Mortgage Q&A: Your Top Questions Answered

I’m Vernon.I run the top mortgage brokerage in Massachusetts with over 20 years of experience.I’m Craig.I’ve done $100 million consistently since my second full year in the business and I’m Massachusetts’ top mortgage broker.We’re the Mortgage Daddies, with real advice, real stories, and real results.Let’s get going.All right, Vern.How do you explain rising interest rates or even lo- interest rates that are, uh, declining to a client, you know, when they’re either purchasing a house or refinancing and they wanna talk about locking a rate?Yeah, so m- my rule of thumb is a locked loan is always a closed loan, right?So y- you explain to the client, let’s just say today they’re at 6.5%.Rates change 5, 8, 10 times in a day up or down, so a lot of times there’s not a lot of shifting in the interest rate that’s actually gonna get back to the consumer.So I just tell them all the time, “If it gets worse, you’re gonna be happy at 7.If it gets better, we’re not gonna go to 6 on that, on that swing, but if we can get to six and a quarter, you’re gonna save $50 or $60 a month, or it could go up 120.Or I suggest we lock now.If the interest rates change by more than a half a percent in the next 2 weeks, let’s say you’re not closing for a month, 2 months, we can then package the deal up because we’re a mortgage broker and send it to another investor and get you a little bit lower interest rate.”But a locked loan is a closed loan, especially on a purchase transaction when there’s so many different moving parts.The last thing you wanna do is have your payment go up by $100, $200 because you didn’t lock in the interest rate.Craig, how do you advise your clients when they start seeing, hey, the Fed’s gonna meet next Wednesday, uh, to drop interest rates potentially or they start seeing in the news some, you know, drop in interest rates?How do you, how do you deal with that with your client?Yeah, it’s a question we get all the time, you know, that day that the Feds meet and my phone blows up and I get a million text messages from clients that are either already in the pipeline or looking to buy.A lot of times, it does not really affect the interest rates for a mortgage that quickly and that much.So it, it’s gonna have a bigger effect on, you know, your auto loan or your credit card or something like that, where it’s not gonna have a drastic impact on your mortgage rate.And to be honest with you, most of the time when it happens, any kind of adjustment, it, it, it actually ends up increasing the interest rates because a lot of that stuff, you gotta understand, when you’re locking an interest rate, they’re, they’re locking that rate predicting what the market’s gonna be down the line.Down line, yeah.Right?Not the day you lock it, they’re selling that loan.So it’s down the line.So where those adjustments, and there’s people that get paid a lot of money to make these for these big investors, where the market’s going to be is already putting into play a lot of those- Yeah.adjustments that are coming out.So sometimes when those Feds meetings come out and, say, they drop the interest rates by 25 basis points, but there was talks that it was gonna be 50, you’ll actually see an increase in, in your rate because they were predicting 50 and then it was only 25.And 25 basis points or even 50 basis points really is not that much- No.for yourUh, you know, a big misconception that we hear a lot is they hear 50 basis points.They think that’s gonna take your rate from 6.5 to 6%.It’s not going- No.do that.You’re lucky if that moves it an 8th or a quarter and, and times- And more times than not, tell me if I’m wrong, that quarter percent that they’re gonna reduce the, the interest rate by, that’s already been baked in for a couple weeks before.So now leading up to it- Yeah.if it’s not 50 basis points like everybody’s predicting, it’s only 25, now the market actually gets worse after- Yeah.the announcement.So Craig, being one of the top mortgage originators in the country, already number one in Massachusetts, mortgage leads become, you know, a topic of conversation around recruiting.How do you generate the mortgage leads that you get?I mean, you get tens of leads probably per day at this point from an array of different, um, business partners.Where do, how do you generate those leads?Yeah, I, you know, I think that’s a good question.A lot ofThere’s a lot of different ways in this business to get leads.How I’ve always structured my business is more referral-based or co-marketing with agents.So, you know, we spend money together to get leads that we both work on, whether it’s Zillow, Realtor.com, um, you know, Google searches to get those leads that way.But really, I’ve always built my business, um, really gearing towards purchase business with realtor referrals, doing a good job.And over time, that continues to build and build and build, and you get more and more realtors that wanna work with you because they know you’re gonna do a good job.And I think a lot of people are looking for that, like, quick hit or like- Yeah, so funny.”Hey, how do do I, you know, get to be number one tomorrow?”Well, you know, you’re gonna have to put work in for a while before that happens.But it’s, it’s really the basics of, you know.Yeah, no, I totally agree.I think when it comes to mortgage leads what the big misconception is, is that, you