If you are a third party mortgage originator, appraiser, title agent or other vendor to the mortgage industry, there has never been a more critical time to get involved in the discussion. Case in point, take 2 minutes to read what Senator Merkley (D-OR) and a few of this buddies in the Senate think about loan originators:
Here’s the big news: NAMB is getting ready to officially announce major reductions on annual dues:
Professional Member (ie: mortgage broker/owner) – $120
Affiliate Member – $95
Associate/Loan Officer – $50
These are the prices that your local state affiliate will add on top of their annual dues. So, for example, if the Georgia Association of Mortgage Brokers charges $150 for a “Professional” annual membership, you’d add the $120 above and it would cost only $270 to belong to both GAMB and NAMB. By the way, Georgia originators, GA Senate Bill 57 is still out there and it needs to be addressed. GAMB is leading that charge.
If the cost of membership used to be your stumbling block, NAMB’s effectively eliminated this for you. We need to come together NOW – not for ourselves, but for the interests of consumers. If you’d like to join, please shoot me an email or leave a comment and I’ll make sure you get the VIP treatment.
I’d like to thank Jim Pair and Roy Deloach for listening to the people and doing what needed to be done. It’s a whole new ball game.
Mark is President of Top of Mind Networks, specializing in turn-key CRM solutions for mortgage professionals. He lives in Atlanta, Georgia with his wife Abby and daughter Amanda. Life is great.
Mortgage Revolution was fabulous. Perfectly imperfect. Real. Genuine. A Game Changer.
By now, I figured I’d have written 10 blog articles about the experience. But our Facebook Fan Page pretty much sums it all up.
Above all, what I think what we found at Mortgage Revolution was our voice. Now, when our industry comes under attack, we have an army at the ready. I thought I was finished blogging for the day… until I stumbled upon this video. Pure class. I think our Conan O’Brien is going to come from the Mortgage Revolution. Better yet, we’ll have hundreds of them around the country.
Mark is President of Top of Mind Networks, specializing in turn-key CRM solutions for mortgage professionals. He lives in Atlanta, Georgia with his wife Abby and daughter Amanda. Life is great.
I’ve been practically ignoring the Top of Mind Blog for the past month while preparing for Mortgage Revolution. I’ll talk more about MRev in another post later on.
Right now, I want to tell you about a company that is so freaking awesome, I just had to call them up at 6 am on a Saturday morning and keep the customer service guy on the phone for 45 minutes telling him what a fantastic company he works for. Needless to say, he agreed with me.
This company is called Eventbrite. (Full disclosure: I only endorse companies I like. I don’t receive any compensation in any manner whatsoever. This review is from the heart.) During the first 120 days of our MRev planning, it was complete and utter chaos. We were all just volunteers. None of us had ever put on a seminar before. The first paralyzing snafu occurred when we decided to incorporate as a nonprofit with the name “Mortgage Revolution” (all MRev profits go to charity) in the State of New York. There was so much red tape to go through, we didn’t end up receiving our incorporation documents for almost 6 months… which meant we couldn’t create a merchant account… which meant we couldn’t accept credit cards… which means we couldn’t pre-sell MRev tickets.
It’s kind of difficult to gauge how many people are going to attend your event when you can’t even sell them a ticket! Eventbrite solved this for us with a few clicks of my mouse. We created our event online – and Eventbrite handled all the ticket sales – even including the credit card function. Once the event is over, they wait 5 business days and cut a check for the proceeds to you. Now THAT’S easy.
One of the other really cool features of Eventbrite is their suite of communications tools. Let’s say you want to send a quick email to every registered attendee of your event… you can do this within Eventbrite in about 2 minutes. No managing a database. No worrying about getting blocked by SPAM filters. Just a clean, easy way of communicating critical details & news.
Bear with me here… there are a lot of other killer features I loved about Eventbrite. Perhaps my favorite: the ability to create “discount codes” on the fly. If I was on the phone with someone who wanted to come to MRev and needed some sort of group discount, I could click a button and build a special discount code just for that person (or group of people). You couldn’t imagine how handy this is until you start receiving the calls with one-off requests.
Okay, final thing… once you’ve created your event and determined how much you’re charging for tickets, Eventbrite creates a widget for you. You simply copy the embed code (just as simple as embedding a photo in a blog article) and drop it wherever you want it. Your promotional partners can do the same on their sites. This Eventbrite tool’s functionality knows absolutely no boundaries.
So if you’ve ever thought of hosting an event – say a first time home buyer seminar – and want to save yourself a world of pain… just create a free Eventbrite account and get to work. They make their money by attaching a nominal fee to each ticket sold (kind of like Ticketmaster!).
Mark is President of Top of Mind Networks, specializing in turn-key CRM solutions for mortgage professionals. He lives in Atlanta, Georgia with his wife Abby and daughter Amanda. Life is great.
