Paul

Ninety percent of this business is about showing up. Showing up on time. Returning that call on time. Being on time. My company logo is the Minuteman, named after the Massachusetts minuteman law of 1645, which required “every company commander to have 30% of his unit ready with full packs, ammunition, etc., and capable of turning out for active duty on a half hour’s notice”. Ok, so I’m not indifferent about the subject. Here comes the rant.

Three out of every four of the buyer’s call captures I return and talk to are willing to set an appointment with my LO by the end of the call. I don’t believe that’s because I’m particularly gifted on the phone [I’m not], I believe it’s more a product of the fact that the call is returned exactly ten minutes after the inquiry. And so this success is a direct result of being on time.

I don’t take appointments for loan aps outside of the office anymore, but when I did, I would always get to the appointment a few minutes early, park my car around the corner and wait to drive in and show up exactly on time.

If I say I’ll call you at 12:30 PM then that means I won’t call you at 12:29 or 12:31 PM. Your phone will ring at 12:30 PM with my number on the other end.

I’m not perfect, but I’m on time. I believe this is fundamental to being a professional and builds trust with your client and future referral source. Having said all of the above let me share something with you that happened on Friday.

Friday I make an appointment for one of my LOs with a potential new client to discuss financing for a PMM. I tell the client, my LO will call you in the next thirty-minutes. The LO is sitting next to me as I’m setting this telephone appointment and I give the LO the lead.

Forty-five minutes later, I ask the LO how the call went.

He tells me he hasn’t called him yet.

What are your thoughts about being on time? Does anyone here work banker’s hours?

Everyone always overreacts. The housing frenzy gets carried away one way…and then the other. Many buyers are sitting on the sidelines watching and waiting to see when the bottom hits, but of course, we learn when that was after the fact.

Don’t confuse this author with someone slinging NAR propaganda. I’m more along the lines of doom and gloom myself. I believe the trend for real estate values is on the slippery slope downward. I also believe it’s a great time to buy. After all, you’re not buying an index of home values; you’re buying a house. Let me type about the short sale.

We have a FSBO sign program with the call capture. People call the 800# and hear a recorded message describing the property and the price. After that, they have the option of connecting to a loan officer. Most people hang up at that point and don’t connect through to the LO. I’m sent a text message that someone called and hung up. I’ve volunteered to call back the hang ups for my LOs [I’ll return to my room at the Ivory Tower in the future when the housing market is at peace].

The callers are generally a mix of neighbors, realtors, and some buyers on the sidelines who are curious about the market. Here’s how a typical callback goes:

Buyer: Price is too high, not interested.

Buyer: I’ve already been pre-approved by my bank.

(buyer is trying to exit the call at this point)

Me: Are you familiar with the real estate term ‘short sale’.

Buyer: No.

I explain.

They like it.

I get them to my LO for a pre-approval.

Not to make this post too long, but here is an example of one of our short sales. The home is in a $200,000 neighborhood. Here is the payoff of the loan at $170,427.83. The short sale payoff is $92,000. This buyer is buying this home for $92,000 and the lender is forgiving the remainder.

If that doesn’t get your buyers off the sidelines then I don’t know what will.

Posted by Paul - Seller Helps Buyer

Today the laws for mortgage brokering and lending in the great state of Florida were changed. Chapter 494 F.S. was amended and penalties of $5,000 per offense were added for violations beginning October 1, 2007. There are a number of changes regarding disclosure and other procedures. I’m not going to write about all of the changes here in this article, although I will write about something that I find alarming.

The law has been changed, yet a great number of Florida mortgage brokers/loan officers are unaware of the changes. Virtually every Florida loan originator I talked to outside of my company either didn’t know there was a change, or heard there was a change but didn’t know the details. One of these individuals I spoke to, who didn’t know about the changes to Florida law, was a branch manager for a huge net branch in Florida! This makes no sense to me. This is insane!

OK, anyways, I could type this rant and make it pointless or I could do something about it. Seeing that I’m the owner of a Florida mortgage company and held my own compliance seminar last week, I thought I’d share this forty-minute video to inform any Florida mortgage brokers or loan officers of the changes so they wouldn’t be walking around blind.

Florida Mortgage Compliance Video

Disclaimer: The video is a recording of the compliance seminar I held in my office last week and can’t be relied upon as compliance or any other advice for originators outside of my employ.

Sorry folks, I don’t have time for a long post, I’m in the middle of this mortgage-nuclear-war. Yes, that’s right, I have a mortgage company in Florida, and now I’m on the front lines in this battle. Good thing the problem is contained to subprime. lol Hey, but let me quickly share with you this anecdotal story to highlight the cliché of “it’s funny how times change”.

As you know from prior posts, I’ve created a couple of brands last year to provide healing for what was anticipated to be a pending bear-market for housing. Now, a year and a half ago, one of my LOs called a realtor friend and explained one of these bear-market programs.

The realtor laughed and responded: “If it gets that bad, I’ll let you know” and then hung up. My disappointed LO relayed the message back to me.

Last week, another one of my LOs did a presentation in a realtor’s office about the same program. Not only did the realtors love the program, they want to market it for my LO!

So, it’s funny how times change.

Hang in there everyone. This is where it gets fun.

Posted by: Paul - Seller Helps Buyer