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[caption id="attachment_9654" align="alignright" width="150"] Dave Hershman[/caption]

As a reminder, here is Jason's question: “In my 20 years as a loan officer, this has been the weirdest year. What do you think the rest of this year is going to look like from a production standpoint? Will the refinances continue? Will the purchase market collapse as it did the last recession?”

If it were different times, I would be advising loan officers to attend broker opens, open houses, settlement and real estate sales meetings. Now we are in a vastly different situation. If there is a real estate office sales meeting, you might be attending by Zoom. You likely may not be invited to attend a settlement at all--if it is even to take place face-to-face. But that does not mean that keeping in touch is not possible or actually required.

For example, with regard to settlement--going over the CD with the borrower ahead of time was always a good idea. It is absolutely imperative now. You can also call in during the settlement and make sure that things are going well and see if there are any questions. And after settlement, making calls to the settlement agent, both agents and the borrowers, is also a key. What do you say during this call? Well, that also has not changed.

This is an important call at any time, but even more important during this COVID era. Here is what you should cover during this call:

• Thank the borrower(s) for the opportunity to serve them. Today, we do not say 'thank you' often enough.
• Ask if there is anything you can do in order to follow-up for them. Whatever they ask, follow-up as hard as you did when you were fighting for the deal.
• Finally, ask if there was anything you could have done differently to make the process better for them. If they give you an "A+" response, don't forget to ask if there is anyone else they know whom you might be able to help.

There should also be some version of this call to the selling and listing agent. With regard to the listing agent, following up like this will differentiate you from the other loan officers they are working with--a bridge towards starting a new relationship.

Dave Hershman is Senior VP of Sales of Weichert Financial. He has published seven books, as well as hundreds of articles and is the founder of the OriginationPro Marketing System and Mortgage School. His site is www.OriginationPro.com and he can be reached at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..