Long Version

Prospective client

: “I was referred to you by my real estate agent. She said that you guys are great. I've already been pre-approved. But she said, you're great, so I just wanted to chat and see why you versus my current lender I'm pre-approved with?"

You:

"Mr. Smith. First of all, thank you so much for reaching out. We're incredibly happy to have the opportunity to help you. I'd like to ask, did Mary, your real estate agent, did she tell you what makes us different and unique as a mortgage lender?"

Prospective client:

"No."

You:

"Well, not a big deal. I'm happy to help you understand what makes us different or unique. Do you mind if I ask how your preapproval process went with your current lender?"

Prospective client:

"Yeah, no problem."

You:

"Let me take a stab at it. You called them, or they called you. At that point, they sent you to an online application; you filled that out. Is that accurate?" Prospective client: "Yeah." You: "And then, they ask you to send in some documents so they could pre-approve you."

Prospective client

: "Yeah."

You:

"And then, they sent you a pre-approval letter letting you know what you're qualified for."

Prospective client

: "Yep. That was essentially how it went."

You:

"Mr. Smith, first of all, I just want to apologize that that happened. And the reason I'm apologizing is not because that's not expected. It's unfortunately that's what the mortgage industry does, and that's really just someone who's interested in selling you debt, not someone who is really interested in helping you become a successful homeowner.”

"So, what I'd like to talk to you about is how we're different. We break down the difference into three categories, how we're going to help you before the transaction ever starts, how we're going to help you during the actual transaction time, but most importantly, Mr. Smith, is I'm going to show you how we're going to be the most valuable person in your life for the next 30 years in every aspect of real estate or finance from the day you close to 30 years later. I'm just going to touch on this briefly now, and then we'll go into it more in our consultation. But we're going to ask you questions on the mortgage application that actually have nothing to do with qualifying you for a mortgage but have everything to do with me giving you the right advice and guidance on how to structure this, the purchase price of the home, the monthly payment you should have, and then, how that's going to fit into your short and long term goals.”

"And as I'm asking you those questions, my hope is that you'll realize if another lender didn't ask you these questions, it's obvious they don't have your best interest in mind, but we'll get to that in a second. Also, before the transaction starts, we're going to help you stand out in the eyes of the seller in two ways. Do you know the difference between a fully under-intro approval and just being preapproved?"

Prospective client:

"No, not really."

You: "

Okay. Well, right now, that means the loan officer or their team looked at your documents, looked at your credit, looked at your income, and they think, yeah, this is pretty good. Unfortunately, that pre-approval letter is worth about as much as the paper it's written on, and the listing agent's going to know that. And that's why all-cash offers typically get their offer accepted, not only at a higher percentage, but they have a lower cost to buy that home.”

"What we do, and what I would encourage you to do is let's actually get your loan fully underwritten before we even start to go look at homes or write offers. And what this does is it allows us to remove your loan contingency.

Did your lender or your real estate agent explain the loan contingency to you?"

Prospective client:

"Not really."

You:

"Okay. Well, a loan contingency is effectively an insurance policy for you, but it creates added risk for the seller. If I'm the seller and you make an offer on my property, with a loan contingency, that means you have anywhere from 17 to 21 days to, after I accept your offer, get your financing in order. If, for some reason, you don't get your financing in order in that 17 to 21-day window, you could get your earnest money deposit back, cancel the transaction, and just walk off, which is great for you because it protects your interest."

"But for me as a seller, it puts me at a significant risk because that means I haven't actually sold my home until that contingency is removed. And if you walk, I have to start all over, find another buyer, and deal with all that. Does that make sense? The way that we're going to help you with that is that we're going to actually do all the heavy lifting upfront.

What most lenders do in the 11th hour, we're going to do right now. So, when we write your offer, we can remove your loan contingency altogether. And when our team calls the listing agent as your offer goes out, we're going to explain that you look almost just like cash in terms of a risk profile. That's going to increase the likelihood of your offer getting accepted, and it could probably decrease the price that they'll accept because other offers wouldn't be structured appropriately.”

"So, that's another thing we're going to do to help you before the transaction. And then, the last thing in terms of how we help you before the transaction ever starts is the consultation of the education. Now, from what it sounds like, did your lender spend any time going through different purchase prices, going through different down payment amounts, going through different monthly payment amounts, post-closing liquidity to make sure that you're protected, talking about insurance, looking at generational wealth? Did they go through all of those things with you?"

Prospective client

: "No. No. I just got a preapproval letter."

