As we draw towards the end of April, it seems the more things change, the more they stay the same.

Huh?

Let me explain.

So far, we have been looking at some pretty heavy changes in the real estate world - the end of the Fed MBS purchase program, the coming end of the homebuyer credits (I'm thinking the end for real this time, anyone got news otherwise?), even more guideline changes to make qualifying harder, increases in the cost of the transactions (FHA upfront MIP, and in the summer, FHA will lower the amount allowable for seller concession/contribution), and the need to take course after course, test after test, so we can keep doing what we've been doing for years.

Even though there is all this change is coming at us like lane markers on the highway, ever notice that some things still stay the same?

Like the need to stay informed.  Keeping up on guidelines (though harder) is more important than ever.  The market is crazy and volatile (today was a TWO PRICE IMPROVEMENT day!).  Being informed is only half the battle - having the ability to inform others is the other half of the battle.  Today is a good day to see if you have updated your contacts in your COMPLIMENTARY subscription to Market Snapshot for your referral partners.  You can put up to 250 of your closest friends on your distribution list - and keep them up to speed with David Shirmeyer's top notch insight and advice.

So, while the world around us is busy, don't be too busy to take advantage of the stuff you already pay for.  And if you aren't an Executive RateAlert member with the complimentary subscription going out BRANDED to YOU, why are you waiting?

For today all, I'm done - have a great one!

Brian and I were at an event the other day and we were speaking to a Realtor that works for Keller Williams.  She was super excited to be with them because of how innovative they are.  One of the things she pointed out was that they offer coaching.  Their coaching is a little different with respect to how they get paid - the coach gets 10% of every closing.  Personally I think that’s pretty cool seeing how the coach’s pay is directly connected to the results of the person being coached.

So we asked her what the coach did for her.  I’ll make it short and sweet for you – even with all the technical innovations that are out there, the coach hammered her on “making her calls”.  It’s so interesting to me to make note of how sales has really never changed over the ages.  I read sales books almost every day to provide a sales tip for the TBWS Daily show, and I can tell you, it’s all about relationships and personal contact – that’s it.  The other thing that’s interesting to me is that in my 23 years in the mortgage sales industry, I’ve found that “personal contact” through “making calls” is the number one thing that salespeople don’t want to do – weird.

So all the sales greats say that we should make our calls and most of the salespeople in the world don’t do it.  Why?  This doesn’t make any sense.  Are all the sales teachers and coaches in the world wrong and all of the salespeople right?  Nope.  Based on my personal experience all of the coaches and teachers are 100% correct.  In mid 2006 I decided to get some coaching, so I could in turn coach the 50 loan officers I had working for me.  I found it with the Brian Buffini Company.

My coach had one thing in mind for me – make my calls (go figure).  The difference between me and most others is that I did it.  I wanted to see if there would actually be an increase in my business, so no matter how uncomfortable I felt about it, I picked up that phone and dialed.  I was making at least five calls a day for several months and tracking it.  The first thing I discovered is that literally everyone that I spoke to was very happy to hear from me – everyone.  No one was mad or irritated, they were genuinely glad to speak with me – weird.

The next thing I discovered was heartbreaking to me.  Within my first 50 calls or so, I realized that I had LOST about six deals within about a four month period from the people in my database.  These are my past clients, family and friends here.  Keep in mind, that although I wasn’t a “phone caller” I was very consistent with monthly mailers to stay in touch, and yet I still lost deals to my competitors.  Another startling discovery was the consistent responses from the people that “left me for someone else”.  I asked every one of them “why didn’t you give me a call? Have you been receiving my mailers?”  Their response was always something like “yeah, wow, I’m sorry.  I should have called you but “I was TALKING to this guy” and one thing led to another”.  Hmmm..  “Talking” to this guy?  Newsflash people – if you think for a second that your past clients, family and friends are 100% loyal to you even if you don’t make your calls – you’re simply being foolish.

