Title: A System that Is Just Right
Date: 05/04/2009
Source: PaulWylie.com
Author: Paul Wylie
Once upon a time, there was a little girl named Goldilocks, who went for a walk
in the forest and came upon a house. She knocked on the door, but when no one
answered, she walked right in to find three bowls of porridge. She tasted the
porridge from the first bowl.
“This porridge is too hot!” she exclaimed, moving on to the second bowl.
“This porridge is too cold,” she said, moving to the third bowl.
“Ahhh, this porridge is just right,” she said, and she ate it right up.
This begins the story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears, and it continues with chairs that are
either too big or too small and beds that are either too hard or too soft.
Finding that sweet spot is not easy. Just a few short years ago, most mortgage professionals
had more business than they ever imagined. These days most have considerable capacity and
desire more business. Many are finding it harder and harder to control the volume of
qualified buyer leads and loans coming through the pipeline. But despite the market dip,
those willing to commit to a systematic and comprehensive business development system can
continue to give and receive qualified buyer leads.
Originators often ask me how it is possible to keep a steady stream of clients in an industry
that is so cyclical. In today’s market, now more than ever, success is contingent upon
commitment to a business development system such as Home Buyers Marketing (HBM).
When implemented with full force, the business development system combined with the
separate real estate brokerage service provided by Home Buyers Marketing II, Inc, assures a
significant increase in qualified leads and clients. To be sure, following any system with
passion and consistency can bring over a 50 percent increase in business, but following this
system can bring more than a 100 percent increase.
“The team at HBM has created the single best incubation system for the buyer and the single best
business planning tool in the marketplace today for both the loan originator and the real estate
agent,” said Matt Maret, a top producer who has used Home Buyers Marketing over the past few
years to see a significant increase in business.
The Minneapolis based Home Buyers Marketing II, Inc. (HBM2), is a national real estate
brokerage services company operating in 400 major cites around the country. With 4.4 million
listings offered for sale, HBM2 has more listings than published by Realtor.com. Buyers who use
the real estate service provided by HBM2 log in an average of 53 times each month, as compared
to 15 times a month for other online real estate experience. And the real estate sales platform is
customized for every homebuyer, who is granted access only after communicating his financial
ability to buy with a loan officer working with Home Buyers Marketing.
The system recognizes several important facts about the current lending environment:
1. The real estate home search has moved to the Internet. According to the National
Association of Realtors 2006 Profile of Home Buyers & Sellers, 86 percent of homebuyers
actively used the Internet to find their most recent home purchase. To position themselves for
success, mortgage originators must become a part of the point of entry for a homebuyer’s
Internet search.
2. The mortgage industry is largely relationship based, with the head of the economic chain
being the real estate agent. Mortgage originators typically receive most of their business
from real estate agents, and the system creates a pipeline whereby leads from real estate
agents will increase.
Historically, about 70 percent of all real estate agents introduce buyers to mortgage
originators. These buyers then go on to close loans through the mortgage originator about 70
percent of the time. That means that approximately 50 percent of all the country’s buyer
transactions close through the mortgage originator introduced by the real estate agent. By
integrating into the HBM2 real estate sales system, mortgage originators can significantly
solidify meaningful long-term relationships with real estate agents who will direct traffic their
way.
3. Over 50 percent of “lookie-lous” will buy in the next 12 months. Knowing that 80 percent
of people are just looking, most real estate agents focus most of their energy on those clients
who they believe are most likely to buy. But more than 50 percent of “lookie-lous” will buy in
12 months from someone! If real estate agents do not have a system in place to handle these
leads with the mortgage professional of their choice, the real estate agents miss future
opportunities and income. HBM2 catches the “just lookers” and places them on the real estate
agent and originator’s radar, allowing both to connect with the potential buyer and strike when
the time is right.
It works like this: Originators and real estate agents work with HBM2, who gives potential
homebuyers a unique login name and password to access its online listing of homes for sale. The
homebuyer is given a detailed listing of homes matching their personal search criteria. In
addition to the usual bedroom, square footage, and lot size information, the site also provides
homebuyers with notifications about price reductions and new listings. Full details of
neighborhoods, school districts, voter districts, and anything else a consumer might need to know
are also available. Want to know how close the local Starbucks is to the home? With HBM2
you’ve got it!
Best of all, the real estate selling system features an electronic business card including the picture
and full contact details exclusively of the originator and real estate agent team who are working
with the buyer. Because buyers who use the system log in about 53 times a month, mortgage
originators have 636 opportunities to put their name and face in front of a buyer over the course
of a year.
John Musso, a 15-year industry veteran who has consistently closed over $100 million per year
said, “The system creates a powerful relationship between originator, real estate agent, HBM2
and buyer whereby all vested parties have an alignment of interests.”
As well, the system generates reports that tell mortgage originators and real estate agents how
often a potential buyer is logging in and which houses they are following. In this way, the system
incubates the “lookie-lou’s,” alerting both the mortgage originator and real estate agent when
buyers are getting warm and then hot to buy. This information then feeds into the mortgage
originator’s sales calls and email marketing efforts, allowing the originator to make smarter,
more focused connections with potential buyers.
This relationship-based system relies on an informal partnership between a real estate agent and
an originator, acting as an accountability buddy. The teammates check in with each other
weekly, making sure the other teammate is aggressively entering and following up with leads.
“If you use the system the way it is designed, you have no choice but to be successful,” said
Maret.
This is not a trend; Home Buyers Marketing has been in business for 15 years and is extremely
particular and passionate about its clients and preferred mortgage lenders. Home Buyers
Marketing believes in restricting its preferred lenders to only the best: because the system
requires a disciplined approach to maximum performance, its successful users are the Navy Seals
of the mortgage industry.
For the dedicated originator, the system is just right. Originators will succeed if they use the
system religiously, connecting with their real estate agents weekly, using the reporting features,
and following up with potential buyers on a regular basis. In addition to the training, the system
generally requires a mortgage originator to spend 90 minutes a day following up on existing and
prospective new buyers (about 50 a week), and meeting with their real estate partners.
Originators are given extensive training materials, which include activation meetings, manuals,
scripts, checklists, and executive management training.
Those originators who have immersed themselves in this system see increased loan activity and
greater personal income. They form deeper, more lasting relationships with real estate agents,
which encourages a real estate agent to make a specific mortgage originator a critical point of
contact for their clients. The Home Buyers Marketing system provides originators at
participating companies a rare opportunity to create long-term real estate agent relationships,
initiate relationships with buyers prior to the point of sale, and increase their income.
###
Paul Wylie is the founder and former CEO of Metrocities Mortgage. He can be reached at (818)
878-9581 or by emailing PaulWylie @ PaulWylie.com.