know, your top producers are out there and they’re spending tens of thousands of dollars on lead generation or SEO search or Zillow or Realtor.com, when in fact, I’m willing to bet like 80% of your business all comes from referral, from doing the right thing, financial planners, real estate, and our center of influence, right?Like, how many times do we get the phone call from your plumber or your electrician, the guy that’s just over to your house for a barbecue?You know, our photographer, Javi, is always sending us business.So I think that’s really a big, big thing for our business.Craig, what, what do you constitute a mortgage lead, right?I hear it a lot, like lead gen, lead gen, lead gen, but what is actually, what, what constitutes a good mortgage leadYeah.I, I would say somebody who’s ready to apply to see if they’re either pre-approved or what they can get pre-approved for.You know, a lot of times, unfortunately, with a lot of those sites, you get people that are clicking around, clicking around, and they’re really not that interested, or maybe they’re already even pre-approved with somebody else and they’re not willing to change.I mean, you have a chance to try to convert them over, to have a conversation, to get them to use you or give you a chance, but it’s really somebody that is ready to go, is willing to have their credit pulled, is ready to send you the documents to get a real proper pre-approval to either start looking for a house or get ready to start looking for a house.Totally agree.My, my rule of thumb is if you plan on buying a house in 120 days, call Milestone.Yeah, if you’re, if you do not wanna have your credit run and you do not wanna provide your documents, you’re really just wasting your time.Totally agree with you.So another big topic that’s come up over the last couple weeks and actually probably the last 6 months is mortgage rates and the trends of the rates and-what ins, uh, you know, mortgage insiders are predicting for 2025.In your opinion, where do you see interest rates going?I know we, we’ve had, you know, other guests on that say they’re gonna go up, they’re gonna go down.Last week, I think I heard one of the craziest things and sorry for whoever it was that was on Facebook or Instagram talk about, “The crash of ’08 is coming,” and there’s all this foreclosure and, and I’m like, “I, I don’t see any of this.”We’ve been writing amazing loans for the last 15 years.Everybody had jobs.Everybody’s, you know, wealth well-versed in that.Like where do you see interest rates in 2025?Yeah.You know, I think that there is a lot of misconception that’s out there and you take or you look at a TikTok or you look at an Instagram and they fine-tune one thing and make it sound like everything’s gonna come to a halt and everything’s gonna explode.I think you’re gonna see a steady decline slowly over the next year or so as rates start to come down.I think, you know, if there’s a volatile drop, it really causes a big problem in the market, which, you know, as on my side of things, I’m really hoping that doesn’t happen.I hope it’s a steady decline where people can still buy houses because what happens if interest rates drastically drop, the housing market’s gonna explode.Shoot back up.And it’s gonna shoot back up and it’s gonna be very hard to get an offer accepted again.It’s gonna turn back into 2020, 2021 where, you know, it’s 50, 60, $100,000 over asking, no home inspection, having to close in 3 weeks to get your offer accepted.You know, I think that rates will continue to decline.You know, itmarket depends like area-wise and not so much on what it impacts interest rates, but your ability to buy, you know, where we live in Massachusetts in the Northeast, there’s not a ton of properties for sale.There’s not a lot of land, not a lot of buildings.So market value kind of stays at a high even when things slow a little bit in other parts of the country that people don’t understand.Like you can’t look at the news for what’s going on in Florida and expect that to happen here in Massachusetts.Whole market.It’s a completely different market.Interest rates might not be different in those 2 areas, but you know what you’re gonna pay for a house or what that value of the house is gonna become is, is different.Yeah.I mean, bouncing around a little bit here, what are some of your tactical approaches to b- maintaining business momentum regardless of which, which way rates move, right?We just came out of 2 years interest rates going like this.Now we’re starting to see a little trickle down and I tell people all the time, rates trickle down and shoot up.Like when you blink your eyes, they’re already back up to where they were.So really what were some of your approaches on maintaining and not just maintaining, but you built your business.So even in a crazy atmosphere for rates over the last 2 years, you’ve maintained and increased your volume.Yeah.I really don’t get too concerned about interest rates personally.It’s nothing that I can control.You know, I might know more about them than the average person, but what I really focus on is, you know, what your situation is, what your goal is.If you want to buy a house, how can we make that happen?How can we make that payment that you want happen?We’ve had to get a little bit more creative over the last couple of years- Yeah.on buying down interest rates, doing temporary buydowns to