Cautious optimism is prevalent in the mortgage industry for 2024 as industry professionals anticipate the recovery of lost origination volume.
To take advantage of the shifting market, two key areas that loan originators should be focusing on are “nurturing and cementing relationships with preapproved borrowers,” said Tim Braheem, founder and chief content creator of The Loan Atlas.
Braheem, former co-founder of Loan Toolbox — an online resource for training, tools, support and coaching — launched The Loan Atlas, a mortgage coaching platform, earlier this year with mortgage executives and top loan officers joining as faculty members.
“Our mission is to help loan originators become better at what they do in every aspect of their business and in their life,” Braheem said. “We’re utilizing the latest technology to do that with video and making the training much more engaging than they were back in the Loan Toolbox days.”
The Loan Atlas niche is served by its coaching faculty, consisting of 19 top mortgage originators and executives from various lending companies, according to Braheem.
Faculty members include Craig Strent, CEO of Apex Home Loans; Josh Burruss, vice president and chief lending officer at Intercoastal Mortgage; and Ryan Grant, division president at Neo Home Loans.
“Most of the faculty are anything from division presidents to regional managers to superstar loan originators. … I hand selected the faculty to represent different aspects of the business that needed to be taught at a high level.”
The Loan Atlas currently offers more than 50 hours of educational content that is focused on marketing to referral partners during a down market, as well as live question-and-answer sessions and one-on-one coaching classes with faculty members.
The platform is in the process of building out an online library that will give access to marketing materials, helping originators stay in touch with their past client and referral partner databases to reach consumers directly.
“By late spring, we’ll be releasing 18 different presentations — PowerPoint presentations along with notes that you can customize and use for first-time homebuyer seminars teaching things like the credit scoring model, USDA loans, government loans and reverse mortgages,” Braheem said. “So, kind of like a turnkey kit to get in front of a one-to-many type situation.”
Braheem aims to have 1,000 members by the end of the year compared to the current group of 140.
It’s still a tough time in the industry as some of Braheem’s clients are down to five closings per month, although some are still closing up to 30 loans a month.
“Right now, every originator should be establishing a strike rate with everybody in their database,” he said. “A strike rate is the interest rate that would need to be available for it to make sense for them to move forward and do another loan. … The great originator right now knows who in their database will take action in five to seven weeks, because they’ve had that dialogue with their clients.”
