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Shoppers Are Going to Shop—and You Don’t Need to Stop Them

Rate shoppers. They’re the bane of our existence as loan officers, right? How do we handle them? How can we keep them from shopping? How do we reel them back in once they start to shop around? The short answer: we don’t. When it comes to rate shoppers, I’d like to offer a different perspective….

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How to Get Your Offers Accepted In a Competitive Market

Inquiring loan officers want to know: in a competitive market with multiple offers on properties, how do you get your client’s offer accepted?  I sat down recently with my friend, Kei Kullberg, in New York’s Hudson Valley to talk about just that. Kei and I met after he started listening to my podcast from his…

The Simple 3-Step Formula Loan Officers Need to be Following Right Now
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The Simple 3-Step Formula Loan Officers Need to be Following Right Now

The mortgage industry has definitely made a shift in the past few months from a refinance market to a purchase market. So what does that mean for your mortgage business? Well, if you’re like my branch, we did 68% purchase and 32% refinance last year, so things aren’t going to change much for us. But…

5 Things You May Need to Change to Get Even Better Results Going Forward
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5 Things You May Need to Change to Get Even Better Results Going Forward

There’s never a bad time for reflection, to evaluate the things you’re doing as a loan officer and see if you’re doing your absolute best. Is there anything you could change that would give you even better results in the year ahead? I made a list of five reflection questions to ask yourself. These are…

The 3 Activities You Want to Focus On Right Now
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The 3 Activities You Want to Focus On Right Now

My friend Tammy Saul just texted me yesterday and said, “Carl, I’ve got to tell you, I just had my best week ever in the mortgage industry. I got 17 new purchase deals last week.” Not last month, last week.  This is a really big deal. Why? Because there’s a lot going on in our…

The Myth of the Closing Gift
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The Myth of the Closing Gift

A woman in our Freedom Club asked for ideas for unique closing gifts recently. She wanted something universal so she didn’t have to come up with a new custom idea for each client. And she wanted something with her branding on it that would make a lasting impression. By “lasting impression,” I assume she meant…

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Why Loan Officers Should Partner with Financial Advisors

We talk a lot about realtor referral partners for loan officers. But real estate agents aren’t the only people that make great partners for us in this industry. Have you considered partnering with financial advisors? I’ll be honest. I hadn’t. Not until my friend Todd Ballenger gave me the inside scoop on how to work…

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What Your “About Me” Page and Social Media Profile Say About You As a Loan Officer

You never get a second chance to make a first impression. You’ve heard that line before, right? And it’s true. Sure, you might get the opportunity to make a second impression, but that first impression happens once and only once.  As a loan officer, where are you most likely to make a first impression? Well,…

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The Perfect Plan to Implement and the Best Question to Ask

As a general rule, I don’t do clickbait blog titles, but I might have crossed the line this time. I really do have the best question to ask, but I’ve got some breaking news for you about perfect plans.  There is no perfect plan. So many of us spend our time making a plan, trying…

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If You’re Grinding, You Might Be Doing It Wrong

I’ve got a short, simple, but very powerful message for you. Early in my loan officer career, I found myself working like 50, 60, 70 hours a week. And here’s the funny thing. My coworkers encouraged me to work those kinds of hours. They patted me on the back and said things like, “Hey Carl,…