Mortgage Motivator

The benefit of LINKEDIN for Realtors

2011-10-13T09:57:00.000-07:00

What is the benefit of LINKEDIN for Realtors? 10-13-2011

By Ralph LoVuolo Sr.

The benefit of having a robust, well thought out LINKEDIN profile is apparent to many of us who believe in marketing. Originally conceived as a way for people to find a JOB, by means of networking, it has become so much more beneficial.

In the Real Estate industry, an innovative purpose has recently been uncovered. In my discussions with my coaching clients, I often ask them to help think of ways to use social networks to advance their business plans. I had wondered aloud why so many Realtors were singed up as members. One of my clients, Rich Swan, a Senior Loan Officer at First Choice Loan Services in Southampton PA., had an innovative idea. It is only right to share this great idea with as many as you as possible that I have been asked to advance to others.

Realtors have been encouraged to develop their own websites in order to exhibit to the public their background, expertise, listings and testimonials along with their business and/or personal information. This of course is the best way to let potential clients know all they would need to know about the Realtor even before they meet. Right? No! Wrong!

Websites are or can be expensive and slow to change. It takes money to change a website. It doesn’t generally happen overnight or even in a short couple of days.

But there is a methodology, via the use of LINKEDIN that will do so much more than any website. By developing a personal profile to its maximum, adding recommendations from past clients, photo’s and links to other professionals as part of an affinity group, LINKEDIN is more nimble and allows for many changes as soon as the owner wants to make changes. Adding recommendations is a snap. Explaining new ideas is even easier.

When a Realtor has made contact with a potential seller or buyer, there is nothing better than to refer that prospect to the LINKEDIN profile of the realtor. It probably contains more and better up-to-date information. And that information is more current and adding it was much less costly than any webmasters cost.

I encourage MLO’s to encourage their Realtors to utilize this service.

How to make the phone ring

2011-06-23T15:16:00.001-07:00

Last year was one of the best years ever in the Mortgage Industry, many salespeople sat at their desks and the phone rang constantly. Clients called and begged "Will you come to my house and take my loan application? I need to refinance my mortgage. My interest rate is six percent, do you think you can get me a lower rate?" Now that the phone doesn't ring anymore, it seems that many of you are frozen in space. You stare at the phone and expect it to ring, and when it does, you answer it on the first ring. No matter who is sitting by your desk, you interrupt the conversation to take the call. But...... it doesn't ring enough. Not like before. Have all your brains gone to mush?

Preaching "How to make the phone ring" for over thirty years, requires me, for one more time to scream CALL SOMEONE!!!! The phone will ring, it will ring at the other end of the line. Don’t call just anyone, but specific people; people who you can do business with. The object here is to produce loan applications. Now lets see if I'm specific enough? Do the following, exactly as I write it here. Write down on a piece of paper the names of the last ten people who referred a deal to you. No matter who it was, a real estate broker, a lawyer, an accountant, a borrower, a previous client. WRITE THE NAMES DOWN. Now go get the files that were used to process these loans. When you have the files look up the phone number of the borrower that you helped, along with the address, remembering that they might have moved. Now on a separate piece of paper, write the name and phone number of the following people involved in the deal; the attorney for the borrower, the attorney for the seller (if there was one), the title company who closed the loan, the appraiser who did the appraisal, the real estate company salesperson who represented the buyer, and the real estate company salesperson who represented the seller, if different. The HUD one form should have the names of the representatives of the Real Estate companies who were in attendance at the closing.

At this point you probably have a list of about five names for each file. so if my calculations are correct, you should have about forty nine names, addresses and phone numbers.

Next step is to call these people on the telephone, all for different reasons.

1-The borrower-since you did such a good job ask them questions. a) Will you remember that the next time you need a mortgage to please call me, by the way what is your birthday and the birthday of your spouse and your children

(of course you know what to do with them); b) do you know any one who might need my services right now; any one of your friends or relatives who are thinking of buying, or anyone who you think should be refinancing, either for a lower rate or home improvement or college.

