National Mortgage Professional Magazine July 2019 by ambizmedia

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table of

N A T I O N A L

Top Three Reasons Why Technology Shouldn’t Replace a Loan Officer By Michael Cornachio

th i w k

Bec

The

J U L Y

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The Beckwith Blog: ‘A Summers Sentiment’ By Christine Beckwith

2 0 1 9

M O R T G

V O L U M

A SPECIAL FOCUS ON “SOCIAL MEDIA”

Building Community With Social Media By Anna Pambianchi ........56

Video Marketing as a Powerful Social Media Tool By Adam P. Smith ..............................................................................58

R L

Regulations With a Social Bite By Joy K. Gilpin ..............................60 Building a Social Media Presence Step by Step By Steve Richman ..............................................................................62

Creating Harmony Between Compliance and Social Media By Lauren Grove ................................................................................64

M C

Too Busy Not to Do Social Media? By Michael A. Hammond, JD, CMT ....................................................66

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Achieving Social Media Success in a Challenging Environment By Michael Stallings............................................................................68

36 The Most Connected Mortgage Professionals of 2019

46 Getting to Know … NAMMBA Founder and Chief Executive Officer Tony Thompson, CMB By Phil Hall

H S

Walking the Line: Compliance and Social Media in Today’s Mortgage Marketplace By Deborah Hill ............................................70

Social Media Marketing: A Necessary Evil or Your New Best Friend? By Mary Kamelle ..........................................................72

The Staircase to Success Starts With Social Media By Curt Tegeler ..................................................................................74

Five Tips for Mitigating Social Media Risk By Krista K. Sabol ........76 Building Blocks for Social Selling Success: Say Hello to Engagement! By Patricia Sherlock ................................................78

B S

Five Ways for Mortgage Lenders to Remain Compliant on Social Media By Doug Wilber ............................................................80

V I S I T Company

Web Site

O U R

A D Page

ACC Mortgage .................................................. weapproveloans.com ....................................................19 Angel Oak Mortgage Solutions ............................ angeloakms.com ..............................................Back Cover ARMCO.............................................................. armco.us ......................................................................69 Brokers Compliance Group.................................. brokerscompliancegroup.com ..........................................88 Capital One ........................................................capitalone/financialinstitutions ............................................7 Carrington Mortgage Services, LLC ...................... carringtonally.com ..................................................1 & 69 Citadel Servicing Corporation .............................. citadelservicing.com ......................................................11 Concord Church Finance .................................... concordchurchfinance.com ............................................73

50 NMP Mortgage Professional of the Month: Willie Newman, President & Chief Executive Officer, Home Point Financial By Rick Grant

DocMagic .......................................................... docmagic.com ................................................................9 FAMP .............................................................. ourfamp.org ..................................................................75 First National Bank of America............................ fnba.com/mortgagebrokers ..............................................5 Greenbox Loans, Inc........................................... greenboxloans.com ................................Inside Front Cover Locke Law US, LLC ............................................ lockelaw.us ..................................................................62 Lykken On Lending ............................................ lykkenonlending.com ....................................................73

MBA-NJ/NJAMB .................................................. mbanj.com ..................................................................43

of contents

R T G A G E

U M E

P R O F E S S I O N A L

1 1

N U M B E R

FEATURES

ARMCP Set to Launch New Site ........................................................6 How to Start Financing Investment Properties By Tom Hutchens ....8 The Elite Performer: Take Time Off By Andy W. Harris, CRMS ........8

Recruiting, Training and Mentoring Corner: Don’t Forget LinkedIn By Dave Hershman ..............................................................10 Purchase Pipeline Fuel Part II: Buying the Next Home By K. Justin Restaino ..........................................................................16 MBA’s Mortgage Action Alliance: A Message From MAA Chairman Jeffrey C. Taylor ..............................................................18 NAMB Perspective ............................................................................20 Blockchain Start-up Propy Receives NAR Venture Fund Infusion By Phil Hall..................................................................24 Housing Counselors Assisting MLOs Pilot Program Finding Success By Pam Marron ....................................................................26 Closing a Loan Electronically By Gavin T. Ales ................................32 Compliance Matters: Finance Charge Controversies By Jonathan Foxx ..............................................................................42 The NAPMW Report ..........................................................................48 BrokerNATION: Price Mortgage/Tyler Arnaiz By Andy W. Harris, CRMS ..................................................................52 Behavioral Data is Powering Lenders’ Recapture Rate Strategies By Mike Eshelman ............................................................54 Danger Ahead in 2019 By Brian Sacks ..............................................84 The Social Impact of the Digital Mortgage By Dan Sogorka ..........86

A D V E R T I S E R S Company

Web Site

Page

MBS Highway .................................................... mbshighway.com/MNN ..................................................31 Mortgage News Network (MNN) .......................... mortgagenewsnetwork.com ....................................44 & 45 NAMB+ ............................................................ nambplus.com ..............................................................23 NAPMW ............................................................ napmw.org ............................................................63 & 79 NAWRB ............................................................ nawrb.com ....................................................................15 NRMLA.............................................................. nrmlaonline.org ............................................................71 Origination Pro.................................................. originationpro.com ........................................................61 Paramount Residential Mortgage Group, Inc. ...... prmg.net ................................................Inside Back Cover PB Financial Group Corp. .................................. calhardmoney.com ........................................................77 RCN Capital ...................................................... rcncapital.com ..............................................................71 Redstone Print & Mail Inc. ................................ redstoneprintmail.com ..................................................59 REMN................................................................ remnwholesale.com ......................................................13 Residential Home Funding Corp. ........................ rhfbranch.com ..............................................................17 TCF Financial Corporation .................................. tcfbank.com/brokerloans/compensation ..................67 & 77 Vision Your Success ............................................ visionyoursuccess.net/vision-summit ..............................27

JULY 2019 Volume 11 • Number 7

FROM THE

publisher’s desk

Getting social in the mortgage industry If you don’t realize by now that social media is shaping the way we do business in today’s 1220 Wantagh Avenue • Wantagh, NY 11793-2202 mortgage market, you may not actually be working in our industry—or any industry for that Phone: (516) 409-5555 • Fax: (516) 409-4600 matter. The Internet has changed everything, but nothing so much as it changed the way Web site: NationalMortgageProfessional.com we interact. STAFF Eric C. Peck Joel M. Berman This has had a profound impact on the sales department, regardless of industry. Editor-in-Chief Publisher - CEO (516) 409-5555, ext. 312 (516) 409-5555, ext. 310 Consumers expect to interact with you online, and if they don’t see frequent updates from ericp@mortgagenewsnetwork.com joel@mortgagenewsnetwork.com your loan officers and your company, they will assume that you are not really connected to Joey Arendt Beverly Bolnick their community … and they may be right. Art Director VP-Sales & Marketing (516) 409-5555, ext. 323 (516) 409-5555, ext. 316 That’s why we’ve been highlighting the “Most Connected” professionals in the mortgage joeya@mortgagenewsnetwork.com beverlyb@mortgagenewsnetwork.com business for the last few years. As the industry continues to change, these are the leaders Scott Koondel Phil Hall VP of Operations Managing Editor who will take your company into a more successful future. (516) 409-5555, ext. 324 (516) 409-5555, ext. 312 When we started, it wasn’t very easy to find many front line loan originators who had scottk@mortgagenewsnetwork.com philh@mortgagenewsnetwork.com embraced social media. The industry was working through some compliance uncertainties Richard Zyta Francine Miller Social Media Ambassador Advertising Coordinator that slowed the advance of many firms. Those days are now behind us. The secrets of (516) 409-5555 (516) 409-5555, ext. 301 richardz@mortgagenewsnetwork.com francinem@mortgagenewsnetwork.com social media have been revealed. Rick Grant Dylan Pollock In this issue, we bring you the latest group of our Most Connected Mortgage Special Reports Editor Administrative Assistant Professionals. What we can learn from them will make our readers more successful. Find (570) 497-1026 (direct) (516) 409-5555, ext. 314 (516) 409-555, ext. 311 dylanp@mortgagenewsnetwork.com out who they are how you can connect with them in this issue. rickg@mortgagenewsnetwork.com To help you become a social media leader in your own right, we bring you 13 excellent ADVERTISING To receive any information regarding advertising rates, deadlines and requirements, please contact feature articles in this month’s Special Focus on Social Media. Let’s start with strategy. VP-Sales & Marketing Beverly Bolnick at (516) 409-5555, ext. 316 or e-mail beverlyb@mortgageIn this issue, we offer you “The Staircase to Success Starts With Social Media” by Curt newsnetwork.com. Tegeler, chief executive officer of WebMax, and “Achieving Social Media Success in a ARTICLE SUBMISSIONS/PRESS RELEASES To submit any material, including articles and press releases, please contact Editor-in-Chief Eric C. Peck Challenging Environment” by Michael Stallings, vice president of Comergence by Optimal at (516) 409-5555, ext. 312 or e-mail ericp@mortgagenewsnetwork.com. The deadline for submissions Blue. That should give you a firm foundation. is the first of the month prior to the target issue. Delve even deeper with “Building a Social Media Presence Step by Step” by national SUBSCRIPTIONS To receive subscription information, please call (516) 409-5555, ext. 301; e-mail orders@mortgagespeaker Steve Richman and “Building Community With Social Media” by Anna Pambianchi, newsnetwork.com or visit www.nationalmortgageprofessional.com. Any subscription changes may be made to the attention of “Circulation” via fax to (516) 409-4600. senior marketing manager at American Financial Resources Inc. And don’t miss “Too Busy Statements, articles and opinions in National Mortgage Professional Magazine are the responsibility of the Not to Do Social Media?” by Michael A. Hammond, founder and president of NexLevel authors alone and do not imply the opinion or endorsement of Mortgage News Network Inc., or the offiAdvisors. cers or members of National Association of Mortgage Brokers and its State Affiliates (NAMB), National Association of Professional Mortgage Women (NAPMW), National Consumer Reporting Association (NCRA) Now, it’s time for tactics. We offer “Video Marketing as a Powerful Social Media Tool” by and/or other state mortgage trade associations. Participation in NAMB, NAPMW, NCRA, ARMCP and/or other state mortgage trade associations Adam P. Smith, president of The Colorado Real Estate Finance Group Inc., and the owner events, activities and/or publications is available on a non-discriminatory basis and does not reflect the and sales coach of Just The Tips Coaching. And for some nuts and bolts advice, be sure to endorsement of the product and/or services by Mortgage News Network Inc., NAMB, NAPMW, NCRA, and other state mortgage trade associations. read “Building Blocks for Social Selling Success: Say Hello to Engagement!” by Patricia National Mortgage Professional Magazine, NAMB, NAPMW, NCRA, ARMCP and/or other state Sherlock, founder of QFS Sales Solutions. mortgage trade associations do not make any misrepresentations or warranties concerning the regulatory and/or compliance aspects of advertisers, products or services and/or the editorial content conPart of the reason that many got serious about social media later rather than sooner was tained in Mortgage News Network Inc. publications. National Mortgage Professional Magazine and Mortgage News Network Inc. reserve the right to edit, reject and/or postpone the publication of any artibecause compliance can be tricky and no one can afford a mistake. Most of that has been cles, information or data. ironed out yet, but just to make sure you are up-to-date, we’re bringing you a number of compliance-related features in our special section. Start with “Creating Harmony Between Compliance and Social Media” by Lauren Grove, social media strategist for Inlanta Mortgage Inc. Then move on to “Regulations With a Social Bite” by Joy K. Gilpin, vice president of mortgage learning and compliance for Indecomm Global Services. Also, be sure to check out “Walking the Line: Compliance and Social Media in Today’s Mortgage Marketplace” by Deborah Hill, VP of customer success and operations at MortgageHippo, and “Five Ways for Mortgage Lenders to Remain Compliant on Social Media” by Doug Wilber, CEO of Gremlin Social. In all, I’m very proud of this year’s social media marketing special section in National Mortgage Professional Magazine and I hope you agree. But that’s not all we’re bringing you in this issue. This month’s Mortgage Professional of the Month is industry veteran Willie Newman, president and chief executive officer of Home Point Financial. Read about his incredible journey through the industry in this issue. Also this month, Phil Hall catches up with the founder and chief executive officer of the National Association of Minority Mortgage Bankers of America (NAMMBA), Tony Thompson, CMB. In this in-depth feature, Tony discusses founding this important organization and its purpose in today’s marketplace. Finally, please be sure to read Christine Beckwith’s column, in which she gives us a preview of her forthcoming book, Breaking the Cycle: Two Little Girls Journey to Success, which she co-authored with her childhood friend, Dr. Wendy Wright. As always, you’ll find the same great trade group news, compliance information and motivational material you always find in our issues, all of which is intended to help you be more successful. Please accept it with our compliments and check in with us at an upcoming trade show soon. Sincerely,

Joel M. Berman, Publisher-CEO Mortgage News Network Joel@MortgageNewsNetwork.com

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n National Mortgage Professional Magazine n JULY 2019

NAMB 601 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, South Building l Washington, D.C. 20004 l Phone: (202) 434-8250 l Fax: (530) 484-2906 l Web site: NAMB.org l E-mail: Membership@NAMB.org

NAMB 2018-2019 BOARD OF OFFICERS & DIRECTORS E X E C U T I V E

Richard Bettencourt, CRMS President Rick.Bettencourt@NAMB.org

Rocke Andrews, CMC, CRMS President-Elect Rocke.Andrews@NAMB.org

Michelle Velez, CMC Vice President Michelle.Velez@NAMB.org

B O A R D

George Burkely, CRMS Treasurer George.Burkley@NAMB.org

Chris Bettis, CMC Secretary Chris.Bettis@NAMB.org

John G. Stevens, CRMS Immediate Past President JohnGStevens@NAMB.org

D I R E C T O R S

Michael DeSantis Mike.DeSantis@NAMB.org

Wayne King, CRMS Wayne.King@NAMB.org

Linda McCoy, CMRS Linda.McCoy@NAMB.org

Matt Oliver Matt.Oliver@NAMB.org

Marty Pfeiffenberger MartyP@NAMB.org

Kimber White, CRMS Kimber.White@NAMB.org

Valerie J. Saunders, CRMS Executive Director ValSaun@NAMB.org

Harry H. Dinham, CRMS Chief Operating Officer HDinham@NAMB.org

National Association of Professional Mortgage Women 6000 Gisholt Drive, Suite 200 l Madison, WI 53713 l Phone: (608) 886-9817 l E-mail: Admin@NAPMW.org l Web site: NAPMW.org

2018-2019 NAPMW NATIONAL BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Laurel Knight-Keane National President President@NAPMW.org

Glenda Mooney President-Elect PresElect@NAPMW.org

Tobi Libbra Vice President NVP1@NAPMW.org

Rolanda Legg Vice President NVP2@NAPMW.org

Jaclyn Weedin Secretary NatSecretary@NAPMW.org

Nicole Shea Treasurer NatTreasurer@NAPMW.org

Robin Hart Parliamentarian Parliamentarian@NAPMW.org

National Consumer Reporting Association 701 East Irving Park Road, Suite 306 l Roselle, IL 60172 l Phone: (630) 539-1525 l Fax: (630) 539-1526 l Web site: NCRAInc.org

JULY 2019 n National Mortgage Professional Magazine n

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2019-2020 BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Mary Campbell President (701) 239-9977 Mary@AdvantageCreditBureau.com

William Bower Vice President (800) 288-4757 WBower@Continfo.com

Paul Wohkittel Ex-Officio (410) 644-5020 PWohkittel@CISInfo.net

Helen Meyers Director (800) 782-9094 Helen@CreditInfoSystems.com

Debbie Loyning Treasurer (425) 264-1024 Debbie@Alliance2020.com

Mike Thomas Director (615) 386-2285, ext. 285 MThomas@CICCredit.com

Terry Clemans Executive Director (630) 539-1525 TClemans@NCRAInc.org

Janet Curtis Director (210) 224-6121 JCurtis@SARMA.com

Julie Wink Director (901) 259-5105 Julie@DataFacts.com

Jan Gerber Office Manager/Member Services (630) 539-1525 JGerber@NCRAInc.org

Maureen Devine Director (413) 736-4511 MDevine@StrategicInfo.com

Gary Glucroft Director (800) 877-3908, ext. 100 GaryG@TheScreeningPros.com

Delia Zuniga Director (623) 889-8999 Delia@AdvantagePlusCredit.com

Roy Goodwin Compliance Services Director (630) 539-1525 RGoodwin@NCRAInc.org

ARMCP Set to Launch New Site To all 1,600 members of the Association of Residential Mortgage Compliance Professionals (ARMCP), the new ARMCP.org Web site is nearing its official launch, a state-of-the-art platform designed specifically to fulfill the needs of residential mortgage compliance professionals. The design and development have taken several years to bring to the point of launch. “This is just what our organization needs,” said Jonathan Foxx, Ph.D., MBA, Founder and President of ARMCP. “Our current digital abode is on LinkedIn, and we will keep the LinkedIn group, though most of us will move to the new Web site home. We’ll be sending announcements your way soon, via LinkedIn and other media resources! If you have not yet joined ARMCP, please contact me at Info@ARMCP.org and I will send you an invitation.” ARMCP is the first and only independent, national organization in the United States devoted exclusively to residential mortgage compliance professionals. ARMCP’s independence means it is a non-profit association, owned and managed by its members, and not dependent on any profitbased enterprises. If you would like to join the association’s Steering Committee, create a forum to discuss news and views, or help in any way to build our organization, e-mail Info@ARMCP.org. For more information, visit ARMCP.org.

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How to Start Financing Investment Properties By Tom Hutchens

hanks to market conditions, a large number of people are investing in residential real estate. Now is a great time for successful originators of owner-occupied home loans to step into the arena of financing investment properties. It is easier than you have imagined. Potential investor clients could be the same people you helped purchase their primary residences. Unprecedented numbers of individuals are purchasing homes as income producing properties. In this market, your previous customers may be more likely to purchase an investment property than refinance. The best news is that non-QM investment loan products enable new investors to acquire multiple properties, often without relying on personal income. Real estate is always the most reliable investment and now you have the opportunity to help clients consider the possibility. Here are a few suggestions to promote the idea:

JULY 2019 n National Mortgage Professional Magazine n

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1. Reach out to previous clients. Ask whether they have considered purchasing a long-term or vacation rental property. Follow up via e-mail. Connect on social media. 2. Add Web site content promoting the benefits of property investing and how you can help. People might visit your site first before returning a call or e-mail. 3. Use Webinars to generate leads. Invite past clients to join your Webinars. 4. Invite interested prospects to an informational lunch and learn. Once you have a prospect list, you can help them determine the income potential of specific scenarios. Suggest working with their Realtor who can identify target properties. When your client has zeroed in on a property, or you have defined a purchase scenario, you can demonstrate the income potential and costs under a particular loan product. While interest rates are low now, rates for investment properties are always higher than for owner-occupied loans. Focus on the return on investment and benefits such as tax breaks. Point out that non-QM loans have generally lower rates than hard money loans that drive most real estate investment. Angel Oak Mortgage Solutions offers an excellent Investor Cash Flow program. People can qualify based on the expected rental income of the home. Tax returns, income statements or employment verification is not required. Nonprime loans help purchase investment properties at rates competitive to traditional commercial loans. Let Angel Oak Mortgage Solutions mentor you and offer tools for educating your prospects. To find out more, contact the Angel Oak account executive for your area at AngelOakMS.com/MAP/ or call (866) 837-6312.

Tom Hutchens is EVP, production at Angel Oak Mortgage Solutions, an Atlanta-based wholesale and correspondent lender licensed in more than 40 states and operating in the non-QM space for over five years. Tom has been in the real estate lending business for nearly 20 years. He may be reached by phone at (855) 539-4910 or e-mail Info@AngelOakMS.com.

SPONSORED EDITORIAL

NEW TO MARKET continued from page 13

Calculator that estimates the profit that could be made if the property was sold today, data that provides sales activities on other homes in the neighborhood, and an overview on local housing market values and conditions that are designed to help the user determine the best time to New Freddie Mac buy or sell. The portal also connects Mortgage Combines the user with local real estate Purchase and Reno Loans agents via a “Talk to an Expert” feature. “We are thrilled to expand our real estate offerings and give our members a more comprehensive look into their valuable asset: their Freddie Mac has introduced the home,” said Nick Brinkerhoff, CHOICERenovation loan, which is designed for homebuyers seeking to communications manager at Nextdoor. purchase a home and finance the cost of renovations with a singleNavy Federal Credit Union close mortgage. Premieres HomeSquad The introduction of the Navy CHOICERenovation mortgage is Federal being positioned by Freddie Mac as Credit a solution to “address the nation’s Union has aging housing supply, support the introduced need for affordable housing, and HomeSquad, an online mortgage offer renovation, repair, improvement or refinance options to application tool designed to simplify the homebuying process. support the increasing demand for According to the Vienna, Va.cost-effective financing solutions.” based credit union, HomeSquad Freddie Mac also noted the renovation market has grown by 50 can be accessed through its Web site or mobile app. The credit percent over the past decade, and union’s members will be able to the product can also be used to track their loan status, upload tax repair properties damaged by returns and other documents natural disaster. needed for the home loan “Research indicates a large number of older homes need repair application process, and link to key financial accounts. and renovation, either to meet the “We wanted to simplify the needs of current owners or as a viable option for new homebuyers,” home loan financing journey while said Danny Gardner, Freddie Mac’s keeping our team at the center of it,” said Randy Hopper, senior vice senior vice president, single-family president of mortgage lending at affordable lending and access to Navy Federal. “I think our credit. “The CHOICERenovation members will be pleasantly solution gives borrowers the opportunity to make improvements, surprised with how much easier it is to interact with our team for renovations and upgrades to a home using a purchase or no cash- their home loan needs when they use HomeSquad.” out refinance loan that will be eligible for sale to Freddie Mac. This Your turn provides the borrower with a National Mortgage Professional convenient cost saving option for Magazine invites you to submit any financing renovations.” information promoting new “niche” loan programs, new products or any Nextdoor Debuts other announcement related to the “Your Home” Portal introduction of a new program, to the attention of: of MeridianLink, the parent company of LendingQB. “This creates a competitive advantage for lenders that delivers a more meaningful experience to the people that really matter: borrowers.”

Nextdoor, a ZIP code-based social network, has introduced Your Home, an online portal designed to offer the user an overview of their home’s value and how local real estate trends impact the value. According to the San Franciscobased company, Your Home’s features include a Home Sale

New to Market column Phone #: (516) 409-5555 E-mail: Newsroom@MortgageNewsNetwork.com

Note: Submissions sent via e-mail are preferred. The deadline for submissions is the 1st of the month prior to the target issue.

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The

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‘A Summ s I forge into the depths of a firstyear start-up company, which is doing better than planned, I am humbled by the outpouring of industry support. By the camaraderie of an old story that is suddenly new … community, neighbors, helping. So, as I put the finishing touches on my third book, coauthored with my childhood friend Dr. Wendy Wright, I offer you a copy of part of our first chapter, unedited and I hope that we are all reminded to have HOPE.