make payments work for people and hopefully that they can always refinance down the line.But my number one goal has always been purchase business, referrals, realtors, and how we make those transactions happen.And that’s something that’s just been continuing to go forward and go forward.most people want to buy a house and want to figure it out, so- They’re gonna buy it.you know, it’sYeah, there’s probably a lot of people sitting on the sidelines that said that they wanted to buy a house 2 years ago and wish they did and they’re saying they’re waiting for the ratesIt’s gonna be the same conversation in another 2 years.So Craig, you’ve been in the mortgage business 6 years and one of your, your, your strengths are your personal branding and getting your brand out there as Craig Snow, right?Everybody wants to come into the mortgage business, make a name for themselves.You’ve been able to come in, build a brand for yourself as I have, as a number of our loan officers here at Milestone have.really, what goes into that brand for you?Like when you think about that, what do you want the average c- home- new home buyer, first time home buyer investment, um, purchase looking for?What do youWhen, when they hear Craig Snow, what’s the first thing you want them to pop into their head?I think the number one thing that helped me grow my business was my reputation.And by not just, you know, what people think but why.If you call Craig Snow, you’re going to one, probably learn more about mortgages than anybody else has ever told you before.Yes.Because I’m really big on education and I’m the type of person like if I’m the consumer, I want to know the why behind everything.so I really make a point to make sure that I tell my clients the why be- behind every question, or behind anything that I ask for, as well as it’s going to get done.Like, too many people in this business are too afraid to tell people no, or they’re too afraid to tell an agent that, “Hey, it’s gonna take me a little bit of time to get them pre-approved because I need to get X, Y, Z.”When you realize that your reputation is more important, and that getting somebody to the closing table when you say you’re gonna get them to the closing table, on time, with no problems, that’s going to grow your reputation and your relationships that you have, and that’s how you’re gonna be able to grow your business.So practical tips that don’t require massive budgets or investments, right?A lot of people look at you, look at me, look at some of the top 5% in- in our industry and they just assume that we’re out there spending tens of thousands of dollars on lead gen, or taking people out and having big parties.What are some of the, you know, tips or tricks that, you know, somebody who doesn’t have a big budget, what are some of the small things that we coach, you know, loan officers that you- you advise them on doing to help grow their business?Open houses.Don’t cost you anything to go to an open house.It just takes your time.Realtors are out there working on the weekends.They’re gonna appreciate loan officers that will do the same, and they’re gonna join them, and they’re gonna show up to the open houses, help answer questions.It’s a great opportunity to be able to have you build a relationship with those realtors.As well as education.I’m very bigI don’t really do a whole lot of, you know, coffees or lunches with realtors and wine and dine people.What I do is I provide value to those realtors, so I go to those offices, I put on trainings, I educate them on things that are important for them to know, which is gonna make them a better realtor and it’s gonna make them be able to structure their clients’ deals better to get them to win their offers.Let’s discuss how loan officers can leverage changes such as, like, Facebook, right, staying top of mind, post-deal stories and things like that.It costs no money to do that.But a lot of loan officers, industry-wide, do not take the time to make sure that their social media, their Instagram, their Facebook, their TikToks, X, Twitter, whatever it is, is out there.How important do you think that is in the industry that we are?And it’s 2025, like, everybody’s on social media.I joke around with loan officers that I’m coaching, I’m like, “When was the last video you shot explaining to them about what the market was doing on a Tuesday market update, or a Monday morning,” you know?Yeah.What’s your thoughts on that?I think it’s a very easy and free way to stay top of mind to a lot of realtors and potential clients or referrals because it does not cost you anything to do it.And if they’re scrolling through Facebook and they’re seeing that you’re closing deals, that you’re pre approving people, that you’re at an open house on the weekend, they see that you’re a hustler, they see that you’re working hard, and people want to work with people that work hard and that close business.You know, if n- nobody heard of you, or you, you know, sit back and maybe you do a few deals, and maybe you’re great but nobody knows that, getting it out there and showing people what you do and how you do things is important.And social media makes that a very free and easy way to do that.No, totally agree with you.And nevermind our TikTok that our, somebody in our office did.I think we’re up over like 300,000 views on that thing.I mean- yeah.it wasn’t the best pictures I ever had but-it’sI