Loan Officer Training - 11/27/2024 - Mastering the Initial Sales Call for Loan Officers

In this episode of Loan Officer Training, we dive into the art of mastering the initial sales call—a critical step in building trust and setting the foundation for a successful client relationship. Learn how to ask the right questions, uncover your client’s financial goals, and position yourself as the trusted advisor they need.

From crafting a compelling introduction to handling objections with confidence, we’ll equip you with the tools and strategies to turn prospects into loyal clients. Tune in and take your sales calls to the next level!



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About The Mortgage Calculator:

The Mortgage Calculator is a licensed Mortgage Lender (NMLS #2377459) that specializes in using technology to enable borrowers to access Conventional, FHA, VA, and USDA Programs, as well as over 5,000 Non-QM mortgage loan programs using alternative income documentation! 

Using The Mortgage Calculator proprietary technology, borrowers can instantly price and quote thousands of mortgage loan programs in just a few clicks. The Mortgage Calculator technology also enables borrowers to instantly complete a full loan application and upload documents to our AI powered software to get qualified in just minutes!

Our team of over 350 licensed Mortgage Loan Originators can assist our customers with Conventional, FHA, VA and USDA mortgages as well as access thousands of mortgage programs using Alternative Income Documentation such as Bank Statement Mortgages, P&L Mortgages, Asset Based Mortgage Programs, No Ratio CDFI Loan Programs, DSCR Investor Mortgages, Commercial Mortgages, Fix and Flip Mortgages and thousands more!

Our Mortgage Loan Originators are trained to be loan consultants to guide borrowers throughout the entire loan process. A licensed Loan Officer is only a phone call or zoom meeting away and always available to assist borr

Catch all the episodes of the Loan Officer Training Podcast at https://themortgagecalculator.com/Page/Loan-Officer-Training-Series-Podcast

Catch all the episodes of the Loan Officer Training Podcast at https://themortgagecalculator.com/Page/Loan-Officer-Training-Series-Podcast

Loan Officers for Unlimited Free Non-QM Leads & Trainings Join The Mortgage Calculator at https://themortgagecalculator.com/join

The Mortgage Calculator is a licensed Mortgage Lender (NMLS #2377459) that specializes in using technology to enable borrowers to access Conventional, FHA, VA, and USDA Programs, as well as thousands of Non-QM mortgage loan program variations using alternative income documentation!

Using The Mortgage Calculator proprietary technology, borrowers can instantly price and quote thousands of mortgage loan programs in just a few clicks. The Mortgage Calculator technology also enables borrowers to instantly complete a full loan application and upload documents to our AI powered software to get qualified in just minutes!

Our team of licensed Mortgage Loan Originators can assist our customers with Conventional, FHA, VA and USDA mortgages as well as acc...

