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Our industry is getting slower. Underwriting turn times are taking LONGER, service to Realtors and other professionals is getting WORSE. I was more frustrated with my own performance than anything else; little issues plagued us that nobody previously had taken responsibility for. In June of this year, I started collecting information on EVERY loan. What went right. What went wrong. What cost us time.

I closed several dozen loans since then, and decided that “most programs,” wasn’t going to be my niche. Neither was “lowest rates,” or even, “send me your crap credit scores.”

I wanted to be fast. Faster than anyone because I realized that there was a huge correlation between how much the customer liked me than how quickly their loan got cleared to close. So instead of being casual about it, I worked with Mike on a process that guarantees me rapid-fire-results. Here’s what we need to make it happen:

1. Owner Occupied Only. I still occasionally do non owner occupied loans, but there are a TON of problems that can come up. I don’t solicit them because I can refer them to another loan officer in the company and save me some time.
2. Mostly Purchases. Remortgages are great, but I’m more interested in purchases because they have motivated people working together to get a loan closed.
3. Good title companies Only: A lot of times, especially with big brokerages and their in house title company, there are major service issues. I got a title commitment that had a series of IRS liens on it in October, and another one missed a divorced spouse’s signature. Also, in house title companies average a TON of time.
4. Committed Appraisers: I don’t want the “we’ll find the value” specialists, I want the folks that deliver quality work quickly.
5. Committed borrowers: it’s Novel, doing loans that close in 10 days. Having borrowers that respect the commitment, and bring me their documentation helps.
6. Great Real Estate Agents- There are a ton of folks that want to throw a lender under the bus. We can’t work with them. We work with agents that really want their clients to get a good deal.

There’s more of course, coming soon.

Tomorrow: time saving techniques for emails to vendors!