How Loan Officers Can Reverse Engineer Their Dream Life
How do you decide how many loans you want to close per month to achieve your financial goals? One mistake that virtually every loan officer makes is just picking an arbitrary number of loans they’re going to close.
I have a better idea.
- Figure out what your dream life looks like.
- Figure out how much money you need to make it happen.
- Figure out how many loans a month you’ll need to close to bring in that much money.
Basically? Start with your dream, and work backward from there.
This Isn’t About Reverse Engineering Your Realistic Life
I hate the word realistic. It makes my skin crawl. When I talk to people about reverse engineering their dream life, I mean it. When I talk about loan officer goals, I’m talking about going big, reaching high, not settling for what you think you can get.
So, what are some of the things that might go into a dream life?
- a lake house
- a sports car
- freedom to spend time with your kids
- less stress
- traveling the country in an RV
- household help
- annual vacations to Europe
- a Harley-Davidson
- putting your kids through college debt-free
- homeschooling your kids on the road
- a second home in Italy
- building a hospital in Ghana
The dream life looks different for everyone. This is about what you want, not what you need. All you need is a Coleman tent and a sleeping bag. If that makes you happy, great. If you want a fancy RV and pick-up truck, go for that.
If you don’t know where you’re going, I don’t care how fast you’re going. You’ll never get there. You’ve got to figure out where you’re at, where you want to go, then how you’ll get there.
Ten years ago, the lovely Mrs. White and I sat down on a Saturday morning and mapped out what our dream life looked like. Where do we want to live? Do we want help around the house and yard? What kind of car do we want? What do we want for our kids? Where do we want to vacation?
Remember, this wasn’t about realistic goals. It was about what we really really wanted if we could have anything on earth.
Carl and Maria White’s Dream Life
I’ll share some of those personal details with you. Let’s start with the house. I’m not a house guy. I have a nice house, sure, and a pretty property, but not a castle. That’s not what I care about most. Let’s say $5k/month for your house.
Not everyone wants domestic help, but this has been a game changer for me. My house manager comes to my house Monday through Friday 9-5. She cooks amazing Brazilian meals, cleans, does the laundry, empties the litter boxes, puts gas in my vehicles, goes to the laundromat, calls the handyman. It’s awesome. My wife and I work all day, then come home and completely relax.
My groundskeeper also comes Monday through Friday 9-5. She mows the yard, trims the hedges, and plants new plants. It looks like Disney over here, and I like that. I get to live in a nice place, somebody else takes care of it for me, and I provide a nice living for them. It’s a trade-off. We borrow each other’s talents. Let’s say $40k/year for each one, so $6.6k/month.
What about groceries? Where do you want to buy them? We get all ours from Whole Foods, because we like organic. Do you want to go out to eat a lot? We don’t, because someone makes us delicious food at home. Let’s say $2k/month.
What about vacation? Remember, this is your dream vacation, not a realistic vacation. Screw realistic. My dream vacation is going to Europe for a month every summer. We’ve done it the past four years (except for the year of Covid). We fly first class, and they basically give you a condo on the plane. It’s amazing. It changes everything. Let’s say two vacations a year. $50k.
What about your kids’ college? I put three kids through college. My daughter is in her last year of medical school. None of them has any student loan debt. That was part of my dream life. So I just mapped it out.
Time to Reverse Engineer It
Write everything down and come up with an accurate dollar amount. For the sake of easy math, let’s say it’s $350k/year. Ask yourself, how many loans do I need to do each month if I want to make $350k?
Here’s what we’re not going to say: “I want to close 20 loans, and then my life will be awesome.” What if 20 leaves me unfulfilled and I decide I need 30? I don’t even know how much that pays me. It’s the wrong way to go about it. I have to know my destination for reverse engineering to work.
I need $350k for my dream life, so how much do I make per loan? Let’s say it’s $2000/loan. $350k divided by $2000 per loan is 175. I need to close 175 loans per year, divided by 12. That’s 14.5 loans. There are no half loans, so let’s say 15 loans per month.
Do the math, so you don’t climb the wrong mountain. You don’t need to lay a foundation for a hotel if you’re looking to build a bungalow. I’ve got loan officer friends whose dream life is a double-wide with a Jeep and a lake in the mountains. Not me. I like my toys. I like domestic help. I love vacations, and when I go on vacation, I want people to peel my grapes. I like being pampered. I like somebody to fluff my pillow, and I want some very nice, expensive chocolate on my pillow when I come back to my room.
Figure Out How Many Leads You Need
So, I know I need 15 loans a month. How many leads do I need to close 15 loans a month? Well, it depends on the lead. Different leads will convert at a different rate. A referral coming from someone we know and trust—an agent, a current client, a past client, a friend, a family member, a colleague—will close around 25% of the time.
If my dream life requires 15 loans a month, and I close 25% of my referrals, I need 60 referrals a month to get 15 loans closed. How do I get 60 leads a month? As soon as I answer that question, I now have my dream life.
To get 60 leads a month, I need 15 a week. That’s just 4 a day, Monday through Thursday. So, how do we get 4 leads a day? My friend Mike asked 33 loan officers in our Mortgage Marketing Animals where their last three closings came from, and we saw a pattern.
- Past client database referrals
- Real estate agents
- Friends and family
These three things are what I need to focus on in my business if I want to live my dream life.
YOU Can Reverse Engineer Your Dream Life Too
So, you know who you need to focus on. Now, all you need to know is how to talk to these people, what to say when you get them on the phone. How to get more realtor referral partners.
How to ask for business from family and friends without looking uncool. How to contact them and how often.
We can help you with this. We’ve got loan officer scripts and strategies for every imaginable scenario—calling your past database, your realtor referral partners, your relatives. Give us a call, and we’ll show you all of that. We won’t hold anything back. This will not be a teaser. You can take this information and implement it on your own, or you can sign on to work with us. It’s totally up to you. The call is FREE.
You really can have your dream life. We’re seeing so many loan officers do this. It’s real. It works. It’s not a fairy tale. Everything that Maria and I mapped out for ourselves 10 years ago, we literally have it today. You can too. Will it happen in 30 days? No, but it doesn’t take nearly as long as you think. Schedule your FREE strategy call with us today. Your dream life is waiting.