think that- that- that piece of it’s nice because, you know, if you just sit there and you just talk about interest rates, you just talk about business all the time, people like to see, like, the behind the scenes, the personality, you know, how you really are, how the company really is.And that’s been big for- for us- Yeah.you know, where we are able to, 1, for recruiting, but also for agents.Like, our personalities reallyat the end of the day you gotta do a good job but your personality is key in this business.Yeah.You know, people wanna work with somebody that they like, that they can talk to that’s easygoing.And when you put all those pieces together- Yeah.it’s a recipe for success.It’s good to let the world know that we’re just not robots looking at 10-year bonds and treasuries and talking about tariffs all day long.And, you know, I wore suspenders with circle glasses, for everybody that’s out there making fun of me-or sending me text messages.I admitted that that was me in that picture, so we’re good there.Mortgage loan officer marketing, right?So that comes up a lot, is the marketing for loan officers.Like, what should they be doing to help jumpstart their career?Or maybe they’re stagnant in a position where they’re doing 15, 25, $30 1000000.what can they do from a marketing standpoint to really help them get to the next level?Videos, I would say is the number one thing.You know, a lot of people, if you put a- put a flyer out there, or you- you type something, people are gonna scroll right past it.You put a video out there, it- it’s uncomfortable, it’s not something that I’ve ever loved to do myself either, but when you get actual video out there, and it’s not just on social media too, it’s even, you know, sending a video to a client, sending a video to a referral partner, thanking them in person, seeing your face, that goes a long way and is something that the people who, even newer in the business that are good at it, you know, have a lot of success because people see those videos and they like them and they- they, you know, can kind of relate to the person.You see their personality and m- a lot more.I mean, I’m the world’s worst texter probably.I get that a lot.Right.Like, “Hey, you’re so direct,” or wa- you know, it’s not on purpose.Video’s a lot easier to get that message across.Yeah.I’ll say, you know, I’ve sent out a good amount of videos to real estate partners congratulating them on getting a deal accepted.The feedback from the real estate community, bar none, best thing you can do is possibly send a video.And it takes 15 seconds and, you know, I apologize in advance for anybody, but you don’t have to have the conversation or a text chain going back and forth.You send a quick thank you, which you really are, it’s a sincere video, it goes a long way.How would you go about marketing to realtors as a loan officer?Like, do you believe that it would be good to shoot some videos like this, bringing, uh, you know, real estate agents in, uh, sending them videos?Like-Let me rephrase that.When you were getting into the businessIf, l- let’s just say next week, I said, “Hey, Craig, I bet you can’t go and get business from this realtor.”What are you gonna do to try to market yourself to get in front of that- that business partner?It- it’s a way of trying to show them a value that you have that other people don’t.So it’s getting that message across one way or another.And, you know, the way that I try to do it is more on the education side of things, so I try to get in front of them to be able to show them and give them some tips and tricks that can help them with their business succeed because everybody wants to send people, you know, rates or flyers or programs.And, you know, realtors really don’t really care too much about that but when you can show them a different side of things, and you can show them how, hey, I can help your clients, this is how I do business, this is how I succeed, this is how come my clients have a much higher success rate on their offers getting accepted, a realtor’s gonna look at you and say, “I’m leaving money on the table with the way that I’m doing things now,” and then they’re gonna wanna work with you.Yeah, showing value is probably the number one thing- Yeah.that you can do for an agent.So let’s switch gears here a little bit, and I want you to go back 5 or 6 years.So early career advice and mistakes to avoid.So Craig, let’s take a step back and talk about early career advice and mistakes to avoid as a loan officer.You know, what are some of the, couple mistakes that you made as a loan officer very early on in your career?Was it with a client, the paperwork, all the disclosures?Yeah, I would say, you know, well, any loan officer’s gonna struggle with this in the beginning because there’s so many different guidelines on mortgages and guidelines are always changing and there’s not always a black and white answer with things.So, you know, having a general understanding is very important and I feel like once I got to that point where you kind of understand 80% of it and then that 20% you gotta go and try to figure out where to find the right answers.The loan officers, you know, when you’re starting, my biggest advice would be don’t be afraid to ask questions and run those scenarios by somebody, whether it’s an underwriter, a TBD scenario, whatever you can do to get the correct answer because