifications, which are 17-second read, right?
31:43
So you're going to get those pushes in 17 seconds that somebody needs a pre-qual,
31:48
a pre-approval, whatever you would call it.
31:50
But they're also going to know, or the consumer's going to know when you're issuing it.
31:53
So again, we bring everybody, it's one industry where there's always somebody new in the
31:57
transaction.
31:58
Right.
31:59
But uniform and how you communicate.
32:02
And then two is the on-demand portal you have as an app.
32:05
But it also results in behavior.
32:07
So what, getting a turnaround of a day used to be okay.
32:11
If that real estate agent sitting in front of that consumer in a real estate area where
32:17
it's considered booming and is going to be bids on it, they want that in five minutes
32:21
so that it feels like five hours and just a plug.
32:25
If you're sitting there and you have to drive home, not only is that taking more than
32:29
five minutes, but you maybe you're missing the baseball game or maybe you just don't look
32:33
professional to that real estate because your turnaround time isn't as good as if you
32:38
worked for Rua.
32:39
So if you're in Indiana and you're missing out on all these great family events because
32:43
you have to keep leaving for pre-approvals because you do a lot of purchase business,
32:48
I think Rua off is a great purchase friendly mortgage company with great turnaround times
32:53
where you're able to show inside the app, but he also gives you the tools so you don't
32:58
you can be mobile and you can go out and get more deals and you can use it to go into
33:02
real tarops and say, look, this is what I have.
33:05
The other people are bringing in cups of coffee and probably telling you about fast turnaround
33:09
times.
33:10
I'm showing you how long faster I bet they don't have this.
33:13
And that's the message we want is to say the times are changing and it's not just
33:22
millennials.
33:23
The average person in America regardless of being millennial unlocks their phone 80 times
33:27
a day.
33:28
So you're in front of them 80 times a day if you need to get them information.
33:33
That's a lot more effective than an email.
33:36
Well, that's a great point because when agents are interviewed, right, one of the top things
33:40
they want from a loan officer is a variety of ways to say it's speed, right?
33:45
Get back to me in a timely manner.
33:48
And so that's obviously one way to do that is it's a great kind of story to tell when
33:52
you're meeting with an agent to kind of point out those areas where you provide a higher
33:56
low.
33:57
Even though people talk about, you know, hey, great rates, great service.
34:00
That's not enough anymore.
34:02
There's some validity to that, but I think when you can actually demonstrate how you provide
34:06
a superior level of service, I think that still does resonate, especially with this app
34:11
like you just articulated there.
34:14
It's really cool to be able to give that for many locations from wherever you're at.
34:19
It's a well factor and anybody that downloads the app, so I mean, again, it may be a listing
34:24
agent that we don't do business with presently, but they've got access just as much as anybody
34:28
else.
34:29
It's just our normal for partners do and they can see what's going on.
34:32
And so when they're at the baseball game also and they don't even need the letter, they
34:35
don't even need a pre-approval letter for that.
34:37
But they get a push notification on the phone, their phone dings at them and they look
34:40
down and it says the appraisal for 532 main street has been approved and cleared by real
34:47
phone mortgage.
34:48
I mean, that just shows up.
34:49
They cleared off, they looked back up at the baseball game.
34:52
Those are the kind of pieces.
34:53
Those are the wild factors that we can use again, not a primary tool, not the main thing
34:57
that we're using.
34:58
We're still using individuals on the ground selling a great suite of mortgage products,
35:03
but it's a great supplemental piece of the puzzle to let them know that there is some
35:08
speed.
35:09
There are some new players in the game in the mortgage space.
35:12
I mean, with anything that we do, speed is important, technology is important, and
35:16
efficiency is important.
35:17
And so we used and leverage Michael's team in this app to be able to do that in a lot
35:22
of walks of what we do.
35:24
No, no, no, no, no, no, sorry, that's top three feedback from the app.
35:29
Again, if Ruof didn't pioneer letting him know automatically, that might never have
35:36
happened, because this is perfect for, we do deal with enterprises.
35:41
So it's for an enterprise where you have a lot of loan officers that maybe do not aggressively
35:45
call that listing agent on the first day.
35:48
And if you're a listing agent and you've heard about the loan officer from Ruof, from a
35:53
B&I, but you've never actually dealt with them.
35:55
And you have $10,000, $15,000 commission check next month riding on that mortgage.
36:01
And now there's an app where it's going to track and update you like Uber on where it's
36:05
been, where it is now and where it's going so you can plan better your budget.
36:10
Who wouldn't download it?
