Broker to Broker Archives - AIME

As Broker/Owner of Mindful Mortgage Kim Clancy has become a master at building communities. For Kim, everything she does for her community is not about promoting her business, but about being a supportive member of the community. She wants to be a part of her community and she wants to be a trusted mortgage advisor to her neighbors. Implementing that approach, Kim has established Mindful Mortgage not just as a mortgage brokerage, but as an integral part of her local community.

Kim joined the mortgage industry in 2000 after working as a clinical social worker in California. Her mother had recently become a retail loan officer and helped her join a retail shop as a loan officer assistant. She stayed at that shop until 2008 when she moved to Colorado and joined another retail shop before finally making the move to Wholesale in 2019, when she opened Mindful Mortgage in Erie, Colorado.

Living and originating in a small town, becoming an important part of the community was crucial to Kim’s success. For her, building community is a philosophy, not a strategy. She wanted to be that person in the community that neighbors could come to for mortgage advice and she actively worked to become that. She made Mindful Mortgage a sponsor of a local charter school and she participates in community events like Homecoming Parades and volunteering for the local Parent Teacher Organization. “It’s not about selling your business,” she said. “It’s about people getting to know you.”

Part of that community building is Kim’s dedication to supporting other women in the mortgage industry. At her first retail shop, every loan officer was a man and women were assistants or processors. That experience has motivated her to support other women in the industry. She is a mentor with AIME’s Mentorship program, where she requested to mentor another female broker as well as an active member of AIME’s Women Mortgage Network (WMN) Facebook Group. Those groups give women an opportunity to share experiences and skills with each other. Early in 2020, Kim was struggling to balance the increased business the refinance boom brought to her business while also caring for her family. She posted about her struggle in WMN and received hundreds of comments from other women in the industry who were feeling the same struggle.

Kim’s parting advice: Be genuine. People know when you are not being your genuine self. “Be true to yourself and everyone will feel it,” she said. That means following your instincts and intuition and also staying true to yourself and your ideals. If you do that, success will follow.

Notes:

Getting into the Mortgage Industry (1:06)
Building Community (11:21)
Supporting Women in the Mortgage Industry (21:56)
Parting Advice (31:36)

The post Brokering 101: Building Communities By Fostering Genuine Relationships (With Kim Clancy) – Episode 88 appeared first on AIME.

As Broker/Owner of Price Mortgage, Andy Price knows how to scale a business. Starting out on his own, Andy took over a year to build out and perfect processes before he hired his first employee. Now with five years running his own brokerage, he has grown Price Mortgage to a team of 50 through organic growth and investment in his existing employees. 

Andy first joined the housing industry as a real estate agent but quickly made the change to broker, joining his family’s shop. That is when everything clicked. He worked as a loan officer for years until he opened his own brokerage, Price Mortgage, in March 2017. 

In the first year of Price Mortgage, Andy did not hire anyone. Instead, he focused on setting up the groundwork, the processes, and the tech stack so when he did begin to hire loan officers everything would fit perfectly in place. He focused on making Price Mortgage a brokerage where LOs have all the tools and resources they need to thrive. Andy worked to identify pain points he experienced during his time as an LO so he could minimize or remove them. 

When he did begin hiring staff, he took a quantity over quality approach. Andy has never pushed to massively grow Price Mortgage. Through organic growth, Andy now has a team of 50 loan officers, processors, and loan officer assistants. The key to not only building a large team, but a successful one is to hire the right people, Andy said. That also means knowing when someone is not a good fit for your company. “Not everybody’s a good fit and you can’t always make them fit,” he said. 

The other key to building a successful team is to continue investing in your current staff. Instead of always hiring new loan officers, Andy works with his existing LOs to help them grow. It’s easier and ultimately a better return on investment to help a current employee increase their production instead of going through the hiring process. When he does bring on new employees, he is careful to bring on a few people at a time at most. If you bring in a flood of people, your resources will be strained to accommodate all those new hires.

Andy’s parting advice: Treat others the way you want to be treated and give them the service you’d expect. A mortgage is the biggest decision many borrowers will ever make so make sure they understand the whole process and are comfortable with everything. The same advice goes for your team. Andy never asks his employees to do something he is unwilling to do himself. Any brokerage that is more focused on money than building relationships will lose in the end, Andy said. If you focus on your borrowers and staff, the money will follow. 

