Mortgage Loan Originators are in a unique position. The real estate market is holding a steady pace, which means more and more homebuyers are looking for financing. However, this also means competition’s hot between mortgage lenders and loan officers. To get your piece of the pie, it’s important to know how to grow your business and prevent competitors from snatching up what can be your business.
Whether you’re a seasoned loan officer or just entering the industry, we’re here to help. Throughout this post, we’ll go over how to increase loan sales through various loan growth strategies. Read through for a full understanding of how to get business as a mortgage loan officer, or use the links below to jump to a loan growth strategy of your choice.
Growing Your Pipeline and Sales
As a loan officer, growing your loan and sales portfolio should be a top priority. However, you might not know how to increase loan production efficiently and profitably. To help you get started, we’ve compiled a list of strategies to improve your business.
1. Referrals
One of the best ways to grow your list of connections is by building relationships with professionals in your industry who can provide referrals. For example, you might try to build connections with:
- Accountants
- Brokers
- Insurance agents
- Attorneys
- Previous clients
By building strong relationships with service providers, you’ll be top of mind when they have a client looking for financing for a house, new commercial property, or other large purchases that require a loan. To cultivate these relationships, it’s important to stay in contact. You can do this by sending a monthly newsletter, making a phone call, or sending an email. Keeping your referral sources close can prompt them to look at you as a premier loan officer.
2. Prospect databasing
As a loan officer, you will use your database of prospects daily, which means keeping it current is essential. Having a database filled with inaccurate information or prospects no longer interested in a loan can make your database disorganized, reducing overall efficiency.
To improve efficiency and increase your loan sales, take the time to organize your database. You can do this by separating prospects into different categories, such as:
- Category A: Prospects expected to close on a loan within 15-30 days
- Category B: Prospects expected to close on a loan within 30-60 days
- Category C: Prospects not expected to close on a loan within 60 days
- Category D: Prospects that need to be moved out of the database
Organizing your prospect database can help you visualize which clients are close to closing, which ones are just starting out on the process, and which ones are no longer relevant. With a clean slate, you’ll be able to divert attention to top-priority prospects that are most likely to close on a loan.
3. Community involvement
Getting active in your community is another great way to increase visibility, build trust, and reach more potential borrowers. There are plenty of ways you can get your bank or lending institution involved in your local community, such as:
- Hosting a 5k run/walk
- Sponsoring local sports teams
- Setting up booths at community events
- Sponsoring food or art festivals
- Donating time and resources to the community
- Supporting local mortgage or financial education
- Hosting a business webinar or workshop
- Becoming a mentor
- Host a document shredding event
- Organize an entertainment event with unique food and music at your office or a unique location
These are just some examples of ways you can get involved in your community and find prospects looking to get a loan. You might even consider taking NMLS pre-licensing courses so that you can get licensed in more states and reach new communities with more prospects.
4. Cross-selling
One of the most accessible sources of revenue might be right in front of your eyes—your existing customers. Engaging with your customers can develop opportunities with their friends and family, or as they need more financing for a vacation or rental home or when they are ready for another move.
5. Cultivating strong relationships
If you’re the manager, it’s important to build strong relationships with your originators to ensure everything is moving smoothly throughout the pipeline. By having a strong relationship, you’ll be able to see what prospects are moving throughout the pipeline, which ones might be stuck, and which ones might not qualify for a loan.
With a strong relationship, you can encourage your mortgage loan originators to continue to learn about best practices and how to increase loan sales. By holding originators accountable and teaching them how to sift out prospects that are not creditworthy, you can increase your business by paying more attention to the prospects that matter most.
6. Reviewing customer’s financial statements
By taking time to review your customer’s financial statements, you’ll be able to identify areas where they may be struggling financially. You can then provide recommendations for potential solutions that can help your customers succeed.
7. Social media
Another loan growth strategy is harnessing the power of social media to reach a broader audience and attract more customers. One of the top benefits of social media is that it’s completely free to sign up and create an account. Through social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube, you can post company updates, industry information, photos, videos, and more to attract new customers. You can even invest in paid social media marketing to spread your brand further and gain access to metrics like ROI to analyze the effectiveness of your social media campaigns.
Benefits of Growing Your Business
Now that you know how to get business as a mortgage loan officer, let’s talk about some benefits. Increasing your sales not only helps you grow your business, but can help your business become more successful in the long run. With more clients in your pipeline, you’ll have increased revenue streams, which you can use to scale your business.
This can be done by rolling out new products and services or adding another state license, to name two examples. By adding another state license you may now be able to help your borrower with their out-of-state properties like vacation homes. Additionally, increasing your loan and sales portfolio means you have more clients, which means they can act as referral sources and provide you with even more prospects.
As you grow your business, you might also explore different ways in which you can sharpen your skills and better serve clients. Staying up to date with the mortgage industry and keeping your eye on local trends is one way to do this. Another way is to take underwriting classes on FHA, VA, and USDA loans in order to gain a better understanding of the underwriting process and get a better grasp on important loan guidelines.
Wrapping Up
It can take time to build your business and increase the number of sales you generate in a month or year. However, with these seven loan growth strategies, you can take your business to new heights and expand your reach. To help you get started, our MLO continuing education programs can keep you updated on the mortgage industry and assist you in becoming a successful mortgage loan officer.
