9 Ways to Make Mo’ Money as a Loan Officer (Part 1 of 2)
As a successful loan officer committed to serving others, my goal is to help you close more loans while grooving through life. I’m all about grooving instead of grinding. If you’re grinding, you’re doing it wrong.
There are always more ways to make money as a loan officer. I’ll share 4 in this post and 5 more in an upcoming post. This list of 9 isn’t exhaustive, but it’s close. And it could keep you busy grooving for the rest of your loan officer career.
Before we get started, let’s get clear on some important terminology. “More money” is like going from a little bit of money to a little bit more. “Mo’ money” is like an exponential increase. They say “mo’ money, mo’ problems,” but if you can write a check to fix a problem, you don’t have a problem. Right?
Making good money is really pretty awesome. And, honestly, money is nothing more than an accelerator. If we’re heading toward good things, money will get us there faster. If we’re heading for bad things, it will get us there faster too.
Here’s to heading toward so many good things!
#1: Up the Quality of the Realtors You Work With
When we say “quality realtor,” we’re not talking about the quality of a person, but quality as in how well they produce. A qualified agent isn’t just someone with a lot of listings. We’re looking for agents who have closed at least 8 buyer sides in the last 12 months. Ten would be a better number, but eight is as low as we go.
How do you know how many buyer sides a realtor has closed? You can get the information from MLS. If you don’t have access to that, other people do—realtors, brokers, appraisers, title companies. You can go to your favorite appraiser or title company and say, “Hey, could you do me a really big favor? Could you print me out a list of all the agents that have closed 8 or more buyer sides in the last 12 months?” That’s the easiest way to get the list.
If you don’t have the connections, we have a secret source, a company you can buy that list from. That list has at least 1000 qualified agents in your local area. If you live in a small area, they just draw a bigger circle until they have 1000 agents. When you click HERE and schedule a free strategy call with us, just ask, “Where do you buy your list of qualified agents?” We’ll be happy to give you that information free of charge. Using the right loan officer script with the right person is where the magic happens.
Lower-producing agents don’t always know what they’re doing. They ask a lot of basic questions that higher-producing agents wouldn’t have to ask. They’re also more desperate and work a lot of weekends. More qualified agents are working with more qualified deals. Don’t be intimidated by high-producing agents, these big whales. They’re people just like we are. Approach them in a way that strokes their ego. Let them know they’re awesome. Don’t be a groupie or a fan, but let them know how much you respect them.
Network, connect, reach out, follow up, build relationships with agents that produce more business. That’s the most profitable use of your time and energy. You want to get more realtor referral partners, but not just any realtors. If you want to hitch your wagon to a horse, make it a racehorse.
#2: Increase Your Loan Amount
Closing a $300,000 loan is no harder than closing a $150,000 loan, and you make twice as much money. It’s the biggest no-brainer ever. So, how do I increase my loan amount?
One way to do that is to start marketing and targeting yourself, building relationships in the areas that have more expensive real estate. Most towns and cities have areas with more expensive properties. Target the agents who are targeting those bigger homes. How do you do that? You get that list from the specific area and start reaching out. How do you reach out? One script you can use goes like this:
“Hey, Carl. It’s Mike. I don’t know what you’re doing out there in Boca, but we’re hearing about it over here in Naples. I would love to hang out with you online for a few minutes, kind of pick your brain and hear why your name keeps getting brought up. When can we do that? What works best for you? Tuesday? Wednesday?” (We call this script “Thor’s Hammer, and we’d be happy to share it with you.)
You don’t have to offer anything. No dog and pony show. Just “I’d like to treat you to a cup of virtual coffee, so you can tell me more about how awesome you are.” The thing of value you bring is your attention. They’ve created this amazing machine. They’re successful. Go where the money is, and let them crow about their success.
#3: Get a Bigger Cup
Fifteen years ago, I spent $1000 on a 30-minute phone call with a big name business coach. I paid my money, got on the phone, and told him I was a loan officer who wanted to increase my business and close more loans. He said, “Tell me about your market. Who do you target?”
I got a map of my area and put a dot where my office was. Then I got a cup, put it over the dot, and drew a circle around the cup. I lifted the cup and said, “inside that circle is the market I’m going after.” He said, “That’s awesome. Carl. This is going to be a very short, but very profitable, phone call for you.” I said, “All right. What have you got?” He said, “Go get a bigger cup.” And that one sentence literally changed my life.
The internet was just coming into its own. I no longer had to limit myself to referral partners within 5-10 miles of my office, or even in my city. If you’re living in a challenging area, you can just pick another one. With FaceTime and Skype and Zoom, we can do virtual coffee meetings all in one day with people in all different areas of the city/state/wherever. I even have loan officer friends doing loans in different states than the ones they live in.
Target a bigger population. Open yourself up to more people. Get a bigger pool to fish from. Get a bigger cup, and redraw those lines. Don’t sit and ponder it. Just start doing it. It’s never been easier. You’re an amazing person and you’re worthy of success. The sky’s the limit.
#4: Relocate
Before the internet took off, if everyone was moving out of your city, and the housing market wasn’t doing well, you had to relocate. That’s not the case these days. You don’t have to physically move. You can just get a bigger cup.
On the other hand, I’m a big proponent of being happy. If moving somewhere else will make you happier, and you think you’ll enjoy your life more—and it happens to be a hotter market—that’s definitely something to consider. It’s never a bad thing to live where you work. Especially if you’re living somewhere that makes you happy.
If you love where you live, stay. If you don’t, move. You have the freedom to make whichever choice works best for you and your family. You can work from literally anywhere.
In What Order Should You Implement These First 4 Tips?
It’s really up to you. I’d recommend working with agents in your backyard first. Develop relationships locally. Then, by the very nature of being selective and only working with more qualified agents, you’ll increase your loan size. Then you can get a bigger cup and expand your circle, and it’s going to create a domino effect. Relocate if you want, but only if it makes sense and would make you and your family happy.
You can also do all of these things at once. They’re effective separately or together. The important thing is that you don’t wait, that you get started right away. If you need a nudge to get you going in the right direction, we’d love to help you map out your loan officer goals. Schedule a strategy call with us TODAY.