Getting into the Industry (2:06)
Starting your Own Shop (10:03)
Hiring & Training (25:22)
Parting Advice (36:27)

This Episode is sponsored by Homepoint 

The post People Over Profits: Scaling Organically By Investing In Your Team (With Andy Price) – Episode 87 appeared first on AIME.

Join us for a special edition of the Broker to Broker Podcast recorded LIVE from the floor of AIME Fuse 2021. Listen as AIME President Marc Summers pulls brokers from the crowd for quick conversations on Fuse, the future of the mortgage industry, and much more.

AIME created the Fuse National Conference to aid in its mission to unite originators across the U.S. to build a community that had never before existed in the industry. AIME Fuse 2021 drew 3,000 brokers and wholesale mortgage professionals from all across the country last week for the largest nationwide gathering of independent mortgage professionals in the industry.

“We saw record levels of attendance in this year’s Fuse National Conference with 3,000 mortgage professionals from across the nation attending the conference,” Katie Sweeney, AIME CEO said. “Fuse is a culmination of the hard work and determination of the broker channel and an opportunity to experience the power of the broker community. It’s a once in a lifetime chance to collaborate with top producers and game-changers in the mortgage industry and brokers turned up in full force.”

As AIME heads into 2022, the organization is focused on furthering its goal of educating borrowers that brokers are truly the best option for their home buying experience. AIME plans to expand its training programs and add certification programs for brokers to help them better serve consumers.

This episode is sponsored by CF Wholesale

The post Broker to Broker: Special AIME Fuse 2021 Edition – (Episode 86) appeared first on AIME.

Adrian Placinta has perfected his processing to the point that he can get a clear-to-close in a week. The broker owner of True Path Loans has been honing and perfecting his processing since he joined the mortgage industry in the mid-Aughts. That expertise in processing has not only allowed him to handle a pipeline of over 100 loans as a one-man shop but also allowed him to easily and quickly scale to a shop with 30 employees in just the last year and a half. 

Adrian joined the mortgage industry in 2005 after finishing college at San Diego State. He initially joined a retail shop where he stayed for six months learning the ins and outs of the industry. Leaving for the broker channel, Adrian landed at a wholesale shop where he lasted through the stock market crash. Leaving the industry briefly in 2010, he quickly rejoined landing at another brokerage where he stayed until 2017 when he ventured out on his own. 

Starting with $10,000, Adrian was a one-man shop for his first few years. It was not until 2020 when the refinance boom hit that he hired his first employee. At that point, he had well over 100 loans in his pipeline and needed a second person to handle the increased workload. He started by hiring a processor, then a Chief Financial Officer, and then finally a sales manager. Those were the first of many hires that saw Adrian grow from a one-man shop to a brokerage with a team of 30 in roughly a year. 

The key to that growth, Adrian’s mastering of processing. From his early days in the mortgage industry, he has always had a knack for processing. At the retail shop, he quickly learned he hated sales but loved processing. He teamed up with an amazing salesperson who handled sales, while he processed. When he joined the broker channel, he had no choice but to master processing. At his first brokerage, he learned as much as he could from their processor so he was prepared when he went off on his own. “You gotta have a process or you’re going to fail eventually.”

Adrian’s parting advice: Engage with the broker community. He would never be where he is today if it was not for the connections he made with AIME. He credits the 2019 AIME Fuse conference for giving him the motivation and drive to scale his brokerage. One way to interact with the community is by attending AIME Fuse 2021 in Las Vegas on September 24th and 25th. Get your tickets before it’s too late. 

Notes:
Getting in the mortgage industry (1:21)
Processing (7:30)
Scaling & Training (16:47)
Parting Advice (26:19)

The post How to Perfect Processing To Successfully Scale Your Pipeline (With Adrian Placinta) – Episode 85 appeared first on AIME.