36:11
And if you really are have great turnaround times and great service, what better way now
36:17
than you have their attention, they're going to be logging in 22 times to show them how
36:21
quickly you move.
36:23
And most people that go to Uber don't go back to a taxi and it's not because of price
36:29
or speed.
36:30
It's because of that same effect that Ruof is now giving the real estate community in
36:35
Indiana.
36:36
Yeah, great points.
36:37
And so I wonder if some of this falls under your realtor portal aspect of the app?
36:43
Absolutely.
36:44
And Clint can speak to how.
36:46
Well, one of the questions, yeah, I feel elaborate, Clint, but I can see here I'm reading
36:50
on the website that says Realtors are able to review and upload info on all loans and
36:55
process.
36:56
So I'm thinking, what are they uploading like purchase contracts or what are they doing?
37:02
They can.
37:03
I mean, all parties are in the same.
37:04
So when you log into the app, whether you're a loan officer, whether you're a buyer, whether
37:09
you're a listing agent, whether you're selling age, you're getting into the same transaction.
37:12
And so you can openly communicate with just those individual parties, all of them with
37:17
an upload of a document, survey, an appraisal that's authorized to be released.
37:24
But it's important and it's important to us from the real estate community because it's
37:28
not, the logins aren't mandatory, right?
37:31
So they last October, they were referred to buyer to Ruof, they downloaded the mobile app
37:38
just to kind of as a novelty they wanted to see what it was like.
37:41
They put it down and they've used this for a while.
37:43
And now they're a listing agent.
37:45
And because it's on their phone, they haven't had the log in a single time.
37:48
They're still getting those push notifications, telling them what's going on.
37:52
And again, we're not overly communicating with it.
37:54
We're not soliciting hard with it.
37:57
But when it's relevant information is being pressed to them about a file that they've
38:03
got.
38:04
So again, we hit them when they need it most, when it's important to them.
38:08
And it's kind of an underlying, you know, subtle sales approach to be honest with you.
38:13
It's not something where, and that's why we have the customers downloaded when the file
38:17
really starts moving.
38:18
When it's in process and they hear the scary parts of, you know, I have heard from my
38:23
law officer in two, three weeks, I don't know where my file is, I don't know what the
38:26
next step is.
38:27
I don't know what happens next in the process or what I'm supposed to do in the process.
38:32
This is another way to be able to tell them and guide them along the way and meet them
38:36
with where they want to be met.
38:38
Yeah.
38:39
That's great.
38:40
Another piece is all of these portals.
38:44
So you asked about the realtor, the on-demand, they have a calendar button.
38:48
So they're able, if they do a four deals with grew off, they're able to go through that
38:51
calendar.
38:52
And if they had a family vacation coming up, they can plan it or the consumer, I think
38:58
a big part of what we offer is the co-borrow can log in.
39:01
So you actually have both parties engaged with you to help you get conditions or just
39:06
to keep them, keep your mortgage process from becoming a friction point in their relationship
39:14
at night.
39:15
They don't have to argue with each other about knowing about the loan.
39:18
They can go in and find out loan info or they can find out if they can book that camping
39:23
trip that weekend or if they're supposed to be somewhere.
39:27
And then also, it's the contact information.
39:30
So even when you show up at a closing, you have a not-know-one of the borrowers names
39:34
that you know at the game with an S, so you ever want extra referrals, the best way
39:38
to do it.
39:39
And they say, I could never run for governor because I'm not good with names.
39:44
But a lot of people activity is that contact button on the closing day because loan officers
39:49
and realtor are all going in and they're looking at it on the way in.
39:53
So they know everybody's name and it becomes a big happy closing.
39:56
Yeah.
39:57
Listen, nobody ever has arguments during the home purchase process, do they?
40:01
Right.
40:02
Okay.
40:03
So real quickly, you have the ability to upload documents to your mobile app with a touch
40:09
of a finger.
40:10
I love how that sounds.
40:12
What's a real world kind of use case of that from anybody involved in the party?
40:16
So for a buyer that's most often a loan officer contacting them and saying, we need a one
40:23
more pay stuff or we need your ID because you never gave it to us.
40:27
They've got a variety of ways to send that to us.
40:29
But if they're users of the mobile app, they can click open their camera on their phone,
40:36
snap it and then upload it into that piece and then it comes through to our system.
40:40
Well, I liked that.
40:41
That's very efficient.
40:42
I'll add on it too because I was talking with Clint earlier and we'd love to come back
40:46
on in early next year and let you know how this works and without revealing too much
40:50
of it.
40:52
With the recent phenomenon of Pokemon Go, which is really you go around with this tool
40:59
which is your camera and you snap items, they happen to be cartoons.
