Kindle Notes & Highlights
Working a client’s file often feels like assembling a jigsaw puzzle while blindfolded with the ability to use only your thumbs.
If you commit to invest 10 cents of every dollar you earn in bettering yourself, you will advance beyond every other Broker around you. That is a fact.
Stay in touch with every client every month from day one and call him or her at least once a year.
The phone is the most powerful tool you have to grow your mortgage biz. If you have call reluctance you will need to smash through it in order to achieve big numbers.
Money and mortgage volume are by-products of the pursuit of excellence.
My Motivation: Sharing my knowledge, advising clients12 and helping fellow Brokers. All in the pursuit of excellence.13
There is an interesting series of videos by “RSA Animate” on YouTube including one titled “Drive: The surprising truth about what motivates us.”14 It is well worth a view. And there are several excellent books on the topic of motivation available.
Turning your passion into a business rarely works over the long haul. (96% of businesses fail within the first ten years).
mortgage penalties come in the form of an “interest-rate differential.” This land mine is buried in the majority of five-year fixed-rate mortgages. The penalty is often the equivalent of ~4% of the mortgage balance. In contrast, variable-rate mortgages (often perceived as “the risky choice”) carry a prepayment penalty of just ~0.5%.
excellent resources for quality reading lists such as Maria Popova,41 Tai Lopez42 and Tim Ferris.43 All three are quality content curators, as well as idea generators themselves and well worth paying attention to.
“The James Altucher Show” podcast,
Learning how to temper your communications and how to set expectations is crucial to keeping your clients calm, which in turn will keep you calm.
(Often a competing lender will say to the client that the difference is only $X per month. This is a fantastic opportunity for you to dig just a slight bit deeper and reveal to the client what lies just beneath the surface.) So while payment difference is one thing, let’s look at what giving up that 0.05% rate difference is actually costing you: $12.37 x 60 months is $742.20. I am not sure about you, but the extra work we have done to this point, and the remaining hour of your time to meet with the lawyer and sign the final documents, seems well worth $742.20 of after-tax money to me.
it is not all about the rate; it is all about options and flexibility. Your current lender, being a chartered bank, uses an Interest Rate Differential penalty calculation that could easily cost you four times as much as the prepayment penalty would be with the “non-bank” (a.k.a. monoline) lender we have this current approval with.
I advise on the topics I have been retained to advise upon, and am licensed and qualified to advise upon. I advise based on what I know, not what I think. Facts are more useful than opinions.
“Computers are incredibly fast, accurate, and stupid. Humans are incredibly slow, inaccurate, and brilliant. Together they are powerful beyond imagination.” Albert Einstein
“Where do you get all of your business?” This is perhaps the most often asked question by new Brokers of successful Brokers. Naturally this is a hot topic in an industry where by some estimations, 65% of Brokers completed fewer than ten transactions last year.
Our own office processed ~170 files per year for four years running with just two of us, stepping up to 227 in 2014, which required the addition of a third, part-time staff member. Duties are split in our office with myself handling 99% of client interaction, my assistant (also a licensed Broker) handling 99% of lender interaction, and her assistant (also a licensed Broker) handling file details with lawyers, appraisers, payroll compliance, gifted housecleaning bookings, etc.
A referral is a transfer of trust;
Educate, Don’t Sell I rarely ask prospects for their business directly. I know this runs contrary to Sales and Marketing 101, which teaches salesmen to be unrelenting in their pursuit of sales. I practice what I call education-based marketing. Feed people information that they’re not getting anywhere else and they become hungry for more.
podcasts by both Ben Greenfield56 and “The fat burning man.”
the median Mortgage Broker processes ~24 transactions per year,
Rarely does a single lapse cause a file to implode. It’s often a series of little lapses, death by a thousand cuts. I have seen client relationships, not just the transaction, deteriorate as small errors collect and form a large pile of doubt in a client’s mind.
Bad News Always communicate news that’s bad, slightly bad or even neutral by phone, if not in person.
There is a take-away in nearly every single conversation you have, from one with a homeless person to one with a CEO and everybody in between.
failing to plan is planning to fail,
six in ten clients will break their mortgage early, at an average of 38 months in.
The Leader Who Had No Title: A Modern Fable on Real Success in Business and in Life – Dec 28 2010 by Robin Sharma
The Obstacle Is the Way: The Timeless Art of Turning Trials into Triumph - Ryan Holiday
Thinking, Fast and Slow - Apr 2 2013 by Daniel Kahneman. An excellent book that covers “the anchoring effect,” among other important topics.
10 Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action – Dec 27 2011 by Simon Sinek. An excellent book, one that I subsequently purchased 50 copies of (direct from the publisher) to pass out to clients and fellow Brokers.
“I advise, clients instruct” a comment I once overheard and immediately adopted as policy.
Mastery – Nov 13 2012 by Robert Greene. A masterful tome on the topic of achieving excellence at one’s craft. All of Mr. Greene’s writings should be required reading
Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us – Apr 5 2011by Daniel H. Pink
Predictably Irrational Revised And Expanded Edition: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions – Apr 8 2010 by Dan Ariely.
So Good They Can’t Ignore You: Why Skills Trump Passion in the Quest for Work You Love – Sep 18 2012 by Cal Newport.
How The World Sees You: Discover Your Highest Value Through the Science of Fascination – Jun 12 2014 by Sally Hogshead
The Ultimate Sales Machine: Turbocharge Your Business with Relentless Focus on 12 Key Strategies – May 27 2008 by Chet Holmes. If you read, or listen to, just one more book in your sales career please make it this one.
The Go-Giver: A Little Story About a Powerful Business Idea − Bob Burg
I first heard the phrase “beginner’s mind” in “Buddhism For Busy People: Finding Happiness In An Uncertain World” May 15 2008 by David Michie. Mr. Michie has written several useful books on mixing meditation and the tenets of Buddhism into modern life.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w1rwRT229Uo “The Real Homeless Man Experiment.” It says it all, in a rather sad way.
Risk: The Science and Politics of Fear by Dan Gardner. An excellent book on the topic of irrational fears.
Bold: How to Go Big, Create Wealth and Impact the World – February 3, 2015 by Peter H. Diamandis & Steven Kotler
If you are signing up for www.SendOutCards.com, which you should be, you will be asked for a referral code. Please insert #172061 as this will assign your account to a wonderful person who has been a tremendous help to me over the years. I do not profit personally in anyway, other than the good karma. This is what counts most in life.
Maria Popova’s site http://www.brainpickings.org/ began as a newsletter to seven friends and is now followed by more than five million readers per month. Wondering what to read next? Maria will have the answer.
http://www.tailopez.com/ is a voracious reader and has a “Top 100” reads list worthy of your attention. Perhaps I was influenced by how many books on Tai’s list I had already read, nonetheless this is a great resource and Tai is an interesting dude with a very cool business model. He truly has created for himself “The Good Life” as he calls it. Admirable.
Learned Optimism: How To Change Your Mind And Your Life − E.P. Martin Seligman.
Curious?: Discover the Missing Ingredient to a Fulfilling Life - by Todd B. Kashdan
How to Become a Rainmaker: The Rules for Getting and Keeping Customers and Clients – May 17 2000 by Jeffrey J. Fox
The Automatic Millionaire: Canadian Edition: A Powerful One-Step Plan to Live and Finish Rich by David Bach