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I figured, as we all took some down time in our weekends and summer vacations, from our busy lives, during these summer months, I hope time gives way to our ability to actually sit and read. I hope that the words I open my next book with might make you take pause as to why I have found my way to here, to how I have survived and that it reminds you of how you have overcome challenges as well. I hope that it reminds you of why we all should help our next generation, our children, truly separate what matters from the rest of the matter. As adults, we can change our work environments by adopting the same ideology. As humans, we could change the world by employing the sentiment I write below. My summer gift to my readers, a peek at part of Chapter 1 of Breaking the Cycle: Two Little Girls Journey to Success. Enjoy! Hope “A feeling of expectation and desire for a certain thing to happen”—Christine “Buffy” AS I SIT HERE ON A PLANE FOR THE UMPTEENTH flight of my career, a little girl is seated next to me for her first flight. She’s excited, phone in hand, ready to record the first of her lifetime of memories and I am enraptured by her enthusiasm. I remember experiencing that glorious new discovery feeling as a child when I was her age. Sophia is her name. We talk and I share what I do. She asks me to show her what my books

mers Sentiment’ By Christine Beckwith

look like, so I gift her the two I am carrying with me on this trip. I tell her to pay forward the lessons in each. We take a photo and I know she will be a great soldier of my words. I can just tell. Meeting Sophia was delightful and as I settled into the rest of the flight, my thoughts quite naturally turned to my childhood … Hope. Dream chasing. Work ethic. I claim these character traits, each forged during my elementary school years. Many contests would be entered: Dance competition, student council campaigns, science fairs, gymnastic and other athletic tournaments. Every time I thought about entering a race, I became excited. I would visualize the event that would culminate whatever period of practice and preparation I had, and I could see that time would allow me to hone whatever skill I needed. And somehow, vision became reality as I would find myself winning. Looking back now, I realize I have always dreamed big. I’ve been called dramatic by many people and often not as a compliment. I must own it because it is a truth. I view this as an art and a strength. An innate predisposition for drama, used for doing good, to tell a story, to make people laugh, to create excitement, is a great personality trait to have. It can also be a powerful, emotion evoking weapon if misused. It has always been easy to get a group of people behind me. The point I want to come back to is that I was born with hope

and excitement for life in me and, to this day, wake up excited and eager to live life. I believe this enthusiasm is a gift and because hope for greater things and bigger things is ever present, I am able to lead others to the same belief. What others call drama, I know to be passion that shines through all things I do. Despite having a long list of disadvantages and hurdles to overcome, I’ve always felt certain I had this big life in front of me. In everything I do, I am aware of my deficits. And yet somehow, the way forward is found. I remember as a child nursing hurts no youngster should endure and thinking, “I will not be denied. I don’t care what others say, how others tell me it can’t be done. I don’t believe them. I know they are wrong.” We lived the furthest from my school one could possibly live and still attend. The town line was a stone’s throw away. We were on the last street in town, so the school bus picked us up first. It made for a long ride as the bus wove through the back roads of our rural community, skirting the peripheral of a mill town that had evolved past its glory days. Over half the property in town was owned by wealthy out-of-stater’s who came for the camps cresting the edges of our 20 miles of lakes. We sat in a valley of the greatest terrain in the northeast, a latch key to the enormous White Mountains. Our town was a picture of opposites, filled with wealth— those who came from their lofty lives in Massachusetts to vacation—and the impoverished

Townies. Opulence to penury teetered in both directions, with few in between. Affluence created segregation even among the townies where wealthy business owners of hotels, restaurants, and big businesses thrived amid the rest of us who lived in the trailer parks and camps on the exterior looking in. I do not remember a time when I was not aware of lack. I was keenly aware of kids like me who could not afford much. I longed for people to see the real me, to look past the rough exterior, to look beyond the shoes from K-Mart. I thought early on, if they saw ME and my heart, that they would look past the hurt I felt inside for the things I was limited to in life by money. I didn’t know for a very long time how inconsequential these things were and how misguided it was to allow ‘fitting in’ to weigh so heavy on my heart. Our classrooms were arranged around ‘aptitude’ groups. I had an inside out view of the harsh cruelty of other children because I was placed in a group made up mostly of the affluent kids. All day, our group moved from one class to the next together. The rich kids in my group would laugh and mock other kids who didn’t have the designer clothes. They mistreated kids who were different; children with societal inversions, shyness, who had hygiene issues (no doubt from their home environments as I knew at least six of my fellow students who had no running water or electricity in their homes). I remember one day in

particular while waiting for the school bus I saw a younger girl have her winter hat tore off her head by one of this elite group. They passed around the hat, like a cruel game of keep away, while the little girl wailed for them to return it to her. She was the daughter of one of my mom and dad’s co-workers and I had just hung out with them Saturday night at my home while our parents played cards. There was nothing physically harmful, but it was embarrassing, emotionally taunting and hurtful. At first, I didn’t think I could do anything to help. After all, there were three boys my age laughing and continuing the taunting, throwing the hat back and forth between them. Then, before my mind could catch up with my feet, I seized the hat mid-toss from the clutches of one of the boys. With a great shove and a forceful glare I pushed him to the ground. The other kids laughed. I turned and returned the hat to my friend. She looked at me with tears streaming down her face and managed a slight smile as she reclaimed her hat, placing it firmly on her head. I walked away angry and shaking. I quickened my pace and ran around the corner of the building where I stood with my back to the wall of the school. It was cold outside and I could hear the bus coming, and I was crying. For a truly important moment, my body had taken me for a ride. I was on auto pilot. As I felt the adrenaline leaving my body, a teacher came around the corner to tell me I am a good girl and that continued on page 49

The Most Connected Mortgage Professionals of 2019

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Russell Ammons LinkedIn: LinkedIn.com/in/RussellAmmons/ Russell Ammons has more than 12 years of experience in the mortgage industry in various roles. Most recently, Russell joined the oldest non-QM lender in the industry, ACC Mortgage, as a national wholesale account executive. Russell leverages his extensive background in marketing and lead generation to help his client grow their business.

Dino Biorac LinkedIn: Linkedin.com/in/Dino-Biorac-7112a518/ Dino Biorac began his career in retail at the age of 19. He hit several milestones and gained the experience where the district manager of Accredited Home Lenders decided correspondent/wholesale would be where his talents were best served. Dino has maintained relationships with mortgage bankers and mortgage brokers to this very day.

Chris Barker Facebook: Facebook.com/Chris.Barker123 LinkedIn: LinkedIn.com/in/ChrisBarker1/ Account Executive Chris Barker is a top producer at Angel Oak with close to two decades in the real estate and nonQM space. Chris has long been a leader in the industry earning the number one account executive in the United States for two previous New York Stock Exchange nonagency lenders.

Donna Bishop Twitter: Twitter.com/@donnabishop26 Facebook: TheBishopMortgageTeam@movement.com LinkedIn: LinkedIn.com/in/Donna-Bishop-753ba246 Instagram: Instagram.com/bishodr1 Donna Bishop started in the retail world and worked her way into the financial industry. Donna began her career at a larger bank at first, and for the last eight years, she has been with Movement Mortgage in the Carolinas as a top producer.

Raymond Bartreau Twitter: Twitter.com/BestRateLeads Facebook: Facebook.com/BestRateReferralsLV LinkedIn: LinkedIn.com/in/RaymondBartreau/ With 17 years of combined financial services and direct marketing experience, Raymond Bartreau has spent my career providing lenders with the strategies and insights to better connect with consumers amid an ever-changing, ratedriven market. In 2003, Raymond founded Best Rate Referrals, now a DMS subsidiary, and award-winning consumer finance marketing firm. Christine Beckwith Facebook: Facebook.com/VisionYourSuccess.net/ LinkedIn: LinkedIn.com/in/Christine-Beckwith-4306724/ Instagram: Instagram.com/2020VisionForSuccess/ YouTube: YouTube.com/Channel/UCzgCiPJDlTiRvN1GBluJ44g Christine Beckwith is a 30-year mortgage industry veteran. She has consistently won awards in mortgage originations at all ranks, from loan officer to regional sales management, always producing at the top five percent. In 2018, Christine launched her company, 20/20 Vision for Success, into the mortgage finance and real estate world. Ginger Bell Twitter: Twitter.com/GingerGBell LinkedIn: LinkedIn.com/in/GingerBell/ Instagram: Instagram.com/GingerGBell YouTube: YouTube.com/Go2Training Blog: Edumarketing.com/blog Ginger Bell is a three-time best-selling author, speaker and Edumarketing specialist with Edumarketing.com. Ginger helps companies create educational marketing campaigns and strategies to increase their customer base and grow their business. Ginger has been named as one of Mortgage Banking’s Most Powerful Women and Elite Women of Lending.

Michael Borodinsky Twitter: Twitter.com/MikeBorodinsky Facebook: Facebook.com/MichaelBorodinsky LinkedIn: LinkedIn.com/in/MichaelNewHomeMortgage/ Instagram: Instagram.com/MikeBorodinsky Blog: Facebook.com/Reasonably/Speaking Michael Borodinsky has funded more than $4 billion in mortgage loans to 12,000 individual customers over the course of his 36-year career. Michael has been ranked amongst the top one percent of loan originators nationwide. Michael currently serves as vice president of associate affairs for the New Jersey Builders Association. Jim Bromwell Facebook: Facebook.com/JimBromwellMortgage/ LinkedIn: LinkedIn.com/in/Jim-Bromwell-740248a/ Blog: JimBromwell.com Jim Bromwell is proven leader with more than 26 years of management experience. He is passionate for creating a positive mindset with his teams and eliminating the “derailers” who negatively impact daily productivity. Jim has incorporated the avid use of social media into his P.O.B. loan officer business plan with his teams. Andrew Cady Twitter: Twitter.com/EpicMortgageGuy Facebook: Facebook.com/EpicMortgageGuy LinkedIn: LinkedIn.com/in/EpicMortgageGuy/ Instagram: Instagram.com/EpicMortgageGuy In early 2015, Andrew Cady found his passion in the mortgage business, quickly becoming one of the top single producers in the state of Florida. Andrew has truly mastered his profession. On every transaction, Andrew aims to make the closing room more of a celebration then a sigh of relief!

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Nick Carpenter Facebook: Facebook.com/TheNickCarpenter LinkedIn: LinkedIn.com/in/NicholausCarpenter/ Instagram: Instagram.com/BeardedMarketer/ YouTube: YouTube.com/user/NillaNickTV Blog: SalesClubhouse.com/blog/ Nick Carpenter is one of the most sought after thought leaders and marketers in the mortgage industry. He is a “Realtor Attraction” expert, known for helping loan officers add 10 great referral partners within 90 days. Nick is an Eagle Scout and U.S. Air Force veteran, having served in Iraq. Brian Cavanaugh Twitter: Twitter.com/Briancav Facebook: Facebook.com/BrianCavanaughMortgage/ LinkedIn: LinkedIn.com/in/BriCav/ Instagram: Instagram.com/BrianCav/ Brian Cavanaugh is a mortgage banker assisting homebuyers with purchase mortgage financing, and current homeowners with refinances. Brian has helped thousands of families with affordable and financially responsible mortgage financing. Brian is the “Preferred Mortgage Lender” for some of the state of Massachusetts’ largest employers. Matt Coles LinkedIn: LinkedIn.com/in/MattColes-PlazaHomeMortgage/ Matt Coles is the Pacific Southwest sales manager for Plaza Home Mortgage. In this role, he is responsible for serving clients in Southern California, Nevada, Arizona and Utah. Throughout his seven years with Plaza, Matt has consistently been a top producer and a “Select Circle” Award winner for five years.

Kevin DeLory Twitter: Twitter.com/AEDeLory Facebook: Facebook.com/CarringtonWholesale/ LinkedIn: LinkedIn.com/in/Kevin-DeLory-555390a/ As vice president of national sales at Carrington Mortgage Services, wholesale and correspondent, Kevin DeLory leverages his 23 years of mortgage experience into developing a winning team. He emphasizes a winning attitude, while fostering an environment where accountability is king. The result? A leader who inspires while driving growth and profitability.

Marc Demetriou Twitter: Twitter.com/MarcDemetriou1 Facebook: Business.Facebook.com/TheMortgageExperts/ LinkedIn: LinkedIn.com/in/Marc-Demetriou/ Instagram: Instagram.com/MarcDemetriou/ YouTube: YouTube.com/MarcDemetriou/ Blog: MarcDemetriou.com/Blog/ Other Sites: Zillow.com/Lender-Profile/MarcDemetriou/ Marc Demetriou is a nationally-recognized mortgage banker, award-winning author and top-rated speaker. As an authority on real estate and finance, he has been quoted in articles in The New York Times, Huffington Post, Reuters, The Associated Press and many other local and national publications and media outlets. Matthew Demorest Twitter: Twitter.com/HomeSureLending?lang=en Facebook: Facebook.com/HomeSureLending/ LinkedIn: LinkedIn.com/in/MattDemorest Instagram: Instagram.com/MittenLifestyle/ YouTube: YouTube.com/User/HomeSureLending Matt Demorest founded HomeSure Lending in 2014 because he believes that mortgages should be both simple and fair. He has grown the business into one of Metro Detroit’s most respected firms, with five-star ratings on Yelp, Facebook and Google. He consistently funds more than 20 units a month.

John Detwiler LinkedIn: LinkedIn.com/in/John-J-Detwiler-22015a27/ As senior vice president of national sales for Class Valuation, John Detwiler is known for his forward-thinking, innovative approach to growing high-performance sales teams. John has spent his 10-plus years in financial services bringing big ideas to small businesses and growing them into multi-million dollar enterprises. Jay Doran Twitter: Twitter.com/JayDoranCM Facebook: Facebook.com/JayDoran LinkedIn: LinkedIn.com/JayDoran Instagram: Instagram.com/JayDoran_TheCultureMan YouTube: YouTube.com/JayDoran Blog: CultureMattersCourses.com Jay Doran created principles that are transferred to every company, working with businesses on how to develop cultural alignment within their organizations. Jay has interviewed producers generating more than $4 billion annually in sales. Jay’s book, Thirty Days of Thought, allows individuals to develop their content for their culture output in the marketplace. Jay Dunsing LinkedIn: LinkedIn.com/in/JayDunsing/ Jay Dunsing has 22,485 LinkedIn connections, with 90 percent of those connections people in the mortgage industry. He currently has approximately 590,971 e-mail addresses and phone numbers of loan officers across the country, the largest and more importantly, highest quality database of its kind. He is a frequent contributor to mortgage-related LinkedIn groups. Matt Famiglietti Twitter: Twitter.com/MortgageMattNH Facebook: Business.Facebook.com/MortgagesWithFamiglietti/ LinkedIn: LinkedIn.com/in/Matt-Famiglietti-8b216a14b/ Instagram: Instagram.com/MortgageMatt__HomeLoans/ Matt Famiglietti is focused on adding a certain “personal touch” to the industry. His favorite social media site is his Facebook Business Page, as it allows him to focus on conversion and execution, instead of “Likes” and “Comments.” He believes in generating content that provides value, purpose and guidance to his customers.

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Marcel Deitrich Facebook: Facebook.com/GuaranteedRateMarcel/ LinkedIn: LinkedIn.com/in/MarcelDeitrich/ Instagram: Instagram.com/AskMarcel/ YouTube: YouTube.com/channel/UCOfaYPYvejMmCXSB81pRrhA? Marcel Deitrich provides both educational and entertaining content targeted both to help educate homebuyers, and provide real estate agents with quality, sharable content.

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Jay Davis Twitter: Twitter.com/JDavis2272 Facebook: Facebook.com/JayDavisLoanOfficer Instagram: Instagram.com/JDavis2272 YouTube: YouTube.com/JDavis2272 Jay Davis has become a mortgage expert, always looking to connect himself with successful people impacting their industry. His national network allows him to keep a pulse on the housing industry, which has allowed him to become a regional expert in fulfilling dreams and delivering on hope through homeownership!

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Michael Faulkner Facebook: Facebook.com/MichaelFaulknerFan/ LinkedIn: LinkedIn.com/in/MichaelFaulkner2/ Instagram: Instagram.com/MichaelDFaulkner/ YouTube: YouTube.com/Channel/UC5H7r7yZO3HWR2cMwoUQdlg Blog: FaulknerMortgage.com/Category/Blog Michael Faulkner got into the mortgage industry in 2004, with the goal of effectively communicating with homebuyers and helping them navigate the home loan process. His mission is to solve homebuyers’ biggest complaints. Michael strives to be an effective communicator, provide education and explain the “why” behind loan products and rates. Jonathan Fowler Twitter: Twitter.com/FowlerJonathan Facebook: Facebook.com/JonnyFowler68 LinkedIn: LinkedIn.com/in/JonnyFowler/ Instagram: Instagram.com/HeresJonnyFowler/ YouTube: YouTube.com/channel/UC7boW8DWcz0dDOEFZHVKfpg Blog: JonnyFowler.com Other Sites: MTGPro.co/3ap45 Jonathan Fowler has directed national production in 50 states and has managed branch office services and national production initiatives. He has a knack for bringing the right people to the right opportunity and making it possible for them to expand their mortgage businesses.

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Jason Frazier Twitter: Twitter.com/TheMarketerFraz Facebook: Facebook.com/JCFrazier LinkedIn: LinkedIn.com/in/RealEstateCIO/ Jason Frazier is the founder of The Agent Marketer and director of strategy for Shred Media. He is an award-winning marketer and national speaker with more than 20 years of expertise in marketing, social media, technology startups and venture capital, holding various C-level positions in the mortgage industry. Vince Furey Twitter: Twitter.com/OpenCloseSocial Facebook: Facebook.com/OpenCloseSocial/ LinkedIn: LinkedIn.com/in/VinceFurey Blog: Blog.OpenClose.com/ Vince Furey is the chief revenue officer at LOS provider OpenClose, where he is responsible for business development, sales, marketing and strategy. With more than 25 years of senior-level mortgage banking experience, Vince has extensive multi-channel experience in national sales, lending technology, operations, credit, secondary marketing, trade management and mortgage compliance.

Ashley Gravano Twitter: Twitter.com/AshleyGravano Facebook: Facebook.com/AshleyGravano/ LinkedIn: LinkedIn.com/in/Ashley-Gravano-87b67448/ Instagram: Instagram.com/AshleyGravano YouTube: YouTube.com/Channel/UC7ZOpR7i2MdrSzrZoobB_aQ Ashley Gravano brings more than two decades of experience in the title and settlement industry, leading team efforts and producing valuable partnerships and growth avenues at Mortgage Cadence. Ashley has a proven record of creating strong brand recognition utilizing her industry expertise, savvy marketing skills, networking abilities and social media following. Christopher Griffith Facebook: Facebook.com/DebtDoesDeals/ LinkedIn: LinkedIn.com/in/Christopher-Griffith-43468658/ Debt is a lot like fire, not good or bad. Understanding what types of debts and when they are best used is incredibly significant to successfully navigating the American Dream Christopher Griffith is a student of debt … the most powerful and efficient currency in existence.

Sally Guerrero-Redmon Facebook: Facebook.com/TheSallyRedmonTeam/ LinkedIn: Linkedin.com/in/Sally-Guerrero-Redmon-5aa37312 Instagram: Instagram.com/TheSallyRedmonTeam/?hl=en For the past 14 years, Sally Guerrero-Redmon has been helping her clients achieve the American dream of homeownership. Being connected is about more than how many “Likes” and “Followers” she has … it’s about making personal connections with both the clients and employees she lifts and inspires as an Academy Mortgage area manager. Cathy Haddad Facebook: Facebook.com/Catherine.Haddad.96 Linkedin: LinkedIn.com/in/Cathy-Haddad-2b2440b4 Instagram: Instagram.com/CathyHaddad?igshid=blary54l24rh With more than 16 years of experience, Cathy Haddad has been ranked in the top one percent in the country for the past seven years, helping more than 250 clients and funding in excess of $100 million in closed volume annually. Cathy values constant communication, driving her to remain connected with customers and referral partners alike. Julian Hebron Twitter: Twitter.com/TheBasisPoint Facebook: Facebook.com/TheBasisPoint LinkedIn: LinkedIn.com/in/JulianHebron/ Instagram: Instagram.com/TheBasisPoint/ Blog: TheBasisPoint.com/ Julian Hebron is founder of The Basis Point, a sales and marketing strategy consultancy for consumer finance and real estate firms, and a way cool consumer finance media platform. Previously, he served in executive sales and marketing roles at UBS, Wells Fargo, loanDepot and LendUS.

Frank Garay & Brian Stevens Facebook: Facebook.com/FrankAndBrian/ LinkedIn: LinkedIn.com/in/Frank-Garay-845b34143/ Blog: TheNationalRealEstatePost.com/ National trainers and speakers Brian Stevens and Frank Garay are the creators and hosts of the National Real Estate Post. Their presentations are always unique, educational, funny, and from time to Leslie Heimer Twitter: Twitter.com/LeslieHeimer time, a little edgy, making them two of the most Facebook: Facebook.com/ALMOrlando/ popular mortgage leaders in the country. LinkedIn: LinkedIn.com/in/LeslieHeimer/ Instagram: Instagram.com/Leslie_Heimer/ Marty Garrity YouTube: YouTube.com/user/LeslieHeimer LinkedIn: LinkedIn.com/in/MartyGarrity/ Blog: HeimersRock.Blogspot.com/ Marty Garrity has been know across the Midwest for A third generation loan officer, Leslie Heimer began her contributions to borrowers, real estate professions and team lending career in 2002, after completing her degree at UF. members. During his personal production years, he originated Leslie has been featured in multiple publications and sits on over 300 units annually. Marty rose through the sales multiple community boards, completing her MBA in 2017. leadership ranks up to an including National Production With more than 4,000 Facebook friends and LinkedIn Manager for a large Midwest Bank. connections, she is a connected industry influencer.

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David Hosterman Twitter: Twitter.com/HostermanTeam?lang=en Facebook: Facebook.com/DHostermanCitywideHomeLoans/ LinkedIn: LinkedIn.com/in/DavidHosterman/ Instagram: Instagram.com/DavidHostermanCWHL/?hl=en David Hosterman has been nationally-recognized as a top loan officer in the country over the past few years. He has also been featured in national publications, such as Forbes, CBS Money Watch, The Street, US News & World Report, LendingTree, Realtor.com, Credit Karma, Trulia, Nerd Wallet and MSN Money. John H.P. Hudson Twitter: Twitter.com/JHPHudson Facebook: Facebook.com/MortgageYou/ LinkedIn: LinkedIn.com/in/JohnHPHudson/ Instagram: Instagram.com/JHPHudson/ YouTube: YouTube.com/user/PremierHudson/ Blog: MortgageFinancialSA.com John H.P. Hudson has served the industry for more than 20 years on local, state and national issues impacting mortgage professionals. “My passion gives me power and I am blessed to work with an amazing team that have made Mortgage Financial Services one of the fastest-growing mortgage companies,” said Hudson. Casey Hughes Wade LinkedIn: LinkedIn.com/in/Casey-Hughes-Wade-814a128/ Casey Hughes Wade is an experienced sales professional in the mortgage industry. She is responsible for maintaining relationships with current and prospective SimpleNexus clients to ensure satisfaction and retention. She supports sales and business development by acting as an extension of the client’s organization and translating their needs into service options.

Breton Macdonald Twitter: Twitter.com/BretonGMac Facebook: Facebook.com/NMLS174698 LinkedIn: Linkedin.com/in/BretonMacdonaldGenevaFinancial Blog: HomeLoansForHumans.com/Breton-Macdonald Breton Macdonald is a branch manager at Geneva Financial with more than 15 years of experience as an LO/team lead. He uses transparency and treating people like family to build a solid network of referrals/repeat business. Breton successfully transitioned from retail to wholesale using the social media as a springboard.

Jeremy Marks Facebook: Facebook.com/CommunityLendingOfAmerica/ LinkedIn: LinkedIn.com/in/Jeremy-Marks-30514912/ Instagram: Instagram.com/CommunityLendingOfAmerica/ Blog: CommunityLendingOfAmerica.com/Articles/ Other Sites: Zillow.com/Lender-Profile/Jeremy%20J%20Marks/ Jeremy Marks’ tenacity and relentless attitude towards education in the mortgage industry is contagious! He has consistently reinvented the wheel and his focus on education is refreshing. Through homebuyer, downsizing and VA workshops, he is truly helping consumers. He conducts these educational workshops in churches, schools, public libraries, restaurants and offices. Lucas Mast Twitter: Twitter.com/Sneakrz Facebook: Facebook.com/Encompass360/ LinkedIn: Linkedin.com/in/LucasMast/ Instagram: Instagram.com/Sneakrz/ Other Sites: Pinterest.com/Sneakrz/ Lucas Mast leads social and content strategy at Ellie Mae. As the number one cloud-based platform provider for the mortgage finance industry, 40 percent of residential loans are processed through Ellie Mae’s system annually. Prior to Ellie Mae, Lucas helped build/lead content and social teams at Fortune 500 companies, including Visa and Yahoo! Susan Meitner Twitter: Twitter.com/SueMeitner Facebook: Facebook.com/CLG.KeysToSuccess LinkedIn: LinkedIn.com/in/Susan-Meitner Instagram: Instagram.com/SueMeitner/ Susan Meitner’s commitment to social media stems from her belief that people do business with those they know, like and trust. Sharing her personal and professional thoughts and experiences through social networks provides her friends with a go-to source for a mortgage and makes her more relatable to her customers. Ian Miller Twitter: Twitter.com/MCTTrading Facebook: Facebook.com/MCTTrading/ LinkedIn: LinkedIn.com/in/IanThomasMiller/ YouTube: YouTube.com/Channel/UCsfM_stDmynRhuWbMZgVOsw Blog: MCT-Trading.com/Blog/ By leveraging social media, Ian Miller has helped MCT become one of the most widely recognized brands in the mortgage industry among loan-hedging advisory services and secondary marketing software firms. Ian has been a freelance marketer, partner at a successful digital marketing agency, and now CMO at fast-growing MCT. Bubba Mills Twitter: Twitter.com/RealBubbaMills1 Facebook: Facebook.com/CorcoranCoaching LinkedIn: LinkedIn.com/in/BubbaMills Instagram: Instagram.com/RealBubbaMills YouTube: YouTube.com/CorcoranCoaching Bubba Mills is the owner and CEO of Corcoran Consulting & Coaching, an international small business, mortgage and real estate coaching company, whose clients are recognized as some of the most successful and influential professionals in their respective fields. Bubba has spent decades in the business world, crossing industry boundaries and building a diverse collection of relationships and experiences. His true passion is to ensure that every coaching client is protected from recession by having multiple pillars of business and multiple streams of income.

