What Realtors Want (and Why You Should Care)
Most loan officers who are trying to build their purchase market business say that their biggest problem is that they don't know enough Realtors who refer business to them.
The most important thing to understand about this dilemma is that every Realtor in your market who is doing any business at all -- already has at least one lender that they refer business to.
If you look at this from a Realtor's point of view, you'll see that they have no particular incentive to talk to you or get to know you. They already know what you want – you want them to send you business. Why should they do that if they already have at least one lender who is, generally speaking, meeting their needs? And if they have no incentive to send you business right now, why would they want to waste their time listening to your "pitch"?
There are only two ways a Realtor would have an incentive to talk to a lender they don't already have a relationship with:
What Do Realtors Want?
There are two kinds of things Realtors want:
Let's address these separately.
The things they want (and know that they want).
When Realtors are surveyed about what they want from lenders, 4 things consistently show up at the top of the list:
1. Reliable Prequals/Preapprovals. A successful Realtor does not want to waste time with a buyer prospect who cannot qualify for financing, but Realtors also don't want to miss opportunities because a loan officer didn't know how to help a borderline borrower become qualified.
When the time comes to make an offer on a property, Realtors want a Preapproval letter that will inspire confidence in the Seller and the Listing Agent. This is particularly critical these days, when many markets have relatively low inventories and there is competition for the best properties.
Loan officers who are not in the top 10-20% of the Competency Curve, when it comes to being able to make their judgment stick on a Prequal, will find it very difficult to make much headway with the Realtors in their market.
2. Reliable On-Time Closings. The word "accountability" gets thrown around a lot these days. When you have prequalified or pre-approved a homebuyer, being accountable means that you take personal responsibility for everything you and your company do once a purchase contract is signed. Loan officers who are serious about accountability will do whatever it takes to see to it that everyone in their organization who touches that loan file does so promptly, and without error. When a Realtor sends you a contract, that contract is the product of many hours of work on the part of the agent and the borrower (your client). There is absolutely nothing that will infuriate a Realtor more than doing all of that work and having it fall apart because of incompetent lender. Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately for you), there are far too many incompetent lenders operating in the marketplace today.
3. Better Communication. Realtors want you to keep them informed on the status of the loan approval. They would prefer not to have to hunt you down in order to get that status. They live in a state of constant anxiety about getting bad news from a lender on a transaction. Not hearing from you only exacerbates that anxiety.
It goes without saying that Realtors expect you to return their calls. Yet somehow, having lenders return calls always seems to show up at the top of surveys measuring what Realtors want from loan officers. Realtors and their buyers do most of their work at night and on weekends – they don't keep banker's hours. I understand why loan officers want and need to have time for their families and personal lives. But somehow, you must find a way to accommodate Realtors' need of to get a quick answer when they are out in the field with a buyer.
4. Lead Generation Help. What Realtors have often meant by this in the past is that they want their lender to help them pay for their marketing. There are obviously RESPA requirements that must be carefully considered if you are thinking about doing something like this. But beyond that, you must consider the strong probability that the reason the Realtor is looking for help with lead generation is that their marketing is not working well in the first place. Unfortunately, Realtors generally do not have great respect or confidence in loan officers' sales and marketing expertise (and they tend to have an exaggerated sense of their own). This goes to the more fundamental question of what you do to convince a Realtor that you know at least as much about sales and marketing as he or she does.
The most important thing to understand about this dilemma is that every Realtor in your market who is doing any business at all -- already has at least one lender that they refer business to.
If you look at this from a Realtor's point of view, you'll see that they have no particular incentive to talk to you or get to know you. They already know what you want – you want them to send you business. Why should they do that if they already have at least one lender who is, generally speaking, meeting their needs? And if they have no incentive to send you business right now, why would they want to waste their time listening to your "pitch"?
There are only two ways a Realtor would have an incentive to talk to a lender they don't already have a relationship with:
- They are unhappy with the loan officer they have (that is, they believe that loan officer has recently blown one of their deals, or is in some other way providing unsatisfactory service). On any given day, a small percentage of Realtors in your market will – at least temporarily – be feeling that way about their current loan officer.
- They believe there is a strong possibility that you could offer them more than they are currently getting from the lender they already have. But be advised that it will take more than your verbal claim to convince them that this "strong possibility" exists.
What Do Realtors Want?
There are two kinds of things Realtors want:
- The things they want (and know that they want).
- The things they want, but don't yet know they want.
Let's address these separately.
The things they want (and know that they want).
When Realtors are surveyed about what they want from lenders, 4 things consistently show up at the top of the list:
1. Reliable Prequals/Preapprovals. A successful Realtor does not want to waste time with a buyer prospect who cannot qualify for financing, but Realtors also don't want to miss opportunities because a loan officer didn't know how to help a borderline borrower become qualified.