The results were staggering.  During one of the most difficult times to generate business in our industry, I was originating and closing about six deals consistently every single month.  Now I know these numbers may not seem like much to some, but at that time in that market I was one of the top producers in my office and I was managing it.  I was watching good loan officer’s drop like flies around me as the market caved in around us and I was closing deals.  I did my best to coach them by encouraging them to make their calls.  I would show them my results as well, but mostly to no avail.  Only a few took heed to what I was doing, and guess what?  They are still in the business to this day.  All of the others fell away to leave the industry completely, why?  Because they didn’t have the guts to pick up the phone and simply “talk” to their past clients, family and friends and ask them for a referral – how sad is that?

Make your calls.

The sales tip on today's TBWS Daily show is really a great idea.  Napoleon Hill hits on the Master Mind concept pretty hard in chapter six of Think and Grow Rich.  Truth be told, we don't know it all, so if we really want to do something big we do need the help of others.  I would seek out (via referral) a small Master Mind team.  Get a Realtor, a CPA, a Lender, an Estate Attorney and an insurance person and you're good to go.

Then come up with an educational "Webinar" idea.  Work on it weekly together until you have the all the details penned out.  You can get an account at www.GoToWebinar.com pretty cheap, especially if your group shares the cost (why not, since you'll be doing these at least once a month right?).  Now you market the webinar via email to your databases, each to his own.  I would market it at least two or three times before the webinar.  These webinars can be set up so that when it's over, an email gets sent automatically to the participants.  This email of course would have the contact information for all of the "hosts" of the webinar, allowing the participants to make contact with them for their services.

It's a simple idea, but you need the right team. Remember, Hill tells us if we don't hit the "sweet spot" the first time, don't freak out.  Simply go back to the drawing board and keep what worked and re-tool what didn't.  Eventually you'll have a lead genertating machine on your hands.

Go for it.

Back in 2006 I had a wonderful method of generating leads.  I got more business from this than from my database or referral partners.  It literally kept me alive while my peers and the loan officers I was managing were dropping like flies around me.  Now with the TBWS video system it's even cooler than it ever was.  It's working "B2B".

Here is how it works in the traditional sense.  You pick up the phone book and start going through the yellow pages.  What you're looking for are the small "ma and pop" shops, not the big corporations.  You're looking for small businesses that could be a benefit to your referral partners, past clients, family and friends - your database.  I had a carpet cleaner, limo service, window tinting, small mexican restaurant, sport fishing adventure, maid service, bird removal service, chiropractor, clothing alterations, auto mechanic, motorcycle mechanic, recording studio and about forty others.  You locate a target business, pick up the phone and call and ask for the owner.  When you get the owner on the phone you say "Hi I'm a local mortgage broker (or realtor, or whatever), and I have a large database (I don't care if you have eleven people in your database, eleven is a large number to a lot of people) that I stay in touch with on a regular basis, and I like to send them things of value that they can use.  I was wondering if you had any kind of a discount that you could offer the people in my database, so I could introduce them to your business?"  Once in a while you'll get an idiot that will tell you no thanks.  Sometimes they will ask you what the cost is, to which you say "nothing... it helps me because I am offering my people something of value, and it helps you because you could get some new business from it."

Nine out of ten will say "SURE!  That sounds great!"  Before I started using video, I would ask them if they had a coupon of some kind that I could include in my monthy mailer.  They usually didn't, so my assistant would make the coupon for them.  Once made, I would go see them to "okay" it. This was also the point of building some rapport with the owner.  At this time, while getting the coupon okay'd, you make the simple statment "this is great!  Oh and please remember, if you know of anyone that needs my help, I'd appreciate it if you would send them my way."  You see.. now that you're sending their business into YOUR database... they owe you one.  All you need is one closed transaction a year from each of your B2B's and you would be a very happy camper.  60 B2B partners would equal 60 closed deals in a year - think about it.

So you send your mailer and include the coupon, but before you do that, you of course made sure to put your new business owner INTO your database, so they get your mailer with their coupon in it - right?  And then, you make sure to put ALL of your B2B's at the TOP of your monthly phone call list.  And you DO make your calls to them once a month asking them if they know of anyone that needs your help - right?  I'm sure I don't have to remind you of these basic salesperson activities, but I thought I would anyway just to be safe.