I love this video by David Kuiper, one of the many killer speakers you’ll see at Mortgage Revolution. Short, sweet, and to the point. Have a great weekend.
Mark is President of Top of Mind Networks, specializing in turn-key CRM solutions for mortgage professionals. He lives in Atlanta, Georgia with his wife Abby and daughter Amanda. Life is great.
Here’s a video replay of today’s NAMB Webinar. We had some unfortunate technical difficulties, but overall I think the content is excellent and hope it helps answer some of your questions about the new GFE & RESPA guidelines coming down the pike. We’re planning on recording another follow up session in the next few days to answer even more of your questions.
Mark is President of Top of Mind Networks, specializing in turn-key CRM solutions for mortgage professionals. He lives in Atlanta, Georgia with his wife Abby and daughter Amanda. Life is great.
I was in the car this afternoon listening to a local talk show on WSB 750 AM. The talk show host took a call from a gentleman with some questions pertaining to his mortgage.
Subject Property: Home on 15 Acres. Bought in the early 80’s. Rural.
Loan Info: 30-Year Fixed, 6.5%
Borrower Information: Never missed a payment. Presumably credit-worthy.
The Situation:
The caller had been asking his bank for a loan modification, but had been rejected at every turn because he admittedly was not experiencing financial hardship and had no problem paying the mortgage each month. The talk show host correctly pointed out that there’s no law mandating banks entertain loan mods.
Next, the talk show host, again correctly, suggested the caller consider refinancing his property. The caller explained that he’d already looked at refinancing but the banks were only offering rates of 5.25% (1.25% below where he’s currently) – and they actually wanted to charge him almost $2,000 in fees for the transaction.
Here’s where I felt things got interesting. The talk show host then told the caller to make several phone calls:
1) To his local Credit Union and
2) To the “big box” banks
The talk show host never broached the concept of a break even point on the refinance. She never explained that, yes, there are typically fees associated with refinancing a mortgage transaction and what they cover. Never did the talk show host recommend shopping his loan with local mortgage brokers, even though it’s possible that’s where he’d find his best deal. The safe route was her to send her caller to a “big box”.
This is the mainstream media’s take on the mortgage industry, and it’s happening like this all over the country. I just happened to catch this 5-minute conversation during my 10-minute commute to work. I’m on the record as an ardent supporter of the ethical third party originator (brokers, regional mortgage bankers). I think it’s a critical channel, and when it’s working properly banks and consumers both win. But we must begin re-educating consumers about the value proposition mortgage brokers provide. It’s not up to the mainstream media. It’s up to all of us.
I hope to see you at Mortgage Revolution. We’re going to take our industry back.
Mark is President of Top of Mind Networks, specializing in turn-key CRM solutions for mortgage professionals. He lives in Atlanta, Georgia with his wife Abby and daughter Amanda. Life is great.
Before I became a Mortgage CRM guy, I was just another borrower. I remember distinctly a conversation I had with the loan officer I was using to finance a home in 2002.
Like many consumers, I’d been screwed in the past by an unscrupulous mortgage professional. Hey, unfortunately, it happens.
I’d been referred to this guy by our builder. He certainly seemed to know his stuff – but still, I wasn’t 100% comfortable with the process. Rates were highly volatile and I wasn’t sure if I should be floating or locking. My loan officer didn’t seem to have much of an opinion on the subject, which created even more uncertainty. I’ll admit it, I called him about 3x over a 10-day period to try and elicit his advice. During one of our conversations he told me something that still resonates to this day:
“Mark, there are three things I have to offer: price, service and ______ . Pick the two you want most and I can give you those, but you’re not going to get all three.”
I wish I could accurately remember what the third thing was but it’s not critical to my overall point. This seemed somewhat reasonable at the time, although it never felt good. This guy was busy and I was higher maintenance than most of his other clients.
When we stay in a 5-star resort, we know we’re getting top quality, but we’re also paying top dollar. When we stay at Motel 6, we know we’re getting the bare bones, but that’s what we’re paying for.
But where’s the law that states we can’t give our clients an elite product at low prices?
Just because we could charge a lot more for Surefire doesn’t mean it’s the right choice for our business. It’s a philosophical decision my partners and I made in the very beginning: make it easy for people to say yes – and exceed their expectations.
The guy who financed that home for me ultimately got the deal and delivered what he told me he’d deliver.
1) Was I satisfied?
Sure, I was satisfied. Would I become a raving fan? That’s the important question.
2) Did he get the next deal?
Actually no, he didn’t. We refinanced from a 30 year to a 15 year mortgage a couple years later and I started all over again. It isn’t like we don’t have enough mortgage companies here in Atlanta. In case you’re wondering – no, he didn’t deepen the relationship after we’d closed. He didn’t follow up.
