At New American Funding, the success of its loan officers is a top priority and the company has developed an entire infrastructure to support them, including technology to make their work easier, co-branded marketing to expand their reach, and a back-office process that provides quick decisions and funding for loans. The end goal? Giving LOs a competitive advantage that assures their success.
The support starts as soon as a new originator joins New American Funding, providing the LO with microsites, social outreach, marketing support, and NAF for YOU, a program that lets them build their personal brand.
NAF for YOU includes:
Social for YOU
- A personalized content library, compliance monitoring, localized content, blogs and training so that LOs can establish and strengthen their social presence.
Tech for YOU
- A Mobile App Suite, on-demand pipeline access, a personalized CRM dashboard, an automated marketing request portal and user-friendly eConsent.
Digital for YOU
- A personalized website, branch website, email marketing support, and a custom post-close digital marketing solution.
Video for YOU
- Video library available to send via email or share on social media, including mortgage education, real estate agent benefits, recruiting, Spanish-language videos and on-demand videos with personal contact information. The videos can automatically be branded or cobranded.
Print for YOU
- 2,000 easy-to-use marketing collateral pieces for consumers and real estate agents, co-branded marketing materials, business cards, an automated post-close mailer campaign, and automated co-branded closing cards sent to borrower on the LO’s behalf.
Reviews for YOU
- Automatically solicits reviews from happy customers, manages the reviews through one portal, and integrates reviews across all channels.
- The technology posts reviews to New American Funding originators’ personal website and Facebook page; it even pulls reviews from Zillow and blasts them on social media, making it easy for customers to find New American Funding originators wherever they are looking. So far this feature has garnered more than 26,000 positive reviews for loan officers.
Coaching for YOU
- Provides valuable tips direct from top producers from across the nation. Every other week, LOs get insightful videos on a range of applicable topics delivered direct to their mobile device and coaches are ready to give additional feedback.
Premium Content for YOU
- Top-performing digital content compiled into a single newsletter that LOs are able to share via social media and email, as well as infographics and fresh blogs on a weekly basis.
The impact of providing these tech and marketing assets to LOs is hard to overestimate. Instead of building websites, creating marketing materials from scratch, figuring out a social strategy or trying to generate positive reviews, loan officers can focus on their most important job: originating loans.
For example, New American Funding developed its GoGo LO mobile app so originators can get everyday tasks done anytime, anywhere, with the type of mobility that doesn’t require them to be tethered to a desk. That means when they’re at an open house with their real estate partners, they can still do a soft credit pull and provide prospective borrowers with a pre-qual letter on the spot using GoGo LO.
And a recent enhancement on the app allows agents to sign the final 1003 mortgage application with their finger on their mobile device, instead of printing, signing, and scanning the application. This way, originators can quickly sign it using GoGo LO and the information is instantly transferred to New American Funding’s CRM database, where it automatically moves to the next step of the loan process.
By gaining immediate access to this arsenal of proven, easy-to-use tools, loan officers at New American Funding are incredibly productive — allowing the company to fund approximately $900 million in loans every month.
But technology and marketing support are only part of the strategy New American Funding uses to boost LO success. The company has also streamlined its operations so that LOs have a direct line of communication with decision makers to get answers fast.
“When you’re working in an industry like mortgage banking, it makes all the difference when you have access to people who can make things happen,” New American Funding’s President Patty Arvielo said. “It could mean the difference between getting a same-day loan decision and having your client’s file delayed; or it could mean going through layers of leadership before you get a resolution to an on-the-job challenge.”
New American Funding created the role of Area Production Managers to facilitate this communication. These managers are not only leaders in their market but a liaison between operations and sales.
“Area Production Managers have become one of the most important roles in our company because they keep a pulse on their specific market and they keep a direct line of communication to both the credit policy managers and the executive team,” Arvielo said. “If a loan has to be escalated, they don’t have to wait for a committee to meet; instead they can get same-day decisions to stay on top of pushing your loan through.”
New American Funding also employs production assistants to act as a quality control before the loan file goes into processing. The production assistants scrub the file to make sure all necessary documents are present and properly organized, so the loan doesn’t get clogged in the pipeline.
Additionally, the area production managers oversee the pipeline for their region.
This help on the back end — along with New American Funding’s fast-moving automated platform — promotes a smooth process, resulting in an average 23-day turn times for loans.
“If you want to elevate your business, work with a lender that lets you take an application and then pass the file off to a team who will push it through on your behalf. You should originate the loan and then close it, while your support team does everything in between,” Arvielo said.