you don’t want a deal to die.Everybody gets very, very upset if a deal dies.It’s really bad for your reputation and when you’re trying to build your reputation and your business, making sure everything’s 100%, you’d be better off as a loan officer saying no to a deal that’s on the fence when you first start than trying to push it because that’s what I see a lot of people do.And, you know, as you start to get better and better, you start to understand, all right, I need to ask for this or this is not gonna work because of that reason, but it takes a lot of time.So having a good mentor or somebody that can review those files with you, even if you’re not gonna make as much money, would be the biggest helpful tip I could say for a loan officer starting out.Well, early career advice and mistakes I made that I would say, suggest all loan officers to avoid is one of the things I coach all the time: If you don’t know the answer when the buyer or the consumer is asking you, let them know that that’s a great question, you’ll get back to them as soon as possible and go ask your mentor.Do not fake it till you make it.It does not work.Move on.All right.So Craig, I know you’re the mortgage daddy of this next topic which is mortgage lead generation.Uh, consistent lead flow means predicti- predictable income.Um, what does that mean for you and how do you explain that to somebody who’s just getting into the mortgage business?And we’ve talked about consistent lead flow where you need that, where you, we know an A, B, C type referral partner, how many leads are they gonna be able to generate every month or every quarter, how many closings can- can- can come r- about that.Um, you know, what’s- what’s your idea on the consistent lead flow and predictable income?I- I think to have a consistent lead flow, you have to have more referral partners than you think because things change in the market.One agent that you’re working with, you know, might be great for a little while.Now all of a sudden they get into flips, they get into something else, their focus isn’t on buyers as much, so you have to constantly be trying to grow your referral network, meaning you have to keep adding realtors or- or referral partners to your repertoire co- consistently.Like, if you think you have enough, you do not have enough.Go get more because there’s always gonna be attrition coming off- Yeah.And it’s not necessarily that they’re gonna stop working with you, but those realtors might change their focus.They might go more towards the listing side because weyou knowA- and who you go after, like when you’re first starting off, going after newer realtors is probably the best option for you because they’re new as well.They’re focusing on buyers.They’re looking to build their business.You try to grow it together with them because over time a lot of realtors will start to shift to listings, will start to shift to flips, investing in other ways, or maybe they get out of the business as a whole.So you really can never be comfortable with the amount that you’re getting.Even if you think, “Oh, I can’t handle any more right now,” you just need to reprioritize and maybe go get some help if you get to that point.But you need to always be consistently trying to network to get more business.Yeah.Totally agree.I mean when I first got into the mortgage business, you know, talking about the history of mortgage lead generation, there was reallyI mean, Zillow could have been around.I had no idea what Zillow was for the first five or six years I was in the business.I did not care about spending money.I didn’t have any money, so it really just came into finding leads, calling leads, talking to people.Uh, you know, one of the big things is going through the registry deeds manually, flipping through at the registry deeds and getting out loan numbers.And then mailers, right?Just sending refi mailers to everybody who closed a FHA or streamline.So now I look at, like, lead generation today with Zillow, AI, I mean Google.None of these tools were around for me.Yes, I’m a dinosaur.We’re still getting, you know, um, you know, rate sheets faxed to the office, and you run into the, to the office to look at the, the rate sheet for that day, but, um- I think, you know, another piece on if you’re newer and you want to get leads, go ask realtors that you work with if they have a list of leads because they probably have an old database of leads that they’ve tried calling and they haven’t had any success and rework those leads.And then give those leads back to those agents that gave you those.It’s a free way to get a lot of leads and also show those realtors that you’re willing to work.Or go talk to your top producers in your office.They probably have a lot of leads that they have paid for and they don’t follow up to that extent that you can go grab from them and try to convert as well, and it’s not gonna cost you anything.And one of the big things, uh, from where I started to where we are today, um, are the advantages of diverse loan products and converting self-gen leads, right?Like when I started off, I just said I was looking at the registry deeds, making calls, conventional VA, FHA leads.Now we have over 35 investors, non-QM, DSCR.Can you talk a little bit about that, the benefit of having all these products?And also, everybody wants to talk about the benefit, but on the negative side, you know, the