Question: I am having a hard time getting repeat business from real estate agents and builders. My loans take too long and my customers are very unhappy with me. I want to build my repeat referral business with agents and builders, but they are not willing to give me another try. What can I do to improve? Can you give me some advice?
Answer: While there could be a number of reasons for your problem, let me address one issue that I know is common in the business. To take control of your business and in this case the time it takes you to originate, process and close a file, you must take control of your life. In order to take control of your life, you must take control of your words and your thoughts. What do I mean? Allow me to give you and example.
When I built homes, I had a dirt contractor that was infamous for using wiggle words. While waiting for dirt on the job, you could call the contractor’s office to find out “where is the dirt?” He would give you one of the following answers: “Truck's on the road,” (meaning, truck's on the road, but it’s heading to another job); or “The truck ought to be there,” (Yes, but, the truck hasn’t left the yard and it’s not going to anytime soon because it’s broken down); Over the years, we became acutely aware of this contractors use of ambiguity as a means of communicating the truth without telling you a lie.
Ambiguity in my world is intolerable. I find that the most successful people, and by the way, those that lead the happiest lives, are those that just tell it like it is.
One of the main reasons for delays in the processing of loans is the pure fact that timelines are not followed and the person responsible doesn’t take personal responsibility for their actions. Instead, they use ambiguity, lies, cover ups, wiggle words, and then if that doesn’t work, they just stop returning phone calls to cover up for the fact that they are simply not doing what it takes to move the file along. Sound familiar?
Another example: I am building rental property and looking for the best mortgage deal I can find. The following is a conversation I had with the originator:
"How are you coming along on the loan, haven’t heard from you in a week?"
"Well, it should be out of underwriting next week."
"Great, I’m glad you are coming along so well. If you don’t mind, let me ask you a few questions. How much did the house appraise for?
"Well, we haven’t gotten the appraisal back yet."
"Oh, I see, so really the loan isn’t even in underwriting yet?"
"Yes that’s right. But, it still should be out of underwriting next week."
After I probed a little deeper, I discovered that even though the plans had been given to the originator over a week ago, the appraisal had not even been ordered.
Using this real life example, I want you to ask yourself: How do you think the customer/builder/agent sees this situation (would they desire to do more business with this originator) and how do you think the originator thinks of themselves?
Do you think they are confident about their relationship with all of the parties to the transaction? Do you think they are confident in themselves? Do you think they are confident enough to try to expand their referral base, or does it cause them to avoid calls from customers and their agents?
In my experience, the human mind and heart grows weaker every time a person does what they should not do. In a weakened state, you are not able to overcome the many obstacles that you face and as the old saying goes, you become your own worst enemy.
If you have found yourself in this situation, and desire to adjust, let me show you the way.
The first step: When you make an ambiguous statement, stop yourself in mid sentence, apologize to the person you are talking to, and correct your statement. It will only take a couple of times of basically admitting that you just lied to the person to whom you are speaking, to change the habit.
It is my experience that if you make these adjustments you will find the courage and strength to get the files processed. I don’t know exactly where the power comes from, but, I do know that when you make up your mind not to hide behind wiggle words, it forces you to just get it done.
Confidence in yourself will lead to better effort and better results. Good results are the backbone of every solid origination business. While you are mastering the loan process experience for your clients, you should work on building your referral base.
One of the best ways to widen your referral base is to educate them. The law of reciprocity demands that if you do something for someone, they will feel compelled to do something for you. Now, not all of them will, but, if you worked towards increasing your referral base by outreaching to 20 new real estate agents, statistics tell me that two or three will begin to send you business.
One of the best ways to introduce yourself to new agents is to introduce yourself to the listing agent on the files you have in process. You should work a plan of attack to duplicate every loan you have in process.
My free gift to you today:
