Playing The Green

Playing The Green

BY CHRISTINE BECKWITH | CONTRIBUTING WRITER, NATIONAL MORTGAGE PROFESSIONAL

The mortgage industry is cyclical. What goes up must come down. We all know this if you have spent a minute in this field. That is hard to imagine right now when we see everyone shoveling the mountain of refinance business that has landed at our feet.

Yes, there are so many cycles of yester years that left us refinance rich. I know because I watched the same young guys who bought the million-dollar homes and filled the yards like a scene out of “MTV Cribs” lose their shirts, literally and figuratively when it was all said and done.

I do not want to be the naysayer of broken records and happy people. I don't want to rain on the parade we've waited in the streets to see come for a over a decade, not after we sat looking out the proverbial window for so long for the rainy day to be over. But I do want to warn and prepare people and if I can do that much and see this advice taken heed I will feel as though I did my part.

Following the interest rate and real estate markets journey this past year has been the tale of ten lives. All wrapped around a historic Pandemic one thing has never been truer and that is the grit of the mortgage industry to show up, deliver and continue to thrive despite so many obstacles. Never in the history of our lives has this volume of work been done literally across the nation from living rooms and dining rooms of mortgage professionals, proving that our mobility has finally reached its pinnacle.

REFINANCE RICH: THE SHORT GAME

Is there such a term as "Refinance Rich?" Sure. We coined it long ago. When the rate winds blew in our favor, the sails would take flight and the seas would be our oyster. The surge of the 2020 refinance bubble has reached its fever pitch this summer an stacking Benjamins is an actual thing.

But will you save? Will you recognize or have the context of the market that the elder age range of our originator pool has? Many mortgage forecasters predict this surge to continue well into 2021 and possibly last the entire year so with this in mind staying cool headed seems to be an immediate threat.

REMEMBERING REALTORS: THE LONG GAME

Our business for the past decade by and large derived from Realtors. We cultivated long-term relationships from every mortgage seat that could be found. But many have lost focus on Realtor relationships when in pandemic for several reasons.

THE DISTRACTION

There are many reasons that caused a neglect of our realestate partners. However, the one threatening us right now is out lost focus due to the sheer refinance volume.

1. Refinance Volume Distraction

2. Pandemic: being quarantined with real estate offices closed has limited abilites for loan officer to realtor interaction.

3. Realtors could not show homes during the pandemic, leaving open houses virtual.

4. Loan officers could not meet their realtors for lunch/dinner.

5. Closings became virtual and/or e-sign.

6. Conventions were shut down.

Yes, for us to not lose sight of the long-term core of all our businesses it is going to take a concerted effort. Of course we should try to help every American homeowner at a time that rates are at an incredible all-time low. But that needs to be peppered with time spent connecting with our real estate partners.

NURTURING REAL ESTATE PARTNER RELATIONSHIPS!

Realtors have relied heavily during Covid-19 on the mortgage professionals’ economic updates, to their lead in this fight to survive. Loan Officers and Mortgage companies, banks and brokers have continued to try to educate their R.E. partners. But that challenge has become daunting considering the mobility issues.

Some of the suggested best ways now to reconnect are:

• Holding valuable Zoom education:

Realtors could benefit from pertinent and timely education like time management or organizational tips. Great loan originators have educational content to share and know that showing up matters.

• Great industry reading:

Articles like this can become valuable to shoot out with CRMs or just deliver by personal email.

• Offering to solve problems:

Helping them connect to mobility or sharing what top real estate firms are doing to become completely virtual and mobile can help trailing firms get up to speed or even help older Realtors adapt.

• Staying Connected:

At the very base of what mortgage pros should do is make a valiant effort to stay connected, blocking a few hours a week to focus on this is key right now, or it might otherwise not be done.

“Without the long game, there can be no short game wins.”

I use a lot of metaphoric training for mortgage pros. That visual you create to help them look at their own careers or lives in a different way connects. So my analogy for this market right now is the difference between refinance volume and purchase volume is whether the LO picks up the field of apples on the ground or continues to walk past some of it to climb the tree and continue to pick the really rich apples (Purchase business).

Years ago, I helped recruit a purchased focused branch and they had been a purchased focus team for two decades, richly woven in real estate relationship they would boast of not losing sight during refinance booms. Today the same team remains #1 in a national firm their historical analytics siting down volume during refi months as opposed to their competition and up volume during the down refinance months. The result = Being #1 due to steady business and not riding an incredible rollercoaster that winds up dumping you out at the end by purely doing refinance.

Even with this knowledge I asked them what their focus and numbers looked like this month and they said they too were unable to avoid the obvious windfall of refinance opportunity and that many of those folks are their past clients from previous purchase business so they have brought on younger and greener loan originators and hired many loan officer assistants to help assist with the incredible volume of refinance, while still making a real effort to serve their purchase partners.

So, the sweet spot in my mind is that. Staying somehow focused on both. If you take your eye off the ball right now some other competitor is going to swoop in and grab that market share and how that plays out in the long game is yet to be seen.

Of course, golfers will tell you that your short game makes you a winner but if you ask a pro, they will tell you that your long game in the end is vital. In fact, it is the staple of what sets you apart from the amateurs. Because without the long game, there can be no short game wins.

TIME TO GET IT RIGHT

We hope this round, people get it right. And even more important than the business aspect is the work/life balance challenges we see emerging. People working distracted for 12-14 hours a day from home, not present of mind due to this incredible obligation.

Professionals need to learn to balance their workload, to be efficient, to be the controller of their business highways and to guard their times intelligently. Something even veterans are challenged with on a normal day. As a certified time management coach I see that struggle and the price professionals pay when they don’t have control of it play out in the lives of each of them.

A three-time best-selling author, Christine Beckwith is president & COO of 20/20 Vision for Success Coaching.