2) The seller- ask them for referrals of friends or relatives. Here if you try the birthday card idea, you'll really be doing something unusual, almost never done.

3) The attorneys-try to get an appointment to see them. If you did a good job, and went to the closing, they should see you with no problem.

4) The appraiser and Title Company. No one ever calls them to ask them anything. You will. You will ask them for an appointment to discuss their opinion of the market in general, because you are going to write about them in your company monthly bulletin. You need their view of what the market is doing. By the way, can you tell me which Real Estate companies in the area are the busiest right now? Can you tell me some addresses which have sold, and who the brokers were? The title company should be willing to share similar information. They know who has been ordering titles. But they might not share the information so readily, so the idea of the newsletter is a great hook.

Not busy? I can make you so busy you'll not have time to eat. And it’s not just busy for the sake of busy. This is busy to make deals.

One time I did something like this, and by the time i was through the second file, I had so many appointments, for leads, it was impossible to finish the list. YOU WILL FINISH THE LIST. Why? Because you need to remember that this is not just being done for today, but forever. You need that Birthday list. You need to really write that monthly newsletter. You'll do more business than you can handle. What it takes is Discipline to do what others will not do.

Do it, don't just think about it!

Get over it!

2011-04-19T11:23:00.000-07:00

Why should you get over it!
The meeting had about 30 loan officers. It was about 1992 give or take. The boss also had invited the processing staff and the Underwriters. Notice I capitalized underwriters. It was a natural reflex. More on that some other time.
So the boss tells everyone assembled how great everything was, how much business was growing exponentially, how they could be looking for more and bigger checks as the real state market was growing. More and more buyers were looking. More and more buyers needed financing. Things were great.
But these guys and girls knew that something was up. They had heard a rumor. Do you know what’s going on Ralph? What changes are going to affect us? Are we going to be forced out of the business? The boss knew and had procrastinated for over a month. He knew there would be a bunch of crap thrown at him. He knew some of the Lo’s would accuse him of selling out. What was going on?
The boss left it up to me, little me, the consultant, the coach. He didn’t have the testicular fortitude to handle bad news. So I stood up, grabbed my baseball bat and said pretty much these words. “What I’m going to say is not going to make you happy. It will probably actually make you mad. But Fanniemae is starting to underwrite loans based on the FICO score. We can’t submit loans anymore unless the FICO score is a certain number. No exceptions!”
Holy shit! They screamed, the nicer comments were like this: “What did you say? What are you saying? What purpose are underwriters anymore. How will we survive?” They didn’t give me a minute to explain. Not a minute, hell, they didn’t give me 5 seconds. “You mean some machine is going to decide who gets approved and who gets rejected?”
Meanwhile the world was making another revolution.
People hate change, just hate it. I tried to explain that this would be just a small bump, a mere pimple. Nothing to worry about. They would adapt. Everything would be ok. TRUST ME!
So I hear that the compensation plan is not the same as it was. Jeez, wow, hokey smokes!
Well here’s what those who know how to survive are doing. They are meeting with clients, potential clients, referral sources and potential referral sources. They avoid the talk about how Washington is going to kill their business. They move forward and take the punch and keep doing what makes and has made them successful and avoid all the bullshit talk about Representative Barney Frank and how he wants to destroy the mortgage industry.
Which type of Sales Rep are you? What is your daily take on life? Will you survive because you love what you do, or will you let this be the nail that closes the cover on the casket and kills your business?
Get over it! The Law is the Law. Move on. Live with it. 2 years from now you’ll have another battle to fight. Go out and produce business. There are so many other things to occupy your time. Go produce some business. Put a new tweet on twitter. Send a text to a realtor telling them how to do more business. TRUST ME! Everything will be ok!

The REAL secret

2011-04-19T11:18:00.000-07:00

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Here is the secret that you’ve been searching for for most of your life. The secret that will earn you riches beyond your expectations, beyond your dreams. It will show you the simple way to drive the biggest Mercedes or Rolls, the fastest Lamborghini, wear the coolest clothes, get invited to the best parties, and when you’re invited to any gathering, you’ll be the center of attention- always.