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David Kosmecki Twitter: Twitter.com/DaveKosmecki Facebook: Facebook.com/FastClosingNow/ LinkedIn: LinkedIn.com/in/DaveKosmecki/ Instagram: Instagram.com/DavidKosmecki/ “I have had agents accept my preapproval letters over other loan officers because they know or recognize me, even if my buyer didn’t have the highest offer,” said David Kosmecki. “I post and send out valuable market and industry information to real estate agents presented from their perspective. Prior, I spent 17 years a real estate agent.”

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Mat Ishbia Twitter: Twitter.com/MIshbia15 Facebook: Facebook.com/MatIshbiaUWM/ LinkedIn: LinkedIn.com/in/MatIshbia/ Mat Ishbia is president and CEO of United Wholesale Mortgage. One of the nation’s leading advocates for mortgage brokers, Mat has changed the lending platform, turning UWM into a $41 billion company and the number one wholesale lender in the country.

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Eric Mitchell Twitter: Twitter.com/EricTMitchell Facebook: Facebook.com/Join-Gold-Star108649865819588/?ref=br_rs LinkedIn: LinkedIn.com/in/EricTMitchell/ Instagram: Instagram.com/EricTMitchell/ YouTube: YouTube.com/channel/UCYgHu7yIMcBQcTVpC72cNNQ Executive Vice President at Gold Star Mortgage and a keynote national speaker, Eric Mitchell has 30,000 industry LinkedIn connections; 5,000 personal Facebook connections; and is a Certified Master Practitioner in NLP. Eric negotiated the national agreement between Gold Star and CraigProctor.com to revolutionize the way real estate agents and loan officers work together. Nancy Monbouquette LinkedIn: Linkedin.com/in/Nancy-Monbouquette-434958/ Nancy Monbouquette is senior sales executive for mortgage lending for Citizen’s Bank, responsible for the leadership and management of Citizen’s Bank’s retail loan officer sales in New England. Nancy has broad experience in all aspects of mortgage lending, including sales management, secondary marketing, processing, underwriting and closing. She has expertise in recruiting, driving new business and building highly successful sales teams.

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Sam Parker Twitter: Twitter.com/SamParker83 Facebook: Facebook.com/MyCreditGuy/ LinkedIn: LinkedIn.com/in/Sam-Parker-98453a6/ Instagram: Instagram.com/MyCreditGuySamParker/ YouTube: YouTube.com/Channel/UC63iGq9zi551jZDgDOccGSg Blog: MyCreditGuy.com/Blog/ Sam Parker has been a key player in bringing quality and integrity to such a fragmented industry. His vision for how to treat people right, do what you say you’re going to do, and add more value than any other credit repair agency has been a key formula for his success.

Katy Parsons Facebook: Facebook.com/Katy.Parsons.14 Instagram: Instagram.com/KatyParsons Katy Parsons’ strong social media presence is due to consistently creating engaging content. Eighty-seven percent of Katy’s business can be traced back to Facebook, and she’s now expanding to Instagram. Her unique wildlife photos are the driving force behind her pipeline. Follow her on Instagram @katyparsons and take notes. Thomas Piecenski Twitter: Twitter.com/TomKPiecenski Facebook: Facebook.com/TomPiecenskiEquityResources LinkedIn: LinkedIn.com/in/TomPiecenski Instagram: Instagram.com/TomPiecenski Thomas Piecenski has been in the mortgage industry for the past 26 years. He has been fortunate to grow throughout his career as a loan officer, sales manager, regional manager and national sales manager. “I love my industry and look forward to the future,” said Piecenski.

Josh Pitts Twitter: Twitter.com/JoshPittsLIVE Facebook: Facebook.com/TheJoshPitts LinkedIn: LinkedIn.com/in/JoshPittsLive/ Instagram: Instagram.com/JoshPittsLive/ Josh Pitts, founder of Shred Media, has become one of the most recognizable figures in the mortgage business because of his digital marketing and social media acumen. A national speaker, trainer and advocate for the mortgage industry, he relentlessly unites the mortgage and real estate industries through collaboration. Lauri Preedge LinkedIn: LinkedIn.com/in/Lauri-Preedge-7494b310/ Lauri Preedge returned to wholesale lending in September of 2018 after a 10-year hiatus, joining Spring EQ as a wholesale account executive. Previously, she worked at National City Home Equity, Washington Mutual and North American Mortgage in the same capacity. She earned her BS in marketing in 2012. Rajin Ramdeholl Twitter: Twitter.com/Rajin_R Facebook: Facebook.com/Rajin.Ramdeholl.5 LinkedIn: LinkedIn.com/in/Rajin-Ramdeholl-9a95722a/ Instagram: Instagram.com/RajinRamdeholl_MTG/ Rajin Ramdeholl is a powerful networker because of his canny ability to not only network, but to put the right people in front of the perfect crowd that allows them to grow. As a social media guru, he uses it to influence the industry, build and expand his business.

Steven Richman Facebook: Facebook.com/ThatMIGuy LinkedIn: LinkedIn.com/in/SteveRichman/ Steve Richman is a nationally-recognized speaker and educator, and is known as “That MI Guy.” From credit unions and community banks, to brokers and builders, he has educated more than 250,000 real estate and mortgage professionals with his energetic and informative presentations on social media, must-have apps and more. Brian Rieger Twitter: Twitter.com/BrianRieger LinkedIn: LinkedIn.com/in/BrianRieger/ Blog: TrueImpactCommunications.com/Blog A reformed litigator, Brian Rieger got his start in the mortgage industry by recruiting thought leaders to participate in his trade publication’s seminars. Since then, through his own PR agency, he’s collaborated with and brought together decisionmakers from across the mortgage spectrum, including originators, lenders, title insurers, former agency executives and trade media. Joel Michael Schaub Twitter: Twitter.com/JoelLovesTweets Facebook: Facebook.com/JoelSchaubGuaranteedRate/ LinkedIn: LinkedIn.com/in/JoelSchaub/ Instagram: Instagram.com/CubsFanMortgageMan/ YouTube: YouTube.com/user/JoelSchaub With more than $600 million in funded volume and thousands and thousands of followers, Joel Michael Schaub has been known as the most connected mortgage professional in Chicago. His motto of “Givers Gain” has led to more than 20 closings month after month.

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Phil Shoemaker Facebook: Facebook.com/Phil.Shoemaker.3363 LinkedIn: LinkedIn.com/in/Phil-Shoemaker/ A leading advocate of independent mortgage brokers in the media (and social media), Phil Shoemaker, chief business officer at Home Point Financial, is seeing his already well-known status in the mortgage industry explode as he propels business for Home Point–and mortgage brokers–to greater heights.

David Blaine Showalter LinkedIn: LinkedIn.com/in/David-Showalter-CMP-4920282a/ As a Genworth account manager, David Blaine Showalter’s passion is helping his clients improve their personal brand by better-understanding how to structure mortgage insurance to benefit both themselves and their clients. He achieves this through one-on-one interaction, group meetings and video marketing. Adam P. Smith Twitter: Twitter.com/AdamPSmith1 Facebook: Facebook.com/ColoradoRealEstateFinanceGroup/ LinkedIn: LinkedIn.com/in/TheAdamPSmith/ Instagram: Instagram.com/AwesomeMortgageGuy/ YouTube: YouTube.com/user/TheAdamPSmith Adam P. Smith is president of CORE Finance Group, a leader in lead-generation coaching, and the author of Just the Tips, a compilation of his best lead-gen tips. Adam has taught many classes on contact management and marketing to colleagues in the real estate, mortgage, insurance and financial fields.

P R O F E S S I O N A L S

John R. Thomas Twitter: Twitter.com/DEMortgages Facebook: Facebook.com/PrimaryResidentialMortgageDE/ LinkedIn: LinkedIn.com/in/DelawareMortgages/ Instagram: Instagram.com/JohnThomasTeam/ YouTube: YouTube.com/user/DelawareMortgage Blog: DelawareMortgageLoans.net Other Sites: Pinterest.com/JohnRThomas/ John R. Thomas is a branch manager for Primary Residential Mortgage. Has written a book, Your Guide to Buying Your First Home in Delaware. He also created the Loan Officer Seminar System. John has 4,547 friends on Facebook and regularly engages his audience with videos and photos throughout social media. Corey Tess Trujillo Twitter: Twitter.com/CinemaScribe Facebook: Facebook.com/CoreyTessTrujillo LinkedIn: LinkedIn.com/in/CoreyTess Instagram: Instagram.com/SynergyMaven/ YouTube: YouTube.com/channel/UCDCkX2SaPpyP3koG9GvdLqg Blog: SynergyMaven.com/Blog/ Corey Tess Trujillo is a well-known social media speaker and event planner in the finance space. Described as a “needlemover” and a “creative powerhouse” for companies looking to solidify their brand, her expertise allows companies to grow more efficiently.

Martin Warren Facebook: Facebook.com/MyNDM/ LinkedIn: LinkedIn.com/in/Martin-Warren/ Instagram: Instagram.com/NationsDirectMortgage/ With 25-plus years in the mortgage industry, Martin Warren is known as the “Guy With the Bowtie.” He is the director of lending and a founding partner at Nations Direct Mortgage. In his spare time, he enjoys cheering on the Patriots with his son and supporting the Jessie Rees Foundation.

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Carl White Facebook: Facebook.com/MortgageMarketingAnimals/ LinkedIn: LinkedIn.com/in/MarketingAnimals/ Instagram: Instagram.com/MortgageMarketingAnimals/ YouTube: YouTube.com/channel/UCnK1VB6KsVaL0t8q80F6uhw Blog: LoanOfficerFreedom.com/Category/Blog/ Rocky Stubbs Carl White is a branch manager. His podcast, Loan Officer LinkedIn: LinkedIn.com/in/Rocky-Stubbs-a9248185/ Freedom, is number one for LOs, has the largest Facebook Fan Currently SVP, head of consumer direct & digital mortgage Page for LOs, has the most recommendations in LinkedIn in the lending at Flagstar, Rocky Stubbs leads the fastest-growing direct mortgage industry, and runs the most successful mortgage lending platform at the fourth largest bank lender in the United marketing training program for top producing loan officers. Carl is States. His team is driven to completely disrupt the mortgage the founder of Mortgage Marketing Animals and for more than 20 industry with high-tech digital tools, delivering high-touch, years, has helped loan officers implement proven marketing strategies by personalized service experiences. sharing how to drastically increase production and income while working only 32 hours per week. Jeffrey C. Taylor Twitter: Twitter.com/DigitalRiskCo Mark Wilkins Facebook: Facebook.com/DigitalRiskOfficial/ Twitter: Twitter.com/TheMortgageMark LinkedIn: LinkedIn.com/in/JeffreyCTaylor/ Facebook: Facebook.com/TheMortgageMarkWilkins/ Blog: DigitalRisk.com/Newsroom/ LinkedIn: LinkedIn.com/in/TheMortgageMark/ Jeffrey C. Taylor is the co-founder and managing director of Digital Risk, one of the nation’s largest providers of mortgage risk, Instagram: Instagram.com/TheMortgageMark Mark Wilkins has been a top producing LO for more than 10 compliance and transaction management solutions. Through his years. Mark’s social media following is a key piece in his leadership, Jeff has grown the company from a start-up venture marketing strategy and building network relationships to help to a global company with more than 2,000 employees, partnering referral partners grow their business. Mark was also named in with top mortgage investors, banks and GSEs. 2017 and 2018 as a “Most Connected Mortgage Professional” by National Mortgage Professional Magazine.

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John G. Stevens Twitter: Twitter.com/JohnGlenStevens Facebook: Facebook.com/JohnGStevensUtah?ref=hl LinkedIn: LinkedIn.com/in/JohnGlenStevens/ Instagram: Instagram.com/JohnGStevens/ YouTube: YouTube.com/channel/UCZRVeBfo7aKAz2BjIV7O_Fw John G. Stevens is immediate past president of NAMB and works as vice president at Cornerstone Mortgage Group. He is married to his best friend, Mindy McClure Stevens, and together they have four beautiful children.

M O R T G A G E

By Jonathan Foxx, Ph.D., MBA 42

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Finance Charge Controversies Question In our weekly sales meeting, there was a big debate about how to explain APR (annual percentage rate) and the finance charge to borrowers. The problem is that (1) our loan officers do not seem to know how to explain them; (2) those who can explain them can’t do the calculations; and (3) everybody says most borrowers are confused by the explanations and the calculations. Then, the controversy went to figuring out what charges are finance charges, depending on whether the finance charges are charged to all approved borrowers. Anyway, we got to the point where the explanations were meshing, and even the calculating was under control, but we did not get much of an understanding of how to resolve the controversy about the finance charges. So, we got together as a group and decided to write this question to you, as everyone is willing to rely on your explanation.

Here’s our question: If we want to apply a finance charge only to approved applicants, would this be permissible, and what are the risks? Answer Regulation Z, the implementing regulation of the Truth-inLending Act (TILA), includes very detailed instructions on how to calculate a loan’s “finance charge,” critical to determining a loan’s annual percentage rate (APR). Sometimes it must seem like you need to be a math whiz to understand APR. Loan officers are embarrassed and may even lose deals when they cannot explain APR to applicants. I know some top-notch attorneys who can’t figure it out, let alone explain it to loan officers or borrowers. That said, it is not so inscrutable. However, your question is not about explanation or calculation. It is about the finance charge itself. I will explain how a finance charge applied only to

approved applicants may cause considerable mischief for a financial institution–and I’ll give you some caveats, too! I think I know where you’re going with this question. A recent case offers a good place to start with an explanation. A federal district court in Pennsylvania recently reviewed TILA in connection with a specific loan program. In Payne v. Marriott Employees Federal Credit Union [2019 U.S. Dist. (E.D. Pa. Jan. 9, 2019)], the case turned on the following allegations: l

Marriott Employees Federal Credit Union had obtained loans that provided quick access to $500, repayable in five monthly payments of $90 and a final payment of $79.23. We’ll call these type of loans the “teeny-tiny loans.” Members had to pay a $35 “application fee” when they applied for teeny-tiny loans. Members who had obtained teeny-tiny loans sued the credit union, alleging that its

loan disclosures understated the finance charge and APR in violation of TILA because the credit union had not included the application fee in determining the finance charge. The court ultimately dismissed the claim because the members failed to sufficiently allege actual damages, but the court denied a motion to dismiss the finance charge claim. And that is where I want to go with my response to your question! The allegations in the complaint gave rise to a reasonable inference that the credit union had not charged the $35 application fee to all applicants and that the fee was not related to costs associated with processing applications. The members asserted that the credit union only charged the application fee when their teeny-tiny loans were approved. Also, they alleged that the fee continued on page 53

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Recap of key economic events that took place over the past week and a look ahead to events that will potentially impact interest rates in the housing market.

Mondays at 7 a.m.

TUESDAY

The Mortgage Godfather

Ralph LuVuolo Sr., “The Mortgage Godfather,” shares his unique and innovative approach to mortgage origination. You better become a follower or else. It’s an offer you can’t refuse!

Tuesdays at 7 a.m.

WEDNESDAY

Top Originator Secrets with Brian Sacks

Closing more, making more and still enjoying life!

Wednesdays at 7 a.m.

Homeownership Heroes

The Battle to Increase Military Homeownership.

Wednesdays at 11 a.m.

Coming Soon... Under Construction

Construction loans made easy.

Wednesdays at 2 p.m.

Coming Soon... Non-QM Mastery

Strategies from top originators using alternative lending.

Thursdays at 7 a.m.

Quick Hits

Carl White’s simple strategies for a quick boost in your productivity.

Thursdays at 11 a.m.

Inside the MBA

Your bi-weekly window into what’s happening at the MBA.

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Inside the NAMB

Your bi-weekly window into what’s happening at NAMB.

Fridays at 11 a.m. bi-weekly

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Getting to Know â&#x20AC;¦ NAMMBA Founder and Chief Executive Officer Tony Thompson, CMB By Phil Hall

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mong the nation’s trade associations focused on the real estate finance world, the National Association of Minority Mortgage Bankers (NAMMBA) stands out for having the primary goal of creating and maintaining a profession that resembles the customer base in the marketplace. “NAMMBA is a purpose-driven organization that is dedicated to the inclusion of minorities and women in the mortgage industry who are advocates for sustainable homeownership in local communities,” says the organization in its mission statement. The driving force behind NAMMBA is Tony Thompson, CMB, a longtime mortgage industry executive who launched this organization in 2016. In the past three years, NAMMBA has seen its visibility enhanced as the industry seeks to diversify its employee base–an especially crucial consideration when one realizes that the average age of a loan originator is 54 and there is no great new wave of young talent coming in to carry on the work when today’s originators become tomorrow’s retirees. Last year, NAMMBA announced a formal strategic partnership with the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) to collaborate on certain conferences and meetings and to produce industry advocacy and research designed to further a diverse workforce, including recruitment and professional development scholarships. MBA also offered a discount to NAMMBA members on their purchases of qualified MBA products, including many MBA Education offerings. NAMMBA also signed a memorandum of understanding with the National Association of Women in Real Estate Business (NAWRB) to create a new collaborative initiative aimed at making the industry more diverse and inclusive. “The real estate finance industry must continue to enhance diversity and inclusion in order to retain and recruit the best workforce possible,” said David H. Stevens, then-president and CEO of the MBA, in announcing his organizations support of Thompson’s goals. “Our industry helps individuals and families achieve the American dream; we have to make sure that dream is

available to everyone, and that our workforce reflects the customer base we serve.” For this edition, we spoke with Tony regarding his work with NAMMBA and his goals of changing the mortgage profession for the better.

and professional development for all, enabling them to grow their careers and businesses. We realize there is a tremendous need for this–at every conference I attend, I hear about how there is a need to bring more young people into the industry.

Did you always focus on a career in the mortgage industry, or did this come about in an unexpected way? Tony Thompson: Like a lot of people, I happened to fall into the mortgage industry. My original career was in human resources, but ultimately I found my way into the mortgage industry as a loan originator at Bank of America and worked my way up to area regional manager.

Who can join NAMMBA? Tony Thompson: We are open to anyone in the industry: Mortgage brokers, mortgage bankers, credit unions. You don’t even have to be an originator–you can be a servicer or in any other aspect of the mortgage industry.

You currently hold the title of vice president for growth and strategy at Silverton Mortgage. What does your work entail? Tony Thompson: I am responsible for company growth as it relates to looking at potential growth opportunities and identifying markets to open up for business development. Silverton is based in Atlanta and has been in business since 1996, with our footprint in the Southeast. We focus not so much on the quantity of people as the quality of people. Getting the right people to join the company is important and we want to make sure they fit in with our culture and that we can help them achieve their career goals and objectives. You may not realize this, but the average loan originator stays with a company for two years or less. We really want to find the right people in the right market who can fit in with our culture and take our business to the next level. We’ve had great growth, rising from 150 employees to 300 over the course of the year. How did NAMMBA come about? Tony Thompson: As I traveled across the country to attend various conferences and association meetings, I recognized a lack of women, minorities and young people in the room. I heard from other originators in the market that they were always talking about wishing there was an organization that would help to grow and develop the mortgage profession. Our goal in creating this association is to provide professional training and education

It is not every day that someone starts a trade association from scratch. How did you learn to do this? Tony Thompson: I am learning as I go. It started with an idea in 2016 with messages on LinkedIn and social media. We had 350 people show up for our first conference, and word started to spread. We began to open different chapters, and now have more than 25 chapters and 2,500-plus members. We often hear about the minimal number of young people seeking out mortgage careers. Why is this? Tony Thompson: We are still recovering 10 to 11 years later from the Great Recession, and there are a lot of unintended consequences as a result of that. For those whose families were impacted, it was not a positive experience–especially for today’s Millennials, who may be graduating from college today, but were eightor 10-years-old when this was happening. At the same time, we also need to be aware of the changes in homeownership since the Great Recession. The demographics of future homeowners are veering to women and minorities. But many companies have never had a presence in these markets and do not have experience connecting with them or talking to them about careers in the industry. With technology evolving and the age of the average loan originator is over 50, there will be a huge transition in this industry. I would say that over 90 percent of companies in the industry are not

prepared for this transition. NAMMBA has an initiative called “Mission 2025,” in which we will connect with 50,000 students to bring them into the mortgage profession. We recently launched this initiative, seeking more Millennials, minorities and more women. We are working to develop relationships with over 500 colleges across the country and plan to establish NAMMBA chapters on college campuses and bring in industry speakers, partners and stakeholders to talk with students. Your readers can learn more about this on our Web site, NAMMBA.org. Not to cast shade on other associations, but should they have been more active in connecting with these demographics? Tony Thompson: NAMMBA is different from other trade associations in that we are not a policy-driven organization. We have two main goals: Helping the industry in training and education to help the best create the mortgage professionals possible and focusing on getting young people interested in jobs in our industry. It seems like you are an extremely busy man. What is your secret to time management? Tony Thompson: It is a delicate balance. There is a ton of work, but I have a ton to be grateful for when I get e-mails from people who say how the organization is helping them, or how they got a job after attending a NAMMBA conference. I am so passionate about helping people in the industry, and I have to remind myself … if I don’t do it, who will? How do you spend your leisure hours? Tony Thompson: I wish that I could say I had a lot more of that. I am spending a lot of my leisure thinking about how to make NAMMBA a better association and make it have a bigger impact. When I do get some leisure time, I like to play a round of golf. But in the last two years, I’ve not had a lot of opportunity to do that.

Phil Hall is managing editor of National Mortgage Professional Magazine. He may be reached by e-mail at PhilH@MortgageNewsNetwork.com.

The NAPMW Report A Message From NAPMW National President Glenda Mooney

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In 1964, nine women came together in Seattle to form an association to provide education to women in the mortgage lending industry. Not only did they provide us with the opportunity to grow in knowledge, they provided us with a pathway to create a community where women could come together and grow in strength, confidence, integrity and character, and in the process, change lives for the better. As those nine women came together in 1964, we now as an association essential come together to work on what is necessary to build on the foundation to have NAPMW thrive. We look forward to hearing from our locals with fresh ideas to help our association to bring value to your NAPMW membership. We want you to not only succeed as a local association, but to inspire others and show them what makes NAPMW important to you. Thank you for your dedication to NAPMW. We know we can and have made a difference in the lives of our members! We look forward to hearing from you with any suggestions or ideas. You are what makes this association great. Please come for the leadership education and stay for the empowering growth in your professional chapters and the friendships made at NAPMW that are sure to last a lifetime. Glenda Mooney is national president of the National Association of Professional Mortgage Women (NAPMW). She may be reached by phone at (314) 703-8714 or e-mail President@NAPMW.org.

New NAPMW Board Member Spotlight: President-Elect Susan Kerr My name is Susan Kerr and I’ve been a member of NAPMW since 2011. I’ve been a part of the mortgage industry for more than 10 years and have worked in financial services for nearly 30 years. My current position is vice president in the Private Banking Group at Middleburg Financial. I was introduced to NAPMW in 2011 at the Charter Meeting for the NAPMW Mid-Atlantic Chapter and instantly fell in love with the group. I joined the local board the following year and have developed close friendships with the women I met locally, as well as with members across the country. I

served as national vice president from 2016-2018, and have been graciously nominated as national president-elect for 2019-2020. I look forward to the opportunity to grow our association as I continue to learn from the wonderful women in the group. I was born and raised in Kentucky and relocated to Northern Virginia in 1989. In my free time, I enjoy spending time with my children, as well as hiking, watching college basketball and college football. I consider my children my greatest gift, and I’m very proud of them. My son graduated from the University of Arizona in 2014 with a bachelor of science and is currently teaching high school math and computer science, while cocoaching the school’s Debate Team. My oldest daughter just graduated from Virginia Commonwealth University with a bachelor of social work, and my youngest is heading into her junior year of high school! I live with my daughters and we share our home with our two sweet 10-year-old PBGVs, Cinnamon and Kate, as well as our kitties, Pride, Chloe and Comet (aka Grandpa who just turned 20)!

Association Spotlight: NAPMW Anchorage By Tammy Gray NAPMW’s Anchorage local was chartered in 1975 and has been continuously serving the Alaska market since. We have the distinct privilege of having Creta Bloxom from the NAPMW Foundation in our group. She is our un-official Historian and a key member of our organization. Annually, we host an education event with Ken Perry of the Knowledge Coop. The event is always a highlight of our year and is well-attended by those in the mortgage industry. Members of NAPMW’s Anchorage Board include President Tammy Gray of TGray & Company, Vice President Darcy Steger of First National Bank Alaska, Secretary Juanita Kardell of First National Bank Alaska, Treasurer Katie Harman of First National Bank Alaska, and Directors Troy Bloxom of Home Inspections Plus and Tara VanOrsdal of Yukon Title.

For more information, call (608) 886-9817, visit NAPMW.org or e-mail Admin@NAPMW.org.

THE BECKWITH BLOG continued from page 35

“What we hope for wills us to better destinations. I am a believer in our internal compass. We go to where we look. When we look or hope for better, we find it.”

