The No. 4 producer on our list, Bradley Cohen of EagleBank, Potomac, Md., had a very simple reason for what drove his business success in 2010—the need to make his own mortgage payment.
He had custom-built a house and owed a huge sum on his loan when the market started to tank in 2008. At one point he believed he might even have to sell the house because of the lack of income. He went from closing one loan in November 2008 to 35 loans in December 2008 when the Federal Reserve took action to stimulate the economy to lower interest rates.
From there “I started hustling because I could see as I was paying my principal down, there was light at the end of the tunnel.”
In this environment, “you’ve got to fight harder and you got to work harder than any of your competition in order to survive. I mean, I don’t think I am better than any other loan officer, I just think I work harder,” Cohen said.
Most of last year his working day started at 5 a.m. and ended at 7 p.m. He never worked on weekends, but added, “I took advantage of every phone call and every opportunity.”
He gets business from past clients (he marketed to his database more often using LoanToolbox), but Cohen also pays someone to pass out fliers for him two days a week to business sources.
But the low rate environment made it easy to do business. “We all have the same tools to work with, it is just how do want to apply those tools,” Cohen said. A big part of it, he added, is listening to the customer and knowing the right questions to ask.