Transcript

Restream recording Nov 27, 2024 • 05:04:17 PM: 0:13

So let's get right into it for mastering the initial sales call for loan officers. And I see we got a full house today. That is amazing. So, first, uh, thing to be concerned about here is completing the initial assessment, right? Uh, that's when you make the call, uh, certain things, uh, to consider here. First and foremost, remember, uh, always be a loan consultant and add value to the transaction. There are hundreds of thousands of licensed loan officers in the United States, but not every loan officer who, and not every licensed loan officer. Is a loan consultant, you know, simply, uh, we have application takers out there that all they do is just Take the application or make the initial call and they pass the baton down the road and that's it. No more contact with that, uh, with that borrower. And we have our loan consultants that assist the borrower throughout the process, especially at the initial call, when we are sizing up the deal, providing, uh, a consultation on what is the best course of action. That's how we train our loan officers here. at the mortgage calculator to be loan consultants and add value to the transaction. Because remember, you only get one chance to make a first impression. We want to make a good, we want to make a great first impression. You want to gather as much information as possible to determine the viable program options for the borrower before a quote is sent. So this is very important to know because the purpose of calling the borrower is not just to let them know you exist, tell them, thank you, I see your information. Let me send you some quotes and then talk to them about. What are the viable options? Because in that case, you may have sent a non relevant quote to that borrower, or prospective borrower at this point, use your contact, and then they may start an application for a program that they really wouldn't apply for. Uh, and that's not applicable to them, and then you may end up having to cancel the application because it just could not go anywhere because they never should have received that quote in the first place. Remember, borrowers are not the licensee. We're the licensee. If they receive stuff from you, they're going to assume, unless informed otherwise, that that's the viable option for them to click on. They're going to be really happy to get it. Then you know they're going to click away and they're going to submit that application. So just make sure that you follow the steps that we're going to, uh, detail here. So, uh, first thing is determine the transaction type. Now, some of this may sound a little bit, you know, mundane, but believe me, connect the dots, you know, dot your I's, cross your T's, and, uh, stay on the right path and you'll do okay. So Determine if it's a purchase or a refinance, right? Transaction type. Now, you want to discuss with them four components of the transaction, right? First component you want to discuss is credit, right? You want to ask them, what is their credit score? How many trade lines do you have, right? Open trade lines, closed trade lines, a year, two years, because remember we have in some cases minimum credit score requirements and in some cases we have minimum trade line requirements. You just want to get a picture. Of what you're dealing with you want to find out if there's any credit events Uh, you want to ask them what is their minimum monthly payment on liabilities because for all intents and purposes this initial phone call Is our pre qual where we are pre qual pre qualifying the borrower not to issue a letter or anything Just as we ask these questions to know which are the relevant options that we're going to be able to provide, uh, to, on our path to issuing our pre approval, right? We prequal them on the phone, find out what's viable options. So we're going to talk about credit because I want to know what the minimum monthly payments are. I want to know, I want to know what their total liabilities are so that when I ask them, what is their income and I know what is the purchase price on the property that they're looking to, to do, like if there's, if it's a purchase. You're going to ask them, do you have a price in mind? Have you been looking at homes in a certain neighborhood that you have an idea of what is the amount or if it's a refi, you know, what is the amount that they're looking to refinance if it's a written term or if they're also looking to consolidate some additional debt. Now, remember, DSCR loans, not applicable for debt consolidation. Just throw that out there. So again, we got the credit info, we got liabilities, then we go into income. Oh, and when you're talking about credit, this is probably one of the most important components because we want to vet the credit as much as possible. So ask them, where did they obtain their credit scores that they're providing to you? Have they had the credit report recently pulled? Do they have any of the apps like Credit Karma or the Experian app where they can at least provide an idea of what their credit scores are and liabilities are. So then we're talking about income. Are they self employed? Are they an employee? Are they salaried? Hourly? Is there any type of variable income like overtime, commission, tips, bonuses? These are all things you're going to ask and you're going to be taking your notes because you're going to be calculating some DTI there quickly as they give you this information. If they are self employed, discuss the need for tax returns if full dock. Uh, and if self employed, discuss the need for tax returns if full dock. And alt income doc options such as bank statement and P and L, the SCR, uh, find out what are the available assets for the transaction as needed, right? Uh, sourcing, seasoning, gifts, possible reserve requirements. And we're going to talk about the property. What's the seasoning untitled by the seller. If it's a purchase or borrower, if it's a refinance, what are the number of units and what are the, what is the property condition? Because you want to know, is it currently under renovation? Cause it's not the first time we've had an appraiser show up at a property for a refi and an FHA deal. It turns out the property is under total renovation, missing kitchen cabinets, bathrooms, and the bar is like. Well, I was gonna use the money to finish the renovation. So had you asked them that, then you would've known that what they really needed was an FHA 2 0 3 K renovation loan. So, uh, discuss then