Interview with a Winner:
Linda Davidson
Service First Mortgage, Garland, TX
2003 Sales Volume: $56 million (560 units)
2004 Sales Volume: $47 million (450 units)
Average Loan Amount: $100,000
Software: Point (processing), ACT (database), Outlook (Calendar), Mortgage Coach (mainly move-up clients)
Referral Source Mix: 33% past clients, 56% Realtor-based, 11% other (builders, insurance database, financial planners, sphere of influence, etc.)
Boni Lonnsburry: How long have you been in the mortgage business?
Linda Davidson: I've been in this business for seven years.
Boni Lonnsburry: And how did you get started?
Linda Davidson: My stepmother was a Realtor and my father had been a loan officer for a short period of time. I was an operations manager for a chain of retail stores for 10 years. The chain was having financial problems, so I started looking around for a new job. I hadn’t interviewed for many years and was out of practice. My dad thought I’d be good as a loan officer because of my accounting background and love of people. He knew a guy who trained new loan officers. So I went and interviewed with this guy for the interview practice. I had no real intention of becoming a loan officer because the idea of 100% commission scared the living daylights out of me.
I ended up leaving the interview knowing that it was what I was supposed to do for the rest of my life. The interviewer had painted this picture of loan officers helping people fulfill their dreams. My husband was supportive and encouraged me to take a chance at it.
Boni: Were you an immediate success?
Linda: No, I was not (laughs). Those first two years I would cry on a daily basis. The processor hated my guts. On my first loan she told me that I needed the original contract. I had to run all over town trying to find it because it had been faxed so many times that I didn’t know who had the original!
However, coming into the business from a retail position was good because I was used to working outside the typical 8-5 business hours, and I had learned to work very hard. Also, as the operations manager, I wrote all the operations manuals. This turned out to be great experience for me to draw upon when I started putting business plans together. I knew how to chunk down day-to-day operations.
Boni: How did you begin to become successful?
Linda: My second year in the business I tied into the Duncan Group with Todd Duncan. It literally changed my life. It’s kind of funny how it happened...
When I started in the business, I didn’t tell anybody that I was new. For any question I couldn’t answer, I’d offer to get back to them within three hours and then would bug whoever I could for the answer. About five months into the business, I got asked to be on a “panel of experts” that were going to be interviewed by Realtors. I was so terrified that they were going to ask a question I didn’t know the answer to! But one of the others on the panel was an actual expert, and he was opening his own mortgage company. He worked for CTX at the time and he and I hit it off. We were in sync with our core values.
When he opened his company, my first company was having financial difficulties. So I went to work for him. We’ve grown the company for seven years and are now number five in the Dallas-Ft. Worth area.
We received a flyer from the Duncan Group regarding their Sales Mastery program. I didn’t think I had time to go because I had so much going on (a whole ten units a month). My boss told me that if I didn’t go, he would fire me. He was kind of joking but really not. He and I and two other loan officers in the company all went. It was an amazing transformation. Those three days that I was at Sales Mastery literally changed the course of my life. I don’t know if I would still be in the business today if I hadn’t gone.
I joined Building Champions, their coaching group, the next year. I’ve coached ever since with them. So those two groups have been a huge part of any success that we’ve had as individuals and as a company. They will continue to be a huge part of our success.
The neatest thing is that with Building Champions it is really more about life than it is about business. I’ve learned how to do business, but I was struggling with the life part because this business is so consuming. Most of my coaching sessions (I call them my therapy sessions) are more about life balance than about business. It has been really good for me to keep me balanced and focused.
Boni: What mistakes do you think new loan officers typically make?
Linda: They fail at consistency. They’ll pop into an office and then never show up again. Then they don’t understand why they aren’t being referred business.
Also, in Texas, as of five years ago, we didn’t even have to have a license to be a loan officer. Now we do, but the training is only two days. We handle the largest purchase of any transaction in our client's entire lifetime. It’s the biggest financial decision they are ever going to make. But so many loan officers don’t know their craft! Would you go to a doctor who doesn’t know medicine? Would you go to an attorney who didn’t know the law? I see so many loan officers come into this business totally clueless and then they are not even willing to get out there and study and learn. Even after seven years I am still spending five to ten hours a week reading about the craft. Whether I’m learning about loan programs, or leadership, or teamwork, or whatever – It amazes me that other people don’t do the same.