Christine Beckwith is a 30-year mortgage industry veteran who has broken many glass ceilings and has blazed a trail for many female professionals to come. Christine is currently president and chief operating officer of 20/20 Vision for Success Coaching and Consulting, a decorated, sought after and award-winning leader. Christine may be reached by e-mail at Christine@VisionYourSuccess.net.

Tuesday-Thursday, November 5-7 The DeSoto Hotel 15 East Liberty • Savannah, Ga.

Preliminary Schedule of Events Subject to change

Monday. November 4 NCRA Board of Directors Meeting (all day)

Tuesday, November 5 8:00 a.m.-4:00 p.m. User and Sales Meetings 6:00 p.m.-7:30 p.m. Welcome Reception and Marketplace

Wednesday, November 6 8:00 a.m. Breakfast 9:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m. Conference Open 6:00 p.m.-9:30 p.m. Feature Event

Thursday, November 7 8:00 a.m. Committee Sign-Up & Breakfast 9:00 a.m.-4:00 p.m. General Sessions For more information and details, visit NCRAInc.org, call (630) 539-1525, or e-mail NCRA Executive Director Terry Clemans at TClemans@NCRAInc.org or NCRA Office & Members Services Manager Jan Gerber at JGerber@NCRAInc.org.

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truth, even though as a child I could not have expressed any of this: That abusing the significant advantages they had as children could and likely would become challenges to overcome in later life. Remaining hopeful and living a life filled with hope has proven to be both my greatest strength and one of my greatest challenges. Maintaining blind faith in life’s goodness is not easy. I have not always made the best choices or taken the right actions. And when missteps happened, it was hope, an internal faith that kept me hanging on. Having hope let me dream of a different future I couldn’t yet see. What we hope for wills us to better destinations. I am a believer in our internal compass. We go to where we look. When we look or hope for better, we find it. When we believe nothing better will come, we are willing for the bad and attracting it. When we speak aloud, words of dismay and words of hate or negativity, we draw in those who think similarly. Take care because there begins spiral difficult to reverse. Avoid whenever possible an environment wrought with negative people, thoughts and outcomes. We have the power to define our destiny. You must put that theory into action to believe it.

NCRA 27th Annual Conference

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I need to get in line for the bus. Having the bird’s eye view from the ‘high aptitude’ group for the 10 years of my school career placed me between fitting in and not. I became the unexpected diplomat moving in both circles, the unaccepted and the privileged. Over the years, I kind of saw myself as the schoolyard super hero. I was always watching. Many of the parents of the ostracized children were my neighbors and my parents coworkers at the mill. These were my Saturday night playmates while our families socialized. I was friends with everyone as if by example I could show others how kids were kids and nobody deserved to be bullied. I believe my friends among the privileged kids did not like that I reminded them of their own lack of importance. True fact: Their parents were rich, but they had no more than any other kid their age. Having stuff given to you does not make you better than anybody else. My attitude was to shame them if they were stuck up and I didn’t care if they liked it or not. What they chose to do with their advantage in life would determine who they became. I believe I knew, even then, that these early struggles would not define my life, but rather, enrich it. And somehow I knew another

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Mortgage Professional of the Month

Willie Newman President & Chief Executive Officer Home Point Financial By Rick Grant

illie Newman is president and chief executive officer of Home Point Financial, a national multichannel mortgage company that is among the fastest-growing lenders in the wholesale and correspondent channels. Home Point is focused on mortgage origination and servicing with a mission to provide a superior customer experience through an innovative approach to product and service delivery. National Mortgage Professional Magazine recently spoke with Willie about his career in the industry.

You have quite a bit of experience in wholesale lending, as we recall. Talk about how the industry has evolved. Willie Newman: There is a bit of a renaissance going on right now in the industry, with mortgage brokers growing market share very quickly. Just in the last couple years, we’ve seen thousands of loan originators leave the retail side of the business and transition into the broker channel, whether they’ve joined existing brokerages or started their own, and that number continues to grow. I find this really exciting because, as you know, I’ve been in the business since back in the beginning. I started in mortgage banking back in the late 1980s. The first business that we started and built was really centered on mortgage brokers. At the time, brokers were just a small part of the total loan origination market and they were primarily focused on loans that couldn’t typically be done by other lenders. We communicated and worked with mortgage brokers because we felt like there was an opportunity there because we anticipated that part of the business really evolving. As it turns out, it was a fantastic decision. I remember when it happened the first time and I feel like, to a certain extent, it’s happening again now. You built an impressive wholesale business at ABN Amro. Willie Newman: Thank you. I think what helped us with that originally was our focus on third-party originators, primarily mortgage brokers. We put a lot of thought into

what it would take for them to compete successfully against distributed retail coming from other large mortgage banks at the time. That’s what we really focused on. What we built ended up being very advantageous for brokers because it allowed them to compete and it created a level of broker connectivity that resulted in us winning a meaningful market share together. It’s not quite the same today, obviously, but I feel like there are similar conditions existing now. Tell us about Home Point Financial. Willie Newman: We’re still relatively new, having only been in business since April of 2015, but we’ve been growing rapidly, which is really exciting. When we first started four years ago, we didn’t know where the best opportunities would be for Home Point to evolve, so we tried to be as comprehensive as possible in how we covered the market. Over the last year-and-a-half, we’ve felt the best opportunity was in the third-party side of the business, especially with mortgage brokers, so we’ve really put a lot of focus on that area of the business. We narrowed our focus down to that segment of the business and really started to invest in how we might be able to not only develop relationships with mortgage brokers, but help them become more effective in what’s becoming an increasingly competitive, multifaceted origination environment. What has helped us differentiate ourselves as an attractive option to mortgage brokers is that we not only originate loans, but we retain servicing for the life of the loan as well. That continues to appeal to more and more brokers who view their customer base as more of a long-term relationship and a means to a sustainable business model, as opposed to a one-time transaction. Brokers have increasingly come to view Home Point as one of the best partners to work with, when it comes to making sure their customers have the best experience—and making sure

they’re actually able to keep their customers for life. It’s worked out well for us. We are one of the fastest-growing wholesale lenders in the country, which we are very proud of especially considering our relative youth as a company. And the great part about that success is that it has truly been a team effort. Our success hasn’t been about me calling all the shots as the CEO, or even our leadership team. It has been about our entire team coming together and everyone having a voice and an opinion in our strategic decision-making process, and it has led to great results so far. What does it take for brokers to really be successful in today’s market? Willie Newman: It’s about the local person-to-person approach, but continually enhancing the technology you offer the borrower. Even more importantly from our perspective is the quality of the data that comes along with the mortgage transaction. After the loan closes, we retain all of our mortgage servicing and handle it in-house. Our intention over time is to develop a relationship with those consumers in a way that will allow us to know enough about them to make their next mortgage transaction very simple. By enabling our brokers to make it a very, very simple, smooth process, we can provide what borrowers want with whatever level of local attention they may desire. Borrower demands have been changing, but the median age of loan officers is still relatively high. Is it hard for them to relate to these new borrowers? Willie Newman: What we try to do is reduce as much as possible the friction that goes along with a mortgage transaction and that allows brokers to build that relationship. To be honest, we’re

seeing a bit of a changing of the guard. When we attend conferences, we’re noticing that the median age of the mortgage brokers in attendance is a lot lower than you might think. We’re seeing a generational shift occurring and we think we can learn as much from that new generation as we hope they’ll want to learn from us, as we support and facilitate what they’re doing. Why should a broker consider working with Home Point? Strategically, what we’re doing with technology and with data is going to allow mortgage brokers to build a much more sustainable, long-term business that goes beyond the transactional mortgage business. Brokers shouldn’t have to start their businesses over at zero at the beginning of every month. We can work with them to build companies that will help them win market share that’s closer to what it was at the turn of the century, but without the volatility that made those businesses hard to maintain. Then there’s the practicality of how we do business as a lender that retains servicing. Mortgage brokers passionately value transparency and their ability to maintain relationships with borrowers over the long-term, not just the short-term transaction of originating a loan. And that’s exciting for us, because our vision is clearer than any other wholesale lender in America when it comes to keeping those broker-borrower relationships solidly intact. By retaining servicing, we keep the broker, the borrower and the servicer (Home Point) together in a tight-knit ecosystem. Brokers don’t have to worry about eventually losing their customers because the loan gets sold off, and they don’t have to worry about customers choosing to leave them because of a poor experience in servicing. They’re comfortable working with us because they know the borrower will get the best long-term experience, and they don’t ever have to worry about losing contact with their customers.

Rick Grant is special reports editor for National Mortgage Professional Magazine and Mortgage News Network. He may be reached by phone at (570) 497-1026 or e-mail RickG@MortgageNewsNetwork.com.

Independent Mortgage Originators By Andy W. Harris, CRMS

Price Mortgage / Tyler Arnaiz PriceMortgage.com/About/Tyler-Arnaiz Company NMLS#: 1429043 Personal NMLS#: 694462

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This month I’m interviewing Tyler Arnaiz, a loan officer with Gilbert, Ariz.-based Price Mortgage. Originally from San Diego, Tyler has been an Arizona resident since 2007, and has spent more than 10 years in the mortgage industry. “I pride myself on working hard and giving my clients one of the best homebuying experiences possible,” says Tyler. Tell us a little about yourself and your career. Tyler Arnaiz: I started off at Chase bank as a personal banker in 2008. When the refi boom picked up in 2010, I started referring a lot of refinances to the LO in the office. After doing that for a few years, I realized I could make more just doing it myself, so I became an LO in 2012. I worked for Chase pumping out refinances until the rate increase in 2013. I enjoyed being an LO, and knew I wanted to do it long-term, but realized that the purchase biz was where the longevity was at. Not knowing much of the world outside of Chase, I jumped over to a correspondent lender, which happened to be the worst two months of my career. Since then, I have worked for Prospect Mortgage, loanDepot and Fairway Independent Mortgage before making the jump to the broker side in December of 2018. I understand you are a mortgage broker now after previously working as a mortgage banker. What else motivated you to make this change? Tyler Arnaiz: It was actually a combination of you [Andy W. Harris], Evan Wade and a buddy of mine who I worked at loanDepot with. You and Evan were constantly talking about the advantage of brokers in Facebook forums and this brought it to my attention. Then, I had a buddy who left loanDepot to become a broker and he would constantly tell me about how much better it was. I talked to him in-depth about it, and reached out to Evan to discuss the negative things I had heard about brokers. After Fairway started increasing rates, I knew I needed to make a change. What would you say so far are the biggest differences you’ve experienced coming from the retail side since you were a broker before? Tyler Arnaiz: For one, I am much more competitive, which has made me more confident. I am not finding myself losing deals or begging a manager for pricing concessions to match a rate that’s crushing me. I’ve also

noticed there are so many more options with being a mortgage broker. My first deal on the broker side was a deal Fairway said they wouldn’t do. Not being tied to one set of underwriters has been great. My real estate agent partners refer me with more confidence now as well. How would you compare pricing in the mortgage broker world when compared to the mortgage banker world? Tyler Arnaiz: Pricing is so much better. When I was at Fairway, I charged a $1,700 origination charge. I now charge zero. In addition to that, the pricing has been significantly better. I’ve actually closed a few deals from people who were originally pre-qualified through Fairway. What are you seeing in your local market in terms of trends, inventory and consumer/real estate agent/mortgage education? Tyler Arnaiz: There seems to be a lot of inventory in our market right now. Right now, education through social media seems to be a great tool for both the consumer and the real estate agent. I don’t think a great deal of people understand the differences between mortgage brokers and mortgage bankers, so social media has been a great way to share the differences on both sides. I know the myth, as you mentioned, of losing control as a mortgage broker is finally being exposed to the market and quite the opposite. What are your experiences on controlling the process? Tyler Arnaiz: If anything, you have more control. We have multiple lenders fighting for our business. If one lender starts screwing up, we can switch our files over to another. When I was in retail and underwriting turn times or processing went downhill, I had to make a company change. In addition to that, some of the technology, like United Wholesale Mortgage’s UClose 2.0 gives brokers more control than retail. How many retail lenders can generate their own docs in 15 minutes without the use of a closing department? What would you say are your best forms of marketing today to generate new business? Tyler Arnaiz: Social media is a great way to generate business and get the word out to both consumers and real estate agents. I am also big with my past client database, so I am always keeping in touch via birthday cards, phone calls, client appreciation events and happy hours. Are you an Independent Mortgage Broker? Do you have something you’d like to share? Reach out to me at AHarris@VantageMortgageGroup.com for future article considerations. Andy W. Harris, CRMS is President and Owner of Lake Oswego, Ore.-based Vantage Mortgage Group Inc. and Past President of the Oregon Association of Mortgage Professionals. He may be reached by phone at (877) 4960431, e-mail AHarris@VantageMortgageGroup.com or visit VantageMortgageGroup.com.

HEARD ON THE STREET

COMPLIANCE MATTERS

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l Detroit-headquartered Quicken Loans Mortgage Services (QLMS) has promoted Austin Niemiec to executive vice president.

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l Valuation Partners, a national appraisal management company headquartered in Toledo, Ohio, has hired Karen Herr as Vice

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was not being used “to recover the costs associated with processing applications for credit” because the credit union had never performed any credit checks or investigations into their applications or conducted any review of their property. Why are those allegations important? Because Regulation Z states that application fees are not finance charges if they are application fees charged to all applicants for credit whether or not credit is actually extended. Thus, if charged only to approved applicants, Regulation Z’s exclusion of application fees would not apply, and the $35 fee imposed on borrowers would be considered a finance charge. So, you can see how a financial institution may get in trouble when it does not decide in advance how it will treat finance charges. Regulation Z offers a list of certain charges that are not finance charges–in effect, exclusions–even if they are listed as examples of finance charges provided in Regulation Z. Certain terms used in the exclusions–for instance, terms such as “bona fide and reasonable”–are critical to the decision-making process. Here are some caveats that I suggest you consider when, as, and if you want to decide on fees subject to the finance charge. Pass it along in your next sales meeting. It may quell a few controversies. Then again, it may stir them up even more! In advance, the lender should take heed and beware of: l Application fees charged to all applicants for credit, whether or not credit is actually extended; l Charges for actual unanticipated late payment, for exceeding a credit limit, or for delinquency, default or a similar occurrence; l Charges imposed by a financial institution for paying items that overdraw an account, unless the payment of those items and the imposition of the charge were

l l

previously agreed upon in writing–by the way, this exclusion does not apply to credit accessed by a prepaid card; Fees charged for participation in a credit plan, whether assessed on an annual or other periodic basis (although this exclusion does not apply to a fee to participate in a covered, separate credit feature accessible by a hybrid prepaid-credit card, regardless of whether the fee is imposed on the credit feature or asset feature of the prepaid account); Seller’s points; Interest forfeited as a result of an interest reduction required by law on a time deposit used as security for an extension of credit; Discounts offered to induce payment for a purchase by cash, check, or other means; and, The following fees in a transaction secured by real property or in a residential mortgage transaction, if the fees are bona fide and reasonable in amount: Fees for title examination, abstract of title, title insurance, property survey, and similar purposes, Fees for preparing deeds, mortgages, and reconveyance, settlement and similar documents, Notary and credit report fees, Property appraisal fees or fees for inspections to assess the value or condition of the property if the service is performed before closing, including fees relating to pest infestation or flood hazard determinations, and, Amounts required to be paid into escrow or trustee accounts if the amounts would not otherwise be included in the finance charge.

Information contained in this article is not intended to be and is not a source of legal advice.

Jonathan Foxx, Ph.D., MBA, is chairman and managing director of Lenders Compliance Group, the first and only full-service, mortgage risk management firm in the United States, specializing exclusively in outsourced mortgage compliance and offering a suite of services in residential mortgage banking for banks and non-banks. To ask a question or request compliance support, e-mail Compliance@LendersComplianceGroup.com.

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Mortgage professionals to watch

President of its U.S. West region. Sierra Pacific Mortgage has promoted Jay Promisco to chief production officer, a newly created position. Guaranteed Rate has announced the opening of a new branch in Atlanta, and has named Dean Mellon branch manager of the new Atlanta location. Waterstone Mortgage Corporation has announced the promotion of Stephanie Ziebell to senior vice president–general counsel at the company’s Pewaukee, Wis.-based corporate office. Waterstone has also announced the addition of Eric Debelack as area manager, based in the company’s Pewaukee, Wis. branch., where he will be responsible for growing Waterstone’s presence across Southeast Wisconsin, in addition to originating mortgage loans. Waterstone Mortgage has also announced the opening of a new office in Durango, Colo., to be led by Loan Originator Christal Dye, who has more than 18 years of professional experience. Planet Home Lending LLC has promoted Suzy Lindblom to chief operating officer (COO) from executive vice president of national operations. She replaces the company’s retiring COO Michael Kula. Realogy Holdings Corporation has named Shacara Delgado as its new chief ethics and compliance officer. According to the Madison, N.J.-based company, Delgado will lead the company’s ethics and compliance program, while continuing to manage employment, benefits and contractor relations legal matters in collaboration with law department senior leadership. SB One Bank has announced the appointment of Anthony F. DeSenzo as executive vice president and head of commercial lending, responsible for overseeing the Bank’s commercial lending department, supporting the growth of the bank’s loan

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leaders in the non-QM market and we expect the business to benefit from working closely with Pretium’s existing single-family rental and mortgage credit businesses,” said Donald Mullen, founder and chief executive officer of Pretium. “Deephaven is a synergistic, natural extension of Pretium’s existing strategies in single-family rentals and mortgage credit, within our residential credit ecosystem.” Värde is an investor in commercial and residential mortgages including new originations and secondary investments in commercial and residential loans and portfolios, securities and servicing platforms. “Deephaven was founded to serve the millions of credit worthy borrowers, who would otherwise have been excluded from the mortgage market,” said Matt Nichols, founder and CEO of Deephaven. “We are grateful for Värde’s partnership in helping us build and establish a leadership position in the non-QM market. We are excited to join Pretium, continuing a tradition of partnering with organizations that share our vision for the mortgage market and commitment to responsible lending. We look forward to our partnership and the opportunity it will afford us to continue our leadership position in the high-growth non-QM market.”

Behavioral Data is Powering Lenders’ Recapture Rate Strategies By Mike Eshelman

he rate at which lenders recapture repeat business from existing customers is at a 12-year low, declining dramatically over the past eight years1 as reported by Black Knight. With the recent decrease in interest rates, one would expect to see an improvement in that statistic, even if just temporarily given the vast amount of information known about the customer. However, in the first quarter of 2019, the retention rate hit rock bottom at 18 percent2. Retaining customers has become a huge challenge for lenders, even though most lenders’ post-closing customer surveys would show a substantially higher satisfaction rate and willingness to get their next loan from the lender. It’s a significant disconnect and one that many lenders are investing time and energy to identify why customers are choosing to get their next mortgage from another lender. One significant finding that contributes to losing customers is a lack of leveraging relatively new third-party data sets to inform lenders when consumers are back in-market. Advancements have been made by data-as-a-service (DaaS) vendors who can deliver unique insights, providing a wider view of your customers’ mortgage shopping behaviors. These insights enable smarter engagements to the right consumer with the right message while they are most

receptive to receiving it. Nimble and innovative nonbank lenders primarily focused on new customer acquisition have been successfully experimenting with these behavioral data sets, and the impact has been noticeable for servicers in the form of declining retention rates. Innovators leverage unique data Over the past eight years, the industry has seen a surge in fintech focused lenders who have gained substantial market share. Lenders such as loanDepot, Quicken Loans’ Rocket Mortgage, Better.com, and others have grown by providing consumers with a digital mortgage experience at a time when banks decided to take a back seat to originations and lacked innovation. Four years ago, loanDepot was valued at an estimated $1 billion within six years of opening their doors3 and Better.com was more recently valued at $550 million within five years of funding their first loan. Consumers crave innovation in mortgage lending and lenders like these have gobbled up volume by leveraging technologies to satisfy consumers’ needs. Fintech lenders built proprietary technologies to prove a digital mortgage process is better for consumers. This led to many of the banks racing to catch up and having the option to partner with newly emerging fintech solutions such as Blend, ClougVirga and Roostify to

deploy a digital mortgage solution as quickly as possible. The benefits were obvious and is now table stakes for mortgage lenders in their effort to keep their customers happy and coming back. However, the next wave of competition is coming from innovators who are leveraging unique data to identify consumers who are in-market for a mortgage allowing their marketers to influence shopping behaviors much sooner than was previously possible. Standard models missed the mark The models lenders relied on for years to power their efforts of identifying customers who are inmarket, or will likely be in-market soon, have become less and less effective because many use the same data that most lenders use. If everybody knows the secret recipe, it’s no longer a secret and the competitive advantage is lost due to mass competition. Basic models using data sets such as how long the consumer has been in the loan, how much equity is in the property, the current interest rate, and how much revolving debt the household owes is accessible to all lenders rendering the models less effective. Most models missed the mark in Q1 of this year when 80 percent of the refinance transactions were cashout with two-thirds of those taking a higher interest rate4. However, the lenders using behavior data sets picked up these consumers driving

significant improvements to recapture rates. Creating more robust models and gaining a clearer view of the consumer’s behaviors have become the new requirement for lenders wanting to stay ahead of the game. If we break down recapture rates by loan type, it will unveil a bigger problem for lenders trying to keep their customers from leaving them when they move to a new home as purchase recapture rates are in the low single-digits. Purchase business went with referrals On average, less than one in 20 of customers return to their previous lender to provide the mortgage on their next home. This is a startling statistic from what one would expect given consumers are generally happy with their previous lender’s service. However, more and more real estate firms and online portals have formed relationships with exclusive mortgage partners or launched their own mortgage company to try and guide the consumer to their preferred lender. Keller Williams Realty has Keller Mortgage. Redfin has Redfin Mortgage, OpenDoor has partnerships with VIP Mortgage and Movement Mortgage, and Zillow recently launched Zillow Home Loans. It’s a growing trend to leverage big data to influence the consumer’s choice of lender; but a strategy that is no longer exclusive to companies with continued on page 82

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social media Building Community With Social Media By Anna Pambianchi

any mortgage professionals attend industry events and renew their memberships to various organizations. However, also taking time to engage and interact with their affiliations’ digital content is a habit worth having. Not only does this positive practice show support for others, it can also help grow your professional community. Since the fundamentals of social media center around cultivating an environment where individuals with similar interests actively engage, there is a seemingly inherent nature to liking, commenting, and sharing content with others as part of that experience. But don’t worry if you’ve primarily been a post-and-run social media marketer. Like anything else, practice makes perfect.

Start socializing If you’re trying to build yourself professionally on social, immersing yourself in your community is important. Quality content can help get you followers, engagement is what keeps them. What really connects you with others is your shared beliefs and ideas. Posts and comments that garner a substantial level of engagement help to develop a truly interactive community, where conversations can be had and opinions and support can be shared; and if that isn’t enough of a rewarding result, this also helps raise overall awareness of you (and your brand) within your professional community. Also, be sure to celebrate not only your own professional achievements, but your company’s achievements, as well as industry milestones. And remember, consistent commitment is required to ensure your relationships survive and thrive. According to Sprout Social, the three major platforms (Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn) contributed 90 percent of social traffic to B2B blogs and sites in 2018. So, the commitment is mutually beneficial. LinkedIn was responsible for half of that traffic, and it’s the top choice for professionally relevant content for 91 percent of executives. Share and share alike In addition to sharing your passion with your community, you need to share in your community’s passion, too. Sharing content generated by others is an excellent way to build an engaged community with an organic reach; you may even turn some followers into full-force brand advocates.

For example, two of the posts that created the most engagement for AFR this year (on LinkedIn) were posts sharing videos of interviews with our company president. Compelled to check out the passion and expertise of Laura Brandao in action, the community engaged at rates of 8.5 percent and 8.7 percent with positive feedback and shares. Compared to the industry benchmark for LinkedIn, which is only 0.054 percent according to the landmark Forrester study, passion and dedication are just as captivating online, as they are in person. Other ways you can create engagement within your social media community include sharing photos and videos from the events you attend, and publicly posting kudos for programs that are adding value, like the thought-provoking panels moderated by industry colleagues. Anthony J. Casa, chairman of the Association of Independent Mortgage Experts (AIME) agrees: “Our social media promotion strategy heavily ties in our community. Instead of just sharing information, we invite our audience to engage with our posts, creating a two-way communication. Whether that’s asking a question or tagging specific people/relevant accounts, our posts generate a longer lifespan on social media due to encouraged engagement.” Be yourself The greatest goal of social media stems from developing a community among your followers: an environment where individuals feel free to express their ideas and interact with you and your company. You can be informative and professional, but remember to also remain open, authentic and enthusiastic along the way. Stay engaged. Make friends. Show genuine support for others and their content. Do it every day (or almost every day). If you remain passionate about your company’s purpose, and true to yourself, you can build your community … one Post, Like, Share and Comment at a time. Anna Pambianchi is senior marketing manager at American Financial Resources Inc. (AFR). A career marketer with nearly two decades of experience, Anna manages all marketing efforts for AFR by combining big picture vision with detailed execution. She may be reached by e-mail at Anna.Pambianchi@AFRCorp.com.

