Is your Loan Officer a Marketer or a Closer?

First a disclaimer or two:
Markeing is a necessary tool for any business to succeed. Without it you have no way to "get the message out" on your specific product or service. It gives you a "presence" before an opporunity to sell. Second, I have never been espeically good at it so I am a bit jealous of those that are,  but that is a curable issue.

It is incredible to me some Realtors are convinced into believing that just because someone has a great marketing plan means they can close deals. There are a couple of these "marketers"  in my area that are guilty as charged but will not be mentioned by name because, well, it just isn't nice and most who read this will know of whom I speak.

So here's the scoop: If you, the Realtor, are going to be referring your valuable clients ( AKA your next commission )  to a lender or if  your client absolutely must use "their guy" then for heavens sake make sure they can close the deal. Not by asking them, but by asking other agents that have worked with him/her in the last 6 months, yep 6 months max.  Just because someone sends you or your clients volumes of information or brings you cute little "pop by's"  ( that's a RESPA violation, $25K and some jail time ) to get your attention about all the cool programs they have ( 4 or 5 max, and we all have the same ones ) doesn't mean they or their company have the capacity to get a deal closed.


Closing a loan is dependent on the LOs understanding of the complete environment we are in.  Lenders are under ever increasing scrutiny. Not just from regulators but from the investors they sell the loans to. EVERYONE sells their loans to someone or retains the rights to do so at anytime so all must toe the line with investor overlays whether a LO wants to admit it or not ( or even knows ). What the LO knows about these changes and the effect they may have on your transaction matters, a lot. We all have little morphs and twists, often.

Is your buyer's LO a marketer or a closer? Here's the test...

1) Are the clients completely approved with specific conditions requested of them within 7 business days? An answer of no means you have a Marketer. Yes, means a Closer.

2) Does the LO "switch" programs to get a borrower through underwriting? An answer of yes doesn't necessarily mean you have a Marketer but a Closer is able to explain EXACTLY why it's being done and what the chances are for success.

3) Can the LO explain to you and your client in laymans terms what is required to get mortgage insurance on a conventional loan? An answer of no means you have a Marketer. Yes, means a Closer.

4) Can your LO offer you creative, alternative solutions to a difficult situation?  An answer of no means, well...a dead deal, and you guessed it, a Marketer. Like number 2 a Closer will have already fleshed out potential issues before an underwriter sees the file and has prepped the Realtor and client for this.

I pass this test as a closer. Marketing pieces ( except for this one ) don't talk about these issues because they are not sexy or attention getters. These are the nuts and bolts of the transaction. But these are the things that get your client a home and you your next commission check. If I was a Realtor or a buyer, I would take zero chances on a marketer and put all my money on a closer. Even if the closer seemed a little crabby every now and then.

Why are rates so low, I have a guess

As most consumers know because they have been pounded on by national lenders, rates continue to live in uncharted territory. Back in April there was a swing up in reaction to the fed exiting the Mortgage Backed Securities market. Within a couple of weeks though we returned to the 5% range.

Then, Europe ( spcifically Greece ) began having problems with generating enough tax revenue to pay all its' bills. As with the beginning of the mortgage meltdown anything even remotely associated with Greece was perceived as having the same issues. While that was not entitrely the case the perception that the EuroZone was not a safe place to invest had folks looking elsewhere to put their money.

Enter the US MBS market and a flight to safety, or the perception of it. Ask any borrower in the last 18 to 24 months and to a fault they will all say how difficult it was to get approved. After all the twists and contortions in the mortgage industry underwriting standards have become much more stringent and these instruments were or appeared to be effectively insured by the US Government. Investors simply were looking for a safe haven and the MBS market has provided that.

As much as investors loved the incredible returns on their MBS plays in the 00's now the MBS market is giving them something they want more, safety and security. If I were an institutional investor looking to make up for the mistakes of the last 5 years it might be that going back into MBS's would be the way to go. It might seem odd to go back to the thing that caused the issue in the first place but I would hazard a guess that now that these securites are so antiseptic or sterile they look pretty spiffy.

No rates are not down because the banking system is going to hell or that there is some evil plot by the banks to take over the world. As Karl Denniger is fond of saying, that's moon bats and tinfoil hat talk.