Now you're thinking "Frank, so what do you do when you have 65 B2B partners?  Do you include 65 coupons in your mailer?"  Well, no, duh.  I would cycle them through, but always include about 5 to 10 in every mailer keeping track of which coupon went on what mailer and did my best to even it out as best I could.  Oh, by the way, my clients loved it, and would often put in requests for new businesses.  But the truth be told, mailers suck.  They are too costly and inefficient.  Well with video it's a whole new game.

The concept is exactly the same with video, except instead of sending a coupon, you send a video.  You actually feature the business owner, either at their place of business or at yours and explain the discount to your viewers.  The viewers smiply need to "mention the video" to receive the discount.  The great thing is that now the video can be forwareded easily from the people in your database to their family and friends increasing the possibility of gathering new subscribers.  It also increases the posibility of the business owner getting a response.  And best of all, by uploading all of your B2B videos into a B2B category in your TBWS account, each and every one of the B2B videos you've made appear in the "archives", so you're essentaially sending ALL of your B2B benefits to your database with every send creating a potential viral frenzy.

The key to keeping your B2B's excited about this is that you ALWAYS mention to the viewer to review the other discounts available to them in the archive.  And the key to making money with this system is the monthly phone call to all of the B2B's asking them if they know of anyone that needs your help.  You WILL get referrals like crazy, AND you WILL get the business owners business as well.  My very first B2B arrangement was with a chiropractor.  We had lunch to discuss it.  At the end of lunch he told me he needed a refi and although he had a lender he typically worked with, he wanted to work with me.  Why?  Because his other lender NEVER promoted HIS business before, in fact never even mentioned it.  It was a $500,000 loan that generated a $10,000 gross commission - hello.  I did loans for many of my B2B's and a bunch of their referrals.  This is an easy way to build your database and generate REAL business going right away.

If you want to see how others are doing this, go to www.MortgageTube.tv and click on Joey Sampaga's video.  You can see how he's doing it (not exactly how I would, but very good.  I would simply make sure to always remind the viewer to check the archives for other discounts and remind them of what I do for a living, asking for referrals as well).  I think you will completely get the idea.  This is the kind of thing you can work at slowly, say one busienss a week, or quickly gathering as many as possible in as short a period of time as possible.  And of course, weed out the duds and refer the studs!

Go for it.

Tracking, monitoring, analyising and forecasting short and long term movements in the interest rate markets, especially mortgage markets is not only possible but can be useful and profitable. I am very pleased and excited to be associated with the TBWS team in the development of the most complete and useful mortgage lenders' site I have seen in the past 20 years. My company, Sigma Research, Inc., is an adjunct to my 10 yrs of developing hedging strategies for large mortgage bankers to manage and hedge their interest rate exposure. Working for two large Wall Street firms in the '80s we created the earliest hedging techniques ever used to manage interest rate risk. In 1989 I began writing the daily Shirmeyer Report for mortgage lenders, specifically mortgage brokers and originators. Our mantra was, and still is, "Knowledge is the key to success....Timing is the key to profits".

At TBWS the AM Lock Advice and the PM lock Advice along with the daily Snap Shot places our subscribers in the best position to understand and appreciate what is driving interest rates at the moment, and what we expect markets will do in the near and long term. We lay it out in easily understood and direct commentary. The daily commentaries will keep you up to date and increase your understanding of the elements actually moving rate markets. Always on point, our commentaries will increase your professional image with clients, increase your ability to provide your clents with the facts and advice, and at appropriate times the opportunity to profit from postive price improvements.

In terms of risk (floating or locking) we take a conservative approach; no home runs, just a lot of singles. Our primary goal is first to enhance your understanding of the factors currently driving rate markets; secondly, based on constantly changing fundamentals, our forecast for interest rates. Our daily float or lock suggestions are the icing on the cake; use them to asist your clients to achieve the best rate possible and use them to increase your net income. A word of caution however, assuming risk is not always profitable, markets can change on a dime in this environment. Risk must be managed, using the tools we offer at TBWS will increase your potential to gain on improving price movement while helping you avoid the pitfalls of being exposed to adverse price changes. Our primary goal in the AM and PM daily market commentaries is to assist in any way we can help you achieve your goals as a professional and skilled loan originator. We are always ready to assist whenever we can.