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Video Marketing as a Powerful Social Media Tool By Adam P. Smith

e can all agree that we have very important jobs. We are working with the largest transactions of people’s lives. It doesn’t matter if it’s the firsttime buyer with a $50,000 starter home, or a giant developer building a $50 million building … it’s the largest transaction of their respective lives. But in order to even get to that transaction, we have to create relationships with these people. You need enough time and enough interactions with them to prove that you have the competency to do the job and the character to be entrusted with it. It takes up to a dozen interactions with someone to prove these two things. Social media is a great way to foster these relationships and a great way to have these interactions. And video on social media is a powerful way to do it. For 10 years now, I have done a weekly video blog for the real estate community that I post to Facebook, LinkedIn and YouTube, and I can tell you, it works. In a very paparazziesque way, which I love and am still caught off guard by, I am regularly approached by people who “know me” because of my blog. I’ve never met them, but they “know me,” because they’ve been watching my videos. They know what my office looks like. What my home office looks like. What my car looks like. They know some of my office staff. They know my wardrobe. They know how I speak. My tone, my inflection, my sense of humor, my sarcasm, and my violent eye rolls. They even know my dog. I really shouldn’t be so surprised when someone I have never met before approaches me at a trade event and starts chatting with me like we’ve been friends for years. Because, in a way, we have been friends for years. And now, they know if they like and trust me. Isn’t that sales 101 stuff? Know, like, and trust, right? Now, taking that into

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“Part of the beauty of social media is that it doesn’t have to cost you a dime, and neither does your video marketing. You already have a camera–it’s on that smartphone that’s probably in your hand or sitting beside you right now.”

account, don’t you think you could decrease the number of interactions you need to have with people in order to prove that competency and character with some video marketing? Of course you could. Maybe now it’s only a half a dozen interactions needed since these people think they already know you. You may have just cut the timeframe, your sale cycle, in half. Saving you time and making you money. Take the example of one real estate agent I know. She is a neighbor of mine and does a video blog for the community and the neighborhood. It is all simple stuff. When will the pool open. Trash day is changing. Information that everyone needs or wants. Almost everyone in the neighborhood knows her, even if they’ve never actually met her. I’m willing to bet she is on one side of the transaction or the other on at least half of the deals in our neighborhood because she’s used video and social

media to create relationships. Another agent did a video on the subject of moving with pets. He’s an animal lover and volunteers at a shelter and gets a lot of social media connections that way. The video we made was watched something like 1,500 times on Facebook alone in the first 24 hours! A bunch of the people he volunteers with didn’t know he was an agent and called him about real estate right away. Another solid testimonial as to why to do video marketing. Part of the beauty of social media is that it doesn’t have to cost you a dime, and neither does your video marketing. You already have a camera–it’s on that smartphone that’s probably in your hand or sitting beside you right now. Cellphone cameras are amazing these days, but even your laptop, tablet, GoPro, or whatever will work. Every public library has resources like a green screen available. The assets you

should use in your videos are also all free. The software is free. Windows Movie Maker, iMovie, whatever. A YouTube account is free. A Facebook account is free. A LinkedIn account is, you got it, free. And the potential return on investment? It’s huge. As with everything social media-related, content in king. For me, this is where I struggled in the beginning. I speak publicly all the time. I teach classes on a pretty frequent basis. I don’t mind being in front of the camera and I don’t even mind the sound of my own voice – shocking, right? However, the content creation was what was killing me. I could not figure out for the life of me what to say in my video blog. I started out making my videos directed to the mortgage consumer. “What to expect when applying for a loan,” boring. “What documents you will need to provide your lender,” snoozer. “How the closing will go,” ugh. Enough already! These were great videos to have to send clients during the process, but they weren’t creating new relationships. Then someone asked me why I wasn’t doing the video blog on the classroom material I had been teaching to real estate agents for years and years. Light bulb! I have been teaching “Zero Cost Marketing” and “Contact Management for a Repeat and Referral Business” for about as long as I can remember. It’s great material for real estate agents, mortgage brokers/bankers, insurance agents, financial planners, and so on. Really anyone with a direct-to-consumer relationship and I love sharing the material. We have also been doing classes specifically on social media and even on video blogging, so this is the material I know. To get started, I took something small right out of the classroom material, started with the little camera in my laptop, shot a video, did some minor editing, and up to YouTube it went. The response was far better than I expected, so I did

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another, and another, and another, and now it’s been every week for a few years. Before I knew it, there were hundreds, and eventually thousands of people subscribing to the videos and watching them via social media every week. So, what will your content be? Do you want to do videos with your referral partners? Do you want to do videos for past clients? Do you want to do videos promoting your clients’ businesses? Do you want to do them for the overall community? Do you want to do them for your local area? Figure that out and it will help with the content. I can tell you that commercials are boring. No one watches commercials unless it’s the Super Bowl. Don’t do videos about yourself. The videos I see that get great results are not about the lender, or the agent, or their business. They are about things that are fun and interesting to the viewer. Remember, these videos are a way to create

relationships and to help people know, like, and trust you. So, focus on your audience and what they would want to watch. Oh, and most importantly, keep it brief. We all have rampant ADD and your long and boring video just got scrolled right by. No one wants to watch a tenminute video about 203k loans or mortgage insurance. You’ll put them to sleep. A great content example comes from another real estate agent I worked with. I helped her put a video together about how to have a successful book club, which really centered around her love for wine. She briefly mentioned the members and that she was the real estate agent in the book club and at the end she mentioned her business once more. Other than that, it was a quick, funny video about two of her passions, books and wine. This is a perfect example of helping your audience not just know what you do–that’s the easy part–but who you are. Once you can overcome

whatever the big hurdle is for video–be it the sound of your own voice, being in front of the camera, or like me, the content– video becomes a lot of fun, and something that is easy to do while not costing anything and making a great impact. Video marketing, like almost all existing

social media and tech communication arenas has already peaked. We’re almost at a point where internet video hours watched rivals television hours watched. Isn’t that crazy? So, what are you waiting for? Go on. Make videos. Rinse. Repeat.

Adam P. Smith is president of The Colorado Real Estate Finance Group Inc., a commercial and residential real estate finance firm, and the owner and sales coach of Just The Tips Coaching. He may be reached by phone at (303) 770-2262, ext. 112 or e-mail Adam@CoreFinanceGroup.com. 59

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Regulations With a Social Bite

hen it comes to compliance and social media, experience can inform the next generation of mortgage professionals. Those of us who have been in the industry for a while have deep memories and a lot of experience with compliance issues, and in today’s landscape, compliance has become an integral and growing aspect of social media. For those of you who are new to the mortgage industry—but familiar with social media—the integration of the two is much more complex than a tweet. Actions which are spontaneous and simple in the social media realm are actually multifaceted and can have a long regulatory shadow. This is a day and age of real-time, real presence in which communication is assumed to be subsumed in the cloud, lost forever—except for a possible subpoena coming down the pike in the future. Of course, social media simplifies the way in which, and the casualness with which, our data goes into real time. However, adding the element of regulatory action changes everything. It’s our business, real estate finance, that moves the entire discussion of social media into a deep regulatory context. What is simple, benign and easy suddenly becomes an issue of disclosure, fairness and statute. Here is where compliance and social media becomes a real eye-opener for the uninformed, most often—and unfortunately— only after the fact.

designed to help the mortgage industry navigate their professional responsibilities. The regulations are written broadly, not narrowly. Having a good grasp of the impact of social media and regulations can help your firm steer their way ahead of competitors in this new media. Here is a quick sampling and some issues to give you a bird eye’s view into how the regulators see the mortgage business and social media in it.

Social media and compliance Regulations with social media bite were not specifically designed for social media. They were designed for the protection of the customer, prevention of fraud, and for procurement of many other important social and business goals. Social media is just one more clown in the circus tent. There are many ways in which mortgage business is conducted and the rules are

Social media folds under existing regulations Mortgage professionals must have a thorough understanding of the Bank Secrecy Act/AntiMoney Laundering Programs (BSA/AML), which deals with transaction reporting, internal controls, and compliance programs. In this case, you should think about activities in social media that might trigger reporting. If suspicious activities have been detected, have you

By Joy K. Gilpin

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“This is a day and age of real-time, real presence in which communication is assumed to be subsumed in the cloud, lost forever—except for a possible subpoena coming down the pike in the future.”

filed a Suspicious Activity Report (SAR)? Has social media been used to obtain password credentials? Think of fraud and think of how money laundering can be used and Internet games that can allow cash out. Think about Reg. GG, the Prohibition on Funding of Unlawful Internet Gambling, and whether or not you have policies and procedures in place that prevent taking payments from gambling companies that are involved in unlawful Internet gambling. Then, there’s the CAN-SPAM Act, which focuses on issues around sending unsolicited messages to people through social media channels. This impacts your marketing department and your loan originators. The most important component of the commercial messages and promotions that are sent out is that they are always factual and transparent. The best way to ensure this is to include criteria for high quality and accurate content within your

policies and procedures for social media, and to provide ongoing training to staff involved with your institution’s social media outreach. In addition, your company’s policies and procedures should include a section on social media use for personal and professional purposes and how it will be handled within your organization. Whatever the policy, it should be a strict one and rigorously adhered to. This will ensure compliance and protect the organization from regulatory exposure. These policies and procedures will be especially handy when loan originators or marketing department personnel are posting messages on Facebook. Everyone posting needs to know that there is a significant difference between casual posting filled with unsubstantiated personal views and a business professional post that is accurate and informative, leaving any judgment or decision from it to the customer. Turning our attention to The Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA) Regulation B, mortgage professionals have to make sure that they’re not discouraging anyone from making an application. In this case, your loan officers can’t make oral or written statements, or put out advertising, in any environment, print or electronic, that sends out a signal to a person that they should not apply for a loan. Loan originators also need to be aware of inadvertently making a Reg. B decline decision without realizing they’ve done so. For example, if a loan originator says to a potential applicant, “you don’t fit our guidelines,” then you would have to send out a notification under Reg. B. It also goes without saying that none of their comments can be discriminatory. This ties into an important concept that must be understood by all involved with social media: While we can’t control what people say to us, we can control what we say to them. The Fair Housing Act relates to real estate-related transactions and requires that we be nondiscriminatory in our deals.

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Practices–Advertising (MAP) rule is one your advertising department should know well. It sets rules for defective acts and practices in mortgage advertising and it prohibits misrepresentation concerning certain terms. For example, a Facebook post can be considered advertising if you use certain “trigger terms.” These terms would include interest charged or fees or costs associated with any mortgage credit product. In addition, taxes, insurance, or any penalty for making prepayments on the mortgage require additional disclosures or links that provide additional information. As we move on to Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (RESPA), this is something everyone has heard about: Section 8, kickbacks. Anyone in the business knows those terms. We know RESPA Section 8 prohibits fee splitting, kick-backs, and unearned fees, and this goes into an area of social media that may not register with mortgage loan officers. Are you offering a gift card to anyone who follows you, knowing that most of your followers are realtors or other service providers in the business? That could be a kick-back. It could be viewed as an unearned fee. A quick Internet search of different feeds provides triggering language and terms for regulatory scrutiny. In light of this, provide them with guidance on what’s acceptable to your company and what needs to be approved by your company so

that they don’t find themselves having a problem, or worse, subject to fines and penalties. Regulations you thought would never apply Just when you thought you have it all down, you just may not. You might think the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) only applies to restricting telephone or cell phone marketing calls and automated dialing to consumers. But Facebook tests may also fall under this category. It’s a form of communication and it can be used for telemarketing. This underscores the need from the compliance end to have a written telephone policy. The Truth-in-Lending Act (TILA) and Truth-in-Savings Act (TISA) have requirements where if certain triggers are used, they require certain disclosures. That may seem obvious, but sometimes it is missed. For example, you can’t give interest rates without APRs. Also, your NMLS number should be on your Facebook page with your contact information. Over and above these

regulations, there are state guidelines which may be even tougher than the Federal regulations. Be aware of how this additional layer of regulation can impact your business. Your compliance department needs to be aware of the related state compliance issues and be able to address the potential pitfalls. Triggers and layers, compliance processes have to be broad and deep Our review is a primer of sorts designed to illustrate potential interpretations of social media posts and how regulations that are NOT immediately associated with an advertising or marketing spin, can trigger a violation. There are a lot of layers to these types of challenges. Peel back the onion and get an understanding of the regulations to formulate policies and procedures based on your business and social media practices. Offer training and other compliance education on issues surrounding them. When done well, the odds are that there will be no tears over compliance violations.

Joy K. Gilpin is vice president of mortgage learning and compliance for Indecomm Global Services. Her role requires a keen understanding of the lending process, regulatory oversight, and risk mitigation. With nearly 20 years of professional expertise in the mortgage lending space, she provides great insight and understanding of the challenges lenders face today. She can be reached by e-mail at Joy.Gilpin@Indecomm.net.

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No review of federal regulations would be complete without taking a look at Unfair, Deceptive, or Abusive Acts or Practices (UDAAP). I’m sure I’m preaching to this choir … but this one covers everything we do. Even the CFPB advises that ‘you know it when you see it.’ Really? How do I prevent it? You can’t. Think of your least sophisticated consumer. Think about being open. Think about honest. Think about being transparent. Yet we can do everything right and still have a UDAAP issue because of new interpretations, so it must be considered in everything mortgage professionals do, including social media. Then there’s the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA). If you’re using social media to make solicitations using eligibility information from credit bureau reports, and if you also have disputes from consumers, consider if someone says that you’ve reported data on them incorrectly. That’s a scenario that could fall under FCRA as a violation. As for the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA), this comes down to making sure you and any of your third-party collectors are compliant. Are you using third party services or sub servicers? What is their use of social media? What are their guidelines? Even if you don’t consider yourself to be a debt collector, under FDCPA, it really is a good practice to avoid a UDAAP issue by following FDCPA. When we think about GrammLeach Bliley Act (GLBA), our minds automatically go to privacy and security. These are two issues that are on the top of the regulator’s hit list. We want to ensure that we protect the customers’ personally identifiable information and that their information is secure. We need to look out for hacking, to look for triggers in our posts, or watch out for triggers in our correspondences or tests with customers. We should ask ourselves if we have triggered privacy rules that require privacy disclosure. Have we gone past the point where we have an application now and that’s triggered initial exposure? Protection of the customer is of the utmost priority, as we have a duty to protect their information. The Mortgage Acts and

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Building a Social Media Presence Step by Step By Steve Richman

eople will tell you that “You need to have a social media presence.” Unfortunately, in this case, “have” is the wrong verb. Truthfully, “You need to build your social media presence.” It’s easy to have a social media presence. Go to any social media platform—Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, you name it—pick a name, create a password, fill out a profile and there you have it … a social media presence—an ineffective, unattached and boring social media presence. You must build your social media presence which means you have to spend time growing your network, evolving your content and expanding your skill set which, in turn, will keep your audience engaged, involved and interested.

It’s a three-step process First. Understand and connect with an audience. It is easier and more effective to connect with people you already know than with those you don’t. Connect with your customers, leads and referral sources through social media by inviting them to join your network. One of the primary purposes of social media is to stay in contact with your database. And it’s easier to make new connections on social media through shared connections. By connecting with those you know, you can find other interesting contacts through those primary contacts and it makes it easier for secondary contacts to find you. Not to mention, you will have already established credibility by being connected to mutual friends. Here’s how to do it … communication and engagement are critical elements to building

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MORTGAGE BROKER AND LENDER COMPLIANCE AUDIT, MLO POLICIES and UPDATES Our fees are less than the big national firms that don’t call you back. Program includes all Manuals including QC, MLO Policies and Comp Plans, AML, GLB, Social Media and Web audits, on-line training sessions, governance documents, and our audit protection plan. Available in all 50 states. We have hands-on experience with regulators and audits. No theories here; we were Bankers. If you find yourself in federal court, we can handle that as well.

Contact Nelson Locke at

(800) 656-4584 Or you may e-mail us at

nl@lockelaw.us All inquiries will be kept strictly confidential. This is not an offer for legal services, but rather for his expert review and opinion about your particular compliance situation. All fact patterns are different so the results will vary. No guarantees are expressed or implied. Licensed by California and Federal Bar. NMLS 149450.

your social audience. Most people believe that they can create audience engagement by creating interesting content, however that’s only half of the equation. In addition to communication and engagement, you must pay attention and connect with your contacts’ content. If they’re asking a question—respond. If they post an interesting article– let them know how much you appreciated them sharing such valuable content. If they announce someone’s success– congratulate them. Separate from social media and in our daily lives, do you have relationships where you’re always calling the other person, inviting them to lunch, or are the sole initiator of contact? If so, that can be frustrating and you’ll quickly begin to feel unappreciated, while wondering if the person on the other end of your phone calls, e-mails or text messages even wants to have a relationship with you. It’s no different on social media. People want to be noticed and appreciated. Don’t just make them come to you–take the step and go to them. Second. Make sure you’re creating and/or sharing quality content. Building content is a marathon, not a sprint. All too often, people get frustrated when they join social media, post their first blog and don’t understand why they haven’t gotten thousands of views and gone viral. One part of the solution is consistency. You must be there, in their face, day after day, with interesting and compelling content. It’s certainly not one and done. Your audience, or contacts, are a varied group and look at social media at various times. By continually and continuously posting, the likelihood of you and your content being seen increases dramatically. Additionally, while it is important to be seen, it is just as critical, if not more so, to have content that is interesting to your audience. If you are only trying to engage people within your industry, posting nothing but industry information is acceptable. However, if you are

trying to reach people outside of the industry, say consumers, the 80-20 rule applies. Eighty percent of your content should not be industry related to engage this audience. People are always interested in what is new in their surroundings. For example, there’s a new ice cream parlor opening up in town, post about it. Maybe there are new employment opportunities? Let people know about it. Is history being made (wettest summer) or a celebratory anniversary (town’s 100th anniversary)? Comment on it. Don’t forget, any time you are involved in a charitable or community event, post about it online. It promotes your community, elevates the conversation about the charity and puts you in a positive light. It’s an effective way to relate to your audience on a platform other than business. Content missteps There are two common mistakes people make in regard to content creation and they’re related. First, while there is nothing wrong with posting an inspirational quote occasionally, it is something to avoid daily. You need to vary your content. If you only post inspirational quotes, you will not establish yourself as an expert in anything other than finding and posting inspirational quotes. Additionally, you have not provided any original content. Your audience wants to know more about you, your opinions, your ideas and your expertise. They want to know what you’re thinking. Secondly, don’t trick yourself into believing that sharing content is the same as creating content. Reading interesting articles and sharing them through your social media channel is a very effective way of dispersing information. However, this information is not original or unique to you and your audience can get the same information from other sources. There is an effective way to share articles written by others. Instead of simply copying the article and sharing it, make an interesting and personal

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comment about what you learned from or found interesting about the article. Your comment or observation should be attached to your post of the article. This lets your audience know that you didn’t just read the headline and copy it so that you met the consistency obligation of social media. It also allows you to share original information and ideas–your opinion. At the end of the day, to avoid the common mistakes regarding content creation, remember, your audience wants to hear from you and learn about you. Third. Utilize multiple channels and communication technologies. As it relates to platforms, do not limit yourself to just one. Spread your content across multiple channels like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram simultaneously. There are easy to use services like Hootsuite that allow you to post once and your content gets posted to multiple channels with minimal effort.

But as stated earlier, building involves change and evolution. Your posts should leverage multi-pole communication technologies– print, pictures and video. Print is not dead. If you only have something short to share, a sentence or two, type out your post and share your printed words. If you have an extensive amount of information to share, a blog or a white paper, once again, use the printed word. When you come across something visually or audibly appealing, it is time for pictures and/or video. It’s very effective to include other people in your pictures and videos. When other people make cameo appearances in the pictures and videos you post, they tend to share that post with their audience. When you post something, you share it with your audience, those who already know you. When the other person in your pictures and videos shares your content, it goes to an audience that doesn’t know

you … yet. That is how you get exposed to their friends and family–through their shares. That is how you go viral. And if you want to combine words and pictures, create an infographic. This allows you to share extensive amounts of information in a visually attractive way. There are multiple free infographic creation services online and they’re easy to use.

#TheEnd If you’re looking to grow your network and make a true impact on social media, it’s important that you have more than a run of the mill social media presence. You need to build your own social media presence through building your audience, creating your content and utilizing multiple communication technologies.

Steve Richman is a national speaker who has energized, taught and motivated more than 150,000 professionals in every state in the U.S. After years of success as a litigation attorney, Steve entered the mortgage and real estate profession and has become an expert in the high LTV borrower market. He has been a loan officer, account executive and manager of a mortgage operation. Additionally, Steve has trained real estate professionals through state-accredited continuing education classes. The statements provided are the opinions of Steve Richman and do not reflect the views of Genworth or its management. 63

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Creating Harmony Between Compliance and Social Media By Lauren Grove “

e go together like salt and pepper,” said no compliance/ mortgage duo ever. If you’re in the mortgage business, you know exactly what this means. Since the advent of social media, compliance has been butting heads with mortgage professionals using social media to promote their business. While staying compliant on social media can be difficult, know it is possible for these two mortgage “Frenemies” to strike up a harmonious and productive relationship using just a few dayto-day practices.

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Why the struggle? Let’s start by taking a look at why there’s such an axe to grind between these two mortgage business essentials, and then review why they’re both important. First, social media is risky. With many ever-changing social media platforms out there, it’s no wonder why social has some compliance teams thrown for a loop. While it’s challenging enough to keep up with all of the different options out there– Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, LinkedIn, Twitter, Tumblr … the list goes on–it’s even harder to keep up with all the loan officers and the individual platforms they’re using. Then, add in keeping up on new and emerging platforms to stay ahead of your loan officers and marketing teams, and you can understand how hard it is to properly ensure compliance standards are met on each of these. Secondly, there’s no question that compliance is in the eye of the beholder. What one compliance officer may find acceptable; another may not approve of. Different platforms also use different sets of rules and regulations, making it difficult to have a standard set of compliance rules that can simply blanket over each and every platform. Finally add in everything our compliance teams already have

“It’s important to first remember that compliance is not the enemy. Like the seemingly overbearing mother that forces the child to wear SPF 50 on a warm summer day, your compliance team also is here to protect you. They have your back, and are there to keep you and your company safe.”

on their plates, throwing the complications of social media risks into the mix has definitely contributed to the push/pull of the compliance/marketing relationship. Why compliance is important It’s important to first remember that compliance is not the enemy. Like the seemingly overbearing mother that forces the child to wear SPF 50 on a warm summer day, your compliance team also is here to protect you. They have your back, and are there to keep you and your company safe. It’s also important not to forget the past. If you’ve been in the business for more than a decade, then you remember the ups and downs of the housing crisis; and then should understand the importance of compliance, while respecting what they do for lenders throughout the loan process

along with using the tools and resources necessary to grow business. With the advancement of technology, it may seem like compliance teams have, at times begrudgingly, accepted the importance of social media and how it can help loan officers grow their business. There’s no question why lenders have truly embraced social media due to its ability to nurture customers and further referral partner relationships, requiring them to develop a level of trust of their compliance and marketing teams to work hand-in-hand to ensure standards are met. Why social media is important Today, social media is no longer just for the kids, or something we do in our spare time for fun or to keep up with family and friends. It’s become a key source of communication,

and is as common as the newspaper, radio or TV for news and information—maybe more! There’s no doubt it’s essential to your business’s success. Like realtor meetings, email campaigns or other daily sales practices, having and maintaining a strong social media presence is key to growing your brand and your business. When used consistently and appropriately, social media platforms can be a wildly successful tool to help grow your pipeline and expand your customer base. Utilizing the platforms to build relationships with clients and referral partners, demonstrate social proof, credibility and mortgage expertise, and apply inexpensive advertising methods to expand your pipeline and push your name out there are just a few ways loan officers are successfully using social media. You may be thinking that you don’t need social. You’ve got an established referral base, and you’re not “good” on social. Today, everyone needs a social presence because it gives you credibility. There’s no doubt that when your name is given to a potential client, their first instinct is to look you up. A solid Google presence with a list of five-star reviews from happy customers and a solid Web site and social media presence will establish you as a mortgage expert. If you’re not sure what they may be finding out about you, Google yourself and see. Then, work to update your info, or work with your marketing team to develop a strategy to begin posting good content right away. Don’t wait because your competitors sure won’t. Compliance takes Facebook You’ve probably seen recent news on compliance violations and discrimination against the social media giant we all know and love, Facebook. The U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development (HUD) has alleged that Facebook was offering

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advertisers the ability to market their businesses based on specific demographics including race, zip code, gender, religion and more–all of which is clearly a compliance “no-no.” With major government agencies like HUD keeping an eye on social media and understanding its intricacies and capabilities, it’s important to embrace compliance now more than ever. It’s also important to work even more closely with your highly-synced marketing and compliance teams to ensure that your profiles, posts, and advertisements meet standards to safeguard your reputation. Achieving harmony between the two It’s vital to create a social presence that lives in harmony with your compliance and marketing teams. If you’re a loan officer, start on the path to a happy and successful synchronization between compliance and marketing by first doing a full inventory and review of your current social

media sites and Google presence. Take advantage of both your compliance and marketing teams throughout this process to ensure your profiles aren’t missing key information like your logo, personal NMLS number, company NMLS number, Equal Housing Lender, any licensing info and more. If you’re on the compliance/marketing side of things, make sure to do an audit of your own and create an editable Google Doc, Excel Spreadsheet, or shared folder that includes a list of all social media pages and profiles associated with your company. This will take some time and require consistent and thorough updating given personnel changes, but is necessary to keep track of to remain aware and ahead of your company’s online presence. Once you have an inventory of your pages and they are approved as “compliant,” work with your marketing team to create a social strategy that is

right for you and your business, then keep checking in with your teams along the way before going full throttle on any marketing idea or ads you’ve created on your own. Remember–they are the experts and when it comes to compliance, the mantra “better safe than sorry” always rings true. Finally, continue to keep up on the latest trends with annual compliance training and review of your company’s social

media/compliance rules and regulations to help protect you from violations. The bottom line here is: Social media is important and compliance is important. A happy medium between the two is easy to achieve when you work together and entrust your online presence to dedicated professionals that are there to help you build your brand and grow your business in a safe and compliant standard.

