A New Post By Brian Brady
America's #1 Mortgage Broker
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If you haven't read The Millionaire Real Estate Agent, by Gary Keller and Dave Jenks, you're missing out on a great way to market to REALTORs. The cornerstone of the MREA plan is database management. The authors advise agents to "touch" their "met" database 33 times in a twelve month period. It's a highly disciplined approach and most agents fail to implement it but they wish they could.
Mortgage originators traditionally do a better job at managing databases better than their agent cousins. Why aren't you "touching" your REALTOR database thirty-three times, then? If each "met" REALTOR, touched 33 times, can produce three purchase loans annually, a stable of 25, full-time agents can put you on the path to 6-7 purchase loans each month.
Consider this "touch plan" for agents:
1- Call two agents every day. If you only work four days a week, you'll touch each agent once a month. That's twelve touches annually per agent; now we need 21 more.
2- Send a postcard to them monthly. Send them the same postcard each month to build brand recognition. They'll throw it out but be thinking of you for the 15 seconds it takes to find the wastepaper basket. Eventually, they'll keep it on their desk. I use a yellow half-sheet of card stock, with my name, phone number, and website URL printed on it- that's all. Now you've added twelve touches and only need seven more.
3- Record a 20-30 minute interview with a succesful real estate agent in MP3 format. You can get a free TalkShoe account and offer it as a podcast or...download that MP3 from your TalkShoe account and produce 25 CDs for about a hundred bucks through Disc Makers. Agents love to hear ideas that are working so send out one of these CDs once a quarter. Agents will ABSOLUTELY open a bulky package and listen to the CD in their automobile. Oh, you have a reason to call them soon thereafter, too. Now you just need three more "touches".
4- How about a quarterly meeting with each agent to thank them for the business? Now you've hit 34 touches and should blow their minds away.
Notice I didn't even mention weekly "mortgage rates market" emails? Agents don't read your emails anymore UNLESS...
...you've earned the right to email them. Give 'em 34 reasons to open your email and refer you business.
Actually what I would love to see is mortgage brokers keeping better in touch with the buyers I've asked them to pre-approve. Sometimes we get further when we partner to keep in touch with these buyers!
What I tend to find is that there's an initial meeting or two, then silence for a month, and often the lender doesn't notice. As a Realtor, I don't chase down the lender's relationship with my buyer but would like to think that the pre-approval process is moving along. Sometimes I guess lenders just get busy and it falls through the cracks.
But rather than keep in touch with me, I really want the lender to keep in touch with the buyer - and to fill me in on the progress.
Mary Pope-Handy
Luxor Real Estate Group
Los Gatos, CA
www.LiveInLosGatos.com
www.ValleyOfHeartsDelight.com
Posted by: Mary Pope-Handy | June 07, 2009 at 04:45 PM
"But rather than keep in touch with me, I really want the lender to keep in touch with the buyer - and to fill me in on the progress"
Good feedback, Mary. How might an originator do that best? (this is a serious request for feedback):
1- cc on email discourse or 2- weekly status updates?
Posted by: Brian Brady | June 07, 2009 at 10:10 PM
good advise, thanks!
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Posted by: joseph | June 09, 2009 at 08:46 AM