In this week's episode, John and Bryan begin another two-part episode series where they are discussing the three key things that Loan Originators can do right now to grow their business in a shifting market. In part one, the guys touch on the changing market and mortgage rates before bringing us our first tip - "building a fortress." As rates begin rising to levels we haven't seen since 2009, one sign that the market is shifting is that we are starting to see fewer buyers in the market. Bryan suggests that if you are a current seller, you probably missed the top of the market by 4-6 weeks. However, Bryan encourages Loan Originators to remain positive; "it's not all doom and gloom." Building a fortress around what you have is the first thing that you should be doing in the market. It is made up of two pillars. Building a fortress around your existing referral partners, and then the buyers you are pre-approving. "Regardless of the market, you should always be doing this. Come up with a plan of how you plan on connecting with your top realtors Monday through Friday so that you can keep building those relationships, don't wait for them to come to you with a referral," says John. Building a fortress around the borrowers that you are pre-approving is important because it is taking longer for borrowers to find a home. Having a weekly check-in with them over the 6-12 weeks it's taking to find a home will keep them well informed and connected. It shows that you care, which is what this business is all about. Your co-hosts are Bryan Lovell, National Director of Business Growth at VanDyk Mortgage, and John Jones, Florida Regional Manager at VanDyk Mortgage. Bringing you the latest insights into the home industry! This Podcast is for Brokers, Lenders, Realtors, Clients, and those who want to create homebuying success. Check us out on social media: • Facebook: www.facebook.com/Contacts2Contracts • Website: ctcpodcast.co Bryan Lovell: • Personal Facebook: www.facebook.com/bryan.lovell.56 • Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/bryanlovellteam John Jones: • Personal Facebook: www.facebook.com/johnjonescb • Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/johnjonesvandykmortgage/ Disclaimer: This podcast is sponsored by VanDyk Mortgage Corporation NMLS# 3035 | nmlsconsumeraccess.org | Equal Housing Lender | VanDykMortgage.com | 2449 Camelot Ct. SE, Grand Rapids, MI 49546 | 888-482-6395
In this week's episode, John and Bryan are joined by Stephanie Alfonso of Elm Street Technology, in the second part of our two-part series. In this episode, Stephanie shares how to ensure your social platforms are producing lead-generating content as well as how often you should be posting. One of the main things to look at with your social media content is how are you posting it. Stephanie tells us that it must be done as an optimized post so that your traffic links back to you. Her goal is to ensure agents are receiving a gated marketing experience to keep everyone under the same umbrella of your business. Creating an audience is a job in itself and with the help of Stephanie and Elm Street, they create automation for agents and put them on weekly blog articles posting on their behalf whenever they experience success. Stephanie recommends that an agent's content should be posted 2-3 times a week. "You want to remain consistent, not constant." Bryan asks Stephanie how relative twitter is in terms of a business tool, or as a lead generation tool and she responds by letting us know that the number one demographic on Twitter is a millennial. You need to put your business in front of them and consider the amount of exposure you could be receiving to the first-time homebuyer through that platform. Another platform Stephanie recommends utilizing is LinkedIn. This is the number one agent-to-agent referral platform and can help you grow your business all over the country. Agents in Florida should be connected to agents up north because of how many people move down south. "Work smarter, not harder" suggests Stephanie. You can reach Stephanie at her email here, or at Elmstreet.com Your co-hosts are Bryan Lovell, National Director of Business Growth at VanDyk Mortgage, and John Jones, Florida Regional Manager at VanDyk Mortgage. Bringing you the latest insights into the home industry! This Podcast is for Brokers, Lenders, Realtors, Clients, and those who want to create homebuying success. Check us out on social media: • Facebook: www.facebook.com/Contacts2Contracts • Website: ctcpodcast.co Bryan Lovell: • Personal Facebook: www.facebook.com/bryan.lovell.56 • Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/bryanlovellteam John Jones: • Personal Facebook: www.facebook.com/johnjonescb • Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/johnjonesvandykmortgage/ Disclaimer: This podcast is sponsored by VanDyk Mortgage Corporation NMLS# 3035 | nmlsconsumeraccess.org | Equal Housing Lender | VanDykMortgage.com | 2449 Camelot Ct. SE, Grand Rapids, MI 49546 | 888-482-6395
In this week's episode, John and Bryan are joined by Stephanie Alfonso of Elm Street Technology, in the first of another 2-part episode series. Stephanie begins by telling us about the company and shares the different marketing techniques that Elm Street offers primarily geared toward social media. Stephanie is a National Business Development Consultant for Elm Street Technology where she travels around the country to different MLSs and associations to train different marketing strategies for agents. She tells us that their focus is to bring solutions to agents, brokers, and lenders to establish relationship-building businesses. They help create websites, social media content, blogs, and much more. Stephanie tells us that Elm Street is 100% educational and when she holds workshops or classes if people realize the information is valuable but don't have the time to put it into practice, that is when you can hire her to leverage your business. Later in the episode, Bryan asks Stephanie to give us a few tips and tricks for social media and the number one tip she gives us is to make sure everything we post is self-branded, she goes on to explain this concept in depth before finally encouraging mortgage professionals to post in the 80/20 rule. 80% of your content should be adding value to your audience, and 20% should be business-related information. Most people that follow you are not interested in real estate right now, but