Lauren Grove is social media strategist for Pewaukee, Wis.-based Inlanta Mortgage Inc. She may be reached by phone at (262) 510-6992 or e-mail LaurenGrove@Inlanta.com. 65

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Too Busy Not to Do Social Media? By Michael A. Hammond, JD, CMT

ost of us have trouble finding time to do social media. As busy financial services executives, we are pulled in many different directions—responsible for leading our teams, producing results, leveraging strategic partnerships, balancing family commitments, community involvement, travel and the list goes on. And then we wake up one day and the competition has passed us by, our brand is less relevant, buying behavior has changed and it is harder to close new business. Are you still too busy? Social media is a fundamentally-transformative and rapidly-evolving business tool that can be highly-engaging, personalized and deliver meaningful information when and where today’s consumers want it. What many B2B executives question is how social media applies to their business, and therefore, justify why they never seem to have time for social media. Maybe it’s right for companies that sell directly to consumers, but I don’t see how it would apply to B2B transactions. How is LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook or YouTube going to benefit me and my company? Actually, executives who dig a little deeper are quite surprised. There are a number of forwardthinking financial services B2B companies utilizing social media to enhance engagement, grow their businesses and create loyal customers. These companies harness social media to develop brand awareness, enhance customer communication, drive thought leadership and create raving fans to seize business opportunities and impact communities. There’s a great deal that social media offers busy executives and their companies: l Build brand awareness (personal and corporate) l Cultivate customer/prospect communication l Drive thought leadership

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l Create superfans l Improve opportunity identification l Build brand awareness It starts with creating a personal brand on social media. Again, another topic that busy executives would prefer to ignore. Let’s start with what personal branding is and then we can discuss why that should be your starting point. When we talk about “personal branding,” we are referring to establishing and promoting what you stand for. Your personal brand is the unique combination of skills and experiences that make you … well, you. This is where you leverage your years of experience and expertise in financial services. Tell your story, explain why you are at the company you are at and how that aligns with your goals and beliefs. Effective personal branding will differentiate you from other professionals in your field, while elevating your company (source: BrandYourself.com). Gary Vaynerchuk explains, “Building your personal brand or your company’s brand is the most important thing in business. It’s the single most important thing if you’re planning to stay in the “game” for a long time … especially as the Internet continues to commoditize everything. Just about everything you do will eventually be sold cheaper, better, faster, etc. in the future, if it isn’t already—it’s ultimately your brand that will play in the end.” While it may be true that B2B blogs, Tweets or Posts are not going to be followed by as many people as a consumer offering, it doesn’t change the fact that it will influence the decisions of your prospects. Social media creates brand awareness among industry professionals and potential clients very early in the sales cycle, often before your sales team is even aware of the potential opportunity. Social media provides a powerful channel for displaying your unique personality, industry insights, thought leadership and critical information about your

company and its products and services. Talking about your industry in an intelligent way via LinkedIn and regularly-updated Twitter posts can raise your and your company’s brand awareness as a thought leader and expert in your field. If a prospect sees dynamic LinkedIn posts with insightful information, reads informative Posts demonstrating your knowledge, and comes across recommendations from other users on LinkedIn, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram and Twitter, they’re going to be far more inclined to engage with you earlier in the sales process, often before your competition. Cultivate customer/prospect communication In today’s “Internet Savvy” world, businesses—just like consumers—seek and demand information instantaneously. These purchasers use smartphones, the Internet and social media to keep the pulse of industry trends, product recommendations and customer satisfaction levels. The “Recommendation Age” is transforming the way we share information on the Internet. The proliferation of social networking sites like LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter are taking the Recommendation Age to a new level. This process of recommendations and customer reviews strongly influences the buying decisions of millions of people each day. The power of these recommendations can have a profound impact on the future success or failure of companies and their products and services. Social media provides individuals and companies with the opportunity to frame the conversations and recommendations taking place on these social sites. Companies that don’t embrace social media allow their competitors to frame the conversations— conversations that many companies who don’t embrace social media aren’t even aware are taking place. Drive thought leadership Quality content is highly sought

after in social media. After all, content is what helps influence decision makers. If you want to drive thought leadership, deliver genuine insights and expertise to your followers in an authentic manner. Create superfans In an article by Forbes, author Brittany Hodak states, “Maybe you know your brand’s superfans. Maybe not. No worries: Superfans are easy to spot.” As Hodak, co-founder of The Superfan Company, explains: “A superfan is a consumer who over-indexes in his or her affinity for a brand, team, entertainer or property, thereby increasing the chance he or she will advocate on its behalf.” In plain English: Superfans heart you! Essentially, they’re the ones romanticizing your brand. They post online about the way they use your products. Make social networks like Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram and Facebook work to your advantage. The keywords, tags, hashtags and content that you post will influence the number of followers you have, the type of followers you have, and more importantly, whether they are superfans or not. Improve opportunity identification At the end of the day, if B2B companies are going to grow, they need to be able to improve their ability to identify opportunities. Social media is an extremely powerful tool in allowing B2B companies to identify opportunities. If you and your business have a strong social presence, it’s simply easier for potential partners, customers, employers and businesses to find you. In business, it’s about growing your business and differentiating your organization—social media is one of the most powerful ways to achieve this goal. So know that you understand the importance of finding time to do social media and its impact on your business going forward, were should you start. From a B2B perspective, I would recommend starting with LinkedIn. Don’t get overwhelmed by trying to be on every platform instantly. Yes, I know you probably already have a LinkedIn account,

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for the tips and insights). 7. If someone comments on one of your Posts, you should Like it back. 8. Use video to tell your story. It doesn’t have to be professionally created video. Just use your mobile phone. Remember, genuine and authentic wins the day with LinkedIn. You can add captions easily to your videos with Rev.com. These are some quick tips to get you started with LinkedIn. In addition I thought it would be helpful to not only talk about how you should leverage social media but to give you examples of people in financial services killing it on social media. This will allow you to see firsthand how people are doing social media right within financial services. Here is the list of financial services executives rocking social media: l @ChristineBeckwith l @LeoraRuzin l @JoeWilson l @SueWoodard l @KevinPeranio l @ChelseaPeitz l @PhilTreadwell l @MollyDowdy l @KelseyRauchut

Michael A. Hammond, JD, CMT, is founder and president of NexLevel Advisors, responsible for overseeing the daily operations and long-term strategic vision of the company. Hammond brings more than two decades of leadership, management, marketing, sales and technical experience to NexLevel Advisors. Hammond is only one of 60 individuals to earn the prestigious Certified Mortgage Technologist (CMT) designation, which is presented to information technology professionals in recognition of their industry experience, professional education and knowledge of the unique technological needs of the real estate finance industry. He may be reached by phone at (734) 775-4879 or e-mail MHammond@NexLevelAdvisors.com.

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Invite these individuals to connect. Follow them and watch what they are posting, how frequently they post, the type of content they are posting, are they using pictures and or video, etc. You can learn a great deal by watching and following how these highly successful people are using social media in financial services. Are you still too busy for social media? Your competitors aren’t, so the time to jump in is now. I look forward to seeing you share your insights, expertise and experiences as we work together to move the industry forward.

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but today’s LinkedIn is not the electronic rolodex that you originally joined when you were looking for a new job. It is a powerful B2B platform that can transform your business if done right. So let’s start with some tips and resources so that you can maximize your LinkedIn experience: 1. Update your profile so that it reads less like a resume and focuses more on the value that you add to others. Make sure to include a picture. Check out Snappa.com or PhotoFeeler for help with sizing and selecting the right photo to use for your profile. 2. Increase your followers. Start looking for like-minded individuals, companies and groups to follow. You can also search by hashtag or by other industry experts. 3. Consistently post valuable content, insights, experiences and video that add value to others. Start posting weekly at first, and then work your way up to posting daily. It will have a significant impact on your business and your sphere of influence. 4. Use pictures in your posts, especially from conferences, client dinners and speaking engagements. Make sure to include other people in the picture and tag each of them. Apps that you can use to enhance photos or video experience include InShot, Quik or Videoshop. 5. Use long-form when creating your Post. LinkedIn scores you higher when people click the “See More” button to read your entire post. 6. Comment on other peoples’ Posts. Don’t just click “Like,” but add a genuine comment about their actual post. Make sure to tag them in your reply (i.e. thanks @MichaelHammond

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Achieving Social Media Success in a Challenging Environment By Michael Stallings ocial media has become a pivotal component in successfully engaging the growing population of homebuyers on the Internet, particularly Millennials. Achieving success requires a strategic plan that is aligned with the complexities of an evolving and dynamic regulatory landscape. Whether it’s a loan officer prospecting for new borrowers, or a corporate campaign to improve brand visibility, tapping into the benefit of emerging social networks is no longer the alternative means for marketing communications, but rather the norm. How confident are you in your ability to achieve social objectives, despite the intricacies of today’s regulatory landscape? Let’s take a closer look at the key steps necessary for an organization and consumer facing employees to feel comfortable and confident leveraging these opportunity-rich channels with content that is both compliant and consistent.

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Perform a thorough risk assessment It is important to execute a risk assessment that coincides with the extent of an organization’s social media use, as well as underlying policies and procedures. This level of due diligence on the front end will not only deliver a realistic outcome as the organization aims to meet regulatory guidelines, but it will also provide the crucial information that compliance oversight teams need to accurately gauge risk and training opportunities. The most effective way to assess risk is through a comprehensive audit. Whether conducted in-house or by a thirdparty auditor, it is more specific in its capacity to track activity, collect data, and recognize potential concerns. Audits should be performed regularly, and findings should be well documented over the span of at least 12 months. When evaluating social media risk, focus on the following key areas: 1. Identify the most active employees on social media: The percentage of loan

“An organization’s obligation to social media compliance is not a one-time event. Rather, it requires reinforcement, updating and constant monitoring.”

officers actively using social media to generate leads is behind the curve. With only 20 to 30 percent considered “highly active” nationwide, lenders should employ an approach that will audit and identify those top users, where they post, as well as a historical view of any noncompliant activity. Mistakes, even those that are unintentional, can be costly and can easily extend beyond loan officers to include branch locations, corporate sales and marketing teams, and other third-party providers. The results of an audit will enable an organization to identify which individual or groups represents the greatest risk and help compliance oversight teams implement applicable performance monitoring practices. 2. Detect potential problems and violations: Policies that regulate social media compliance must be dissected out of broader term regulations and are always

subject to interpretation. This can be a challenge and requires knowledge that extends across an organization’s infrastructure– from the loan officer, all the way to a board member. In addition to identifying potential infractions through a risk assessment, lenders should also look for any signs of reputational damage. Social media sites can easily convey an individual opinion as that of the organization, with the potential to be misinterpreted and negatively reflect the corporate brand. For this reason, it is important to pay attention to careless social media activity or security breaches, such as a loan officer’s account being hacked, as this can severely damage a company’s reputation. It is not easy to regain trust in the court of public opinion, especially in today’s competitive landscape! 3. Be transparent and discuss privacy concerns: Bear in mind that social media oversight monitors and

reports on the individual activity of a loan officer’s personal social media account. It is incredibly important that they understand business procedures and that only the posts related to the organization are being reviewed. Effective communication and a clear representation of the importance of social media oversight–at both the organizational and employee level–will go a long way in ensuring policy compliance. As an organization expands its use of social media to generate leads and attract more business, it will inevitably become subject to numerous compliance regulations. Compliance policies and procedures are put in place to protect all parties from inadvertently committing violations and incurring fines. Discuss these circumstances openly and honestly across the organization. When it comes to risk assessment, everyone wins with the right approach to training and communication. Loan officer engagement and collaboration To maximize the benefit that social media offers in lead generation, retention, and increased application volume, the next step to consider is cross-departmental collaboration. Loan officers, sales and marketing, and compliance teams all have a stake in this effort and leveraging the unique abilities of each employee and department can positively impact customers and prospects in a positive manner. Begin the foray into social media by tasking the marketing department with developing a plan to leverage various social media platforms. The marketing team should be responsible for managing marketing efforts and supplying compliant content for corporate campaigns, branch locations, and individual loan officers. If these assets are not provided, an organization runs the risk of loan officers and other individuals generating their own campaigns that lack consistency in brand and messaging. Compliance oversight teams should have an opportunity to

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Using automated systems to streamline processes An organizationâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s obligation to

Michael Stallings serves as vice president of Comergence by Optimal Blue. Michael brings years of experience in social analysis across an evolving digital landscape. His informative and intricate research not only provides Optimal Blueâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s product team with the knowledge to help lenders implement best practices for auditing and monitoring employees, it has also helped Optimal Blue define the standard of maintaining compliance in the social media space.

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Todayâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s loan officer is required to be knowledgeable in many facets of the mortgage industry. Appeal to their professionalism and provide company approved assets that allow them to focus on what they do bestâ&#x20AC;&#x201C; prospecting for borrowers and generating application volume.

social media compliance is not a one-time event. Rather, it requires reinforcement, updating and constant monitoring. Regulations and guidelines will change, and policies will evolve. Additionally, new social media platforms may be introduced, some with the potential to quickly move to the forefront with new features and expanded use cases. While updating organizational policies may be straightforward, albeit multi-faceted, staying on top of an employeeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s social use is anything but. To truly be effective, leading lenders employ sophisticated technology to automate social media oversight and successfully monitor employee activities. The best technologies enable swift attention to problematic content, as well as the ability to remediate those findings and generate a log of all transactions. This workflow illustrates proper oversight and adherence to corporate risk management. Because timely response and resolution to potential violations is critical to maintain compliance, leading technologies have remediation capabilities built right into the system so corrective action can be immediately addressed and any potential long-term impact can be avoided. The truth is, there are many advantages to using the power of social media to generate more leadsâ&#x20AC;&#x201C;if done correctly and carefully from a compliance standpoint. To truly understand social media risk is to take advantage of professional auditing servicers that specialize in providing a historical perspective, with great accuracy and exposure to the unknown. With the right approach to your organizationâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s risk exposure and by tapping into available industry resources, you can achieve true social media success. That alone is well worth the investment.

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review corporate assets to ensure that they align with corporate policy. This proactive approach will create confidence amongst executive management, as well as the individuals that are posting on behalf of the organization. And finally, collaborate with loan officers and social media users to help promote responsible social media activity. Here are some helpful tips: l Collaborate and ask for feedback: Solicit direct feedback from loan officers on content development and lead generation strategies, as well as the successes and challenges they have experienced. This feedback can only help shape intriguing content! l Provide access to resources: The availability of preapproved content can alleviate typical and inadvertent mistakes. Look for a social media technology provider that specializes in granting access to curated content, template libraries, and the ability to easily post across multiple networks, yet is still flexible enough to enable personalized content. l Discuss reviews and training opportunities: Schedule time to review findings with your loan officers. Organizations can leverage this opportunity to converse over what constitutes as successful activity and what is potentially risky behavior, as well as provide recognition for instances where a loan officer may have avoided a red flag.

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Walking the Line: Compliance and Social Media in Today’s Mortgage Marketplace By Deborah Hill our marketing team excitedly presents their new social media campaigns; they’ve carefully thought through demographics, brand consistency and their budget—everything looks great! Then, like the proverbial needle screeching across a record, compliance walks in the room. Now what? This article suggests several ways you can stand out from your competitors, while minimizing the risk of litigation arising from deceptive marketing or implied discrimination.

Fortunately, you can start with social media accounts that allow you to control comments on your posts. Here are some tips for controlling content and comments on popular social media sites.

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Compliance concerns In addition to state laws governing mortgage advertising, at least two federal regulatory agencies prosecute mortgage lenders for deceptive advertising. According to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), most violations fall into four categories: l Potential misrepresentations about government affiliation: For example, ads containing official-looking seals or logos, or having other characteristics that may be interpreted by consumers as indicating a government affiliation. l Potentially inaccurate information about interest rates: For example, ads promoting low rates that may mislead consumers about the terms of the product actually offered, or advertising rates that are not generally available. l Potentially misleading statements concerning the costs of reverse mortgages: For example, ads for reverse mortgage products claiming that a consumer will have no payments in connection with the product, even though consumers with a reverse mortgage are commonly required to continue to make monthly or other periodic tax or insurance payments, and may risk default if the payments aren’t made. l Potential misrepresentations

“Make sure all pictures look professional and backgrounds are in line with your brand guidelines. While some loan officers may think that picture of their dog water-skiing is great, you should encourage them to change it to a professional headshot or your logo.”

about the amount of cash or credit available to a consumer: For example, ads containing a mock check and/or suggesting that a consumer has been preapproved to receive a certain amount of money in connection with refinancing their mortgage or taking out a reverse mortgage, when a number of additional steps would customarily need to be completed before the consumer would qualify for the loan. Ballard-Spahr LLP has a good list of additional examples of deceptive ads: l Suggesting with a VA loan, that the rate being offered was part of an “economic stimulus plan” that will expire shortly l Potential inaccurate information about interest rates, such as indicating a “fixed” rate for a variable rate loan l Potential misrepresentations that the consumer is pre-

approved for or guaranteed specific rates or terms l Advertisements offering a very low “fixed” mortgage rate, without discussing significant loan terms l Advertisements containing statements, images, symbols, and abbreviations suggesting that an advertiser is affiliated with a government agency l Advertisements “guaranteeing” approval and offering very low monthly payments, without discussing significant conditions on these offers Standing out on social media Given the risk of bad messaging, social media advertising may feel like losing control–especially since most social media sites allow the public to comment then share their comments. What if someone puts non-compliant information into a comment or says you improperly denied them a loan?

Facebook You can maintain control on Facebook by turning off comments for your posts. On the screen where you add a caption or location to your post, tap “Advanced Settings,” then tap “Turn Off Commenting.” This allows you to post your messages and allows other users to share them, while controlling the content seen on your page. If you have a large enough team, you can also make a team member your Facebook monitor with responsibility for hiding or deleting noncompliant comments. Take care with this approach—if people think you are deleting all negative feedback, they may just post more of it. We suggest you have a clear policy on your page that tells consumers what you delete, “We reserve the right to hide comments that may violate mortgage lending advertising laws” plus a short description of what that means, “Posts which include actual rates offered, posts that include incorrect information about the loans we offer …” LinkedIn Like Facebook, LinkedIn allows you to disable commenting on your posts so you can ease into your social media presence. It’s often the first social platform a firm tries since you can also control most elements of your firm’s page—including colors and company information. LinkedIn allows your loan officers to connect themselves to your company page which gives borrowers an easy way to learn more about your team. Pro tips l You can set up more than one page on LinkedIn–this is helpful if you run campaigns for different types of borrowers. For example, a

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credit union may offer both purchase and refinance loans. By creating Showcase pages, the credit union can tailor messages, information and links to those two types of borrower. l Ask your employees to use a common picture or logo for their header so borrowers experience the same “look and feel” as they navigate between your company page, showcase pages and team member profiles. l Make sure all pictures look professional and backgrounds are in line with your brand guidelines. While some loan officers may think that picture of their dog water-skiing is great, you should encourage them to change it to a professional headshot or your logo. l Help your team understand what they can freely post on LinkedIn, what is inappropriate for your brand and what needs compliance approval. For example, linking to articles in industry magazines is probably fine, posting about personal activities may be inappropriate and sharing borrower pictures or stories may need compliance approval.

Summary We’ve looked at key compliance communication concerns and thought about ways you can adjust the settings on many social media sites to control messages to borrowers. Since Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram may be crowded with your competitors, we explored other online opportunities to reach potential borrowers and target your marketing spend to your licensed states and branch locations. If you are at the beginning of your social media journey, we suggest you engage compliance early, understand each Web site’s control features and think about emerging sites to complement your marketing strategy.

Deborah Hill, VP of customer success and operations at MortgageHippo, has more than 10 years of experience helping financial services customers gain efficiencies through their implementation and use of software. Before joining MortgageHippo, Deborah consulted and held board positions with several early-stage fintech firms.

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NRMLA A’’s 2019 Annual Meeting November 18 18-2 2 20 Nashville, TN N More info at: www.nrmlaonline.org/events

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Twitter Many lenders take a pass on Twitter because you cannot prevent comments or delete them. Twitter’s business model of openness and free speech is a great fit for other consumer product companies, but may not be a good fit for lenders

Emerging sites Sites catering to building communities are growing, especially in urban areas. Let’s look at one example, Nextdoor.com. Nextdoor is like Facebook for almost 200,000 U.S., U.K. and Netherlands’ neighborhoods, (up from 100,000 in 2016). Users turn to the site to share information about crime, list items for sale, and get recommendations. Nextdoor includes a real estate section with features similar to Realtor.com or Zillow – users can look at homes for sale in their area or another neighborhood and see ads for service providers including mortgage lenders. You can control your content, showcase and add content by claiming your business page on the site. Then you can update your business information and start participating in the community. You can also create advertisements and campaigns, for which you’ll pay a fee.

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Instagram Instagram also allows you to disable commenting on your posts and is increasingly preferred by Millennials and Gen Z over Facebook. All of the guidelines and tips for LinkedIn apply to Instagram.

who need to comply with strict communication guidelines.

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Social Media Marketing: A Necessary Evil or Your New Best Friend? By Mary Kamelle here is no denying that social media is necessary for a company or service provider to be in business in 2019. It is here to stay, and it will continue to evolve. But, it can be fun and could end up being your best friend if you can figure out how to harness its powers to generate some business. It is a lot easier than knocking on doors and coldcalling. What is social media marketing? It is a hybrid definition of two important things marketing and social media! One definition of marketing is communicating the value of a product, service, or brand to customers to promote or sell that product, service or brand. Marketing blends art and behavioral sciences, such as psychology and sociology, and makes use of information technology to interpret the data. Social media marketing focuses efforts to create content that attracts attention and encourages readers to share across their social networks; the message spreads from user to user as opposed to the brand or company itself. This form of marketing is also referred to as “earned” media. Digital marketing uses electronic devices to engage with users; includes platforms such as Web sites, e-mail, apps and social networks as well as non-Internet channels like TV, radio and SMS, also referred to as online marketing, Internet marketing or Web marketing. If you combine this all together, it is social media marketing. What has changed are the methods to communicate our messages and the devices we are using to consume the information, but in the end, it is all about ROI. We are trying to influence people to buy our product, service or brand. The major social media channels for mortgage professionals to use for marketing are: l LinkedIn: A professional

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“Social media marketing focuses efforts to create content that attracts attention and encourages readers to share across their social networks; the message spreads from user to user as opposed to the brand or company itself.”

networking channel. The intention is to learn, grow, and connect. Content should be formatted for busy professionals on their lunch break or coffee break. LinkedIn is where mortgage professionals should be going to impress and inform real estate agents and business partners, as well as prospects with wellresearched informational content. l Twitter: A conversational networking channel. The intention is to speak to each other and gather information as quickly as possible. Communication on Twitter is much faster than other platforms. Content should be concise and frequent. What do people want on Twitter: To talk with people, not at them; photos and videos; time is everything; and more is more. l Facebook: The intention is to be entertained and stay in touch with friends and family. Content should be visually

impactful and use storytelling. Some things you should do once a part of the Facebook community: Join groups to generate opportunities; answer questions; create a community around your service; establish authority; and network digitally. l YouTube: The intention is to learn new skills or be entertained. Content should be edited and stylized to stand out with a consistent theme and target audience. l Instagram: The intention is to be inspired and get motivated. Content should be visually impactful. Storytelling is also super effective here. In general, social media is highly visual. So, when you post, use images of people or places instead of things. Research finds that images of people get more engagement. While we love to show pictures of beautiful homes for which we have provided funding to, we

should also take pictures of the people that are thrilled to be moving into that home! Take photos of folks at your company. They help potential customers learn more about your brand and culture at your company. Anything fun and quirky works! Don’t be afraid to let your co-workers shine. Remember, your customers might not ever see the great processor that worked tirelessly on their loan in person, but they might love seeing him or her enjoying Pizza Friday or Red Sox Day at the office! Make sure your images represent the world around you, too. Don’t forget about diversity and inclusion; this creates a social media image to which everyone can relate! When you create content, the intention is supposed to be to inform or entertain with the result being engagement. Engagement can be “Liking” your content, which is fine, but what you want are comments and sharing. You want borrowers, real estate agents and referral partners to ask questions or even disagree with what you have posted so you can explain your point of view. You want interaction. So, by now, I think we all agree that you need to be on social media. That also means that you have to create content. I believe the best content for mortgage marketing has to come from someone who knows the industry. There are companies that create content for mortgage and real estate professionals, but you must read and review the content carefully. Content creation is an industry in itself, and the content is sometimes made to be sold to as many users as possible. Therefore, you need to review it to make sure it is consistent with your brand and your companies’ core values. You don’t want to pay for generic content that mentions a competitor, links to a competitor’s Web site, or is filled with inaccuracies. There are also companies that you can use to give you ideas of what type of content to create. I tried one that assured me they could provide me up to 100

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ideas for articles related to mortgage topics. The joke was on me! It was a program that inserted a keyword into the same set of titles for everyone no matter what your industry (think Mad Libs with every answer being mortgage). Here are some of the topics I received: l Fifteen undeniable reasons to love mortgage l Addicted to mortgage? Us too. Six reasons we just can’t stop l Seventeen reasons why you should ignore mortgage l Forget mortgage: 10 reasons why you no longer need it!

