Top Producer Pro Tips: Best of the West
May 11, 2015 2:27 PM
Learn how the some of the industry's most successful loan originators get it done with these tricks of the trade from the 2015 Top Producers rankings' top 12 loan officers of the West.
No. 12 Kelly Marsh, Broadview Mortgage (No. 40 overall)
Tell us about your most creative or successful marketing strategy. Meeting with clients face to face. I'm shocked that more LOs don't meet with clients face-to-face. Three things happen when I meet with clients: I educate, I guide and I connect with clients, which builds a lifelong relationship.
No. 11 Shashank Shekhar, Arcus Lending (No. 39 overall)
What do you know about the mortgage business now that you wished you knew when you started out? I used to get really stressed at the beginning of my career if anything didn't go as planned. One of the reasons was, sometimes I only had that one loan in pipeline, so the income meant a lot.
No. 10 Amanda Sessa, SWBC Mortgage (No. 36 overall)
Tell us about an unusual or difficult loan scenario and what you did to ensure a successful closing. I had a client who lost their job right before closing. We were able to rework the income same day by re-analyzing their rental income and qualifying just on the co-borrower's income.
No. 9 David List, Wells Fargo Home Mortgage (No. 26 overall)
Who is someone in your life, personally or professionally, who helps contribute to your success? Loan officers today are the face of the transaction, but without the support and leadership of the company we can quickly fail. I always introduce my branch manager as the gentleman who keeps my promises.
No. 8 Brian Decker, Guaranteed Rate (No. 24 overall)
What's unique about the local market you serve? I live very close to several military bases so I have been blessed to give back to those who have served our country. I have honored to be able to provide nearly 1,000 homeowners over the last decade VA home loans.
No. 7 Michael Osorio, Farmers & Merchants Bank (No. 23 overall)
What do you know about the mortgage business now that you wished you knew when you started out? That residential lending continues to change. It is important to stay on top of lending guidelines
to continue to support my client base and update them of changes that may affect them in the future.
No. 6 Michael Deery, Citywide Financial (No. 20 overall)
Tell us about your most creative or successful marketing strategy. Writing articles for the newspaper has been very successful for my business. There are a lot of first-time buyers, so I write a lot of articles online to give them the educational information that buyers are looking for these days.
No. 5 Eric Rotner, Commerce Home Mortgage (No. 13 overall)
What's unique about the local market you serve? The primary markets that I serve are extremely competitive. Buyers need to differentiate themselves on both price and terms to get an offer accepted. I prepare my clients to close quickly and present offers with no contingencies whenever possible.
No. 4 Jacob Deegan, Flagship Financial Group (No. 10 overall)
Tell us about your most creative or successful marketing strategy. We hit a spot where our direct mail campaigns were not producing the results we needed, so I researched, tested, and executed an e-mail campaign. The year I did that, I became our company's No. 1 producer.
No. 3 Ben Anderson, Guaranteed Rate (No. 8 overall)
Who is someone in your life, personally or professionally, who helps contribute to your success? My role model growing up was NFL great Jerry Rice. No matter how much success he had, he never felt like he had accomplished anything. That is how I approach this; every day I come in as early as I can wake up (2:00-3:00 a.m. some days) and attack each day as if I have to prove to myself all over again that I can do this.
No. 2 Michael Rodriguez, Platinum Capital Mortgage (No. 5 overall)
Tell us about your most creative or successful marketing strategy. I meet with the human resources directors of the major employers in the area and discuss with them my value-add of providing financing for their employees. They have allowed me to provide home financing seminars at their workplaces and place my information in their employees' pay envelopes.
No. 1 Mark Cohen, Cohen Financial Group (No. 1 overall)
What's unique about the local market you serve? Los Angeles has a very strong real estate market. People in the market are constantly moving and trading up and down. There are a lot of wealthy people who live here from all over the world. We are also fortunate to have a diverse industry base.