This secret is known by very few people and has been discussed, manipulated, scorched, pruned, beaten to a pulp and discounted by anyone who has tried it and yet failed. But the overwhelming people who read about this secret discount it completely. Those who think they understand it can’t believe in the simplicity of its’ value proposition. Oh, the hell with it.

The secret is that you need to change. You need to change what you think and do. You need to become different. You need to become something that you are not.

If I’ve gotten you to this point of my written thoughts, then maybe you want to learn a bit more.

There are three things a successful salesperson needs to do to be successful

1- Give away information. Tell everyone you know, everything you know, and the more you talk about your business to the people who can do business with you, the more better it will be for you. Yes, more better.

2- Ask for business. Sometimes you need to ask for it in a very direct way. Sometimes you need to be subtle. But you always need to be sure that everyone knows what you do and how you can help him or her accomplish their goals.

3- Be persistent. If you are not persistent, you will fail. If you are not persistent, you will find yourself “on the outs” of the success room.

Last hint. If you continue to do what you do and expect different results, you are insane, by definition.

Will tomorrow bring anything new for you? Only if you change!

For more information on how to change, call Ralph Lovuolo Sr., the Mortgage Motivator. He can be reached via email at Ralph@mortgagemotivator.com or by phone at 561-509-8425

Do It!

2007-02-11T11:27:00.000-08:00

He looked at me as if I had just asked him to pull out his thumbnails. The pain on his face was so amusing that I was visibly moved.

"Can't you just acknowledge that maybe I'm right about this?, I asked. " Won't you at least just think about it? All I want you to do is think about is what steps people need to take in order to reach goals. Is that so difficult?"

His answer was marvelous in it's simplicity, because I know he really meant it. "I've never had to do that before."

This was a sales meeting attended by half a dozen experienced salespeople. Some of them had been in the business over ten years. It was supposed to be my job to help get them excited. I was supposed to make them realize that the REFI boom which was filling their hours with new applications was only a temporary solution to a long range challenge. The challenge I proposed was "What will you be doing to earn money after the phone stops ringing, after people stop calling YOU?"

My opening remark received all kinds of responses. From "swimming in the backyard pool" to "playing more golf".

"Well", I acknowledged, "these are all fun filled ideas, but I need you to really direct your thoughts at the future and imagine how it will be. What I want to talk about is also something that you can use even now. What I want to discuss is the idea of setting and achieving goals; real goals; attainable goals. Goals that will help you all the time, not just when the phone stops ringing.

"So, how many of you set daily, weekly or monthly goals? And further, how many of you review those goals, amend them, think about them?"

Silence. Dead air. A void as complete as a sucked out black hole deep in space. Did I hit them with a two-by -four? Pained looks on otherwise blank faces.

"OK, let's start at the beginning. It's really simple. If it wasn't I wouldn't understand it myself. Goal setting is as simple as one-two-three, four-five-six. Goals have a set number of parts, all of which need to be included in the building or the house will fall.

One- Realize. Make real the realization. Make a real goal. Create a goal that you can attain. Make a goal that is so real that you can see it. Make a goal that is so real that you can feel it. Make a goal that is so real that you can feel all the good that comes from attaining it. Realize that attainment will produce an emotion of well being, and that is what we are really after. Reaching a goal produces a feeling only thought about, only imagined. Sure you think a goal is a physical thing, but it really isn't. A goal is the possession of a feeling that you only envisaged.

What emotion do you want to possess? You want the feeling that driving a big car will give you. You want the emotion that living in a ten thousand square foot house will give you. You want the emotion that being able to take a vacation every four weeks gives you.

Emotions are feelings, like happy, sad, anger, frustrated, excited or lonely. You can feel any of these if you chose. You can feel anything you want, if you try hard enough. It takes work. You can't just sit back and let the feelings wash over you. You need to take an action so you can possess them.

