Rates and terms rarely differentiate one lender from the next in today’s increasingly competitive financial market. What does?
Loan officers.
Not just any loan officer (LO), though—only the ones pegged as “high performers.” It’s these high-performing LOs who provide the valuable guidance and personalized customer service borrowers crave while operating more effectively and efficiently than the rest.
These LOs have found new, technology-enabled ways to do their jobs. They’ve built new habits. They’ve discarded what didn’t work. And all of it has happened just in time.
The mortgage industry funded $3.83 trillion in new volume last year,1 with 6.9 million existing homes forecasted to be sold in 2021—the best year for home sales since 2005.2 But it’s a much different mortgage market right now than it was in 2005, or even last year.
Today’s market is expected to contract by 40%. Thirty-year fixed mortgage rates are projected to rise to 4.4% by 2022.3 Well-funded challenger lenders and banks are moving in to capture their piece of the booming U.S. mortgage market. And Millennials and Gen Z buyers—individuals with greater, more demanding, digital-centric expectations for lenders—are comprising a much larger portion of the homebuyer population.
All in all, the competition is about to get very fierce. And it’s the high-performing LOs who can teach us what to do—and not do—to succeed in the coming months.
It’s their habits that set high-performing LOs apart from the rest. It’s these habits—or strategies and tactics, if you will—that fuel their continued success.
But just as important as what you need to do to become a high performing LO—perhaps even more important—is what you need to stop or avoid doing.
Find out our top four do’s and don’ts for high-performing LOs—read our new eBook “The Do’s and Don’ts of High-Performing Loan Officers.”
1 Mortgage News Daily, “Mortgage Banks Report 2020 Financials Shattered Last Year’s Records.” April 13, 2021.
2 PR Newswire, “Zillow Predicts Stronger Housing Market Across the Board in 2021.” Dec. 20, 2020.
3MBA, “MBA Forecast: Purchase Originations on Pace to Increase 16 Percent to Record $1.67 Trillion in 2021.” April 22, 2021.