I had a loan officer come by last week who had been in the business for six months. She didn’t know how to fill out a 1003! She was blaming her company but I told her it was her fault. I don’t care what company you work for, there is no excuse for not learning your craft. And it’s not your company’s responsibility to teach you; it is your responsibility to learn.
I also see a lot of guys who are so into rates. Everything is “I have the lowest rate for this; I have the lowest rate for that.” But it's not all about rates. It's really about being the expert, being consistent and fulfilling your promises.
Boni : What about veteran loan officers? What mistakes do you think they typically make?
Linda: The biggest thing I see with veterans is taking their referral sources for granted. It’s terribly easy to do. We forget to nurture our referrals; we don’t tell them “thank you,” we don’t let them know how much we appreciate them. We take them for granted. But it takes a lot of time to replace a referral source.
In our team, we literally have it in our business plan to not take our referral sources for granted. I handwrite two thank you cards every single day to somebody who has impacted my life for the day or sent us a pre-qualification or whatever. Once a quarter we meet with all our referral sources to ask them how we can help them, how we can make the partnership better. My marketing director calls the buyer’s agent for every contract we get in to let them know how much we appreciate the business. After closing, she calls to find out how we did and if there was anything we could have differently.
When I hear a loan officer say that they "hate" Realtor business because Realtors are so hard to work with, I just don’t understand them. I love my Realtors. They’re my friends. I know what is going on in their lives. I think that is something most loan officers don’t do, whether they are newbies or veterans. They fail to get to know their referral sources as people. I understand that if I tell one of them that I can close a loan, it impacts their lives. That is how they are going to pay their next house payment, their utility bill, the college tuition, the car payment. It isn’t just money to them, it is their livelihood. They have entrusted my team, literally, with their next mortgage payment. That is one of the biggest things I teach my team. Each transaction is not just a loan – don’t say “yes” to a loan we can‘t do - because the Realtors depend on us following through.
Boni: What else do you think differentiates you from other loan officers, Linda?
Linda: About three years ago, we began marketing ourselves as "the experts." There are times when we encounter questions we don’t know how to answer, but we will definitely find out the answers as soon as possible. We offer training in our office three times a month for Realtors. We also hold seminars for our past clients. For example, in February we had a CPA come in to teach them about taxes. I had a financial advisor come in April to teach them about retirement. We have a credit repair person scheduled in September to teach our Realtors and past clients about credit repair. Even if we are not personally teaching a class, we’re still hosting it. We may have five to fifty people show up, but it’s all the same to us. It reinforces our reputation as the experts.
Boni: How do you market your seminars to your past clients and referral sources?
Linda: We stay in touch with our past clients 26 times a year: 20 times by email, 4 times by newsletter, and 2 times with a tax related letter.
Of the 20 times by email, 12 times we use our In Touch Today Digital Newsletter. We include a trivia question at the bottom of our newsletter email each month. The first two people to respond to the trivia question get a gift certificate to a local restaurant.
For the four newsletters we send out by mail, I always include what is called a “from the heart” section. I talk about something personal that is going on. I just wrote about my dog dying, and the time before one of the girls in our office had a husband with a kidney transplant so we talked about the miracle of life and the gift of organ donation. I’ve talked about my son going away from college and how difficult that was. Personal stuff because people love to do business with people.
With our Realtors, we stay in touch with them weekly through the Barry Habib Mortgage Market report. They also get a calendar about the following week’s training every Thursday.
Boni: How do you use the Mortgage Coach software in your business?
Linda: We typically use it with our higher end, move-up clients. We’ve also joined forces with a couple of local builders and use it with their clients.