Two- Decide that you want it. Whatever it is, decide that it can be yours. Buy it without paying. The paying comes later. Do you know what you want? Do you know what you decided? Can you see it? Is it real? You can only have what is real to you. If it is only a dream, a ghost of a thought, then it will vanish as easily as smoke. Make a firm decision that THIS IS WHAT I WANT. Be sure you know it, not just in your head, but in your gut. Make sure that it is the most real thing you ever created.

Three- Write it down. This will make it more real than if it is just a thought. Writing things down make them appear in the reality portion of the mind. The reality portion allows us to see things as actual things, not just ideas. Writing allows us to think an idea out, become part of our being. In the writing you no longer can say that you just want to be rich, or you want to do a lot of business. Now it is time to write a specific thing, a specific place you want to be. Writing requires a specificity of thought.

Four- Take an action. by thinking and writing, you have coalesced your mind to be an action being. Now you need to make your body do what your mind has decided it wants. The pain in the action is immense, so prepare yourself for it. It is time to realize that all of the change which is necessary for you to be an actor is more than you probably realized.

For all of these things I have written a book which loan officers have found useful for over five years now. If you want a copy which will help you make goals and then follow through on them, fax me a note to 609-228-6686. The next move is yours.

The sales meeting was successful because people thought.

CLOSINGS ARE GREAT LEARNING EXPERIENCES

2007-02-11T11:09:00.000-08:00

Unless someone corrects my memory, this past Friday I spent more time at one closing that I have ever spent at any residential mortgage closing in my entire life. My wife and I sold our home of eleven years. If not for the professional people who surrounded me, it would have also been one of the most unpleasant and expensive days of my very short but exciting life.

The attorneys who attended this closing were most professional, the client/borrower was pleasant, attentive and signed every paper in the correct space. Questions were answered, money exchanged hands, some were profits, some were not. The mortgage broker broke my chops, was late, unprofessional, improperly prepared, under educated about the subject, unfamiliar with the programs, late, and late.

AN UNPLEASANT REMINDER

As I drove up to the building where the closing was to take place, I recalled a most unpleasant time during the year 1988 when I had a so-called partner in my mortgage company . Using no real names this person ("Him"), had hounded me for half my life or so it seemed, to allow him to open a netbranch of my company, and being short sighted, greedy, naive and most of all lazy to a fault, I allowed Him to talk me into this potentially disastrous arrangement. He was a mess, he had no redeeming values other than convincing me to believe that we would make a perfect marriage, and thereby make tons of money.

The partnership lasted less than thirty days.

I discovered, shortly after I had paid $5,000 to an attorney for drawing up a legal net branch contract, that Him had been given the right to take applications in an entire building that was being converted from a rental property to a co-operative like a condo, only different). All the closings needed to occur on the same day. That was the good news. The bad news was that the closings were to take place within 30 days of signing our contract. I asked Him to go to the building and take all of the applications in the next two days. He assured me that it would be no problem since the building manager was a close friend who knew every tenant/borrower. Liar/Liar pants on fire. He called me two days later to inform me that he was now working one very file and we would make it if I could find a lender. I did, that same day, find a local Savings and Loan which agreed to approve every application under certain guidelines. The President of the S&L was a close friend of mine and I guaranteed him there would be no problems. This promise was wasted, because there were nothing but never ending difficulties. Him never took the applications, never even contacted the building manager, except to call and leave a message once or twice.

I fired him in less than fifteen days from the signing of our agreement. As I parceled out the task of solving our challenge to close these loans, allowing each salesperson who worked with me to take a few applications each, we fulfilled our contract to close the loans on the appointed date. I hoped that none of that bad karma was left in the building as I took the elevator to the second floor. I took notice of a tastefully decorated hallway and an equally well appointed waiting area of the closing attorney this past Friday.

BACK TO MY CLOSING

Every staff member proved to be attentive, pleasant, knowledgeable, hardworking and helpful. I found out their qualities because I spent the entire day in that office. From 10:00 AM until 5:30 PM, with no lunch break, no coffee break, no potty break, nothing but argument and negotiation, non-stop(with the broker).

