… oftentimes that is what separates the great from the good!

Take the video test (not directly related to my thoughts but I think it drives home the point.)

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Tags: business success, fun, seeing what others dont
Categories: Business Success, Humor and Fun
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CTX Mortgage (our corporate overlord ) conducts random surveys of the borrowers every loan officer works with. Today I pulled up our customer survey results for 2007 and I am proud to say that we have a 100%  customer satisfaction rating. Every borrower who was asked how we did on their loan transaction gave us a 10 out of 10 in every category! Both Aimee and I are very proud of this accomplishment. We understand that our work is cut out for us in the coming year. We will do absolutely everything within our ability to make sure we have 100% satisfaction in 2008 as well!

Here is a sampling of some of the comments from respondents: 

“I could not have been happier. They would contact me and let me know every step of the way. I know my mortgage was not the easiest mortgage. I dropped another and switched mid stream. My credit posting was not over 800. They did what they said they would do. They made it a good experience.”

“The gal I worked with was excellent, knowledgeable and friendly. I would recommend her in a heartbeat.”

“The process was completely painless. Everything went exactly the opposite of the way I had heard loan process went. Everything was constantly up-to-date and the whole process went smoothly.”

Thank you for your kind words! It’s truly a pleasure to work with all of our customers!

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Tags: 2007 survey, clients, customer satisfaction
Categories: Business Success
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Ahhhh… the joys of a Saturday morning. Pour some strong coffee, fire up the ol’ laptop and get on Craigslist. Look at a few cheap used cars, maybe buy some used furniture for the bathroom, check out a few ladies offering the latest in massage therapy, and oh, see if you can’t find a house to move into and get outta the dumps!

Craigslist is fast turning into the red light district of the Internet. As the New York Times reports today:

“Craigslist has become the high-tech 42nd Street, where much of the solicitation takes place now,” said Richard McGuire, Nassau’s assistant chief of detectives. “Technology has worked its way into every profession, including the oldest.”

In July raids, the sheriff of Cook County, Ill., rounded up 43 women working on the streets — and 60 who advertised on Craigslist. In Seattle, a covert police ad on Craigslist in November resulted in the arrests of 71 men, including a bank officer, a construction worker and a surgeon.

And while prostitutes also advertise on other sites, the police here and across the country say Craigslist is by far the favorite. On one recent day, for example, some 9,000 listings were added to the site’s “Erotic Services” category in the New York region alone: Most offered massage and escorts, often hinting at more.

That in essence sums up Craigslist. A microcosm of the Internet. Anything, anywhere, anytime and in anyplace. Click, click, click and you’re there.

So, is there anything wrong with this picture when it comes to Real Estate? Not really. Many agents advertise their listings on Craigslist. It’s great exposure and heck you’ve got to show your clients you’re doing some on-line marketing right?

Depends.

You don’t need a Harvard degree to know that in marketing perception is reality. In most cases the medium used to convey the message defines the messenger. In Real Estate the product is the agent. The house is a by-product. An agent attracts the type of buyer he or she seeks. So, this begs the question: What kind of product are you? Do you want to work with Shrek or Lord Farquaad?

Lani raises the exact same issue on her blog, and I agree with her:

The only problem is that most of us don’t venture past the “housing” section of Craigslist to know that one of the most popular draws of Craigslist is the “personals” section. It is common knowledge that Craigslist’s success began with the “personals” and “for sale” sections. Some of the personals range from questionable to pornographic. Looking to buy a ball-gag wearing bedroom slave? Look no further than the famed Craigslist.

That’s great for those in the market for a slave, but did you even know that the same venue you post clients’ homes on is used for this purpose?

However, she goes a step furtherand wants Craigslist to remove their personals listing or make it somewhat hidden. She even asks why MySpace and other social networking sites get a bad rap on the same issue but Craigslist hasn’t felt the heat.

The main reason why sites like MySpace get pressure is bacause it was a kids hideout until the adults jumped in on it. In late 2004 no one above the age of 35 knew about this underground phenomenon and all of a sudden today we have entire real estate listings on MySpace.

What I’m saying is that a teenage hangout got raided by everyone and anyone trying to cash in on a hip new trend. Craigslist was never a teenage wasteland. From day one it has always been the classified section of the Internet.Young urbanites, more comfortable with a laptop than a newspaper in cities like San Francisco and Seattle used it to find stuff and sell stuff - all for free. You got on, found your stuff and got out. You’re not there trying to make friendships with the guy selling the old BBQ grill.