41:04
But if we made it more serious and I presented that, Lenders One, that's why it is such a
41:09
great collaborative.
41:10
It's where I make Clint.
41:11
It's where you can bounce ideas and really get feedback for more accountability factor.
41:17
So I said it does this sound goofy or does it make sense and the feedback was that if
41:22
we can get conditions to the consumer and gamify it where they know what the top three
41:27
turnaround times are anonymously and they can go for it with their camera and instead of
41:33
snapping cartoons or snapping your paystubs or W2s or they're using tools as we're starting
41:37
to work with other vendors out there.
41:39
I won't mention any specifically but vendors that are similar to, you see the rocket mortgage
41:44
on the commercial but they use vendors as well to get that information over.
41:49
We want to create it and make it fun to get documents back and we don't want it to take
41:53
two to 14 days.
41:54
We want to take one day and so I'm going to be working with Clint who's a port thinker
42:00
and a pioneer to take my idea which might be a little goofy and make it a little bit more
42:05
serious and a little bit more actionable but I think we're both aiming for the same results
42:10
which is there's no reason especially if you have husband and wife you have two people
42:15
now questioning why the other person's slowing down.
42:18
We want to make it like the greatest race is that the TV show where they work together
42:21
to try and cross the finish line first.
42:24
No, it's great.
42:25
I can't wait to see that so we'll need a replacement for Pokemon by then anyways.
42:32
People are going to be so I think over that's going to, my prediction of that is that's
42:35
going to be a flash out really fast you know.
42:38
And they made enough in the process.
42:42
Very cool stuff.
42:43
So in terms of like last things I wanted to cover here, I mean obviously there's anything
42:49
else you wanted to highlight because Clint you mentioned that you stripped out some of
42:52
the functionality of the service and the app because you wanted to kind of streamline
42:57
it.
42:58
Anything Michael that you wanted to highlight that maybe Clint's not using that might
43:01
be of interest to other people?
43:02
No, I think this was a great show and it was great hearing again how Clint uses it.
43:07
And I would just say we handle all of the support on the support desk.
43:12
So when you're consumers and you're real estate agents, if they can't get in over the weekend
43:17
or need a password replacement or your loan officers have questions, it really is set
43:24
up to be set it and forget it run through your LOS and regardless of if your loan officer
43:29
is participating, we have no intentions of replacing them.
43:33
We're just bridging the gap between their nonverbal and their verbal communication and that
43:38
goes all the way to the support desk so that you don't have to put IT resources in, it
43:44
can be the experience you were expecting when you thought of the perfect global app.
43:49
I just like the fact that as you guys pointed out and it sounds like for every transaction
43:54
you have, right, you've got different people in each of those transactions.
43:58
But when they come into that app, it's an individual group communication going on that's
44:04
powered by that app, which is great because that makes it simple to manage multiple transactions
44:10
from a mobile perspective.
44:11
Yeah, and I think to speak to your point about the fact of what we use and what we don't
44:15
use in it, there's a lot of customization there.
44:17
So we could theoretically be using the app for every prospect that we have out there.
44:23
No files in the system, maybe you just met somebody so you can use this app to communicate
44:29
with them or to keep up with them to use that as a calculator and those kind of pieces.
44:35
We chose to focus it as he said more of like a progress bar as to what's going on and so
44:41
we did that specifically with the files that we already had in process and so we elected
44:47
to remove the prospect from the equation.
44:50
Now that we've kind of stripped it down and mastered what we've got, now we can start
44:56
to look to expand.
44:57
So rather than being too much at once, we felt like we've got a good hold on it and we've
45:01
worked with this team to figure it out and now we can look to expand and select various
45:06
that we want.
45:07
That's awesome.
45:08
There's so many different great ways to leverage this from presenting to realtors and
45:12
differentiating yourself there with being a mobile friendly lender and really kind of advanced
45:17
and communication wise from a borrowers perspective, ease of use, streamline communication.
45:23
It just goes on and on and I think we're hopefully making the point is that if you haven't
45:28
gotten mobile friendly now, you better get on the bandwagon because the market is demanding
45:31
it.
45:32
You referenced Rocket Mortgage, Michael and so what all they're doing is increasing the
45:38
expectation that getting a mortgage should be more simple.
45:44
Not saying that it's push a button and you get a mortgage simple but the whole communication
45:47
process should be streamlined and simplified and I think you guys doing a great job along
45:52
with that.
45:53
Before we wrap up real quickly, what is the process for somebody engaging with you, meaning?