Trying to find some pleasantness in this quagmire of paperwork, I hoped that I would see some of my old mortgage broker friends. After all, I was on Long Island NY, my old stomping grounds, where I had my own office back in the late 80's.

No-one - not one person I knew showed up all day. And this was a busy attorney's office. As my closing was shuttled from one room to another so as to accommodate the closing schedule of the attorney whose office we were using, I expected to see at least one familiar face. Nada! I knew there were at least fifteen closings taking place that day, including purchases, refi's, seconds, B/C's, with room after room of borrowers, but not one mortgage company representative, not one gift basket, not one sign that any of these people had spent even one minute talking to someone in my business.

Where were you when your last client got the money that you worked so hard to get for them? Why didn't you let them at least thank you! Even if you have to arrange for the closing to be in your office.

Do it! Don't Just Think About it!

WHAT DOES YOUR SIGNATURE LOOK LIKE?

2005-08-23T14:06:00.000-07:00

I'LL BET it looks just like your competition. I'll be willing to bet there is very little difference between your company and the one down the street. I'll bet any aggressive, smart, one person operation, with the proper ideas, connections, and work ethic needed to put the ideas into effect, can look just like a company with twenty people. When I open the paper on Sunday, and see the listings for interest rates, there is no column to separate companies by size or quality of service.
My creative juices have been hard at work recently, trying to put together a SIGNATURE concept. A concept so innovative, so different, that maybe, just maybe, it hasn't yet been done. I hate it when people tell me there are no new ideas. It only challenges me to think more. To think of some new twist of marketing, some new thing to say to a client that has never been said before.
Your signature is as distinctive as you. You are one of a kind. The way you write cannot be duplicated. It is as distinctive as your genes, your physical make-up, your ability and your performance. If all of that is true, then why is your company's signature just like every other mortgage company? Why don't you try to separate yourself from the rest and stand out as a distinctive image?
When someone from your company, better yet, when YOU, walk into the door of a prospect, does the prospect think, "Oh, here's another Mortgage Company rep, just like the one that just left?" Have you taken even the slightest time to think of ways to separate yourself from the masses? There are hundreds of ways. Let me help you.
The most often thought of concept is the company logo. What does your company logo tell about you? What is different about it? How about Big Apple Mortgage Company. Can you think of ways to use that name to develop a signature. Sure, it has a relationship to New York City or Washington State. It is generally thought of to be red. It has a distinctive shape. I t has a distinctive odor.
Why not have all the company paper be a light green or red? Why not have a watermark of an apple on the paper? Why not have a company logo in the shape of an apple? Why not a red ink pen for your personal signature? You don't like red? Try green! Why not ties with apples on them, or apple wine with your company's logo on it? Should any of these to be given as gifts to your clients? Why not have lapel pins for every salesperson in the shape and color of an apple. Why not monthly, quarterly and annual awards to employees in the shape of an apple. Why not the award being the Apple polisher of the month; the person who best exemplified the concept of service? Why not have the rate sheet be printed on green paper with red ink? Ink that would have the scent of apples? I have it available now thru a company I repre"scent". Why not have an award to the office who gives you the most business each month? Why not invite the staff of the company that gives you the most business to an apple wine tasting party every month? Every Quarter? There are endless possibilities. As part of my service, to you, if you want to have a telephone conference to discuss these or other ideas, I have recently started a telephone conference consulting program. You can call me to set up an appointment, to have me consult with you, via telephone. When you call, we will discuss my fee. You know I can help you, all you need to do is call.
My cousin Denny, who happens to be one of my closest friends, the brother I never had, is the Eastern Regional Manager for a National Coffee company. We have often, during the past few months, discussed how the smell of coffee brewing is one of the most pleasant odors that people smell. My recent writing was reinforced in an episode of the TV show WINGS, which had a segment showing a game of Trivial Pursuit. The question was "Which of the senses is most associated with memory" the answer- smell. AMAZING!
Isn't there some way for you to use the five senses to your advantage?