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Mary Kamelle is marketing manager at Mortgage Equity Partners and a content writer based out of Lynnfield, Mass. She can be reached by phone at (781) 309-1773 or e-mail MKamelle@MEPLoans.com.

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I can tell you it would not be easy to write these articles. As you can guess, these titles were generated by a program that substituted in the word “Mortgage.” This company wanted me to pay for these “content ideas.” You have to be careful of all the social media marketing companies out there trying to sell products to professionals like loan officers who are often so busy pushing loans through the pipeline that they don’t have time to stay on top of social media trends. You also need to be an active participant in your marketing at some level. If you hand over the keys to someone else, you might not be in control of where you end up! If you decide to let someone else handle it, you should pay close attention to the things they are posting for you. But again, there is no replacing the loan officer. Loan officers are licensed and are the only ones that can talk about rates and programs so if you get a good marketer that makes the phone ring or gets a conversation going you have to be ready to be engaged with customers. “Business engagement positions you as the expert in the eyes of others which lead to referrals,” according to Eric LaFleur, branch manager at Mortgage Equity Partners. Social media creates new

opportunities to get in front of a whole new audience from the comfort of your very own office! Organic versus paid advertising is a different discussion. We would all love it if organic (non-paid) advertising worked, and it does to some degree. I have heard that only 10 percent of your followers or friends ever see a post you make on Facebook due to algorithms. If that is the case and you really want to know who is seeing your posts and who is engaging with them, then you have to pay to play. Facebook Ad Manager is a great way to create ads and track their effectiveness. But, you have to put your credit card down, and you have to set realistic expectations. If you expect to get 100 percent qualified leads immediately, you are going to be disappointed. It is a process of trial and error to develop the right message, to design the best graphic, and to cultivate your ideal target audience. But, once you do, it proves to be a very effective method of lead generation. “With the advent of Millennials entering the buying sphere, we find ourselves relying more and more on social media. This is undoubtedly the best way to reach them,” said David Holding, northeast regional sales manager for Mortgage Equity Partners. And, after Millennials is a new group that will have never known life without social media or life without an iPhone. We have to be ready for them as well. “For companies to be successful in the future, they have to embrace social media and continue to invest resources in all aspects of technology,” said Holding. Let’s hope that we can come up with the correct balance of customer contact and nonpersonal relationships because social media is here to stay and you can love it or hate it, but it is the way to do business today and into the future.

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The Staircase to Success Starts With Social Media By Curt Tegeler s the years have progressed, it is easy to see the whole world going digital. At a young age, individuals are becoming active on social media, much more often than ever thought possible. In a sense, some would say social media is even running their lives. In the mortgage industry specifically, it’s important to reach prospective homebuyers through social media alongside the traditional everyday methods. With that being said, understanding how to market to a lender or loan officer properly creates a strong social media presence, thus building the staircase to a successful mortgage company. Recognizing today’s target audience in the mortgage industry is the first step in creating any type of marketing campaign. According to Marketer.com, 74.2 percent of U.S. adult Millennial Internet users will bank digitally via any device. It is obvious that Millennials are currently dominating the housing market, so it is essential to reach them where they are spending most of their time. Millennials are the first generation to truly live through the digital era, growing up when Internet usage skyrocketed. Most of them utilize at least one social media platform, making social media an ideal way to market for lenders. Therefore, lenders must strategize and determine the best way to reach their target audience online. Additionally, before starting a marketing campaign to bring in traffic, one must optimize their profile on social media. This includes a professional headshot, contact information and no inappropriate content. A headshot should not consist of a cropped photo out at a party, it should present a mortgage professional in business attire, demonstrating their competence to prospective borrowers. If there are any photos or posts that a loan officer has been tagged in that they wouldn’t want a potential employer to see, it should be removed. Homebuyers online need to be able to trust their lender with their personal information, and they should be able to find no reason that would give them doubts.

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The next step in building up a social media campaign includes content creation, and deciding which types of content will generate the most traffic. A good way to start would be to take some time to scroll down a lender’s newsfeed, seeing what catches their eye. Is it the attractive color sequence, sound or video, or possibly the interactive graphics? If an item stops one from scrolling down, then it is doing what is what meant to do. This is the type of content that mortgage companies should be sharing. Video is controlling a great deal of marketing efforts, mainly because of the personal connection it has the ability to create. Video allows borrowers to get to know someone, without ever interacting one on one. They can get a sense as to who a loan officer is before they consider reaching out to them. The use of live Q&A videos is useful, as borrowers can remain behind the scenes, getting answers to their questions before giving out any personal information. This not only helps the borrower through the homebuying process, but it presents the LO as an expert in the industry. At that point, they will be someone’s trusted loan advisor, and the odds of a homebuyer choosing their services in the future is much higher. Creating video content, or being put on the spot on live videos, can be intimidating, but it makes the user experience so much more appealing. Overall, video content presents a lender as being more confident, personable, and will attract many more prospective homebuyers. Infographics with animations are more rare in the mortgage industry because not all companies have the resources to create them. However, they should not be forgotten about. With the right tools and tutorials, there is no reason why a lender wouldn’t be able to create a simple, attractive Infographic that will draw borrowers in. If it is animated, potential homebuyers will wonder what is moving across their screen, and will most likely stop to look at it for an extended period of time. This will help to get a viewer to stop and read about the otherwise boring statistics that are more difficult to explain. Another item to be considered is

an emotional appeal. If a post or video that a lender is preparing to post does not make them feel a certain way, then their target audience will not feel it either. Basically, in order for their followers to feel invested on an emotional level, borrowers must feel that the post matters. With that being said, they will be compelled to share it with others. Shareable content is what will ultimately get a mortgage company’s name out there. In turn, it will help to build relationships with potential homebuyers. Also, every post should not be too self-serving. The point is to warm up a prospective borrower, rather them sell them from the beginning. It would be a good idea to create variety in social media posts by sharing inspirational graphics, quotes, or even “National Day” posts such as “National Postal Worker Day” or “National Pizza Day.” While it may seem silly, there are social media users who love this type of content. Even if they aren’t looking for a loan, they may share these posts, and reach someone who is. It’s a great way for any loan officer to get their name known, as well as give their followers an idea of what type of person they are. No one wants to see mortgage content all day, every day, so this would create a nice mix up of content. So many individuals are concerned about what they should post on social media, that they forget about topics that should be avoided. For one, it’s essential to refrain from discussing personal info on social media outlets. This information is private, and even if a potential borrower posts it, a lender should delete this information and take the conversation elsewhere. Also, lenders should never give financial advice outside their job scope. It can create a wide range of legality issues for the entire company as a whole. One of the most important things to do, which many professionals

neglect, is fact-checking. One may see a cool post that seems informative, but how true is it? A lender’s followers only want credible sources, so it is the responsibility of the LO to verify the information they are sharing to their pages. The last thing they want to do is stir the pot, and open the door for unnecessary criticisms. This may go without saying, but mortgage professionals should also never talk down to, or speak negatively toward their followers. For example, do not discuss a specific borrower’s low credit score back and forth with them online. It is hard to judge the way a comment is meant to be said, and it could come across as derogatory. Additionally, avoid discriminatory terms, slang, refrain from mentioning gender, race, religion, and anything that could make a borrower feel like they are being singled out. Last but not least, it is imperative that all loan officers and mortgage companies demonstrate their appreciation to their followers. Everyone wants to feel that their opinions and thoughts are valued, including today’s homebuyer market. Make it a point to acknowledge criticisms, never delete bad reviews, and always try to turn every bad situation into a better one. Loan officers must be responsive in commenting back on social media, especially if there are items of concern for certain followers. Therefore, as long as one thanks their audience and shows that they care, homebuyers will feel much more connected to their selected LO. Overall, managing a social media profile can seem time-consuming, but it brings in a wider range of borrowers. Lenders cannot solely rely on real estate agent referrals in today’s market, especially when the Millennial buyer is living online. If a loan officer creates a social media account, it is essential to remain active on it. Creating a profile and neglecting it is just as bad as not having one at all, if not worse. All in all, mortgage professionals are discovering how critical the digital footprint they leave is when it comes to building the staircase to success, and the first step starts with social media.

Curt Tegeler, chief executive officer of WebMax, is responsible for providing direction for action to all employees and business initiatives, including communicating and implementing the company’s vision and mission; leading, guiding, directing and evaluating the work of executive leaders; formulating and implementing the strategic plan; forming, staffing, guiding, leading and managing WebMax; evaluating organizational success; and representing WebMax in civic and professional activities.

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Five Tips for Mitigating Social Media Risk By Krista K. Sabol

n most corporate organizations, social media is managed and monitored by the marketing department, the public relations group, or an outside agency. When you are a loan originator, social media is a tool to advertise your business, nurture leads, and build referrals. However, there is risk in social media and it goes hand-in-hand with risk in compliance. Mitigating these combined risks requires standard operating procedures: identify the problem and develop solutions to protect your organization. The social media “problem” is larger and less visible than you would imagine. Loan originators are often decentralized and teams are distributed all over in different time zones and different states, with many that work remotely out of their home offices or in satellite offices. This adds another component to the larger challenge of reigning it all in to manage and mitigate a company’s risk exposure as it relates to social media. To solve the social media risk problem, the solution lies in good communication and training of compliance policies and procedures. Here are five tips to help mitigate this risk.

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1. Implement policies and procedures with a social spin If you have social media policies in place, use them and update them. If you don’t have any, you need to get them and implement them. At a minimum, when you have a social media policy, it needs to identify the use of social media, when it’s allowed and when it’s not allowed. In essence, social media is advertising. Any time you use your company name that’s considered advertising. Anytime your employees talk about your business or products that’s advertising. Educating your team on the social media policy, explaining the rules with examples, and identifying expectations are a vital first step to brand integrity and regulatory compliance. Note that in addition to this

“Social media training for the relevant parties should be conducted at least once annually with policy updates or announcements conveyed throughout the year as necessary. Make sure you tell employees what they can do and can’t do …”

social media policy that legal and compliance may implement, the human resources and marketing departments may have social media guidelines to which you must adhere to as well for corporate and brand identity purposes. If you do not have these policies and guidelines in place and don’t know where to start, third-party vendors can help with this policy, process and training development. Once the policy is in place and conveyed and employees are trained, the next step is to monitor activity. It is important to note that monitoring should not be marketing prevention! It is important to support your loan originators’ marketing goals to drive their business. You may select a certain percentage of loan officers to monitor and rotate on a regular basis. While you are monitoring activity, if there are posts that are not within the guidelines or have questionable content, provide the loan originator with guidance and suggest modified posts that are within compliance and

support their marketing efforts. Policies and procedures for employee presence online should also include professional appearance. Val Kacherian, vice president and compliance manager for Los Alamos National Bank worked at a company that prohibited employees to use social media on its behalf. The company also actively searched to ensure that employees adhered to the policy. And what did they find? One of the company’s loan originators had a video posted in his social media account in which he was sitting at his rather untidy kitchen table, shirtless, talking about new mortgage loan products. After seeing the video, the company took immediate and proactive action based on the policy and the procedures that were in place. The lesson here is that there’s a difference between personal and business in social media. Policies should reflect that. Once your policies are in place, have your employees acknowledge in writing, signing and attesting that

they’ve read them and will abide by them. One thing you don’t want to hear is “I didn’t know that.” The Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council (FFIEC) has published guidance in 2013, which is still relevant. Beyond documenting policies and monitoring activities, maintaining your policies is critical. Joy K. Gilpin, vice president of learning and compliance for Indecomm said, “We build these policies for clients and I can tell you it is a very common practice for there to be a big push to get all of this content, documentation, and learning content built out and then it sits for two plus years. Then it essentially all has to be redone as things have changed. If you want to continue to get a return on that investment, whether it’s through internal resources or an external partnership with a writer, it is the ongoing maintenance that’s important.” 2. Train, train, train Your organization’s social media policies should drive the education content and process training. It should be ongoing, consisting of compliance guidelines, internal and external resources, refreshers and support. Train, train, train. It cannot be emphasized enough that training is key to compliance and vital to be conducted at the time of hiring. If not, you’re going to hear a lot of “I didn’t know that.” Social media training for the relevant parties should be conducted at least once annually with policy updates or announcements conveyed throughout the year as necessary. Make sure you tell employees what they can do and can’t do, with examples of what is compliant and what is noncompliant, relaying the company policies and consequences, including termination of employment. Educating employees on what’s expected of them in regards to social media activities will foster compliance and help make everyone accountable. 3. Audit your policies and procedures on a regular basis Auditing should be part of your written policies and be conducted on a regular basis.

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With counsel from your compliance officers and legal team, establish audit parameters and guidance for your employees based on federal and state requirements. Note that auditing relates to monitoring. Are your policies and procedures being followed by the staff? How are you responding to any incident reports? Written procedures for the audit processes must be built into the policy and used to respond in to any incidents. This includes how they are recorded within the corporation or from outside the corporation, and how you solve them. It is not enough to understand the process and have an informal protocol in place. You must actually spell it out. Someone who does not work for the organization, such as a regulator, needs to be able to come in and follow the audit process. Most importantly, your organization needs to follow through on the audit protocol, activity monitoring, and incident reporting.

Krista Sabol is marketing director, financial services for Indecomm Global Services. Krista has more than 20 years of experience in marketing, communications and education within the mortgage lending industry. She worked for the MBA and multiple industry vendors, focusing on marketing strategy, client advocacy, education technology and other marketing initiatives.

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5. Learn from the industry One way to gather valuable insights is to listen and watch how others in the mortgage lending industry are handling social media, particularly calls to action. Do some research: What violations have made headlines? Check out what other loan originators are posting—both good posts and bad, and what works in and out of your market. Then consider, how does your approach compare to others? Another way to gain insights is to plan out your social media posts and keep track of them. You can keep it simple with a Word document or spreadsheet and list the dates, social media outlets, the actual content of the post, URLs, hashtags, and other details about the post. Keeping a recorded plan makes it easy to track your content strategy and share it with your compliance team in the event an issue occurs. Planning out in advance also allows you to think through your posts in consideration of risk management and policy compliance. If you have a question about whether your content is compliant, ask your policy manager … better safe than sorry. Tools for scheduling posts such as Hootsuite and Buffer can help you quickly get those posts out into the world, offer additional analytics and metrics, and provide insights into your social media mentions by other parties. Further, make sure your monitor your social media account reviews, post comments, and messages. Respond promptly and appropriately to feedback and inquiries based on your company’s compliance, branding, and corporate social media policies.

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4. Assess your digital footprint and recordkeeping Assessing your digital footprint and recordkeeping are vital activities. What you post on social media is there indefinitely for everyone to see, so be careful what you post. In this day and age it may go without saying, but it is even more important to be cognizant about what you post to promote and advertise your business. Be thoughtful about what you post, how you comment, what pages you like, and what pictures you post … because it will live on the record on the internet! Recordkeeping is an important component of compliance. If a regulator comes in, they will want to see policies and procedures, your audit reports, and your incident reports. “They may want to talk to individuals,” said Gilpin. “They may ask to see your advertising or the focus of your advertising. They want to see your approvals of all the advertising you’ve sent out, and you will want

to be ready for them with all of your ducks in a row.” Your data must be stored in an unfiltered format or a tamperproof media so it doesn’t get changed. Data can’t be manipulated, spun a particular way, deleted or stripped.

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Building Blocks for Social Selling Success: Say Hello to Engagement! By Patricia Sherlock elling has always been about being at the right place at the right time. For originators, it is being where their customers are when they are considering purchasing a home. In the past, originators used prospecting methods, such as making presentations at first-time homebuyer meetings or cold-calling rental tenants from a list. Today, these marketing techniques don’t work as they once did. While consumers have always turned to their family and friends for recommendations and information when making purchases, now they are using social media and viewing opinions from people they don’t know and are not related to. The consumer’s sphere of influence is no longer limited to someone who lives nearby or shares their genetic DNA. This is a game-changer for originators as social selling has become a critical tool for lead generation and sales success.

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A new retail revolution The challenge for all sales professionals is that consumers are conducting their own Internet research long before they contact an originator for assistance. Social selling is about originators building awareness of their expertise among prospects and referral sources in an online environment. For years, push marketing was the primary method of generating customers for mortgage origination. Today, this tactic of reaching out and interrupting the customer to deliver a seller’s message— whether in the form of unsolicited phone calls or emails—has become less effective in producing sales results. Consumers have no tolerance for these intrusions anymore and they actually resent it. Consumers’ new buying rules include wanting the seller to be available on their terms and not

“Consumers’ new buying rules include wanting the seller to be available on their terms and not the other way around. They do not want to be approached with irrelevant information just because the originator is in need of a transaction.”

the other way around. They do not want to be approached with irrelevant information just because the originator is in need of a transaction. Social selling is not just another version of the past methodologies that have been used for years, namely, oneway conversations that are in favor of the seller. Social selling is about having a dialogue between the buyer and the seller based on mutual engagement. Why top of mind matters Today, originators are tasked with earning a mindshare of the consumer’s attention. For many originators, this is dramatically different from their usual prospecting efforts, as they are being asked to be thought leaders in their respective markets. The Consumer Finance Protection Bureau’s research has stated that approximately 70 percent of consumers complete their loan transaction

with the first lender/originator that they contact. Being the first originator to have contact with a consumer can make the difference between hitting budgeted goals or being put on a performance plan. Earning top-of-mind positioning is not just the responsibility of the lender anymore, but a requirement for originators who want to establish their credibility and personal brand in the marketplace. Originators are now charged with forming their own tribe and community of influencers online. People still want a guide In our new world of mortgage origination, consumers have access to unlimited information 24/7, a factor that has changed traditional selling roles forever. Before the Internet, finding important information needed to make better buying decisions was difficult. Now, it is easy and consumers have the opposite

issue: Access to an endless stream of information day in and day out. Product knowledge used to be what distinguished one originator from the next. All of this information overload has created the need for a knowledge broker: Someone who can share valuable insights and advise prospects on what is the best way to proceed in the mortgage arena. This is where social selling comes in. Social selling is an opportunity to influence consumers to trust and contact the originator before they make a decision. It is especially helpful for consumers who may not have entertained even purchasing a house. The originator is challenged to provide valuable information to consumers and referral sources to build trust and be willing to take the conversation to the next step, offline. Social selling is a scale communication tool to establish engagement. Social selling ground rules Before selecting which social media platforms to target, originators must understand that like any marketing effort outreach, social selling has some basic rules. Here are three: l Social selling is about having conversations and developing relationships. It is a dialogue with a group of individuals that are together because of shared interests, values and mutual goals. One-way conversations are not tolerated. l Social selling requires regular and consistent postings to effectively build relationships. From a selling perspective, it is more about a marathon than a sprint. Rarely will a salesperson receive immediate business from it. The simple fact is that building awareness of a personal brand takes time and at some point, a financial investment will need to be made in order to achieve the growth and

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impact that the originator desires. l Since technology is changing daily, an originator should commit to learning and updating their skills. Staying abreast of the latest apps and systems is important. Joining a group and enrolling in training classes including reading the latest books are part of the journey of mastering social selling. Start with a digital marketing plan Selecting the best social network for expanding an originator’s personal brand starts with putting a digital marketing plan in writing. The plan should address the following issues:

Selecting your best channel There are numerous social media platforms where originators can engage with consumers, including Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest and YouTube. Instead of trying them all, originators should focus on a select few that matches to their target audience. In the real estate and mortgage industry, the dominant social media platforms are: Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram. According to National Association of Realtors (NAR), 97 percent of real estate agents are on Facebook, with LinkedIn at 59 percent and Instagram trailing them both at 39 percent. Facebook’s importance to originators is obvious … both real estate agents and consumers are active daily on this social media powerhouse. It is important to note that Facebook is constantly upgrading and adding new services. In the last few years, Facebook Live has been added. This is a streaming service that is perfect for open houses and providing education to real estate agents and consumers in a real-time format.

There are also social media management services that can help distribute the content for originators in a timely manner. Services like Hootsuite, Hubspot are two well-known systems that provide the services. Final thought The social selling world is impacting every facet of retail business. It is no surprise that originators who adopt these new selling methods will be the winners in lead generation going forward. Now is the time to start.

After a long career in financial services as an executive and a manager, Patricia Sherlock founded QFS Sales Solutions in 1992 to help sales organizations improve their sales talent management and performance. For more information, call (800) 875-0222 or e-mail PSherlock@QFSConsulting.com. 79

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Facebook basics and content creation An originator can decide to use their Facebook personal profile or establish a Business Page. For originators who do not want to mix their personal feed with their business outreach, a Facebook Business Page is optimal and allows different privileges such as the ability to boost a post to your followers. A Personal Profile does not allow any advertising. At the heart of an originator’s success on any social media platforms is the valuable content that they post. Content can take the form of original material written by the originator or curated articles from credible sources such as

Bloomberg, CNBC and other real estate-focused sources like Inman. For most originators, curated articles are a good first step. The most powerful curated material is information that is current and relevant to the originator’s local market. To stay on top of the information flow, it is important to consider using news aggregators. Google Alert and Feedly are two widely used news feeds that can save time and enable articles to be saved for future distribution.

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l Defining your targeted audience. This might sound like an easy task, but it isn’t. Performing data analysis is a must to establish who you have been successful with over the last 12 to 24 months. Analyzing who you have done business with will help to narrow focus and establish a baseline. A pattern of data will appear that will help an originator in selecting a social media channel and the right content for the channel. l It is essential that the originator further outline the demographic and social economic information related to their previous customers. What is their age, income, gender, ethnicity and relationship status of past customers? What are their concerns and values? Do they live in the suburbs or the city? l Social selling is no different than any other sales activity and must have a measurable return-on-investment (ROI) for the time invested. If an originator can only allocate 30 minutes a day for social selling engagement, that is better than trying to commit to an unrealistic time frame that is not doable. It is better to commit to 30 minutes every day than five hours every two weeks. Part of the digital marketing plan should establish success measurements. What number of engagements do

you want in six or 12 months? How many followers will generate likes and comments? Likes and comments are key metrics that shows the impact of your content.

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Five Ways for Mortgage Lenders to Remain Compliant on Social Media By Doug Wilber n today’s digital landscape, social media should be a key element for any mortgage lender’s marketing strategy. After all, social media is now a major part of the homebuyer’s journey. According to data my company compiled, 55 percent of homebuyers conduct online research—via Web searches and social media—before reaching out to an agent, and agents report that 80 percent to 90 percent of their business comes from social media. Because 88 percent of all buyers finance their homes, the next step in that journey is usually finding a mortgage lender, which means that mortgage lenders should be hopping on the social media train, too. That said, financial institutions belong to a highly regulated industry. Regulators like the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) and the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council (FFIEC) define how mortgage lenders and banks can communicate with current and prospective customers, and this also applies to electronic communications. This means that mortgage lenders must approach their social media strategies with careful thought and consideration.

which will help you avoid many of the regulatory trip wires.

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A minefield of regulations In 2017, FINRA doled out $8.3 million in fines for electronic communication violations. The largest fine fell on financial services firm Raymond James Financial at $2 million for failing to adequately supervise emails. After reviewing a nineyear period, FINRA found that millions of e-mails sent by Raymond James employees had evaded review. The system in place failed to flag misconduct, and the Raymond James team neglected to allocate suitable staff and resources to its review team, which allowed employee misconduct to go unnoticed.

