HOW TO WIN THE 2ND HALF OF 2020

Today, we're at halftime of 2020. It’s July 2nd of 2020, and this year certainly hasn't gone as planned. Loan officers and Realtors everywhere are facing a problem today: Many families are afraid to commit to buying a home right now because they’re concerned about the future. From COVID-19 to the economy to their job to the effects of the presidential election, mortgage and real estate professionals are seeing objection after objection. So how do you overcome these objections?

Here are my favorite ideas from last week's Tom Ferry interview.

BIG IDEA: Do Zoom or Facebook LIVE webinars with Realtors to share local data and help families make informed decisions about moving up, moving down, or review their current mortgage and real estate game plan.

WATCH THE FULL TOM FERRY INTERVIEW FOR YOURSELF

Dan Keller, one of America’s best loan officers with over $100M in 2019 production, co-hosted last weeks interview with featuring Tom as our special guest. Here, Tom explains how Zoom and Facebook LIVE webinars are a huge opportunity for both loan officers and Realtors.

“I used to coach this top agent named Christina Martinez, explains Tom. “After years of doing in-person seminars, she recently went from 10 people on Zoom to 200 people on Zoom in two weeks.”

Tom Ferry continues, “I had a client with 230 first-time buyers on a Zoom session. They promoted it to their database, and on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn, and their loan officer also promoted it, so they got a lot of push into the marketplace with good ads and good headlines. And Zoom allows people to register, so they captured that registration information.”

To get started, the first partner with one of your top agents. Ask the agent what some of the key challenges are that he or she is facing in the market right now. Then tackle those challenges in the webinar by using powerful, positive data to allay customers’ fears and get them out of the right brain (emotional) and into the left brain (logic). Here are some challenge busting ideas that can help you rock a Zoom or Facebook LIVE webinar.

CHALLENGE #1: The Great Recession flashback. “What we have right now is too much drama and not enough data,” Tom explains. “We can’t argue with the people facing the drama, but they’re misinformed. They say, ‘I don’t want to buy a house right now, because I’m concerned that home prices are going to go down.’

“Of course they feel that,” Tom says. “The Great Recession is still an open wound for some people. But what most people don’t know is that, of 120 million single-family residences in the U.S., 42.1% of them have no mortgage.”

• SOLUTION: Look inside the MLS. The most successful agents on the planet live inside the MLS two to three times a day because it’s a lagging indicator of what’s going on. Also, report on mortgage statistics such as the one above. “On the high end, if the property has perks like beachfront, big back yard, is four years or newer, and is turnkey, it’s selling. Everything else in the luxury market is stagnant. On the other hand, the mid-priced market is selling well—even if it’s in poor condition. You can follow nationwide home sales at showingtime.com.

CHALLENGE #2: Unemployment is high. Everybody knows someone who got let go, was furloughed, or whose hours were cut back. But jobs are being regained.

• SOLUTION: Use the website Keeping Current Matters to acquire these statistics. Note that 60% of the people who were let go are under 24 years old. They’re not the homebuyer market. Only 40% of people over 24 are or were unemployed. And, “just two weeks ago, we regained 2.5 million jobs,” Tom says. It’s important for concerned homebuyers to know that the job market is turning up.

CHALLENGE #3: Home values might drop. “Right now, across the U.S., showings and searches are higher than they were this time last year, and interest rates are low, yet there are no homes on the market. The reason: We have a misinformation problem.” You can help turn that around in your webinar with the right facts and data. If you look at historic values in your communities from organizations such as the Mortgage Bankers Association, Fanny Mae and Freddie Mac, you’ll likely see that homes are going to appreciate in 2020 and 2021.

• SOLUTION: State home values from the above-mentioned sources. Also, Tom suggests you ask your clients this question: “When you guys told me you wanted to buy this house, were you thinking about only buying it for the short term? Or is this someplace that you guys plan to be, as most Americans are, for seven, 10, 15, 20 years? And which one?”

How to build your following with videos

Being a sought-after leader and influencer where what you say matters to large groups of people doesn’t happen overnight. Your respect and reputation among your audience has to build organically. One way to do it is to start shooting short videos and publishing them on your website, through email, and on all manner of social media.

“You need to be shooting a video every single week,” Tom suggests. “Consider sitting with an agent for four minutes or less and saying, ‘Hey. It’s Monday. Here's what’s happened in the last seven days. Interest rates are now at this. Prices are here. There are this many escrows. This many closings. This many new listings. Here’s the current supply. Let’s look at showingtime.com. Data’s through the roof. The biggest challenge we have is supply and demand.’

Right now, prospecting for new business is more important than ever. People are looking for advice, direction, and trusted data. Video is a great way to explain to a real estate audience how the Total Cost Analysis can help position families in a better financial situation when we come out of COVID. 

Many loan officers and real estate agents are being paralyzed by fear right now, and Tom shared 3 key questions or techniques to help propel you into a more constructive mindset for achievement.  

• Question 1. What do you believe to be true? Write down the following: What do you believe to be true about the future of the mortgage business? What do you believe to be true about the future of real estate? What do you believe is the future of your income potential? What do you believe is the truth about your life and your lifestyle, your relationships, your health? About what you know what you’re going to discover? “That’s a big part of your mindset, and whatever you believe, you act on,” Tom says.
• Question 2. What do you believe you’re capable of? “I believe I’m capable of learning, growing, asking better questions, doing the work, serving customers, being empathetic. I believe I’m capable of working harder than anyone else, and when you do those things, guess what. You become successful,” Tom adds. 
• Question 3: What do you believe you’re worth and worthy of? “Could you be wrong about the limitations you put on yourself?” Tom asks. “Here’s your halftime speech. If you have to doubt something between now and the end of the year, doubt your limits. You have so much more in you, and you’ve got a short amount of time in which to do it, so get off Facebook and get to work.”

In today’s economy, you must be asking families, “What are your hopes? What are your goals? What are your dreams?” and then putting that into a Total Cost Analysis, whether it’s a first-time homebuyer who wants to go from renting to owning or a move-up buyer who wants a bigger home ... You need to be using the resources you have available to you. That includes data statistics sites like Keeping Current Matters and showingtime.com. And you need to be using tools that empower the customer to make the right decision for their family’s future, like Mortgage Coach.

CLICK to watch this full interview with Dan Keller and Tom Ferry.