In Texas, we have different requirements on loans when it comes to cash out. We have to leave 20% equity in our homes. We’ll use Mortgage Coach to illustrate a debt consolidation scenario, but there just aren’t many people who have 20% equity in their homes. So I’m sure people in other states could use Mortgage Coach more than we do. If I could go up to 100% in cash out, then I’d use it all day long. We typically will use it to compare interest-only versus three-one ARMS versus 30-year-fixed loans for our repeat clients.
Boni: If you had a son or daughter entering the business, what advice would you give them?
Linda: My son will be graduating next year from college with a business major. He’s choosing between going to law school and entering the mortgage business. I’m keeping my mouth shut, but you know where my preferences lie. He would be so phenomenal. I want him to do it because he wants to, though, not because I'm pushing him. You can't be in this business without really wanting to be in it.
If he decides to enter the business, I would tell him to learn something new every single day. One of the things I learned is that if you don’t start with a life plan and a business plan, you’re going to be all over the map. In our office, we have what we call “non-negotiable daily disciplines.” In our business plan, we have put in place disciplines that are done every single day, without fail, unless you die. These are things we’ve determined will both bring business through the door as well as ensure our quality of life. So the NNDD's are followed by each team member every single day. Regardless of whatever else happens in the day, we are not to leave work until those are done.
I would make him write a life plan and a business plan and I would set in place his non-negotiable daily disciplines for each day. One of them would have to be learning more about the craft every day. For example, learn a new product every single day, read about leadership, etc.
Boni: What was your most successful marketing campaign?
Linda: This business is a journey, not a sprint. One of the things I’ve seen in the business so many times is that we want to find the “magic cure." We want one marketing strategy that will change our lives forever. And that just isn't out there.
The biggest thing we have done in our business is to stay in touch with our Realtors twice a week, educating them and becoming the experts.
However, something else we’ve done this year with the market being so soft is really push a $999 move in. I could do a zero move in, and we would have room in the appraisal to do that. However, if we advertise zero move ins, we end up with people who don’t even have earnest money. So we advertise $999 move ins. We've done a lot of advertising in that vein and it has been really successful for us because our main market is folks buying $100,000 homes.
I want to caution everyone that if your market is not such that the sellers are willing to contribute in order to make their houses sell, then this won’t work for you. However, if houses just aren’t moving without buyer incentives, then this is the way to go. Last year, 40% of FHA loans closed with down payment assistance. So a home seller can open their market to 40% more buyers by helping them with the down payment.
Basically, you have to be creative in the marketplace that you’ve been handed for the year.
Boni: Who or what was the biggest contributor to your success?
Linda: Definitely the Duncan Group, Building Champions, my husband, and Shawn Broussard, the president of our company. He and my husband are my biggest cheerleaders. They encourage me daily. Our goal is to close 1500 units per year by 2008. I can not lose site of that goal and they are great at helping me when I’m feeling frustrated. I appreciate that so much.
Boni: If you had a magic wand, what would you change?
Linda: Right now, one of the few nice things about the softer market is that a lot of the refinance “babies” are going away. They don’t know how to do purchase loans, so they are leaving the business one by one. Sometimes you have to have a cleansing in order to move forward as an industry. That has actually been kind of a good thing – getting rid of some people who had no business being in the market.
I’m very impatient, so I’d love to wave that magic wand and meet the 1500 unit goal today. But I understand that this is a journey, not a sprint. You have to build on your pillars of business every year. Make sure they are deep and strong. That is how you grow your business.
Boni: Is there anything else you’d like to add to your goals?
Linda: That every loan never closes late and never closes ugly. Also, I'd like to reach our goal of 1500 units per year while maintaining the quality of life for every team member. I'd also like to turn my key team members into industry leaders.
Boni: What else would you like to share with originators who would love to have the kind of success you’ve created?
Linda: Be persistent. Determine that you are going to be the best and then do it. Raise the bar for yourself every single day. Create and do your non-negotiable daily disciplines. If you and I were on a plane and the mechanic who checked the plane before the flight was too busy to follow his checklist, then you and I could crash because he was too busy. Your business could crash if you aren’t doing your non-negotiable daily disciplines every single day. You are not just a loan officer; you are in the business of fulfilling dreams daily. That should be taken seriously and our daily actions should reflect that commitment.
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