The Point:
Your job is not just to win the deal. Well, not if you’re trying to find the holy grail – a residual-based business. Your job is to exceed all expectations as often as humanly possible – not just say that you’re going to do it. I’m not saying that you need to be the cheapest. But I am saying that there comes a point down the road where the client will need another mortgage – and whether or not you get the call largely depends on whether you’re simply meeting expectations or letting your client have their cake and eat it too.
Mark is President of Top of Mind Networks, specializing in turn-key CRM solutions for mortgage professionals. He lives in Atlanta, Georgia with his wife Abby and daughter Amanda. Life is great.
If you walk into a company-owned cell phone store to sign up for a contract, what are you worth?
Given the huge gross margins at AT&T and Verizon and the standard two-year contract, I think it’s easy to figure on more than $2000 in lifetime value.
If you ran a business where a customer represented an additional $2,000 in profit, how would you staff? How long would you make someone wait? If staff costs $25 an hour, how long would that extra person take to pay off?
Few businesses understand (really understand) just how much a customer is worth. Add to this the additional profit you get from a delighted customer spreading the word–it can easily double or triple the lifetime value.
So, a chiropractor might see a new patient being worth $2,500, easily. And yet… how much is she spending on courting, catering to and seducing that new customer? My guess is that $50 feels like a lot to the doc. Instead of comparing what you invest to the benefit you receive from the first bill, the first visit, the first transaction, it’s important to not only recognize but embrace the true lifetime value of one more customer.
Write it down. Post it on the wall. What would happen if you spent 100% of that amount on each of your next ten new customers? That’s more money than you have to spend right now, I know that, but what would happen? Imagine how fast you would grow, how quickly the word would spread.
Here’s how you’ll know when you’ve really embraced this–a good customer at your podiatry practice (or supermarket or tax firm) walks out the door in a huff and you turn to your partner and say, “There goes $74,000.”
Seth Godin blogs every day here and I think everyone should subscribe to his RSS feed. He is, quite simply, the best.
Mark is President of Top of Mind Networks, specializing in turn-key CRM solutions for mortgage professionals. He lives in Atlanta, Georgia with his wife Abby and daughter Amanda. Life is great.
While I am on the topic of LendingTree, I might as well mention that they removed their closed loan fee from their fixed filter leads. No more will lenders need to pay their hefty fee for every closed loan, but that does not mean the leads just got cheaper or your ROI is going up. Instead the up front fees went up to compensate for the change. Prices are now range from $20 to $100 per lead. Now let us not forget that you are paying for a long form lead, so with the premium prices you are getting additional data and hopefully a consumer with strong intent to borrow. This puts LT in a the same boat as their competitors with regards to upfront risk of buying a lead. Prior to this change a lender would have no problem paying a fee for a loan they profited on, but now to pay a premium with out the guarantee of closing the lead makes LT look a whole lot riskier for the new lenders coming aboard their network.
1) Lending Tree is abandoning the fee their clients pay when they close a loan (I’ve heard this fee can range from $700 to more than $1,000!).
2) Instead, they are increasing their fees on the front end. LeadCritic reports a range from $20 to $100. My guess is that for any type of quality, you’ll pay closer to $100 than $20, and that lead is STILL being sold to your competitors at the exact same time.
So let’s analyze the motivation behind this change, shall we? Do you think Lending Tree’s pricing change was created to benefit them or their clients? I’ll go out on a limb here and postulate that this pricing change will ultimately benefit Lending Tree. With the prospect of higher mortgage rates in 2010, it stands to reason that a) refinance activity will drop off a cliff and b) their volume of quality leads will decrease. The question becomes: how will Lending Tree adjust for this lost revenue? Better product or higher prices?
If you’re dependent on Lending Tree to fill your pipeline every month, and you haven’t been reinvesting into those relationships, you’ll be feeling the pain in your stomach that kept you up at night only 12 short months ago. Who is Lending Tree looking out for anyways – you or them?
I think we have our answer to that question. Again, if you are a lead gen shop and you’re doing a poor job deepening relationships on the back end and you think you’ve got things figured out – chances are good that you’ll struggle mightily in 2010 and beyond. Call us at Top of Mind and begin the shift from purchased leads to organic business. It won’t happen right away, but if you make minor changes in your marketing investments and behaviors today, you’ll look like a genius in 2011 and beyond.
Mark is President of Top of Mind Networks, specializing in turn-key CRM solutions for mortgage professionals. He lives in Atlanta, Georgia with his wife Abby and daughter Amanda. Life is great.
Short and sweet. Here’s a 3-minute video I created that shows how you can bring Linked In Network Updates into your Google Reader. Below the video, I’ve provided a few other helpful articles about Google Reader, just in case you aren’t on board yet. Sorry for the poor video quality when you maximize – still can’t seem to get this right!
Mark is President of Top of Mind Networks, specializing in turn-key CRM solutions for mortgage professionals. He lives in Atlanta, Georgia with his wife Abby and daughter Amanda. Life is great.
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