“If you don’t already have a social media policy in place, then it’s time to put one together—with the governance structure included.”

FINRA’s supervision requirements aren’t limited to e-mail, though. In fact, they cover all electronic communication—including social media. In May 2018, for example, FINRA filed a complaint against a representative of a broker dealer regarding claims he’d made on a Web site and on a social media page for an ebook he authored. FINRA cited his claims as misleading and even false. Furthermore, he failed to have the Web site or social media page approved before making them public. Financial brands must comply with regulations in all aspects of their marketing strategies to avoid similar consequences. Staying compliant, however, does not have to mean implementing a bland or ineffective social strategy. To avoid having your social media posts, comments and responses land you in hot water, follow a few important steps to implement a culture of compliance. While these five tips are by no means a comprehensive list

of rules, they can be useful in helping mortgage lenders balance an active and effective social media presence with consistent compliance: 1. Establish governance over your social strategy. Your social media strategy won’t be compliant unless it’s properly governed, so start by clearly documenting who has access to and control over what social media channels. According to the FFIEC, your social media policy needs to clearly outline the individual roles and responsibilities of each person posting on the brand’s behalf and each person in charge of reviewing and approving content. If employees are posting content related to your brand, products, or services on their personal social media profiles, this will need to be outlined in the policy as well. When roles are clearly defined, you’ll eliminate any confusion around who had authorization to post what,

2. Compose a welldocumented social media policy. If you don’t already have a social media policy in place, then it’s time to put one together—with the governance structure included. Your policy should also include: l Guidelines for responding to comments or messages. l How employees can identify themselves as bank representatives. l What kind of content is acceptable to post and share. l On which company devices employees can use social media and when. l Which social platforms are included. l The consequences of violating the policy. To avoid confusion in adhering to guidelines now or conducting compliance reviews in the future, an institution’s social media policy should be as descriptive as possible. For example, be clear that employees’ social media activity will be monitored, that employees should not post negative content about competitors, and whether employees should be posting during work hours. Also, ensure that the policy is easy for all relevant employees to digest, understand, and implement. Though social media regulations can be dense, your policy should be designed for easy comprehension. A confusing policy will only discourage employees from using social media, but compliance should not deter your team from having a great social strategy. It should simply guide team members in the right direction—and keep them from making potentially damaging mistakes.

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negative—and adjust your strategy more fluidly as the need arises.

5. Prepare for an audit at the drop of a hat. Your routine risk assessments should include some method of

branded content on their personal profiles. Using cloud-based technology, you can digitally archive activity across all accounts from all employees throughout the organization. Social media compliance for mortgage lenders can seem like a daunting responsibility, but it doesn’t have to be. Creating a policy that highlights governance, close monitoring, adequate risk assessment, and archiving will give you a solid footing in creating a compliant and effective social media strategy. You can also review compliance resources and risk management guidelines regularly to ensure you’re covering all the bases.

Doug Wilber is CEO of Gremlin Social, an integrated solution that combines social media marketing with ABAendorsed compliance tools to make it easy for financial services companies to master the social media landscape and engage customers using social networks. Doug has worked in the fintech space for more than a decade, and has experience working with Discover Financial Services, PYMNTS.com, and Assembly Payments, among others.

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4. Gain a clear picture of your social media risks. Often, financial firms are fined for mistakes that slipped through the cracks due to a lack of fail-safes in the workflow. That’s one reason why the FFIEC requires institutions to keep their risk assessments updated. If you haven’t performed a social media risk assessment, this is a great place to start when ensuring compliance. If you already have an assessment in place, consider reviewing it to make sure it meets regulatory standards. The FFIEC guideline regarding risk assessments is designed to give you, your employees and federal regulators a heads-up if any controls, measures, policies, or procedures are inadequate.

monitoring everything that’s posted to your brand’s social media pages. Archiving is paramount to controlling risks and staying compliant, and it is an excellent way to capture social media activity for audit and compliance purposes. You can manage archiving by posting manually from native social media accounts, keeping a Microsoft Word document of social media content, and using analytics provided by the social media networks. However, this strategy is time-consuming and isn’t sustainable if you use several social channels across multiple departments or branches or if individual employees are posting

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3. Create a system for monitoring and oversight. Informing employees that their social media activity will be monitored isn’t always enough to prevent misconduct or regulatory violations. Therefore, be prepared to monitor all activity across your brand’s social media channels. For example, keyword and phrase filtering can detect and stop potentially noncompliant posts from ever going live. But this doesn’t have to mean limiting employees’ abilities to respond to questions and comments on social media. Encourage engagement, but give your employees clear guidelines around what is and is not acceptable. You want employees to listen to what your audience members are saying and interact with them where appropriate. By tuning into the conversation, you can make sure your social media posts will resonate with readers. You can also monitor feedback—both positive and

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HEARD ON THE STREET

BEHAVIORAL DATA

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portfolio and cultivating key business relationships within the bank’s markets. CoreLogic has expanded the size of its board of directors from 11 to 12 and has added banking and housing finance expert J. Michael Shepherd to the board as an independent director. LoanLogics, a provider of technology for mortgage manufacturing and loan acquisition, has hired Elizabeth Green as chief collateral officer, with responsibilities for the company’s product strategy for collateral assessment solutions. LoanLogics has also named Paul J. Vancheri executive vice president of technology, responsible for the company’s delivery of high-quality software to the mortgage industry. PeerStreet, a marketplace for investing in real estate backed loans, has announced the appointment of Deepa Salastekar as vice president of institutional sales. Salastekar joins PeerStreet to expand the company’s relationship base of institutional partners across all investment types available through PeerStreet. Open Mortgage has hired Live Well Financial’s core team of mortgage lending executives: Bruce Barnes, Jim Cory and Joshua Moran, formerly executive vice president, senior vice president of operations and senior vice president of wholesale and correspondent lending, respectively. AmeriFirst Financial has added Tim Walsh to its senior executive management team as chief production officer. LenderSelect Mortgage Group has announced the addition of Sherri Hinson as an account executive for Georgia and Florida. Mortgage Equity Partners has announced the addition of industry veterans Regional Sales Manager, Southeast Michael Manieri and Vice President of Sales Jim Driscoll. The Bryn Mawr Trust Co. (BMT) has hired Pedro Nicolas Velecico as CRA mortgage lender for their mortgage division. He will be based at the

company’s headquarters in Bryn Mawr, Pa. Chicago-based AHP Servicing (AHPS) has named Renee Giannos as its chief operating officer. The Freedom Bank of Virginia, a $478 million-asset institution in Fairfax, Va., has named Bradley S. Crockett as head of the Commercial Real Estate Group, overseeing the department’s advisory, lending, treasury services, financial services and mortgage activities. Gateway First Bank has announced the appointment of Tiffany Sizemore as its Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) officer, responsible for the development, implementation and enforcement of Gateway’s BSA compliance program and coordination with state and federal regulators on these matters. Gateway has also announced Natalia Coen as its new chief compliance officer, where she will be responsible for planning, developing and managing the execution of a compliance management system and any related initiatives. Title Alliance Ltd. has named Maria Deligiorgis as general counsel and compliance officer, Sharon Lontoc as chief human resources officer, and Lindsay Smith as chief strategy officer. The trio joins Chief Financial Officer Lillian ReDavid to make Title Alliance’s C-Suite majority female, showcasing leadership opportunities at this innovative title and escrow company.

Your turn National Mortgage Professional Magazine invites its readers to submit any information, events, passages, promotions, personal or professional occurrences that seem appropriate and/or other pertinent data to the attention of: Heard on the Street/Mortgage Professionals to Watch column Phone #: (516) 409-5555 E-mail: Newsroom@MortgageNewsNetwork.com

Note: Submissions sent via e-mail are preferred. The deadline for submissions is the 1st of the month prior to the target issue.

millions of monthly Web site visitors. For example, it is possible for any lender to receive alerts when one of their customers are researching online for real estate agents, which is further up the funnel than when they list their house for sale. The data is niche, unique, and new to the industry which provides the current benefit of being a competitive edge to get in front of the customer before they become engaged with another lender. Behavioral data has moved the top of the funnel For many lenders, it’s standard practice to leverage credit triggers, MLS listing alerts, and in-the-money-models, to identify which of their customers were at risk of becoming a lost customer. Ellie Mae reports that 88 percent of the time, consumers will close with the first or second lender they speak with, which makes getting in front of your customers at the top of the funnel vital to keeping them as a customer. Although credit triggers are important and a strong indication that a customer is at-risk, this is also informing the lender, and dozens of other lenders buying the same credit triggers, that they are already behind and needing to play catch up to win the business. MLS listing alerts are similar, as the consumer already has a Realtor who listed their house for sale and is likely the agent for the subsequent purchase transaction...and every realtor has a great mortgage partner to refer their clients. Access to behavioral data signaling where the consumer is in their shopping journey— especially those that inform you when your customers are actively shopping on mortgage comparison and lead generation

Web sites—has moved the top of the funnel even higher. Lenders are now able to determine when their customers first start researching a mortgage, which is typically 100 days before they submit a quote request online, list their house for sale, and have their credit pulled. This 100-day period, signals the consumers first point of thought to get a new mortgage and provides a strong competitive edge to the lenders that use these signals to influence the consumer’s shopping journey to their benefit. Timing is everything It’s been a common phrase used by many, but it doesn’t make it any less relevant today than it did years ago. Marketing to the right person, at the right time, with the right message is important. But many lenders today are using marketing automation strategies that worked in the past and have steadily declined in performance over the last couple of years due to their reactionary trigger events, such as when a consumer submits a lead request, or is based on audience segmentation with look-a-like models which are broad in nature creating the need to cast a wide marketing net. The new wave of marketing strategies revolve around peoplebased marketing which is hypertargeted to identifying the actual consumer and when they are beginning their research allowing lenders to be proactively marketing. People-based marketing strategies enable marketers to provide a greater focus on the exact people much more likely to get a new mortgage and influence their shopping behaviors to give themselves a much higher probability of winning their business for the long-term.

Footnotes 1—NationalMortgageNews.com/News/Black-Knight-Brings-Digital-Mortgage-Approach-toServicing-Tech 2—NationalMortgageNews.com/News/Servicer-Retention-Hit-Bottom-and-Volatile-Mortgage-RatesArent-Helping 3—loanDepot.com/Blog/Blogpost-Perspectives-IPO-Market-Conditions 4—NationalMortgageNews.com/News/Servicer-Retention-Hit-Bottom-and-Volatile-Mortgage-RatesArent-Helping 5—TheMortgageLeader.com/The-Ability-to-I-D-the-Borrowers-Intent-Shifts-the-Origination-Process

Mike Eshelman is head of consumer finance at Jornaya, a data-as-a-service platform that delivers consumer journey insights to publishers, marketers, analytics and compliance professionals with the highest-resolution view of the consumer buying journey. Mike can be reached by e-mail at MEshelman@Jornaya.com.

NATIONAL MORTGAGE PROFESSIONAL MAGAZINE’S

calendar of events JULY 2019 Wednesday-Saturday, July 31-August 3 FAMP 60th Annual Convention & Trade Show Walt Disney World Swan and Dolphin 1500 Epcot Resorts Boulevard Lake Buena Vista, Fla. For more information, visit OurFAMP.org. AUGUST 2019 Wednesday-Friday, August 14-16 MMLA 2019 Annual Lending Conference Crystal Mountain Resort & Spa 12500 Crystal Mountain Drive Thompsonville, Mich. For more information, visit MMLA.net.

Saturday-Monday, September 14-16 NAMB National 2019 Conference & Trade Show Caesar’s Palace 3570 South Las Vegas Boulevard Las Vegas For more information, visit NAMB.org.

Friday, September 20 2019 UAMP Mortgage Expo Marriott at City Creek 75 South West Temple Salt Lake City, Utah For more information, visit UAMP.net. Sunday-Tuesday, September 22-24 MBA’s 2019 Regulatory Compliance Conference Grand Hyatt Washington 1000 H Street Washington, D.C. For more information, visit MBA.org. Sunday-Thursday, September 22-26 2019 Northeast Conference of Mortgage Brokers and Professionals Hard Rock Hotel & Casino 1000 Boardwalk Atlantic City, N.J. For more information, visit MBANJ.com.

OCTOBER 2019 Thursday, October 24 AZAMP Annual Expo 2019 JW Marriott Phoenix Desert Ridge Resort & Spa 5350 East Marriott Drive Phoenix, Ariz. For more information, visit AzAMP.org. Saturday, October 26 mPowering You: MBA’s Summit For Women in Real Estate Finance Austin Convention Center 500 East Cesar Chavez Street Austin, Texas For more information, visit MBA.org. Sunday-Wednesday, October 27-30 MBA’s 2019 Annual Convention & Expo Austin Convention Center 500 East Cesar Chavez Street Austin, Texas For more information, visit MBA.org.

Thursday, November 14 FAMP’s 2019 Miami Mortgage Convention Trade Show DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel Miami Airport & Convention Center 711 NW 72nd Avenue Miami For more information, visit MiamiFAMP.org. Monday-Wednesday, November 18-20 2019 NRMLA Annual Meeting & Expo Nashville Omni 250 5th Avenue South Nashville, Tenn. For more information, visit NRMLAOnline.org/event/2019annual-meeting-expo. Tuesday-Thursday, November 19-21 MBA’s Accounting and Financial Management Conference 2019 Marriott Marquis San Diego Marina 333 West Harbor Drive San Diego For more information, visit MBA.org.

NOVEMBER 2019 Tuesday-Thursday, November 5-7 NCRA 27th Annual Conference The DeSoto Hotel 15 East Liberty Savannah, Ga. For more information, visit NCRAInc.org.

To submit your entry for inclusion in the National Mortgage Professional Calendar of Events, please e-mail the details of your event, along with contact information, to newsroom@mortgagenewsnetwork.com. *Looking for additional exposure at key industry events? Call 516.409.5555, ext. 4 to discover how to maximize your event coverage.

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SEPTEMBER 2019 Wednesday-Thursday, September 11-12 MBA’s 2019 Human Resources Symposium The Hyatt Regency, Crystal City 2799 Jefferson Davis Highway Arlington, Va. For more information, visit MBA.org.

Thursday-Friday, September 19-20 2019 VMLA Annual Convention Richmond Downtown Marriott 500 East Broad Street Richmond, Va. For more information, visit VirginiaMLA.org.

Wednesday, September 25 Vision Summit 2019 Tampa Marriott Water Street 700 South Florida Avenue Tampa, Fla. For more information, visit VisionYourSuccess.net.

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Monday-Tuesday, August 26-27 NEXTSummer19 The Gwen Hotel 521 North Rush Street Chicago For more information, visit NEXTMortgageConference.com.

Sunday-Tuesday, September 15-17 MBA’s Risk Management, QA & Fraud Prevention Forum 2019 Sheraton Grand Chicago 301 East North Water Street Chicago For more information, visit MBA.org.

Danger Ahe Are you on track for 2019 â&#x20AC;Ś do you even know?

ead in 2019 e are in a very dangerous time as originators. Rates are low and people who never thought they could ever refinance again are actually refinancing. Most originators are very busy right now. That’s good, but also very dangerous! When we get this busy, it’s very easy to sit back and think it will just continue this way forever. Of course, I have been at this for almost 35 years now, so I know better. But the danger is getting fat and happy and ignoring the basics like continuing your marketing efforts and maintaining your relationships.

Have you ever killed someone with kindness? During a recent refinance boom, I actually referred a number of refinances to one of my biggest competitors in my area. No … you read that correct. This lender had made some major inroads with some of my bigger agents, and I wanted to get rid of him. So I simply referred a number of refinance leads and prospects to him. He couldn’t thank me enough, and I happily sat back and watched as he got fat and happy and ignored these agents. Most have returned and never left again because of my focus on purchase business. Now let’s talk about you for a minute … We are midway through the year 2019 and so far, it has been pretty darn good. But do you actually know where your business is coming from? Are you on track to accomplish your goals? Do you even know what your goal is and how to accomplish it?

By Brian Sacks

“During a recent refinance boom, I actually referred a number of refinances to one of my biggest competitors in my area. No … you read that correct.” Here are some questions to ask You should sit down, take out a sheet of paper or open an Excel Spreadsheet, or even better, you can use the Top Originator Software I created at 48WaysBook.com! Now, be honest and ask yourself: 1. What is your income goal for the year? Are you halfway there? 2. How many loans do you need to close in order to achieve your goal? 3. What is your average loan amount? Are there ways to raise that average? 4. Where is your business coming from? You need three or four “Pillars of Business” just like a chair with four legs. In my case, I have the following Pillars: 1. Agent business and referrals. 2. Direct to consumer (turning

renters into loans) and publicity (radio/TV/articles). 3. Niche buyers–Boomerang buyers and buyers going through a divorce. 4. Referrals from past clients and other professionals like attorneys and accountants. What happens if you don’t know? First, if you don’t have a goal and a plan for attaining it, you simply can’t succeed. If you have a plan and don’t track your progress, then your efforts are worthless. Each month, you should be evaluating your business. Think of it like being on a road trip and making sure you are still on the correct highway and knowing how much longer you have to travel until you reach your destination. So, now you have your homework assignment … so get to work!

Brian Sacks is a branch manager with Homebridge Financial in Owings Mills, Md. He has been originating for 35 years, with career closings of $1.5 billion-plus and 5,833 transactions. Brian is also the creator of the Top Originator Secrets Blog and has recently published an originator success manual on the 48 Proven Ways to Immediately Grow Your Production. You can learn more at https://48WaysBook.com.

JULY 2019 n National Mortgage Professional Magazine n NationalMortgageProfessional.com

The Social Impact of the Digital Mortgage

By By Dan Dan Sogorka Sogorka

ost conversations about digital mortgages today still focus on feasibility—and many conclude that the product remains a pipe dream, and will for a decade or more. But there’s another angle we need to consider: The social impact of the digital mortgage. If done right, a fully-digitized origination process has the potential to increase housing accessibility for borrowers around the country, which would benefit every stakeholder in the system. Here’s a look at why that is and what it will take to get us there.

requires nothing less than a transformation of the loan advisor’s tech stack. Instead of jumping between the LOS, CRM, POS, eSignature, product and pricing engine, cloud document storage, and credit reporting and automated verifications systems, loan advisors with access to digital mortgage platforms will be able to work with just one system that integrates all these functions. They’ll be able to pull data from multiple sources so that they can structure loans during an initial borrower meeting. Instead of running back to the office after meeting an interested borrower– at an open house, for example– they can close the sale on the spot, locking in terms and gaining borrower commitment. And then they can head to the next open house, strengthening relationships with borrowers, real estate agents, and everyone else involved. This will shave days off the mortgage origination process, and the streamlining of all these processes will reduce costs significantly. The community-building power of the digital mortgage One hundred years ago, we expected to talk to and know our lenders. We expected them to have time for us, and we trusted them to help us find loan products that met our needs and helped us reach our long-term goals. Counterintuitive as it may initially seem, the digital mortgage has the capacity to return to us the best of that model by freeing loan advisors and other lending professionals from much of the manual busywork that currently fills their days so that they can spend more of their time and energy getting to know their borrowers. This, while also streamlining the application process and reducing costs for all parties. That means more accessible mortgages, which means more people in the homes they want in the communities they love. More people, in other words, living the American Dream.

Dan Sogorka is Cloudvirga’s chief revenue officer and a seasoned mortgage technology executive. Before joining Cloudvirga earlier this year, Dan was president of EXOS Technologies for insurance titan Fidelity National Financial. Before that, he was president of RealEC Technologies for mortgage data and solutions provider Black Knight.

n National Mortgage Professional Magazine n JULY 2019

What borrowers want: Digital, people, houses Let’s revisit my assertion that mortgages cost too much. This isn’t just extrapolation: Ellie Mae’s 2019 Borrower Insights

The dual promise of the digital mortgage: More human connection, lower costs Before I explain how, let’s take a moment to remember a dark day for the digital mortgage: During a commercial break for Super Bowl 2016, Rocket Mortgage advertised an “eight-minute mortgage” with the promise “you could get a mortgage on your phone.”

Viewers, still scarred by the housing crisis that was enabled by too-easy credit, were not thrilled. They accused Rocket Mortgage of recklessness and suggested the company was fomenting the next housing market crash. The underlying fear, of course, came from the assumption that a mostly digital mortgage would be devoid of human connection and the kind of common sense that might have prevented the last market disaster. In reality, that fear was unfounded for two reasons. First, the “eight-minute mortgage” was anything but: What Rocket Mortgage was offering was a digitized front end that made for a smoother initial application. Borrowers could input their information more easily, but the rest of the origination process–credit checks, underwriting, rate locks, etc.–still required real people to carry out all-too-manual work behind the scenes. So while Rocket Mortgage seemed to be promising a lightning-speed approval, it was really just offering a quicker onramp to the still very much jammed traffic of a standard mortgage origination. The second reason the fear was unfounded was that the real benefit of a digital mortgage, when we actually get there, will not be that borrowers never have to interact with real people but rather that they can engage with their lenders more. With access to platforms that integrate the back-end processes required to originate a mortgage, loan advisors will have to spend less energy chasing down paperwork and following up with colleagues, which means they’ll have more time and energy to meet and work with borrowers, answer questions, and make sure all borrowers are getting loan products that match their financial goals. Notice that this vision of the digital mortgage is different from what Rocket Mortgage promised in its Super Bowl ad: It’s not just a streamlining of the customerfacing parts of the mortgage application. The digital mortgage

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Mortgages cost too much, despite the digital front end As of Q4 2018, the cost to originate a mortgage was $8,611, regardless of the size of the loan. That sum pays for the costs of doing business: Commissions and salaries for loan advisors, processors, underwriters, closers, and IT professionals; software; third-party vendors– and it’s the borrower who shoulders the cost. Obviously, that extra $8,600plus has the biggest impact on those borrowing the least, which tends to include lower-income and first-time homebuyers. It’s also starting to impact the profitability of lenders, who in last year’s final quarter actually lost $200 per loan. If we don’t do something about this cost, lenders are going to have smaller and smaller margins. For big banks, those smaller margins mean less focus on mortgage products; for independents, it means they have to build in more of a spread to cover costs and remain profitable. That makes it harder to buy a home, which again hurts borrowers (or would-be borrowers). What’s maybe even more troubling about the current state of affairs, though, is that the cost of originating a mortgage has been rising steadily for years, despite technology innovations that have made it easier and more efficient than ever to apply. Clearly, what we’ve done so far isn’t working. Or rather, what we’ve done so far isn’t enough.

Survey found that, among the youngest group surveyed (Millennials), not having enough money for a downpayment was the most common reason they cited for not buying a home. Further, more than half of all renters said they would buy a house if they had enough money and 57 percent even said they’d move to a new state if it meant being able to afford a home. So affordability is a clear and present problem. But it’s not the only thing keeping would-be homeowners from borrowing: Respondents who didn’t yet have a mortgage thought they needed to pay between six and 10 percent down for a home, when in reality many financing options require far less–and VA loans don’t require any money down. The second problem, then, is an education gap: While some borrowers truly cannot afford a mortgage, others may not be applying because they incorrectly believe that they can’t. The obvious solution would be outreach from lenders–and in fact, that seems to be what the youngest borrowers want: In Ellie Mae’s survey, even though lenders reached out to Millennial customers far more often than boomer customers, Millennials were six times more likely than Baby Boomers to say they hadn’t received enough outreach. Millennials were also 30 percent more likely than Boomers to meet often in-person with their lenders, suggesting a desire for handholding throughout the borrowing process. This offers greater insight into a 2018 finding from Fannie Mae that, while 72 percent of borrowers want access to a digital mortgage application, 65 percent also want human guidance on questions. To summarize: Today’s renters want homes, they want to apply for them digitally, and they want human contact with their lenders. The digital mortgage can give them all three things–as well as lower costs.

JULY 2019 n National Mortgage Professional Magazine n NationalMortgageProfessional.com

Visit www.AngelOakMS.com or call 855.631.9943 Simply The Best Solution in Non-QM Wholesale and Correspondent Lending g. ÂŠ Angel Oak Mortgage Solutions LLC NMLS #1160240, Corporate office, 980 Hammond Drive, Suite 850, Atlanta, GA, 30328. This communication is sent only by Angel Oak Mortgage Solutions LLC and is not intended to imply that any of our loan products will be off ffeered by or in conjunction with HUD, FHA, VA, the U.S. government or any ffeederal, state or local governmental body. This is a business-to-business communication and is intended ffo or licensed mortgage proffeessionals only and is not intended to be distributed to the consumer or the general public. Each application is reviewed independently ffo or approval an nd not all applicants will qualify fy ffo or the program. Angel Oak Mortgage Solutions LLC is an Equal Opportunity Lender and does not discriminate against individuals on the basis of race, gender, color, religion, national origin, age, disability, other classifications protected under Fair Housing Act of 1968. MS675_0419