Angela Caputo has mastered the art of email marketing. Drawing from her database of 3,600+ clients, Angela sends out a monthly email that updates her clients on the mortgage industry and promotes products like Homebot. Her last email took her roughly five hours to create and netted her seven refinance applications. She builds that database by keeping strong relationships with her referral sources including real estate agents, insurance brokers, and real estate attorneys. By email marketing to her database, Angela has been able to build a consistently successful pipeline.

One thing that makes Angela stand out is her relationship building, especially with her referral sources. Real estate agents are her biggest lead source, but she also gets business from insurance agents and real estate attorneys. She lives by the “if you send business to someone, they will send business back” philosophy.

Once Angela gets those clients, she adds them to her database. Once she has them in her system, she organically stays in touch with them through her monthly emails. A few recent topics included Homebot, insurance leads, updates on FHA’s student loan calculations, and VettedVA. The key to her success? “Being genuine goes a long way,” she says. Angela is careful to never come across as salesy. Instead of reaching out when she needs more business, she keeps up to date them even when she does not expect them to bring her business.

Angela’s parting advice: Create your database as soon as possible. Even if you only have a database of 20 people, it is never too early to start building it. And once you have that database, never stop engaging with them.

Notes:
Getting into the industry (1:18)
Building Relationships With Your Referral Sources (6:03)
Getting Leads With Email Marketing (13:37)
Angela’s Parting Advice (28:15)

The post Staying Top-Of-Mind With Clients By Building Your Database (With Angela Caputo) – Episode 84 appeared first on AIME.

Tune into this special AIME Fuse edition of Broker To Broker with three guests as they preview their sessions for AIME Fuse 2021. 

Christine Beckwith, President, and COO of 20/20 Vision for Success, is here to highlight her session “Don’t Be a Boss, Be a Leader.” This session will help catapult your personal and professional development with tips from Christine, an expert leadership coach. She will outline how to incorporate leadership strategies into all roles across the mortgage industry to help you achieve your full potential.

Chris Griffith, Owner of Debt Does Deals, is here to highlight his session “Make it Your Mission to Better Serve Veterans.” This session will include Vetted VA leaders ready to reveal the classified knowledge brokers need to support their veteran neighbors. 

Andres Munar, Co-Founder of Keystone Alliance Mortgage, is here to highlight his session “How To Meet the Needs of Hispanic Homeowners.” Hispanic and Latino communities are rapidly growing, with homeownership rates continuing to skyrocket for the sixth consecutive year. This session will help brokers connect with Hispanic and Latino communities by encouraging conversations to identify what’s needed in the industry in order to better support Hispanic borrowers.

AIME Fuse 2021 is less than a month away. Over 3,000 wholesale mortgage brokers will gather at The Bellagio in Las Vegas in less than three weeks.  This year’s event features over 15 hours of exclusive content tailored to brokers, more than 25 top-tier speakers and industry experts, and 45+ industry-leading AIME partners. AIME Fuse 2021 will also include keynotes from Magic Johnson, Simon Sinek, Molly Bloom, and Barry Habib. 

If you still don’t have your AIME Fuse 2021 ticket, get your ticket! AIME also has room blocks at Planet Hollywood and the Vdara Spa & Resort that expire this week. Make sure to book your room before AIME’s exclusive rates expire! 

Notes:
1:12 Leadership Skill-building
11:42 VA Home Loans Do’s & Dont’s
26:04 Helping Hispanic Homeowners

This episode is sponsored by Homepoint Financial.

The post Leadership, Veterans, and Hispanic & Latino Homeowners: AIME Fuse 2021 Preview (With Christine Beckwith, Chris Griffith, and Andres Munar)- Episode 83 appeared first on AIME.

Marketing is at the heart of Enrique Braunschweiger’s business. As President of First Week Financial Corp., Enrique has built up a small, but effective marketing team to help him stay ahead of the large retail operations in his area. When he joined the industry 18 years ago, brokers were mostly on their own and were expected to know all aspects of the business. Now with the BAB Network, Enrique can stand out against the big banks and retail operations by pairing those partners with his marketing efforts. 

Over 18 years ago, Enrique was on his way to an interview with ReMax when he accidentally walked into the office of a mortgage broker instead, and he never looked back. Three years later, he started his own brokerage in Southern California. He was also an early AIME supporter, joining the group in its earliest days. 