When the time comes to make an offer on a property, Realtors want a Preapproval letter that will inspire confidence in the Seller and the Listing Agent. This is particularly critical these days, when many markets have relatively low inventories and there is competition for the best properties.
Loan officers who are not in the top 10-20% of the Competency Curve, when it comes to being able to make their judgment stick on a Prequal, will find it very difficult to make much headway with the Realtors in their market.
2. Reliable On-Time Closings. The word "accountability" gets thrown around a lot these days. When you have prequalified or pre-approved a homebuyer, being accountable means that you take personal responsibility for everything you and your company do once a purchase contract is signed. Loan officers who are serious about accountability will do whatever it takes to see to it that everyone in their organization who touches that loan file does so promptly, and without error. When a Realtor sends you a contract, that contract is the product of many hours of work on the part of the agent and the borrower (your client). There is absolutely nothing that will infuriate a Realtor more than doing all of that work and having it fall apart because of incompetent lender. Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately for you), there are far too many incompetent lenders operating in the marketplace today.
3. Better Communication. Realtors want you to keep them informed on the status of the loan approval. They would prefer not to have to hunt you down in order to get that status. They live in a state of constant anxiety about getting bad news from a lender on a transaction. Not hearing from you only exacerbates that anxiety.
It goes without saying that Realtors expect you to return their calls. Yet somehow, having lenders return calls always seems to show up at the top of surveys measuring what Realtors want from loan officers. Realtors and their buyers do most of their work at night and on weekends – they don't keep banker's hours. I understand why loan officers want and need to have time for their families and personal lives. But somehow, you must find a way to accommodate Realtors' need of to get a quick answer when they are out in the field with a buyer.
4. Lead Generation Help. What Realtors have often meant by this in the past is that they want their lender to help them pay for their marketing. There are obviously RESPA requirements that must be carefully considered if you are thinking about doing something like this. But beyond that, you must consider the strong probability that the reason the Realtor is looking for help with lead generation is that their marketing is not working well in the first place. Unfortunately, Realtors generally do not have great respect or confidence in loan officers' sales and marketing expertise (and they tend to have an exaggerated sense of their own). This goes to the more fundamental question of what you do to convince a Realtor that you know at least as much about sales and marketing as he or she does.
Martin Cooper and his invention: the world's first
mobile phone
The Things Realtors Want, But Don't Yet Know
They Want.
How can someone want something and not know that they want it? If you're old enough to remember the first mobile phones, you'll recall that they looked something like the picture on the right ...
They were big, they were heavy, they were expensive, and the connection quality was often poor. But having one meant that you could make and receive phone calls even when you didn't have access to a landline. So people who knew they needed them, bought them.
If you were to ask users of these early mobile phones whether they would like their phone to be smaller and lighter than a wallet, to fit easily in their shirt pocket, to include Bluetooth technology which would allow them to make and receive calls "hands-free", to be able to take pictures with their phones, to be able to access the Internet with their phones, to be able to send and receive e-mails and text messages with their phones, and even to be able to watch a movie on their phones, and to cost a fraction of what they had paid for their big, bulky, unreliable mobile phone, these people would look at you like you were crazy.
But obviously, if you could have convinced them that these innovations were possible, and asked them if they would like these features, the answer, of course, would have been a resounding "Yes!"
Imagine what it would be like if you could offer Realtors something that would be an improvement (over what they get now from their lender) comparable to the difference between the first mobile telephones and today's cell phones.
Do you think Realtors would talk to you then?
That's the focus of my online seminar:
They Want.
How can someone want something and not know that they want it? If you're old enough to remember the first mobile phones, you'll recall that they looked something like the picture on the right ...
They were big, they were heavy, they were expensive, and the connection quality was often poor. But having one meant that you could make and receive phone calls even when you didn't have access to a landline. So people who knew they needed them, bought them.
If you were to ask users of these early mobile phones whether they would like their phone to be smaller and lighter than a wallet, to fit easily in their shirt pocket, to include Bluetooth technology which would allow them to make and receive calls "hands-free", to be able to take pictures with their phones, to be able to access the Internet with their phones, to be able to send and receive e-mails and text messages with their phones, and even to be able to watch a movie on their phones, and to cost a fraction of what they had paid for their big, bulky, unreliable mobile phone, these people would look at you like you were crazy.
But obviously, if you could have convinced them that these innovations were possible, and asked them if they would like these features, the answer, of course, would have been a resounding "Yes!"
Imagine what it would be like if you could offer Realtors something that would be an improvement (over what they get now from their lender) comparable to the difference between the first mobile telephones and today's cell phones.
Do you think Realtors would talk to you then?
That's the focus of my online seminar: