Loan Officers, it’s time to sharpen your skills!

Comments(0) By Mike Miller •March 2nd, 2009

As a professional loan officer over the last 22 years I have had many occasion to interact and manage a multitude of other loan officers. For those of you who remain in the business during these challenging times, I offer the following tips:

1) If you are not committed to learning about our ever changing mortgage market, you are doomed to fail. Clients need a reliable and knowledgeable source for loan information, if you are not that source, they will go elsewhere.

2) Now more than ever you need to put yourself in the shoes of the client. No matter what stage you are in the process with your client, understand that they are probably very concerned about the process, and how things are going. I would suggest you over communicate, because that builds trust and will keep everyone calm.

3) When you don’t know the answer, don’t fake it. Clients know that things have been changing fast, so just find out the answer and get back to them fast. It builds trust and you will never have to say you were mistaken.

4) Manage expectations better. Often times people don’t care if the loan is approved in 4 days or 5 days. So tell your clients it will be six days, and when it is “only” 5, you will look like a hero.

5) Don’t let anyone put you in a bad position. When I think of the most stressful times in this business, it is usually when we are doing a purchase loan, and the Realtor has written an offer with unrealistic contingency periods, and is asking you to perform. To be a real “partner” to agent, and the transaction, you need to be honest with them and get the contingency parameters lengthened, or else pass on the transaction. Don’t let them put you in the “stress zone”. These days desperate Realtors are doing crazy things to make deals happen, so be careful how you handle those situations.

6) Get every buying client pre-approved no matter what. With the underwriter. Anyone serious these days will wasn’t to know that they are fully approved, so help them get there. Just writing a letter on their behalf is of no value these days, for you, the Realtor, or the client.

7) Be faster than the Gazelle. A short mortgage sales story that I think about almost everyday goes like this, “Every morning in Africa a Gazelle wakes up. He knows that he must run faster than the fastest lion or he will be eaten. Every morning in Africa a lion wakes up. He knows that he must run faster than the slowest gazelle or he will starve to death. It doesn’t matter whether you are the lion or the gazelle, when you wake up in the morning, you better be running.”

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Filed Under: Loan Officer Tips