Every loan officer encounters people who want to buy a home, but cannot currently qualify. How you handle this kind of situation says a lot about both your character and your business sense.

Years ago (sensitivity about my age prevents me from saying just how many years ago), I was in a coaching session with Greg Frost, the nationally known top producer and speaker. We were discussing the fact that a significant percentage of his “prequal” customers had to be declined. He didn’t want to crush their hopes by just telling them “No,” (which spoke to his character). He also realized that some of these people would eventually get their financial houses in order, and he wanted them to come back to see him when they did (which spoke to his business acumen).

So we designed the “Don’t Give Up” form – a simple document outlining the steps a person would have to take to qualify for the loan amount they were seeking. Greg would fill out the form every time he had to turn someone down, and ask them to call him when they had followed the written plan he had given them.

A year or two after that first coaching session, Greg showed me a letter he had just received from a single mother who had received one of these forms from Greg, had followed his recommendations, returned to Frost Mortgage, and had just moved into her own home. The letter was a touching and heartfelt expression of her appreciation for Greg’s help. In it, she revealed that she had been turned down by other lenders before coming to see Greg. But her experiences with these other lenders left her feeling embarrassed and discouraged. In contrast, her meeting with Greg had given her hope. It had taken him less than 5 minutes of his time to fill that form out for her, but it had a dramatic impact on her life.

I’m sure Greg still has that letter, and many others like it.

Below, you can see what the modernized version of the Don’t Give Up form looks like. If you would like your own copy, just contact me and request the Don’t Give Up form. I’ll email it to you so you can save it to your hard drive and use it.