negative piece is there’s just so many products for a lo- a, a mortgage broker to get out there and to understand it.Sometimes I feel like that’s a fault.So if you’re a new loan officer out there, concentrate on your FHA, your conventional, your USDA, your VA, and then add on products as you go.Yeah.I mean, I would 100% agree with that.I think too many times people that are new in this business want to try to do everything, and there’s you know, there’s enough guidelines with just FHA, VA, USDA, conventional that it’s gonna take you a long time to really be, you know, up to speed on those.And trying to open it up to bank statement only loans, DSCR loans, um, and different type of investor loans can be kind of difficult to understand.But it is a great benefit to have all of those in your back pocket because when you get a lead you don’t have to tell them, “Hey no, I can’t do this.You need to call somebody else,” because they might be calling you for, uh, you know, a DSCR loan right that minute or they want to buy an investment property but their taxes don’t have the income that they need on them right that second.You can put them into a DSCR loan, find an option for them that they never even thought about.Agent’s gonna love you.The client’s gonna love you.And then down the line they’re gonna keep referring you business.Totally agree with you.One of the big key things that I keep getting, you know, as I’m out there recruiting loan officers, that avatar anywhere between $10 and $200 million producer is w- what is the, what is the magic sauce Milestone has?You guys have so many leads.Like where are you guys getting those leads?One of those things is it’s not where we’re getting the leads, it’s how we’re attracting those leads to come to Milestone and to work with a loan officer.I think it’s really important to understand that the culture and the coaching and the leadership at Milestone helps the loan officers develop skill sets to go out there and attract leads from business partners.We’re not just going after real estate agents like 90% of the pool or financial planners.Has anybody thought about divorce attorneys, right?Pick up the phone, reach out to a divorce attorney.They’re seeing people no matter what.If the interest rates are at 10% or if they’re at 3%, people are going through a divorce, right?Like what is the stat, 50%?Accountants.Accountants are amazing.Um, you know, as, as crazy it is, some of the best referral partners I have are financial planners, accountants, divorce attorneys, trust and estate attorneys, right?Like people pass away every single day no matter what the market is.So I know everybody wants to talk about interest rates.Are interest rates gonna drop in 2025?If you build your business for the long term based on purchase transactions and helping to borrow and doing the right thing, go out and start looking at different aspects of the business to generate leads.Vern, you have really gotten a lot into the coaching side of things, and I think one of the things that you do really well now is help the loan officers that we have and the top producing loan officers get better at their time management.And I think that’s something that I wish we were kind of talking back on the beginning what I wish I did better was probably the time managementBut, you know, what exactly do you tell your loan officers in regards to time management?Craig, it’s really easy.I sit down with the loan officer.I wanna see their calendar.More times than not, they have a calendar.It’s just blank.I ask them, “What do you do for fun,” right?I don’t just jump into work.”What do you do for fun?””I like to golf.I like to do this.I’m gonna have dinner with my wife every Thursday.”Whatever it may be, it’s gotta be in the calendar, right?If you’re gonna go to the gym and you wake up at 5:30, and from 5:30 to 8:00 is your gym time, shower time, you’re in the office by 8:30, put that in the calendar so you can start seeing what you’re doing, the activities you’re doing.And really where we’re seeing a big uptick is after somebody’s using a calendar and blocking off time management and doing the same activities over and over on the same time block every week.After about three, three months is really the, the, the kicker right there, ’cause you start seeing their production go up, and then they get excited.And then really where we hone in on it is in that six-month mark, because at that point they know what’s working, what’s not.And I really think going into, you know, 2025 and beyond, I think I don’t wanna talk about anything before because of technology and AI and what’s coming down.It’s really gonna change the landscape of the, of the mortgage industry and the loan officers’ role, is for the last two months, I’ve been coaching my loan officers on, “I want you to spend 80% of your day prospecting either new business or new, new realtors, uh, you know, new buyers, whatever it may be.”Because the systems are gonna get so much better, really it’s gonna come down to relationships and communication.If you can win relationships and you’re a good communicator, I think you’re gonna have a long term, you know, business in, in, in this industry.What would you say, uh, for a loan officer that comes to you and says, “Hey, I’m too busy.I think I need to start to build a team or I need support”?First thing I say is, “Let’s see your calendar-“and see what you’re