As you can see MySpace and Craigslist are two different animals. In MySpace you build a community, on Craigslist you try to get a sale out of the community. Kids talk about MySpace in school and everyone wants to be your friend, I’m not sure Craigslist has the same effect. That is why MySpace needs to make sure kids are protected and Craigslist doesn’t. 

Despite the differences authorities are still asking why Craigslist doesn’t self-police or stop allowing such advertisements. Again from the New York Times:

Law enforcement officials ask why Craigslist even includes Erotic Services among its 191 categories. Mr. Buckmaster, the company president, said the site created that category “at the request of our users” for legitimate massage, escorts and exotic dancers.

The bottom line is you use Craigslist at your own risk. In other words Craigslist has no obligation to remove any section of its classifieds. Responsible adults need to teach their kids and neighbors need to warn neighbors. Besides its like getting on the Internet. Once on, you’re really only one typo away from porn.

As far as listing Real Estate, it’s a business decision. More specifically it’s a market positioning decision.Whether you want your face on a sale sign next to the local De Ja Vu Club or not is up to you and maybe based on the house you have to sell. This may get you some additional traffic, but when was the last time traffic paid the bills? Even the massage ladies know that!

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Tags: craigslist, real estate listings
Categories: Business Success, Real Estate, Realtors
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I recently worked with a busy commercial Realtor who was losing sleep at night because she was stressing about trying to recall the details of her conversations on the road. She was concerned, with all of the different conversations she was having in a day, whether or not she was following-up on the actionable pieces to her conversations. Well from a professional organizer’s perspective, this isn’t the easiest problem to solve, but fear not, I found a successful solution.

For those of you busy realtors and professionals on the road, this frustration brings up so many different points, but for today, I want to share with you one incredible tool, that takes less than five minutes to begin using, and is FREE!

Can I get a drumroll please…………………………………………..

www.jott.com

Basically, how it works is you call up their phone number and leave a message for yourself or someone else, and that message gets transcribed into an email, and sent to you, or whoever you “jotted” in less than 15 minutes. Now don’t ask me how this works, because that is not my expertise, however, this tool is a fantastic time saver, and stress reliever.

Instead of trying to keep information in our heads to remember for later, (because our brain is for thinking and creating new ideas, and not for storage), leave a message with Jott and then receive an email record of whatever it is you said. And yes, you can “Jott” others. It takes a few minutes at the most to upload your database and then it will ask you, “who do you want to Jott?” and you just say the person’s name, and begin leaving your message.

This is great if you want to confirm a meeting with someone, or have something quick to say, but don’t want to get stuck talking on the phone, but are away from a computer. Also, you get a copy of the email that was sent to someone else. Isn’t that great?

Oh, and the commercial Realtor is getting plenty of sleep! Yep, just another great tool to help us cope with our insanely busy lives. Of course I have many tools for helping people to operate more efficiently, helping their well-being and their bottom line. You can check out my website for more info.

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Categories: Business Success, Realtors
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Are you one of those people who keep papers on your desktop because you’re scared you’ll forget about them if you file them away??

We typically think of filing as what goes into a filing cabinet, but there is a subset of these files that we don’t want to file away for fear of out of sight, out of mind. So instead, we leave a piece of paper on our desktop to remind us to do something, or because we know we need it in the near future… but after we do this a couple of times a day, we end up covering that piece of paper with MORE paper and before we know it, we’re looking at numerous piles.

The reality is- we’re wasting over forty-five minutes EVERY day just looking for things… so what is the alternative? Here comes the light bulb…

We have reference files, (those that go into our filing cabinets because we have to keep them), and we have action files, (those files that require us to do something).

There are several ways to file action items, but here are three ways that can be very effective. These three ways can even be used in combination with one another, depending on your needs and workflow.

1. By Date
Folders for each day of the month and each month of the year, (tickler filing system), is one way to place items that need to trigger you to take action. For example, an invitation with directions on it can go in the folder corresponding to the day of the event. Another example could be a lead who wants you to call them back in one week. Simply put the name and number in the folder dated one week from now, and on that day, when you check your daily folder, there will be the name and number, triggering you to action. Check out if you’re interested in purchasing a fantastic tickler file system.

2. By Action
Any habitual activities can become an action folder. For example, a file for data entry, take home or calls to make. Throughout the week, empty all the items in these folders to keep you on top of those smaller but necessary tasks.