when they are ready, you will be at the top of their minds. You can reach Stephanie at her email here, or at Elmstreet.com Your co-hosts are Bryan Lovell, National Director of Business Growth at VanDyk Mortgage, and John Jones, Florida Regional Manager at VanDyk Mortgage. Bringing you the latest insights into the home industry! This Podcast is for Brokers, Lenders, Realtors, Clients, and those who want to create homebuying success. Check us out on social media: • Facebook: www.facebook.com/Contacts2Contracts • Website: ctcpodcast.co Bryan Lovell: • Personal Facebook: www.facebook.com/bryan.lovell.56 • Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/bryanlovellteam John Jones: • Personal Facebook: www.facebook.com/johnjonescb • Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/johnjonesvandykmortgage/ Disclaimer: This podcast is sponsored by VanDyk Mortgage Corporation NMLS# 3035 | nmlsconsumeraccess.org | Equal Housing Lender | VanDykMortgage.com | 2449 Camelot Ct. SE, Grand Rapids, MI 49546 | 888-482-6395
In this week's episode, John and Bryan are joined by a frequent guest to the podcast, Steve Richman, in the second part of our two-part series. How can you differentiate yourself in this market? John, Bryan, and Steve have some answers. Everyone knows that when Friday rolls around, we sometimes are already mentally checked out for the weekend. Being available on Friday is a big day to differentiate yourself. Bryan suggests that placing triggers in your workday that force you to stay focused and put in a full day is one way to stay on track. Most people don't take calls on the weekends, however, if you place a few calls Friday afternoon telling agents you are available and willing to talk throughout the weekend they will remember that. They might not be calling you right away, but a few weeks down the line, you will be top of mind to them when they need someone on a Saturday. "This isn't the market to not be available on the weekends," says Bryan. Another imperative method of gaining business is social media. You have to stay on top of it and create a plan to stay consistent. Consistency is key. Steve suggests creating a monthly schedule with 5 categories, one for each day of the week, and then filling each of those categories with 4 different stories. You have to make your social media not about you, but about the customer. When it comes to social media you can't expect someone to do it for you, the message has to come from you in order to make it personal. Just like you don't hire someone to represent you at a networking event, you can't hire someone to represent you on social media. Lastly, on the topic of social media, Steve tells listeners that video content is king. By creating content with videos, you are making a difference because people are able to see you instead of just reading about you. It becomes real to them. Lastly, Bryan mentions that whenever you save a deal or figure out a difficult deal, you have to be posting about it on social media, and make sure people see what you are capable of by sharing your accomplishments. Your co-hosts are Bryan Lovell, National Director of Business Growth at VanDyk Mortgage, and John Jones, Florida Regional Manager at VanDyk Mortgage. Bringing you the latest insights into the home industry! This Podcast is for Brokers, Lenders, Realtors, Clients, and those who want to create homebuying success. Disclaimer: This podcast is sponsored by VanDyk Mortgage Corporation NMLS# 3035 | nmlsconsumeraccess.org | Equal Housing Lender | VanDykMortgage.com | 2449 Camelot Ct. SE, Grand Rapids, MI 49546 | 888-482-6395
In this week's episode, John and Bryan are here to talk about what the market looks like for loan officers and realtors in 2022. In this episode, the guys talk about why it is important to compare your business strategies from 2019 to now. What were the good habits that you practiced versus the bad ones that made your business successful? Bryan suggests that loan originators should be looking at the activities that they did prior to Covid-19 that made their business successful. He mentions that you should be reviewing your business plan and whatever metric you are using, should be compared back to pre-pandemic in 2019. This will allow you to have a good gauge of where you are at with business. It's important to notice how your habits have changed as an originator since 2019 says, Bryan. When the pandemic began everyone transitioned to work-from-home situations, which resulted in fewer interpersonal interactions. Bryan suggests that you should think about the last time you meet an agent somewhere or plan a lunch, if it's been a while then it's time to "shake some dust off." Being intentional about when you start your day will help you to maintain a regular schedule that can help change some of your bad habits. John suggests that right now while it is slow, it's a great opportunity to take the time to learn about a new product. There are a lot of loans out there for people so it's important to know what you are selling. Taking on the tough deals, rather than just the cookie-cutter ones will show that you know what you are doing. "You have to know what your competitors are selling if you want to be an expert." Maintaining a good database that you can revisit and see who you have stayed connected with or who you haven't will give you a good indication of who you have lost business from and who to touch base with. You have to stay in front of the agents who are actively sending you business, or they will use someone else. Your co-hosts are Bryan Lovell, National Director of Business Growth at VanDyk Mortgage, and John Jones, Florida Regional Manager at VanDyk Mortgage. Bringing you the latest insights into the home industry! This Podcast is for Brokers, Lenders, Realtors, Clients, and those who want to create homebuying success. Check us out on social media: • Facebook: www.facebook.com/Contacts2Contracts • Website: ctcpodcast.co Bryan Lovell • Personal Facebook: www.facebook.com/bryan.lovell.56 • Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/bryanlovellteam John Jones: • Personal Facebook: www.facebook.com/johnjonescb • Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/johnjonesvandykmortgage/ Disclaimer: This podcast is sponsored by VanDyk Mortgage Corporation NMLS# 3035 | nmlsconsumeraccess.org | Equal Housing Lender | VanDykMortgage.com | 2449 Camelot Ct. SE, Grand Rapids, MI 49546 | 888-482-6395