California’s leading independent loan originators are bringing in dollar volume comparable to originators at big banks — in a tough market, no less. What are their methods? California Broker Magazine spoke with four of the top loan originators in the Golden State. See what they have to say on topics like secret success strategies, lead generation, fighting retail banks, and the best social media tools for bringing in business.
According to Modex, the top five lenders were retail banks, but these independent loan originators are generating dollar volumes that meet or beat dollar volumes originators at retail banks.
Nguyen has so many clients, he doesn’t know what to do with them. At first, he built a do-it-yourself platform called Moso where borrowers can handle the loan process themselves, which allowed him to complete a record amount of loans in a year. It ended up being so successful for his company that it brought in even more clients. Now Nguyen is swamped. So, now he’s telling other originators to please use his platform.
What are your tips for marketing on social media?
A lot of clients come from social media, and it's the best way to get clients because it's cheap. If you don't have money, you need to go on social media. Use your phone to record a lot of videos with helpful content, and post it online.
If you get involved with Facebook, for example, you need to help other people. You need to somehow let them know that you are an expert, and then they will come to you.
You have to provide very good advice and share your knowledge. You must answer their questions correctly and precisely. You need to show your product and pricing to the potential clients. So this is a way for you to let everyone else out there know about you as an expert, and that you have a good rate or good service. Ultimately, it's your chance to let other people know about you. Make a lot of noise.
What kind of buyers do you see coming to the market this year?
Mostly the younger generation. They are the ones that are going to buy homes this year. They are more active on social media too, which matches perfectly with my business model.
My model is heavily reliant on technology. We built a platform so good that our clients can come and check rates, apply for a loan, as well as monitor rates, and request us to lock their rate. We can interact online throughout the whole loan process — a 100% technology. And they are the best segment to do this. They value technology more than the older generations.
What is your secret weapon?
My website is my biggest weapon. I closed 6,600 loans just last year, which comes out to be at least 500 closed loans a month. That means I have to have, on average, a thousand clients in my pipeline. Normally, to help or service 1,000 clients, I have to have an army of staff to help me. But with the Moso Technology, I can handle that amount of volume easily.
When clients hear about us, they go to our website where they can check and monitor the rate themselves. They can say, “Oh, the rate is too high. I’ll wait for the rate to drop a little bit lower before I apply.” They can also use Rate Alert, which is a daily email updating them on the current rate, then they can click on a button to lock the rate whenever they want.
Although we have a huge amount of transactions, nobody complains. We get perfect five star reviews. No other mortgage company in America has that type of reputation.