His key to success? Marketing. Enrique has developed a marketing team with a full-time videographer and a full-time marketing director. Enrique specifically markets to his existing database. Your past clients may one day be looking for a new home or at least they will know someone who is looking to purchase a home, he said. To be effective, Enrique also posts marketing content on his personal account three to five times a day. He uses his personal account because more people follow that than your business page and he posts multiple times a day to increase his chances of catching a potential lead. 

What helps Enrique stand out in those efforts is his BAB Network vendor partners. When he first joined the industry, it was on him to do everything and know everything. At the time, partners were the companies who wrote the largest check instead of a carefully vetted business. That all changed in recent years with the growth of AIME’s vendor partners. Now he utilizes ARIVE and Stikkum to help him manage his pipeline and he uses leadPops, Verse.io, and Homebot to help him stay top-of-mind with borrowers and leads. Those partnerships help Enrique compete with the big retail operations in his area by offering him the same visibility for a fraction of the price. 

Enrique’s parting advice: Get a mentor or become a mentor for others. Mentorship is so important to the broker community, he said. That mentorship can be formal like an actual mentoring program or an informal phone call every few weeks. Both will further your career. Early in his career, Enrique was able to get mentorship from seasoned brokers and that guidance helped him to boost his business and overall production. Now as a seasoned broker, he pays that back to new professionals entering the field. 

Notes:

Getting Into the Mortgage Industry (1:52)
Partnerships/Brokers Are Better Network (6:27)
Marketing (18:10)
Parting Advice (35:42) 

This episode is sponsored by PRMG

The post How David Defeats Goliath: Using Marketing To Beat Big Banks At Their Own Game For A Fraction Of The Price (with Enrique Braunschweiger) – Episode 82 appeared first on AIME.

With almost 20 years of mortgage experience, Scott Valins hasn’t just learned how to run a successful brokerage, he knows how to scale across the country. Moving, but maintaining his brokerage after the market crash, Scott now holds offices in both California and New York.

Scott is calling his next wholesale endeavor “Go Rascal.” The new brokerage is Scott’s way of scaling his existing business. With a team of almost 40 processors, loan officer assistants, and loan officers, Go Rascal is primed for a fast start. But for Scott, scaling is not only about increasing profits, but also about challenging himself to take on the role of CEO. While his brokerage brought in $240 million in loans last year and is on track to do $300 million in business this year, Scott served as the primary loan originator. Switching positions and delegating responsibilities that used to be his will bring its own challenges but is also necessary to scale. 

To continue to scale his business, Scott first had to hire the right people. That started with an operations expert and a sales manager, both of who lacked mortgage experience, but they each brought their own unique and valuable expertise to the table. Once those individuals were locked in, Scott had to adjust his mindset. At that point, his brokerage was running like a well-oiled machine while he was focused primarily on origination. To scale, he had to come to terms with pulling back on his origination so he could spend more time focusing on scaling. It also required Scott to take a step back and determine what he does well and what areas he needed to hire people who could fill those gaps. 

Scott is also a vice-chair on AIME’S Community Committee, which is focused on promoting business development that serves the entire wholesale channel. He sees the group as the formal voice of the Brokers Are Better community with a commitment to supporting both new LOs and seasoned loan officers. For Scott, the group served as a major resource that he and countless other brokers used to navigate the chaos of the 2020 pandemic and refi-boom. That sort of education is a major area Scott wants to continue growing as part of the committee. “Education is the backbone of the community,” he said.

Scott’s parting advice: Network, but know there is more than one way to network. You need to find what works for you and do it. Scott networks less by engaging with public posts in the Brokers Are Better Facebook group, instead opting to private message brokers to offer advice or answer their questions. For in-person networking, like at AIME Fuse 2021, he suggests finding a local broker and connecting over issues in your local market. 

Notes:

Scott’s Journey into the Broker Channel (1:14)
Community Committee (6:21)
Helping Your Local Community (15:18)
Scaling Your Brokerage (17:25)
Parting Advice (32:31)

This episode is sponsored by Guaranty Home Mortgage 

The post From Go to Grow: How to Effectively Scale Your Brokerage for Continued Success (With Scott Valins) – Episode 81 appeared first on AIME.