3. By Priority
Folders based on priority can be a simple way to efficiently manage the current load of work that requires your attention. This can be broken down using different words that work for you… Maybe you have three folders labeled, Hot, Warm, Cold or Now, Soon, Later or Today, This Week, This Month. File away papererwork based on their priority, and make sure you focus your time and attention on the Hot, Today or Now folders, while checking in with the items in the lower priority folders, and moving them as needed.

I think we all agree that time is flying by, and it is only getting faster. If you want to have more control of your time, including becoming more productive at work and less stressed out in your daily operations, stop making excuses and take some time this week, to implement what you’ve just learned!!

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Categories: Business Success
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I want to welcome Jennifer Furrier as a regular contributor on this blog. In fact she’s already appeared on this space. I interviewed her a few months ago on a few topics relevant to the real estate industry. This is just my introduction post.

Jennifer is the owner of Essential Organizing; a local company that works with small business owners to increase their productivity and eventually their bottom line. Over the past several years Jennifer has helped numerous self employed individuals improve the way they do business. I’ve heard countless success stories and it’s quite an honor for me to have her contribute on this blog.If you review the project gallery on her website you’ll be truly amazed at what she can do to your workspace, work flow and quality of life.

I know I can always use a few tips on how to improve my productivity. In fact I’ve even read a few other bloggers talk about how they need a bit of help.

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Categories: Business Success
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I will be speaking on Tuesday May 29th at Simply Success. This is a bi-weekly morning breakfast roundtable of small business owners in Scottsdale. This event is sponsored by SWC Business Enterprise.

My presentation will cover the following:

• Mortgage Mechanics: The acronyms of the trade 
• FICO: Creditworthiness unplugged 
• Creative financing even Michelangelo would be proud of  

This is a free event. If you’re in the Phoenix area you’re welcome to attend. It starts at 7:30 AM, of course breakfast is provided. Click here for details. I hope to see you there.

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Categories: Bloggers, Business Success
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This last month has been a great month for me and my business. The reason being is that I have had multiple opportunities to engineer custom financing packages based on specific borrower needs. To me this is the hallmark of providing great service if you’re in the mortgage business.

What do I mean by this? Not all 30 year loans are the same. Not all loan features mean the same to every borrower. For example, a pre-payment penalty may be undesirable for a borrower flipping a condo, but ideal for reducing monthly payment for someone who intends to be in the home for 5 years. There are many considerations in the analysis and I’m not going to get into details. The bottom line is many people in our industry have preconceived impressions and do not think outside the box. In the long term both the originator and borrower lose!

It is amazing what you can do if you spend the proper time and put in the required effort. Recently I’ve been able to show a young couple the value of the 2-1 buy down and another one of the reasons why lender paid mortgage insurance makes sense in their situation. In the former, he would have lost out on a superb opportunity to own a home. In the latter case, she would have ended up overpaying by several hundred dollars in the coming years. Do you think these borrowers will ever regret doing business with me?

I go the extra mile while structuring the financing because first and foremost borrowers deserve it. They deserve to receive the best possible analysis on the market. The other reason I do this is because I enjoy thinking outside the box. After all, most Nepalese immigrants in the US are engineers or doctors, I’m in the mortgage business. I’ve always known that I’m a different breed.

Every originator I meet talks about how they provide service. Let’s face it, that has become the standard line in the industry. What is service? What color is your service? Mine is dark blue - the color of my financial calculator!

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Categories: Banker, Broker, Business Success, Mortgage Insurance, Mortgages
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I’ve read a wide range of opinion regarding the 60-minute segment on Redfin which aired last Sunday evening. The NAR has talking points out to help Realtors defend their work, towards the very end it even says “be glad it’s Mother’s Day” as viewership will be lower than usual. Wow!

Real Estate blogs have been buzzing the past few days - from questioning the business model, to wondering out loud the relevance of even watching the segment - opinions are very interesting to read. The most thoughtful and engaging opinions of course are from the best people in the business.

What do I see as the issue? Well, frankly the main problem with the Real Estate business is that the cost of the Realtor is the same regardless of the quality of the Realtor. Since the Realtor himself/herself if the product, then shouldn’t the price be based on the quality of the Realtor.

