“Relationships are the mother’s milk of every mortgage broker,” to paraphrase Thomas Jefferson. Relationships with realtors are a key to picking up the purchase business. In the past, that meant taking donuts to real estate office, or coffee, was enough to gain their business.

That not enough anymore.

Realtors are bombarded with requests from mortgage brokers, many still trying to build the relationship the old fashion way. Getting their attention, to say nothing of their business, has become more difficult. And there is no reason to think that won’t continue.

Selling to a realtor is “much like comparing a refinance loan is to a purchase loan…there are more moving parts,” wrote Daniel Nicart, founder and content creator of SalesRemastered, on Facebook.  SalesRemastered is a training program for originators. There are more parties involved in a purchase deal, such as buyer-seller agents, title, clients, processors and more. Originators need to communicate, and offer the personal touch, to these professionals.

“Because of all the involved parties, most of your competitors will shy away from doing purchase loans and this is where your window of opportunity is,” wrote Nicart. Taking the approach of dropping by with a box of treats with the firm’s logo all over each item , then your business card and other marketing materials will be ignored.

Instead, focus on the realtor’s challenges and how together you can help overcome them, for instance:

• Mobile technology that allows a mortgage broker to log in from a tablet or smartphone and generate an almost instant pre-qualification.
• Access to niche financing that their preferred lender doesn’t offer. (Nicart suggests saying, “Call me if you have a loan that you can’t get approved. I’ve been making magic happen with quick turn times to make the American Dream come true for clients. Let me do the same for you.”)
• Research ( open houses in your area and realtors before approaching them for the first time.
• Review license number to determine if they’re a veteran agent with established relationships, or if they’re new and in the process of building their pipeline.

Knowing what to focus on and the message to deliver are indispensable components in building long-term business relationships with realtors. Do that well, and the relationship will be with the originator, not his firm. Realtors expect originators to be service oriented, accountable, and confidence, that they are not wasting time with non-qualified buyers and not ruining their reputation or income by working with an inadequate source of funding.

The American Credit Union Mortgage Association's membership has elected two new board members to three year terms.

Alissa Sykes, senior vice president and chief lending officer at Sunmark Federal Credit Union; and Jason Sasena, senior vice president of National Mortgage Production at Lake Michigan Credit Union have won election to ACUMA's board. ACUMA is a non-profit trade association committed to promoting credit union mortgage lending. The organization provides high-quality education and networking using experts from the mortgage banking and credit union communities.

Also, Board Chair Pam Davis, senior vice president of branch delivery and operations at Delta Community Credit Union; and past chair Mark Wilburn, senior vice president and chief lending officer at Truity Credit Union, were elected to new three-year terms.

Continuing as board members are Amy Moser, vice president of mortgage services at Mountain America Credit Union; Tim Mislansky, senior vice president of Wright-Patt Credit Union and president of myCUmortgage; and Barry Stricklin, senior vice president and chief lending officer at Tower Federal Credit Union.

The volunteer board serves as the governing body for ACUMA, a non-profit association.

Sasena oversees sales leadership, mortgage marketing and technology for Lake Michigan CU, headquartered in Grand Rapids, Mich. Lake Michigan CU operates distributed retail and member direct mortgage origination channels in Michigan and SW Florida. Sasena also held leadership roles with Kinecta Federal Credit Union, JP Morgan Chase, GMAC Residential Capital and ditech.com. He is a contributing author of “The Mortgage Professional’s Handbook,” a comprehensive multi-volume resource that covers every aspect of the mortgage business.

Sykes oversees all aspects of lending including mortgage, home equity, consumer and business lending, loan servicing and collections at Sunmark FCU, based in Latham, N.Y. Under her direction, Sunmark’s mortgage department has enjoyed significant growth. She has successfully advocated for the addition of loans from FHA, VA, USDA, SBA, the State of New York Mortgage Agency, and construction lending.

Sykes regularly mentors smaller credit unions who need assistance keeping up with the swift pace of regulation changes, or ideas to expand their impact. She is building a community banking initiative with a focus on new membership growth.

Email remains an important channel of communication with borrowers. Yet it exposes loan originators, and the companies they work for, to security risks.

Financial organizations—and originators in particularly since they are on the front line with borrowers—face a decision on how much security they want because it can undermine the lending experience. The security concern has to be balanced with borrowers’ preference for convenience. Keep it simple is preferred. At least until borrowers are victimized by identity theft.

Then, the responsibility, and reputation risk, fall solely on the originator and the firm. Lenders are responsible for ensuring the personal data of borrowers remains private, and yet, the risk of not taking steps to thwart a cyberattack is often overlooked.

According to a study by Halock Security Labs of email practices of lending firms, the use of unsecured email is not unusual, far from it. Consider the following:

• Fully 70% of originators allowed borrowers to send tax documents and other financial information as unencrypted email attachments.
• Only 12% provided a way of sending email securely.
• The reason for assuming this risk was to make the lending experience easier for the consumer.

Security standards are ancient and not much has been done to enhance them. But the tools used to illicitly gain access to the personal data have improved exponentially. For instance, senders can easily impersonate other people, including their email addresses. Recipients don’t pay enough attention to the address from which an email comes, and sometimes software is deployed to hide it. Nor is it unusual for people to send their passwords as plain text, through unsecured connections to mail servers.

Some trade groups are taking steps: the American Land Title Association, or instance, that outlines steps to protect confidential client information related to real estate sales. It calls for steps, such as establishing a written privacy and an information security program for protecting such information, in order to comply with federal and state laws.

Technology is available that can ensure that all parties to a transaction are protected—and risk is mitigated if not eliminated.

For many firms, combining email and web technology works best. Email can notify people that information is waiting for them, and a password-protected web connection can deliver it securely. To be sure, it’s a change for borrowers.

But the approach could play a role in providing effective security without making borrowers feel uncomfortable.

Walker and Dunlop has hired Trevor Blood as vice president in its Capital Markets group, which brokers commercial real estate loans through its vast network of capital providers. He is based out of the company’s Torrance, Cali., office and will play an integral role in the continued expansion of Walker and Dunlop’s geographic footprint across the United States.

Cliff Carnes, chief production officer of the company’s Capital Markets Group, stated, “We are pleased to welcome Trevor to the team. We are confident that he will be a great asset to the company and the continued growth of our Capital Markets team. Trevor has a strong track record and experience spanning from investment sales to mortgage banking, and we anticipate that he will make a meaningful impact on our platform very quickly.”

Prior to joining Walker and Dunlop, Blood served as a vice president at Pacific Southwest Realty Service where he focused primarily on correspondent loan originations with life companies and brokered loans to various capital providers. Within his first nine months of employment at PSRS, Mr. Blood sourced capital for over $200 million worth of commercial real estate transactions. In 2017, the team closed  $7.3 billion in total brokered volume with over 235 different capital providers, up 75 percent from 2016.