determine the program options. Now you've gathered some initial information, you're talking to the borrower, you wanna discuss what their expectations are. Versus what may or may not be possible after your initial assessment. Cause remember a proper assessment aligned with realistic expectations equals a closed loan. You want to empower the borrower with information and knowledge to allow for an intelligent decision. and create future referrals. Now, I also, I already touched base on the analysis. Doesn't hurt to throw it on here again, because when we are doing the analysis, we also want to touch base on occupancy. Is it a primary home, second home, or is it an investment property? When we talk about the credit, besides the score and credit events, minimum payments on liabilities, and one that I left off the list there, Disputed accounts. Are there any disputed accounts? Because remember, if there are disputed accounts, that may give you an issue with your agency loans, right? It may not give you an approval on a conventional loan. It may tell you, yeah, you're approved, but you got disputed accounts that we can't, uh, take into consideration, and your, uh, AUS approval is not valid. Manual underwrite, which doesn't exist for conventional. So now you got to talk to the borrower about getting those disputed accounts off the credit. If it's an FHA loan and your disputed accounts are over a thousand dollars in total, uh, then you also have to downgrade to a manual underwrite. That's really very important to find out about disputed accounts. And again, the income. Besides asking them those questions you want to find out have they even filed tax returns in the last two years because if they haven't then you know full doc with tax returns is not an option and when we talk about the assets besides what's available and seasoning we want to talk about are they expecting any gifts and have those gifts already been transferred because we want to make sure we have proper documentation of any gift transfers if they gave it to them in cash oh yeah my mom gave me four thousand dollars and she just gave me the cash and I put it in my account. You may have an issue because if you can't directly show a 4, 000 debit from the mother's account to match the 4, received on that date. You're going to have a real big problem documenting the 4, 000. And then again, we touch base on the property, right? What's the value? What's the condition? Does it need renovation? Now, if it's an agency loan, do remember that a conventional FHA, VA, and USDA all have selling guides. Those selling guides are pretty generic for each loan type. They vary a little bit in terms of the overlays that the different investors or lenders may put on the loans that they purchase, but the selling guides, the guidelines for those loan types do not change. They are what they are, but do be aware that there are overlays. Um, If you're going agency loan, is it something where you got an automated approval or do you think you're gonna have to go manual underwrite, which for FHA VA and USDA is gonna be lower, uh, DTIs for a manual underwrite? Um, make sure you look at the minimum credit score requirements and agency loans, but do be aware that in the end it's subject to, uh, a US. But you do know, for example, uh, you know, probably below a 620, you're not going to get anything on a conventional loan. And below 580 and an FHA, it's a minimum 10 percent down payment. So they start telling you some of, you know, uh, as it develops, be aware, uh, of the flow of the loan. And again, we did touch on disputed accounts. If it's non QM, Please be aware that all non QM guidelines are specific to the investor chosen, which means that you cannot generalize. The scenario, for example, for a DSCR loan, you know, you can't say, hey, for a DSCR loan, can a borrower, um, operate the property as a short term rental if they just bought the property four months ago, and they just started doing short term rentals two months ago, and they don't have any prior experience as an investor. If that's the situation, then, then, you know, that, um, um, you, um, you know, that's just, they're all separate. So you, you, you have to go to the specific guideline for the investor. Uh, that you chose and review the guidelines for that specific topic, because I'm going to tell you. They do vary. Some investors, if you're using short term rentals, require the borrower to have previous experience as an investor, regardless of short term rental experience, just investor experience renting. So, if they're a first time investor buying that property and they're going to operate it as short term rental, you have to make sure you choose the right investor because some outlets don't. will not allow it. And then if you submit the loan there, you'll be sort of disappointed when your loan comes back as a suspense, can't approve it because of ours doing short term rental and they don't have experience. So then you may have to definitely will have to pivot there to another outlet to submit your loan. And then obviously non QM, you have multiple income types. It could be all dark. It could, it could be, you know, all dock a P& L, bank statement, DSCR, asset utilization it, uh, or it could be full dock. And remember, full dock, uh, could be self employed borrowers as well. I mean, just because they're self employed doesn't automatically mean that you can't do them full dock with tax returns. It doesn't automatically mean that you have to do them, uh, non QM, right? Agency loans are self, have self employed borrowers too. You just ask for their tax returns. And then if there's a co borrower, is that co borrower going to be an occupant? or a non occupant because that has a lot of repercussions, especially on an FHA loan, if it's an occupant, a co borrower, or non occupant co borrower. And last but not least, right, you've done your analysis, you've done your review, check the guidelines, now you have to send Buyable quote options and follow up with your borrower. This happens at the end after you've done everything. Don't hastily want to send quotes. Now, what I like to do is if I'm having a good conversation with the customer, I'm taking my notes. We've built up some great rapport. I may already be able to load up some quotes. I mean, I would say a little bit more experienced than your typical MLO, but I love being able to send quotes to the borrower. While I have them still on the phone, right, they're getting the quotes and we're discussing the quotes