Maxwell, a digital platform provider in the mortgage space, recently distributed an ebook entitled 14 Habits of High Performing Loan Officers that highlights the habits, tricks and traits loan offers use to increase performance levels. The ebook offers the results of Maxwell’s outreach to top-producing originators across the country to get their feedback on how they’ve reached such a high level of success. Here are some excerpts.

Establish a Consistent Process

Dave Gallegos, SVP & Banch Manager at Zenith Home Loans told Maxwell “ “The best performers follow a strictly defined sales process with a sales funnel to keep clients moving forward in their system. They are scripted with professional sales presentations and templates that are used consistently at every step. There are defined standards and systems for file quality so the customer experience is predictable.”

“The best underwriters follow strict checklists to do their work, and the best loan officers typically do as well. They originate in a very proactive working environment, rarely needing to request more documentation. Their goal is to originate loans that will be clear to close on the first submission. They know that reactive work cripples their productivity.”

Let Data Drive Your Decision Making

A big problem loan officers have is misunderstanding what a lead measure is and figuring out what to track,” said Bryan Traeger, head of partnerships at Maxwell and former VP of marketing, IT, and business projects at HomeServices Lending. “Most believe an application is a lead measure for getting paid. NO — an app is a lag measure. What do you do that gets an app? Is it social  media, coffee meetings with Realtors, community service? Those are what needs to be tracked to measure performance.”

Top performers know exactly how they’re performing and can pinpoint variables that they can experiment with to boost their performance. Selling is both a science and an art — the science portion dictates that you conduct data driven experiments, track your performance, and iterate as you prove (or disprove) your selling hypotheses.

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Be Proactive

Maxwell suggests that “High-performing loan officers are proactive loan officers. They know how to maintain a pristine attention-to-detail without losing sight of the big picture. They hedge their bets. They deeply understand their borrowers, and are always equipped to provide options and sell multiple loan scenarios tailored to the borrower’s need. And if the borrower’s needs change? Top producers are agile and swift, able to accommodate without delay.

“Top producers are proactive. They look ahead. They have foresight and try to steer clear of problems before they arise. [They] make the hard sales calls first. They don’t put off the trouble customers. They take care of issues upfront so that the rest of their day is trouble free.”  Too much procrastination can be dangerous in any role, but for originators, it’s particularly deadly.

Great loan officers are those who plan ahead, know their loan files inside and out, and take proactive measures to ensure they’re never surprised at what’s around the corner.

Embody Empathy

As a lender, it’s easy to get into our day-to-day grind and forget how difficult — both literally arduous and mentally anguishing — the mortgage process can be for our borrowers. Stagnant wages, rising costs of living, skyrocketing home prices, and crushing student loan debt are taking their toll on the American psyche.

In fact, the American Psychological Association found that 72% of Americans felt stressed about money in the past month, and 22% reported ‘extreme’ financial stress that impacts their quality of life. So, the average prospective borrower likely experiences at least some degree of regular financial anxiety. Add to that the fact that only 18% of buyers trust and respect salespeople and you’ve got quite a challenge ahead of you.

The quickest way to build trust and foster goodwill is to show you care more about the borrower than you do about your bottom line. Take the time to ask questions and understand their circumstances, and don’t treat them like just another name on a spreadsheet.

Click here to view the ebook in its entirety.

To effectively market via social media it is best to have a consistent presence. This consistency builds up your image as an expert and keeps you top of mind when projects are ready to purchase. Now Optimal Blue, a provider of secondary marketing automation and services to the mortgage industry, is making it a bit easier for loan officers to stay in front of their prospects by offering a social media publishing tool. Optimal Blue’s publishing solution was released with complete integration to the unique monitoring, audit, and collaboration capabilities of their comprehensive social media platform, the only all-in-one platform designed specifically for the needs of the mortgage industry.

Using a library of approved templates and other corporate assets, the publishing tool enables loan officers to schedule and post relevant content to any of their social networks with ease. Users benefit from an intuitive publishing scheduler that makes the process of arranging social interactions across the organization effortless. A built-in calendar manages posts across all profiles, networks, and campaigns, while detailed reports track engagement metrics across all social networks.

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Unlike any other service being offered in the mortgage space today, Optimal Blue’s social media platform is developed around the NMLS database. It is pre-loaded with every mortgage professional in the country, enabling originators to quickly take advantage of the solution without the burden and hidden cost of user administration.

Optimal Blue’s end-to-end, fully automated social media platform also allows originators to manage the social networking activities of their loan officers through monitoring, audits, and collaboration. Automated, ongoing monitoring enables real-time oversight of social activity and proactively identifies mortgage-specific trigger terms and keywords to isolate compliance concerns that may require remediation. On-demand audit reports aggregate trends within an integrated portal, so management can easily view the organization’s digital presence and assess all compliance findings. Corporate campaign enrollment, team content sharing, and multi-network posting are also made possible through advanced collaboration tools.