Fredo Rivera has built up his pipeline through local organic marketing and serving his community. Not only do these efforts bring in leads, but it also serves as his “Why.” Of course, those leads would be nothing without the intricate processes and systems Fredo has developed to help convert leads and continue automated follow-ups over 12 or 24 months. Those processes have allowed him to build out a consistent pipeline so he can better serve his community. 

Fredo joined the mortgage industry in 2004 working as sales manager for a broker. After the market crash, he left the industry and obtained his real estate license so he could start his own real estate company. In 2017, he rejoined the mortgage industry and worked for another broker until 2019 when he left to start RDT Mortgage. He now owns and operates both a real estate company and mortgage brokerage. 

Starting out as a broker, Fredo had to quickly develop a system to keep up with the demand. That led him to adopt a CRM, for him, Liondesk. From there, he used third-party companies to develop automation that would allow him to organically follow up with clients via phone calls, text, and social media. For many of his clients, they were not ready to refinance when he first reached out, but after a few follow-ups, he was able to close the deal. 

Fredo’s advice for brokers looking to build up their processes, start with a CRM. Once you have your CRM in place, you need to map out your processes and set your goals for your team and your business. From there, you can start adding layers to help streamline everything. From there, you can build up your pipeline. 

That starts with communicating regularly with the book of business. Fredo fills his pipeline through leads generated with leadPops, by doing adjustable-rate mortgage resets for his community. Fredo goes to networking lunches, sends targeting probates, and works with local real estate agents. Ultimately, he is constantly on the phone reaching out to clients, but he also carves out time for face-to-face meetings. 

Fredo’s parting advice: Be a servant leader and focus on helping people. The big banks and retail operations are not going to serve the needs of their clients. That is where brokers can set themself apart. For Fredo, it is his responsibility to keep his pipeline full. “You just need to help enough people and it will come back to you.”

Notes: 

Getting into the mortgage industry (1:25)

Building Community (5:25)

Build community, build business (8:20)

Social media (14:27)

Processes and systems (15:52)

Building your pipeline (25:01)

Parting advice (29:35)

This episode is sponsored by AFR

The post Maintaining Your Pipeline by Layering Systems and Processes (With Fredo Rivera)- Episode 80 appeared first on AIME.

Entrepreneurship is in Evan Wade’s blood. Both his grandfathers and his parents were small business owners. Now as a mortgage professional, Wade has founded two separate mortgage brokerages, Philadelphia Mortgage Brokers and Epoch Lending. He also built a sophisticated technology stack that helps him differentiate himself in the mortgage industry. That tech stack is a major reason Wade was recently named Vice-Chair of AIME’s partnership committee. 

Wade joined the mortgage industry in 2015 when he was recruited to join a retail operation, but quickly realized the retail side was not for him. Wade took the leap and opened Philadelphia Mortgage Brokers with Paul Carson. The name served as the perfect organic SEO source, but Paul and Evan also lean on BAB Network partner leadPops to help generate leads. 

For Wade, technology is key. “At the end of the day, technology is everything for me because someone is going to figure it out,” he said. In his mind, technology is the key to providing your customer superior service and in turn, making your brokerage stand out. Not only is Wade an adopter of various technology platforms, including ARIVE, he also developed his own commission compensation software and started his own title company because local options weren’t up to his standards. Ultimately, he wants to build a business that will grow and survive long after him. “I don’t want to build a company that only lives because of me,” Wade said. 

As Vice-Chair of AIME’s partnership committee, Wade is focused on working with lender and vendor partners to improve the lives of Brokers and in turn their clients. The committee is focused on identifying new partners and streamlining processes with current AIME partners to better serve the borrower. 

Wade’s parting advice: “Whatever is in your heart that you want to do, just reach out and do it.” If you have a dream or goal in mind, go for it. Wade would rather go for something and fail than wonder what could have been. 

Notes:

Getting into the industry (0:51)

Starting his own brokerage (10:00)

Evan’s Tech stack (18:59)

Partnerships Committee (36:26)

Parting advice (40:07)

This Episode Is Sponsored By EPM.

The post Perfecting & Scaling Operations Using The Best Tech (with Evan Wade) – Episode 79 appeared first on AIME.