Swimming with Confidence (Posted November 16, 2015)

We have this guy in our office who took up swimming a few years back to lose weight, and it worked – he lost thirty pounds (but don’t worry, over time, he was able to get most of them back). He didn’t want to be deterred in his goal, so he decided to use a “swimmer’s snorkel”. By doing this, he received quite a few odd looks from his fellow gym members (even when he was wearing it in the pool); he really got the stink eye from those hardcore “aquatic athletes” who seemed to be training to swim the English Channel.

Odd and shaming looks notwithstanding, our intrepid office mate was not deterred. His goal was to swim a mile each day until he lost those thirty pounds – quite honestly, he didn’t care how he looked. His single-minded focus on reaching his goal and not worrying what others thought of his methods mirror how we approach our goal: to find and provide the EXACT RIGHT product and close the loan on time (or earlier) – we do what it takes, no matter what!

For example, when I recently told a real estate agent how we can give new life to old and dead leads, she looked at me like I was nuts – it was probably a similar look our swimming friend got at the gym – and said, “No one does that!” I smiled and said, “Well, we do. It’s one of the ways we significantly increase your production without your spending any more money on marketing.” The odd look quickly turned to a knowing smile!

With TRID now in full effect, we’re still able to close loans in thirty days or less. How? We’re not going to give you the “recipe” to our “secret sauce” – we’ll share it with you when you come in to see us (you know you want to) – but we’ll happily share two tips with you – help us help your buyers:

• Have title confirm fees at the opening of escrow (or even prior)

• Help ensure borrowers are getting docs back to us on time: Intent to proceed, borrower docs, etc.

How do we breathe new life into a dead lead? What do we do, in this post-apocalyptic TRID world, to close loans in thirty days or less? Come on in and sit with us for fifteen minutes – you’ll be beyond impressed. Maybe we’ll ask our co-worker to show you his swimmer’s snorkel – we promise not to have him in a Speedo when he does.

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