“Social media is an extremely powerful business development tool for today’s originator,” explained Michael Stallings, Vice President of Comergence by Optimal Blue. “By leveraging modern automation through our end-to-end social media platform, originators not only exceed regulatory expectations, they can efficiently communicate their value proposition and gain a significant competitive advantage at both the corporate and loan officer level.”

In the just released First American Real House Price Index (RHPI), real house prices decreased 0.4% between January and February. Year over year real house prices increased 2.9%.

The RHPI measures the price changes of single-family properties throughout the U.S. adjusted for the impact of income and interest rate changes on consumer house-buying power over time at national, state and metropolitan area levels. Because the RHPI adjusts for house-buying power, it also serves as a measure of housing affordability.

[caption id="attachment_12094" align="alignright" width="300"] Mark FLemming, Chief Economist for First American Financial Corp.[/caption]

“Throughout 2018, consistent growth among three driving forces – mortgage rates, household income and unadjusted house prices – defined the housing market. These three factors are also the core elements of the Real House Price Index” said Mark Fleming, chief economist at First American. “While household income rose steadily in 2018, rising mortgage rates offset any affordability benefit for home buyers, as illustrated by 11.1 percent year-over-year growth in the RHPI. However, the first quarter of 2019 has been friendly to potential home buyers, as declining mortgage rates, ongoing household income growth and moderating unadjusted home prices has boosted affordability.”

“In February, mortgage rates fell 0.9 percentage points compared with the previous month and were only 0.04 percentage points higher than one year ago. Flat mortgage rates are a welcome change for home buyers following 2018 and the 2.8 percent year-over-year growth in household income helped boost affordability,” said Fleming. “The result? House-buying power increased 2.4 percent in February compared with one year ago, and 1 percent compared with last month.

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“Additionally, while unadjusted house price appreciation in February persisted, the pace of appreciation slowed to 5.4 percent, compared with the 7.1 percent year-over-year growth in February 2018. As a result, real house price appreciation fell to 2.9 percent, the slowest year-over-year pace since December 2017,” said Fleming.

Six Cities Where Affordability Increased

“While we know that rising household income and a decline in mortgage rates caused real house price appreciation to slow nationally, real house prices declined in a few markets,” said Fleming. “Compared with a year ago, six cities saw year-over-year declines in the RHPI, signaling an improvement in affordability.”

1. San Jose, Calif. (-5.5 percent)
2. Seattle (-4.5 percent)
3. San Francisco (-2.1 percent)
4. Los Angeles (-1.6 percent)
5. Portland, Ore. (-1.1 percent)
6. San Diego (-0.3 percent)

Supply Surge

“These coastal markets all have something in common: they were the tightest and hottest markets of 2018. In the first half of 2018, rising millennial demand amid a backdrop of limited inventory and increasing mortgage rates put pressure on affordability, causing buyers to take a step back,” said Fleming. “But now, affordability is on the rise and the main reason is rising inventory.

“According to First American calculations of Realtor.com February 2019 data, the number of listings in San Jose, Seattle and San Francisco increased 124 percent, 89 percent and 52 percent respectively compared with one year ago,” said Fleming. “As inventory enters the market, buyers have more options, bidding wars are less likely, and sellers are more likely to reduce list prices. In fact, these three markets experienced the greatest yearly growth in the number of listings with price reductions.”

Softening Sellers’ Markets

“These six markets may signal a broader shift in the housing market. Across the nation, home buyers are benefiting from lower-than-anticipated mortgage rates, rising wages and a slowdown in unadjusted house price appreciation,” said Fleming. “Only the six markets above showed a year-over year decline in the RHPI, but 37 out the 44 top markets that we track showed month-over-month declines in the RHPI in February.

“However, while these trends help home buyers, it’s too soon to call it a buyers’ market. Unadjusted house prices are still rising and it’s clear that demand continues to outstrip supply in most markets,” said Fleming. “Data on the movement of unadjusted house prices during the early spring home-buying season won’t be available for a few more months, but it’s quite likely that price appreciation will accelerate again.”

Among the Core Based Statistical Areas (CBSAs) tracked by First American, the five markets with the greatest year-over-year increase in the RHPI are:

1. Columbus, Ohio (+8.6 percent)
2. Providence, R.I. (+8.4 percent)
3. Milwaukee (+7.8 percent)
4. Atlanta (+7.4 percent)
5. Cincinnati (+7.1 percent).