doing with all your time,” right?That does, that does come to me.Um, and I say, “Th- that’s great,” right?Like, everybody should hit a point, that’s when I know I’m doing something right in the coaching and the mentorships is when somebody comes to me and says, “I wanna start building a team.”What aspect?Is it operations and support or is it additional sales?Do you have too many leads that you can’t get to?And when you really start breaking that down, they’re like, “Well, you, you missed six hours ’cause you were water cooler talking.You didn’t do anything in your calendar Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday from 1:00 to 4:00.Do you need to lose some of that money and have somebody else do it?”but building the team is probably one of the trickiest and most satisfying things as a loan officer, is really having that junior loan officer come in.Understand that you’re gonna have to spend time with them, train them.My, my take has always been either hire somebody brand new or somebody who’s had enough experience to know that they don’t wanna do it by themselves.Once y- they get that out of their head, then they’re never gonna really leave you.So it’s worth putting in the, uh, the time to really develop that junior LO.But, uh, you know, one of the first things are, what are the tasks you don’t want to do?And then you wanna pass it on, right?If you really like to go out and develop relationships or have the upfront conversation with the, the consumer, don’t have your junior LO start doing that, right?I would always say, “I train the people to do things.Like, on my team, everything that somebody does on my team is tasks that I don’t want in my calendar.I do not wanna do that.”So that’s the first thing I would do is, you know, figure out what you don’t wanna do.If you have the production and you have the, uh, the ability to add a team member, have them do all the things that you don’t wanna do in that loan process, and that’s gonna make you win.How do you turn a realtor into a consistent referral partner?Easy.Communicate, communicate, communicate.If you do those three things, you’re gonna end up developing a relationship with that person that goes well beyond business.I, I live by the 80/20 rule.80% of the time, that’s where I w- I, I wanna spend my, my life in the 80%.So if 80% of the time I’m doing the right thing and I, I consistently communicate, communicate, communicate, I do what I say I’m gonna do when I’m gonna do it, that business partner’s not gonna leave me.If I close all the transactions and then, it always happens, I miss something, a P&S ad in my inbox, I accidentally deleted it, two weeks into it, and it’s like, “Hey, my fault,” it’s not a big deal, right?Because we’re on the same team.And it’s really just getting those business partners to believe in the team and trust you to get the job done.I’ve been the best man in, in one of my, you know, business partners’, uh, weddings.Um, I helped, you know, some of the better loan officers on the South Coast of Massachusetts.I got, I got to them when they were brand new.That’s the other piece and I know I get a lot of shit on this, you know, about bringing in brand new people, but they don’t have bad habits.So I always try to tell newer loan officers that are breaking into the business, like you said earlier, go after and find somebody who’s been in the business 0 to 12 months who’s closed 3 to 5 transactions and help that real estate agent get to 15 transactions, 20 transactions.Send them your leads, send them your personal leads, help build their business.It goes a long way in developing that long-term relationship that you’re really looking for without having to spend money on Zillow or marketing dollars.What do you do post-closing as far as a followup with either agents or buyers?That’s, uh, that’s a great question.A lot of loan officers don’t do anything, so I’ve been actually te- uh, coaching this as well is there should be a one-week followup, a one-month followup, and then you should be doing a semiannually or worst case scenario an annual checkup, 15-minute Zoom call with every purchase or refinance that you close to find out where that homeowner is at that given point in their life, right?Like if I buy a house in June of 2025 and I don’t touch base with that client for 2 years, they might have alreadytheir family might have grown.They might not like the area, they might have a job relocation.If you’re not staying top of mind, they could have taken out a bunch of credit card debt because something happened to the house where a cashout refi comes into play.So really what I try to coach all the loan officers on doing, the busier you are, the harder it is, is to do a quarterly checkup.But at least once a year, you’re jumping on a Zoom doing 15 to 30-minute call with, you know, theif it’s a husband and a wife, both parties all in to find out what their goals are, right?Theyyou want to become the center of influence for your client.So they might be looking for a financial planner, great way to introduce them.Life insurance, plumber, electrician, roofer.We don’t know what those needs are that that, that home buyer wants or needs at that point if we’re not touching base with them.Vern, do you think that mortgage rates will go down in 2025?I do not have a crystal ball, Craig, so great question.Um, I do believe that they’re gonna slowly go down, we all