I mean Mr. Just Walked In wants to make the same as Mr. Star Agent with 5 years of stellar customer service and performance. Every Realtor I have talked to touts their service, but really as this blogger points out, how many really go the extra mile and deliver a genuinely distinct and differentiable service? That is why I don’t buy into the K-Mart vs. Nordstorm analogy. Just because you work for a big name broker doesn’t make you a superb product. In the same way working for a discount broker doesn’t make you a lesser Realtor? At least consumers do not seem to see it that way. Not the ones I’ve dealt with at least.

In a free market, any industry is considered out of balance when the quality of the product is not accurately reflected in the price. This will then force a correction. I think a correction is what we’re probably seeing at the moment in the Real Estate industry. Consumers want to equate the cost of selling with the medium of the sale (which is what they are paying for), and if they feel the Realtor is just skimming the surface then why shouldn’t they feel like they overpaid?

As in any other industry, Realtors deserve to be rewarded based on the quality of their work. A star Realtor is probably being underpaid with the 6% and is really leaving a lot of dollars on the table, which unfortunately is going to the under-performing Realtor. Not much of a merit based system is it?

Would it then be wrong to think that maybe, just maybe, a way  for a brokerage to distinguish itself is by offering a wide range of prices depending on performance/quality and leaving the choice to the consumer on the level of service they want to purchase? I’m willing to pay more for an investment fund manager with 30 years of experience producing 15% annual returns. However, I’d be hard pressed to pay the same percentage to a manager with limited experience and no track record. Isn’t that fair?

I’m just thinking out loud here! As a 20th century musical sage once sang,  “For the times they are a-changin”.

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Categories: Arizona, Business Success, Realtors
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Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems have come a long ways! There are now customized CRM systems for all industries and a lot of companies have moved towards online systems. I know Loan Toolbox sells an ACT template specifically for loan officers. While I do not have one from them, I do have a system in place provided by CTX Mortgage Company. My point here is not about the type of system you need but more specifically how your referrals get treated in other peoples CRM systems.

If you are a Realtor you need to be aware of how savvy your lender is in using a CRM system. Be aware it’s not just the lender, if you refer out your clients to home inspectors, insurance agents, you need to know about their CRM capabilities. I believe there are many opportunities for you to grow your business if you partner with a lender with an effective CRM system. The insurance agent who works with my borrowers has a masterful CRM system and we stay in touch with eachother on how my referrals are doing. It’s a tag team approach.

Every time I receive a loan application I always make a note of the referral source. As a side note, we always discuss the positives of the referral source and never under any circumstance make any negative remarks or comments. Linda Scanlan, a Realtor in Texax, recently wrote on her blog about a loan officer who almost blew a deal she had referred.

Where does the CRM come in you ask. Well, through our system we run a 10 week e-mail drip campaign. I looked at our capture rate last year and it’s almost 25%. So, as you can see it’s very effective. For a Realtor this means that we’re staying in touch with a buyer who may be on the fence. We make periodic contacts and stay in touch. I can’t tell you how many times we’ve been in touch with a potential borrower and the Realtor had already lost touch with them.

After the transaction closes we stay in touch every month via postcard and quarterly newsletters. Additionally, we send a personalized e-newsletter every two months. This is my own creation, not a generic newsletter with generic information. It’s very personalized and we write up our own articles. We usually get a very good response, as a lot of folks write back and comment on personal events. We also call on the loan anniversary for an annual loan evaluation. You can’t imagine how many times they say they have never heard from the Realtor who sold them their home!

If we never end up doing a transaction with a referral we still stay in touch via e-newsletter and a quarterly newsletter. Additionally, at the one year mark we personally call them and speak with them. This is very important and has yielded us some nice loans! Remember it takes almost 9 touches before you make a sale (the reason why your mailbox is full of junk mail)

Now how does a Realtor benefit from this effort by the lender. Well, we know the referral source so if any trigger event occurs in the clients life then we get in touch with the Realtor. Recently we called up a borrower who we had taken an application from last year. In talking we discovered that while things hadn’t worked out well for them during the year they were now in the process of finding a Realtor to purchase a home. Behold they had lost touch with their Realtor, (who was our referral source). We immediately got in touch with the Realtor and now he has a potential deal in the works! We never send a client to a different Reatlor. We consider them married!

Remember when working with a lender ask them about their CRM system and determine whether you’ll benefit from it or lose from it! It’s a tough market and you need every advantage you can get.

Next I’ll talk about how to go about finding the right CRM system for your business.

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Categories: Business Success, Mortgages, Realtors
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