45:58
So what does an onboarding process look like if I'm a company, I've got a handful of
46:02
loan officers, how long can I expect it to take to be connected to LOS and have this
46:09
be ready?
46:11
The amount of hours on the enterprises and is usually around three or four.
46:16
It'll take about an hour, hour and a half for your LOS administrator and the rest would
46:21
be a call where you go screen by screen and we give you best practices.
46:27
You choose what you want out of them that you add customization of what you think should
46:31
be in each screen and then we do all the heavy lifting and our turnaround time right
46:35
now is between 30 and 40 days and if you're in this field, you know that the faster we
46:43
get items back, the faster the turnaround, but it's generally from 30 to 40 days you'll
46:49
be available in the iStore or in the Google Play as well.
46:53
Okay, so and how would people contact you, Michael, to learn more about easy mortgage
46:57
apps?
46:58
Any directly, Michael at ema.com, it's a Michael at ema.com and if you mentioned this
47:07
show, we'll take $500 off of the implementation fee.
47:11
Nice, I like that.
47:12
There's a surprise.
47:13
Thank you.
47:14
And also online, don't forget, it's easymortgageapps.com, that's APPS, easymortgageapps.com, if I'm going
47:21
to go to the website.
47:22
And once again, Clint, thank you so much for sharing kind of your customization, your
47:26
experience with Michael and his team thus far and as you said, you clearly are a forward
47:31
thinker.
47:32
So if anybody wants to connect with you online somewhere, where would you like to direct
47:35
with them?
47:36
Yeah, so our company name is Ruof, it's a family name, R-U-O-F-F, two F's like Frank, home
47:41
mortgage based out of the northern part of Indiana, but lending in all of the Midwest
47:45
and beyond, Clint, C-L-I-N-T at Ruof.com is my email, email me directly and if you're
47:53
interested in kind of what this looks like in the end result, I mean, go to the App Store,
47:58
go to the Google Play Store and type in Ruof or Ruof Home mortgage and download this particular
48:03
app.
48:04
It's a free app and you can kind of see exactly what it looks like.
48:06
Awesome.
48:07
Mobile technology, get mobile, get engaged with clients, get engaged with realtors, you
48:11
need to do it, check out easymortgageapps.com.
48:13
I thank you guys very much for sharing your time today and for those listening, if you
48:18
like today's episode and you want to reach out to either Clint or Michael, you obviously
48:22
know how to do that now and if you want to subscribe to our podcast, don't miss any
48:26
future episodes, you can do that via the link below in the show notes.
48:29
We'll provide links to the websites and how to get connected here and please leave us
48:36
a rating on iTunes if you like what you hear, download it so you don't miss any future
48:39
episodes and once again, thanks for tuning in to this week's episode of Mortgage Marketing
48:43
Radio.
48:44
We'll see you on the next one, bye for now.
48:47
Thanks for listening to Mortgage Marketing Radio, one more truth in mortgage marketing,
48:52
get more free training and resources at MortgageMarketingInstitute.com.
48:57
Hey guys, what's up real quick?
49:07
You've heard about the Mortgage Marketing Pro membership before and I just want to quickly
49:10
remind you if that you're in a place in your business where you simply need more
49:14
purchase loans, you need to fill your pipeline with purchase business.
49:17
Let's just face it, agents are still a solid pillar of business and sources of purchase
49:22
business for you.
49:23
Well, good news, our Mortgage Marketing Pro membership helps loan officers like you
49:27
close more loans without the hassle of chasing agents or cold calling.
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Done for you agent classes, expert training videos, a marketing automation platform that
49:37
automates the entire process for you, everything you need to build your personal brand in your
49:41
local market, attracting convert agents into referral partners, plus done for you proven
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marketing materials and plug and play content to make promoting your class, getting agents,
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butts and seats, partnering with affiliates real easy, but that's not all.
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You'll also get access to our weekly mastermind calls with top L.O.'s authors, speakers and
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coaches to learn the best strategies to grow your business right now in today's market.
50:09
And as an extra bonus for limited time for all new members, you'll get access to a database
50:14
of 200 agents in your local market that have closed anywhere to from eight to 50 transactions
50:20
in the last 12 months and we'll provide that list upload into our platform for you so
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you can get off to a fast start in reaching actually productive agents.
50:30
So what are you waiting for?
50:31
You can check out more at mortgagedmarketing.pro, see more of the success stories there.
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And if you feel compelled to do so, book a call, we'll have a chat, we'll see if it's
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a fit.
50:40
Don't miss out on this opportunity to take your mortgage business to the next level
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right now.
50:45
Head over to mortgagemarketing.pro.