have to have the understanding that we don’t know what’s gonna happen in the world.Back in 2020, pre-COVID, if you would have asked me that interest rates were gonna be at two and a half to three and a half percent for 2, 3 years, the answer would have been no.So it doesn’t matter if you’re on the left or you’re on the right or you’re somewhere right there in the middle, there’s no way to predict that interest rates are gonna go down in 2025 or ’26 or if they’re gonna boot up a little bit.What we can guarantee is if you can find a house that y- you’re comfortable with the mortgage payment that you should secure and buy now.I’ve never in my last 20 years of career, and if you look at over history, I’ve never seen where real estate goes down for a body of 10 years at a time.So if you can afford the house, get into the house.You can always refinance it to lower your mor- monthly mortgage payment, but you can’t buy the same house 3 years from now at the same price you did.If you would have bought a house 5 years ago as opposed to today, even at an interest rate of three and a half percent, you would still be in the equity game.What are 3 tips that you could give a buyer or a realtor to make their offer stand out and be as strong as possible?From a realtor standpoint, I win, uh, a majority of my offers by letting my buyer’s agent know to copy me on the offer when it goes over to the listing agent so I can pick up the phone, have a conversation with that listing agent so they can go back and have a conversation with their seller that they spoke to the finance person, we’ve properly pre-approved them, we’ve looked at their income assets, and pulled the credit.It’s amazing to me in 2025 how many bad pre-approvals are out on the street from different banks, different companies.Um, it’sthat, that’s the main one right there.Um, not making it contingent on the sale of another home.I get this all the time where it’s like, “I wanna find a house before I list my house.”No, list your house while you’re looking for the other house because what happens if you find your dream home, there’s a kick-out clause, right?first right of refusal where if somebody else wants to come in and buy that house while you’re trying to sell your house.If you can get your house under contract and make it, you know, subject to find suitable housing, I 100% think that that’s, that’s the way to go.Uh, number 3 to get it, your offer accepted, I would say go with Milestone.Have a Milestone preapproval.It works wonders.Craig, what are 3 tips you would give to a home buyer or a real estate agent on helping them get their offer accepted?Uh, being pr- pre-approved with Milestone, a local company, who has a reputation in the area as well as let’s look at the file together.So i- I think that a lot of, you know, realtors and buyers just take a preapproval from a loan officer and go put in offers to think that they’re putting in a strong offer.But there’s ways that we can work the numbers to make it stronger depending on what needs to happen.So whether it’s, you know, removing a seller concession, not asking for a seller concession, or asking for a seller concession to be able to, you know, buy down the interest rate to make it then be able to qualify for a higher purchase price.You know, a lot of times people just get stuck on what that number says, but there’s ways that you can use a seller credit to be able to buy down the interest rate to be able to offer 30, 40, 50,000 dollars more on the property, get a much more competitive offer, and still have that same payment for the client so the client’s comfortable with that.So, you know, if you really want this offer accepted, how can we make this the strongest possible?Well, if you’re putting an offer at 400,000 and you’re not asking for a seller credit versus 450 with $10,000 back to buy the rate down to have the payment the same for you, that’s a lot stronger.Removing contingencies, like you talked about, is big, um, as well as possibly, you know, looking at moving funds away from the down payment, putting less money down on the house to use that to pay your own closing costs, to use that to pay maybe your buyer’s agent’s commission helps your offer look a lot stronger as well.Where a lot of people have a misconception on the how much a payment changes.So $10,000, you know, up or down one way or the other really is probably only changing your monthly mortgage payment 60, $65 a month.Sometimes taking some of that money out of your down payment, using that to pay for some of the fees that are involved in closing costs and your agent can really help put your offer to the top of the line so they’re not worried about that house having to appraise as high as possible.It’s all about that net number to the seller at the end of the day and how you can propose that in the best way to make it look as attractive as possible.And then the last piece I would say would be, you know, looking at some appraisal gap contingencies where a lot of people don’t or they’re afraid of that, understanding what that really means and how you can structure that so that it doesn’t necessarily affect how much money out of pocket your buyer has to put where we can keep that down payment or funds from the borrower the same whether it appraises 20 or 30,000 dollars light really helps put your offer, you know, to the top of the line.And call a mortgage broker.