Kindle Notes & Highlights
Read between
February 6 - February 27, 2020
“You get in life what you have the courage to ask for.” — —NANCY D. SOLOMON
A script is nothing more than consistent language that prevents you from tripping over your own words.
“I see. As a first-time homebuyer, did you know that statistically you’re actually more likely to work with a Broker? In fact, in our province an estimated 80 percent of first-time homebuyers work with an independent Mortgage Broker. This is because first-time homebuyers bring their A-game. You guys do your research and discover that there is an independent individual who can represent you to multiple lenders, even your own lender, without costing anything.”
I will go on to say, “About 40 percent of the mortgages we process tend to be out-of-the-ordinary situations, which makes ‘out of the ordinary’ pretty ordinary for us.
“Putting together a detailed plan that addresses both your immediate and future needs—this is what matters.
“Variable-rate mortgages are tied to eight pre-scheduled Bank of Canada meetings per year.20 There is nothing random about the meetings; the dates are set at the start of the year. Variable-rate mortgages, one-year fixed, two-year fixed and to some extent three-year fixed are driven by the Bank of Canada’s rate decisions. What drives rates up? Economic good news; when is the last time you heard economic good news?
“The four-year fixed and longer products are driven by the bond market, not by the Bank of Canada. There are two different engines driving these two different types of mortgage product.”
we have lenders that offer a static payment for the full term of the variable-rate mortgage. It is a fixed-payment, variable-rate mortgage.” “No matter where rates go the payment remains constant.
Some Brokers pay out kickbacks for referrals, but I don’t follow the logic. I earn my living doing what I do, and you earn your living doing what you do. If I think you are pretty good at what you do and I get the chance, I will refer you, and all I can ask is that you do the same.
In Volume 1 I mentioned www.sendoutcards.com, which is a service that allows you to create custom thank-you cards.
You should have a suit and tie for the conference by day, and business casual wear for the evening, with an extra day’s change of clothes just in case of an incident—any kind of incident.
The opposite of your want is almost always what you truly need. As Nassim Nicholas Taleb writes, be anti-fragile.25 Shock your system to strengthen your system.
The DocAssist
Text-Expander
In our office we strive to order a title search on every refinance transaction.
Dye & Durham Corporation—This is for title searches of properties across the country, such as your client’s cabin in the woods one province over that the lender wants to confirm is clear title.
Mortgage Mentor—I have mentioned Mortgage Mentor previously (see Volume 1); it is an incredibly useful compendium of current lender policies and programs.
Canada Post—Postal Code Search is vital. Confirming that the postal code in your file submission is accurate is vital to the speed of your approval. One of the main reasons that CMHC’s
Canadian Mortgage Trends Mortgage Broker News Mortgage Brokers Get Serious – Facebook group I Love Mortgage Brokering – Facebook group
Freelancer—Freelancer is an excellent resource for experts hired out for just a few hours at a time. Or for a specific project.
Fiverr—It would seem there is little that human beings will fail to offer for five bucks. Looking for a jingle, a logo design, formal sounding voicemail and so on? If you need something done fast and cheap (remember, you get what you pay for), check out Fiverr as a starting point.
Elance—This is another great source for talent. Looking for a virtual assistant to help you with various asp...
This highlight has been truncated due to consecutive passage length restrictions.
Sniply—An interesting app that allows you to overlay a call-to-action message,
Legal shield—This is something that every Broker would be wise to have in place for his or her own personal protection. It
Chapter Tip: Drive a different route to and from work each day. The slight variation will keep you more alert, and it is a great little mental exercise for realizing how entrenched in a groove we can get. This simple little tweak will wire up new neurons in your brain, which is always a good thing.
A professional space is important, though. When you have clients who want to meet with you, you need professional office space with a signing room.
Commit Perform Measure
The moral of that story: Win the client, not the file.27
Life is never win-lose. Occasionally it is win-learn, which is its own form of win-win.
Don’t say, “I can’t.” Say, “I will find a way,” right up until you have truly exhausted every option.
Total households in Canada = 13,320.615 (Stats Can), 69 percent of which own their dwelling (Stats Can) 9,200,000 homes are owned. Of these, 58.6 percent hold a mortgage (Stats Can). (The other 41.4 percent owe nothing on their homes, and thus have no interest-rate concerns.) 58.6 percent of $9.2 million is 5,391,200 households.
seven of eight households are in a fixed-rate mortgage,
Aside from the vast tax structure benefits, the creation of a psychological distance from the gross business revenues via incorporating eases the feeling of each business-related expense representing a direct personal (and thus emotional) attack on your income.
Do not consider hiring an unlicensed assistant. The target pool should be underwriters currently working for a lender,
You may hire somebody on an hourly basis at first, graduating him or her to a salary, or a salary-and-bonus structure, or you may put your hire onto a straight commission-based income.
Then you have to stick to the deal, both of you. If you are paying your assistant a percentage of every file, it is important to recognize that there will be the odd massive mortgage file where that person will be getting paid vastly more than the task completed warrants, just like you yourself did (to be fair). This helps make up for the smaller files, and for the ones that fell apart—for you and for them. Keep this in mind.
Your assistant may want a guaranteed base salary, and you may want a capped bonus. Again, this is not so simple to negotiate if your assistant is an A-player, and you should only be considering A-players.
Get help from a third party with the hiring process, somebody that can tell the great interview from the great employee.
staying a business of one and outsourcing everything else can be effective on multiple levels. Outsourcing is a great tool for any business—and it’s worth considering for your own, perhaps. Manage staff, or manage clients. Make the decision.
“If it is important enough to you, you will find a way. If it is not, you will find an excuse.”
If you and your assistant have any shared tasks, this can be a recipe for disaster.
Consider joining a closed group like Toastmasters where you can practice speaking to a small group in a safe and constructive environment. Public speaking skills are just learned skills; we are all born to speak. Master the skills.
AAA-player: The AAA-player knows what he or she can do. In particular, he or she is aware that unwritten exceptions exist, and not only asks for them, but keeps track of who has done what. Knowing how best to access a unique exception is next-level brokering.
Apply shark mode whenever you can, especially to the mundane tasks, the simple things that should not be taking up space in your brain at all. Power through them with the 3D mind-set: Done Delegated Deleted
Your focus is to get to the business of the business.
Chapter Tip: Document via email such exchanges around things like Interest Rate Differential penalties and CC registration. In our office, 99.9 percent of client communications are via email. We want a written record of what was communicated during the transactions. Texting is limited to “Please email me” or “I will call you right back.”
Chapter Tip: Ask questions. Don’t tell your clients what they need, but let them tell themselves with the answers to the questions you ask. And do not focus on trying to sell them on anything specific; just be an unbiased source of information.
Check out the brokerage finder that the “I Love Mortgage Brokering” team created at http://www.ilovemortgagebrokering.com/careers/.
“Boutique Broker” is the term I use to describe myself, and most of the industry. These Brokers work in a field of independent offices staffed by one, two, three or sometimes eight staff members. We are the small operators largely dependent on the full commission model to cover our expenses and earn a quality living. The concept of average 50 bps or less on our volume is less than desirable.
