The legacy that Fred Arnold hopes to leave to the world when he retires is how he has been helping other people grow their businesses and helping people grow their lives. “If I can do that, then I'll be just fine in business.”
It is a legacy he is working on, both inside the mortgage business and outside as well. Arnold is a past president of the California Association of Mortgage Professionals and currently a member of the board of the National Association of Mortgage Brokers.
It was during the bust years of 2008 and 2009 that Arnold was CAMP president, a period that saw a huge reduction in its budget. The challenges of the period forced him to be focused, organized and purposeful, especially being purposeful in every minute of every day when he was away from his family.
The involvement with the trade group also lets his sphere of influence see him as a premier professional in the mortgage field.
It also has helped to enhance his education on issues involving the mortgage industry and he can discuss those in depth when asked by clients.
His first encounter with CAMP in 1999, when he gave a presentation about marketing to his local area chapter, made him realize that the group was about representing the mortgage profession, “and it is a profession to me, not a hobby. It is not something I'm planning to do until the next best thing” comes along.
Arnold started originating loans with a bank in 1991 and became a mortgage broker in 1994. Since 2008 he operates a branch in Santa Clarita, Calif., for American Pacific Mortgage that does business as American Family Funding.
He has a television show, “Out of the Rough,” on the local public access channel. “I wanted to create a show that interviewed business owners in my city where they could give tips” to help consumers and other businesses get out of problem situations.
The pun in the name of the show intended. Arnold said he is a big golf enthusiast. The rough is the area outside of the fairways that generally feature higher, thicker grass and is more difficult to play from.
When playing golf, if the ball is in the rough the aim is to move it onto the green.
The show's name, he said, relates to the need to get out of the rough and the rut and towards the positive. “There are a lot of businesses out there than can give advice and show you how to do that,” Arnold said, adding he is very particular with who he interviews. The show is not a commercial. He wants five tips on how such things as how the consumer can save on insurance or how business planning is critical for every business.
Furthermore, the show is designed to be watched as online video, with search engine optimization used to put it at the top of the search results. Arnold said the show allows those businesses to do something in the way of marketing which they had never done before. In turn, it is a way for him to grow his business as well. Most of the people on the show he has never met before.
Besides the television show, Arnold also has a radio show, a column in the local newspaper and a blog.
There are so many different types of media available right now, that having all these different outlets lets him reach out to all generations and all types of personalities.
He compared this to the variety of cars on the market, each with different size, shape and color, and even within the same make there are variations. “People like things in different fashions and I believe the same thing when it comes to messaging. It is critical that you reach out via snail mail, email, text messaging, blogs—people take media different ways, just like they enjoy different types of cars or different styles of homes.
“And it is important that you understand that. You don't do things for people as you want them done to you, you do things for people that they want done for them,” Arnold said.
Both the radio show and “Out of the Rough” are set up in six-minute segments. That was done on purpose, he said, as those six minutes becomes either a podcast or a video cast. It can be used as a learning tool for somebody who needs that information.
He will also talk about the market and the economy on the radio show. “The one thing that real estate agents have the ability to do when they reach out to their customers is to find out the pulse and the financial mood of the country.
“The reason why is we are talking to people every day about their finances, about their lives, about their jobs, about their savings and about their credit. If we're out their working hard and communicating and really evaluating people's situations, we're able to get a complete pulse on the market before the reports come out every single month.
“We know if unemployment is going to go up or down because we are talking to people and finding out if they are finding jobs. We know if spending is up or down because we are talking to people and finding out whether if we are able to free some up cash on a refinance, or whether they are able to get a refinance,” Arnold said, adding this allows loan officers to predict what is likely to happen with the economy in future months.
For example, with the large number of refinancings going on right now, and because loan officers can put extra dollars in people's pockets, he said, “I think the Christmas season will be reasonably positive.
“I don't think we are going to have a boom this holiday season, but we can feel that mood. And the fact we're able to help people lower their payments is going to translate into something months down the road,” Arnold said. It is business intelligence that other can't get just because the loan originator talks to consumers every day.
In this way, he gets a pulse of what is going on in his home state of California; by being involved with NAMB, he speaks with originators from other states and gets a nation perspective as well.
“That's the beauty of our business and that is what needs to be communicated to loan officers, is to get out there and talk to people, so you can get a pulse for things. We're in a sales industry where we need to reach out and help people,” Arnold said. And this does not just apply to mortgages; speaking to your past clients allows you to learn what their needs are and maybe even recommend some one who can help them.
While he is tech savvy—he even has an iPad—Arnold still relies on the tried and true ways of keeping in contact with his clientele.
“The iPad doesn't make me any money, it makes easier for me to contact people, but I still got to make the phone call,” he declared. Arnold uses two database management systems (because he is not sure which one he likes best and each has different strong points), “but if I don't pick up the phone and call somebody, I am not as successful. If I am not continually touching people in a very positive, reach out way, then I can't be as successful as I would like to be.”
Technology is only a tool that helps originators communicate. The phone calls still have to be made and networking opportunities such as chamber of commerce meetings still have to be attended. “We still have to do the basics in order to be successful,” he said.
The vast majority of his business is referrals. His media work brings in a small number of loans each month. He does not advertise, other than a small ad in the Yellow Pages.
In 2010, Arnold's personal production was $37 million and he is on pace to do that this year. Much of his 2011 volume is from refis, which he welcomes. “When you have the ability to lower a family's payment by $300 or $400 and help them in a very positive fashion, I am very excited to do that, just as I am to get a family into their first house.”
Even though refis are predominating right now, originators should not forget about their purchase business, he added.
Besides his industry involvements, Arnold is also on the school board for his church, volunteers with the local multiple sclerosis charity and serves on the board of the chamber of commerce. When he meets people in his community, he takes an interest in their business and its growth, which helps to build his sphere of influence.
He helps to manage 12 loan originators in his office along with his business partner Fred Kreger, who happens to be the current president-elect of CAMP. “But what I am most passionate about is my work in the industry and my work in the community. This past year, I was given the chairman's award from the chamber of commerce for my work in the community on veterans' issues.”
Arnold said that award is the thing he is second most proud of, behind only his wife and their children. “It was no longer about me and my business and making a living, it was about helping other people's lives, who had just come back from the war.”
He is also proud of his work with CAMP. “I want to see us survive and thrive, because there are really good people in the mortgage industry. The people that are left are those that are in it for the right reasons, in it as a profession and want to do the right thing for the consumer.
“I'm really proud of the fact that I'm able to home at 7:30 every night and have dinner with my family. I'm very proud of the fact I still coach my kids' teams and I am there on the weekends.
“Those have nothing to do with production, those have to do with life. It is not always about the numbers, it is about how you translate this great profession of ours into a great life,” Arnold said.