while I have them on the phone if they're if they're really into it and they're really serious. You know, you got the rapport going. They're not telling you, Hey, Jose, I gotta go. I'm busy and I gotta go walk my dog or something like that. There you've engaged them. Take the time to review. And if you feel that you're able to, based on the information that they provided and that you don't have to do any, you know, real deep research because there's no, um, odd scenario, then send them the quotes while you have them on the phone. Get feedback from them because they may like it right then and there and tell you Jose I like that one in which case then they're either going to click the start my loan application button or you're going to click start loan for them to set so that they receive the link so they can uh start the application upload their documents and submit the application right but remember you're going to review the specific guidelines for the loan Option being sent because all non QM guidelines are unique to each investor and agency guidelines have investor overlays. It's very important to make sure that your quotes are relevant to the borrower's objective and qualification. Do not send them random quotes after you've spoken with them and you've determined what they need. Because then they're, they may be a little bit disappointed and not take you seriously and make sure to send multiple options, right? Multiple options for loan to value, right? With different down payment option. Even if they asked you for a 25 percent down 75 percent LTV DSCR loan, I would also send them an 80 percent and an 85 percent just in case they know what's there in case somebody else offers it to them and they didn't know it existed. And then you never hear back from them. It's because they didn't think that you could do the 15 percent down option. Uh, make sure you send multiple option quote, multiple quote options for income types, uh, especially if they're self employed, right? Cause, uh, you don't, you haven't reviewed their tax returns. And if they didn't tell you, I haven't done tax returns in two years. Then for that self employed borrower, I would send them a full doc and at least a bank statement, maybe a DSCR loan as well, if it's an investment property. Uh, and again, if it's an investment property, non QM, make sure you send them multiple prepayment options as well. I've seen too many cases that prepayment option is on, is zero. And I've asked the MLO, why did you only send one option with no prepay? And they say, well, that's, that's what the customer asked for. And I'm like, yeah, but you want to send them the additional prepayment options so they can put into perspective the higher cost of the zero prepay. Cause maybe they'll opt for a one or three or a five. And they see that it's a substantial savings in their monthly payment. They don't know. Remember, they're not the licensee. We're the licensee. They're not totally aware of all the options that are out there. And like I just previously stated, self employed borrowers can qualify for agency loan, doesn't have to be non QM, doesn't have to be a bank statement. But also note that if they want to close in an LLC, then you got to go non QM. And also remember, DSCR loans can close in a personal name. I've seen it where in some cases, a borrower is being told that they got to close in an entity. If it's a DSLR loan, and that's absolutely not true, it can be a personal name or it can be closing in an entity. And last but not least, make sure you, if you did not send a quote to the borrower while you had them on the phone, then please make sure that you follow up with a phone call immediately after sending the quotes, unless you sent the quotes at 11 o'clock at night or 12 o'clock at night, make sure that you follow up with a phone call immediately after sending the quotes to ensure that they receive the quotes. To discuss the details, build rapport and hopefully, uh, cement the deal and get that loan application submitted. So are there any questions? Cause we covered some pretty good information here. This is a good, uh, flow, uh, for a call that I would love everyone to follow when at all possible. I know sometimes borrowers, uh, don't want to stay on the phone. They may be in a hurry, but if you see that they're engaged, you should not be in a hurry. To hang up just'cause you wanna send a quote, get all the relevant information, uh, so you can provide a thorough and, and, uh, relevant analysis. Send viable quote options and get a good loan. Applications. You do not want borrowers applying for a loan without you having discussed it with them, hopefully, and definitely without you having sent some relevant quotes to the borrower. Do not just send the borrower your, your application link. You want them to apply, talk to them, find out what they need, or if they texted you and told you what they need, or if they emailed you and told you what they need, that's okay. Then send them the relevant quotes, then follow up so that they start a relevant and viable loan. So I don't see any questions. I'm going to give it a minute, uh, see if any questions come in. Uh, yeah, we'll, we'll have, uh, copies of this, uh, to, uh, to our system. Uh, this, uh, you know, uh, one of our, I was going to know, is there a summary of this in the Knowledge Center? Uh, this presentation will be, uh, uploaded. Plus, we record all of these trainings. All right. So, any questions regarding the topic? Uh, because yes, we do, I already answered that we do have a summary. Uh, we will be uploading, uh, we do upload the presentations. Okay, well, I don't see any questions on, on the, um, actual topics that I covered. Yes, we, you can get a copy. All right, well, I'll give you another minute. People think about your questions. Alright, I don't think we have any additional specific questions regarding the subject matter. Anybody need any clarification on the processes that I explained for when you are making the calls? Oh, all right. Well, yeah, I think I was pretty thorough and detailed. So, um, hopefully you guys got something out of this. If you follow this flow, I can guarantee you you're going to get, you're going to build more rapport. You're going to engage more borrowers. You're going to send better quotes. You're going to get more relevant loan applications. You're going to get more close loans. So everybody have a great day. We don't have any training tomorrow because we have a great. Thanksgiving with your family and loved ones.