You:

"Well, again, I'm sorry. And it's not because they did anything wrong; it's just because they did what the industry normally does. What we'll do is after this call, our discovery call, we're going to schedule time, roughly about an hour, where we're going to do a full consultation. And that consultation is going to show you everything you need to know so you can confidently go into a pretty challenging market making really good decisions.”

"And I've seen clients that move too fast on this, and unfortunately, if you read some of the articles I'm happy to send you, over 60% of first-time home buyers have some form of regret within the first year of buying a home. And oftentimes, is they didn't have enough information because, unfortunately, most lenders just don't offer it. That's just the before part of what we do. Do you have any questions on that?"

*Pause for questions*

You:

"So, Mr. Smith, during the transaction, the first thing we're going to do is a contract meeting. As soon as you get your offer accepted, we're going to have you come back in the office or jump back on Zoom, and we're going to go through every step from the first day to closing, how we are going to protect your earnest money deposit, how we're going to ensure you get the best terms throughout that period, how we're going to make sure that we reduce your risk, how we're going to ensure that appraisal does not become a challenge?”

"Our communications standard, your numbers will not change from the time we start until later, which, unfortunately, is just not the case in the mortgage industry. More often than not, numbers change, and people get a little bit stuck because the lender has to change something. They didn't lock the rate, and that's why people have bad experiences in the mortgage industry. It's because it's hard for lenders to keep their word from day one to day 30. You have that commitment that nothing will change on our end. We're also going to ensure that you can experience the joy of becoming a homeowner. Our process makes it so simple because we've done all the heavy lifting upfront, and we're so over-communicative that you're never going to wonder what's happening. Is there any issue? Are we closing on time?”

"And what I would encourage you to do is just go on to our social media sites. You can go into Yelp, you can go into Google or Zillow, and look at our client reviews. I'm not asking you to look at these client reviews because I want to brag. I'm asking you to look at those reviews because I want you to have that same exact experience or better. And if at any point you're not, you just need to tell me, and we'll rectify it immediately. And again, if you're comparing versus other lenders, then check their reviews versus ours. Ask questions, do your due diligence upfront." The most important part of what we do, however, is from the day the transaction closes and beyond.

One thing that I know for certain is that regardless of what lender you use, you will become a homeowner as long as everything goes well. The challenge that I've seen in my 18 years in this business is that there is a massive difference between owning a home and becoming a very successful homeowner.”

"Our team is committed to helping you become a very successful homeowner in all facets of real estate and finance. I want to walk you through what we do. Just again, brief overview, and we'll go into it further in the consultation. One of the things we're going to do is we're going to help you with a home concierge service, right? Which means we're going to help you with home maintenance, home repairs, home upkeep, and so on and so forth. Because one of the biggest regrets of homeownership is that people underestimate the time, money, and energy that it costs for home maintenance and home repairs. We'll show you exactly how we plan for that and how we can save you thousands of dollars just in the first year on that strategy.

Next thing we're going to do is we're going to ensure that from a financial perspective, we're always engaged in helping you set goals for new real estate, helping you set goals for net worth.”

"Now, we don't manage money. We're not investment advisors. We're not going to sell you any other products. We simply ensure that we're keeping track and helping you set goals so we move you forward from a generational wealth perspective. And if we're really being honest, that's likely a big part of why you're buying this home, right? Because you wanted to create wealth. Our team's going to make that commitment. We're going to send you a monthly real estate wealth digest that helps you fully understand not just what your home is worth, but the equity you have in it. It's like a digital interactive bank statement for your house. And we are also going to be reaching out to you at least once a year, proactively helping you plan for the future. Our team is committed to not just hoping you get where you want to go, but we're going to take your hand and likely take you places that you wouldn't have gone without us.”

"And this is why over 75% of our clients if you polled that group, would tell you they didn't choose us because we were the cheapest. They choose us because we were going to be the most valuable person to help them become a successful homeowner. And other lenders never even talk about that. Because unfortunately, most of the lenders operate a bit like a lawnmower without a bag. They keep moving forward, their clients keep moving back, and they leave it up to you to figure out every other aspect of your real estate and your finances. And we just don't believe that's appropriate. Hopefully, this helps you understand. What I'd like to do at this point is, first of all, do you have any questions?"

*Pause for questions*

You:

"What I'd like to do at this point is just ask you some of the questions on our discovery call that your other lender likely didn't ask. And then, we can get into the application portion of it. But ultimately, the best thing for us to do is let's get through this call. Let's schedule a consultation. Let's get you fully underwritten and make sure that we start the before process in a really great way.”