Mortgage Loan Officers Can Cycle-Proof their Business. Here's How

The mortgage industry is feeling serious pain right now.

After super-highs in 2020 and 2021, it’s experiencing lows not felt since the late 2000s.

Loan officers will leave the business and never come back, especially those who started in the past two years.

These cycles are brutal. I’ve experienced at least five since I started as a wholesale mortgage processor at Washington Mutual in 2001.

But what if there were a way to cycle-proof your mortgage loan origination business? Here’s what it would look like.

• No matter what rates were doing, you could sit back and laugh at the headlines.
• If your company lets you go, another company will be happy to scoop you up.
• Realtors will be calling you for referrals in every type of market

It won’t be easy, but the rewards will be well worth it. Want to hear more? Read on.

Cycle-proof your business: the quick answer

If you want to know what this strategy is so you can stop reading, here it is: you need to become an expert in your niche online.

It could be a blog, a YouTube channel, TikTok, or something else. The important thing is that you establish yourself as the world’s best in your niche area of expertise.

I’ll break this down into manageable parts.

What’s your lending niche?

Every mortgage loan originator has a niche.

Do you do more FHA 203k loans than anyone in Tulsa, Oklahoma? Then you’re the “Tulsa 203King”.

Are you the best at VA loans for servicemembers in their first two years of active duty at Joint Base Lewis McChord near Tacoma, Washington? Then you’re the JBLM Active-Duty VA Loan Pro.

There is no limit to how many niches can exist. Differentiating yourself with a kick-butt title will have customers and agents knocking your door down to do business with you.

Most loan officers’ angle is “I’m good at doing loans.” That doesn’t tell the client that you’re the best for them.

People in the home buying or refinancing process are only concerned about what you can do for them at that moment. If your specialty is the thing they need, they won’t think twice about working with you, and won’t shop around for a better rate.

But it’s not enough to just give yourself a title. You have to help people discover it. That’s where the online part comes in.

You must be discoverable to an online audience

This is going to be controversial.

Stop traditional marketing. Just stop.

I’ve talked to dozens of consumers while doing focus groups for various websites I’ve built up. Traditional loan originator and real estate agent marketing is just a big turnoff. Here’s what I mean.

• No one cares that you’re the top 1% of anything.
• Your face on a kiosk at the mall doesn’t mean you can help them accomplish their goals.
• Your page on the company’s website is terrible and doesn’t say anything about you.
• Stop putting time into your email signature. No one cares.
• Your fliers suck.

Now that I’ve offended most of you, I can drop the real knowledge for the ones still reading.

Once you decide on your niche and title, you have to build up your online presence.

Decide on one platform. I would recommend a blog/website that allows you to post new articles regularly, if you’d rather write (or have someone write for you) than be on camera.

If you’re good on camera, start a YouTube channel.

Both these mediums help your content stay around for a long time so people can discover you via Google search. I know there are tons of mortgage pros doing well on social media platforms. And you can definitely start there. But if you do, find a way to capture email addresses so you can continue to reach out to your audience.

Eventually, all social media channels change their algorithms and make you pay for views.

Instagram or TikTok make you super discoverable, but these platforms will want their piece of the pie eventually.

But if it means starting on a social channel or not doing it at all, by all means, start somewhere.

Don’t try to do all the platforms at once. A mistake is trying to be on TikTok, Instagram, a blog, YouTube, and Facebook all at once. You’ll end up with five or ten mediocre channels.

Do one and perfect it. You may decide that’s all you need.

So, why the emphasis on building an online presence?

• 99% of home buyers age 23-56 start their search online, says Statista

There are other stats, but that one should convince you to be where home and mortgage shoppers begin the process.

Turn traffic into leads

On your website or social channel, start collecting leads and working them. Lots of likes, views, or web traffic is only vanity unless you can convert them into loan applications and closed loans.

Place a lead capture form on your website, or direct people to it from your social channel.

Call the leads right away. Sure, internet leads are not as good as a real estate agent referral. Just accept that fact. But these people already recognize you as an expert in the niche that they need. So your job is easier than if you were buying leads from an external source.

Over time, you’ll find ways to increase conversion from lead to app to closed loan.

Now, your loan origination business is cycle-proof

A year or two into this strategy, your business will be cycle-proof. Bring on the next boom and bust, because now you’re ready.

“Pounding the street” and making connections with referral partners is great and should be part of your business, too. But in down markets, real estate agents and financial planners have to be getting sick of loan officers requesting lunch with them.

With this strategy, referral partners will be calling you because they, too, will see you online.

Examples of loan officers who are cycle-proof

One of my favorite examples of this strategy is Make Florida Your Home by Phil Ganz. He’s now the expert at moving to and living in Florida. What an amazing brand and strategy he’s created.

One group that has been around for a long time is MadisonMortgageGuys.com. They started developing their online presence for the Madison, Wisconsin area and have since expanded to Illinois, Minnesota, and Florida.

Eleanor Thorne at NCFHAexpert.com has become the FHA expert in North Carolina simply by declaring herself so.

Your website or social channel doesn’t have to be nationally known or influential to work. A website that gets 100 of the right visitors per month is better than one with 10,000 in junk traffic. What matters is leads and closed loans.

Start somewhere and build as you go. What clients want is to know that you’re an expert at what they need. If you can prove that online, you’ll get leads.

I hope this has encouraged you to take steps to cycle-proof your business. Don’t totally rely on leads from your company, referral partners, or even your past book of clients. Set yourself apart in the eyes of regular people who are looking to buy or refi. Be one-of-a-kind in your niche, and mortgage customers can’t help but come to you.

Featured image by Jason Goodman on Unsplash