Ep. 138 - From the Vault...How to Go From 60 Funded Loans to 236 Loans in Record Time

In today's highly competitive mortgage industry, building profitable relationships with real estate agents is essential for success. However, finding effective ways to secure agent relationships can be a challenge. With so many mortgage loan originators vying for the attention of real estate agents, it can be difficult to stand out and establish meaningful connections. Our new case study featuring loan officer Chris Cogill is a must-read. This has closed a remarkable 36 million in funded loans from agent referrals. And in this case study, he shares his proven strategies for building strong relationships with real estate agents and leveraging those relationships to drive more business. To get your hands on this resource, head over to LOKestudy.com and download your free copy of the case study today. You'll find actionable insights and practical tips that Chris used to close 36 million in funded loans from agent referrals and how you can, too. Don't miss out. Go check it out right now, visit LOKestudy.com and download your free copy today. Welcome to Mortgage Marketing Radio. Brought to you by the Mortgage Marketing Institute, your number one source for truth in Mortgage Marketing. Hey, other stories? What's up? This is Jeff Zim for Host of the Mortgage Marketing Radio Podcast. Welcome back or welcome if it's your first time here. So thrilled to have you here. And it's a great time for you to be tuning in because what we're doing is last week we celebrated our number one most downloaded episode ever. And we're doing this as a celebration for exceeding over 200,000 downloads as a podcast. We started this in 2016 and it's been just a wonderful experience and I have you, the listener, to thank for that. So this week we're going to do it once again. We're going to share with you our second most popular downloaded episode, a really hot topic. And this is from back in 2017, the message is still relevant today. It was episode 61, how to go from 60 funded loans to 236 loans in record time featuring our special guest, Dominic Dengora, who is just a rock star and his story of basically that trajectory, that rocket ship growth. I think we'll be, we'll serve as lessons for those of you who haven't heard this podcast yet, which is going to be a lot of you. And for those of you who may have heard this two years ago, it's time to check back in and do a refresh on this because you'd be surprised to find out of 236 units that Dominic funded, 90% of those came from just 10 real estate agents, 10 real estate agents. So lots of learning lessons in here that carries on. Last week we talked about how to go deep versus wide with real estate agents. This is along that same theme. And would you note it happens to be the second most downloaded episode of all time, how to go from 60 funded loans to 236 loans in record time. And as always, we want to give a shout out to you, our podcast listener, Andrew C says another awesome show, great show from Jeff, you always provide great guests and drill down with your questioning to get real usable information. I can implement into my mortgage business. Thanks. Keep the great podcast going. Andrew C. Thank you, man. Thanks for the shout out. The review online, wherever you're listening to this podcast, iTunes is a great place, literature, Google podcasts, wherever you're listening to this, if you want to get, you want to get some podcast swag, go there, leave us a review then DM me, PM me, whatever on the socials, Facebook, Instagram, let me know you did T shirt size, mailing address, and we'll send you off a box of podcast swag, which includes a nice soft, cushiony, lovely, fresh smelling. Smells like Downey T shirt, you know, that little teddy bear, I think is that downey? I don't know. Anyways, without further ado, guys, let's get into this week's best of the vault. All time, second best, second most downloaded episode ever, our special guest, Dominic Dengorah, and how he went from 60 funded loans to 236 in record time. Let's get into this week's show. Hey Dominic, welcome to the show. Hey Jeff, thanks for having me. My pleasure. Thank you for being here. And let's get right into it. For those that are listening, you heard in the intro, kind of the background are on Dominic. And as I had stated, I saw him on stage at the recent sales mastery event with Todd Duncan, and it was really just blown away by a couple of key points that I'm grateful for you taking time to, you know, come back and kind of carry on that conversation, Dominic. But if you would, give us the quick rundown on you. How many years in the business? You're in Oklahoma City, is that right? That's correct. Yeah, so how many years you've been an originator? So I got licensed back in September of 2011, and at that time, I almost don't count that in the time that I've been originating because I was working for a company that was just doing stream line refives. And so we didn't really have to do anything that I have to do in terms of like an originator and the purchase market has to do. It was completely different. So I joined the purchase market in February of 2013, and I have been working in the Oklahoma City market since then. So does that mean to say that in the stream line refi? Was that mostly over the phone? We just faced the face. We basically did like house visits. It was kind of strange. It was an interesting gig to say. It's like the doctor who used to make house calls, right? Yeah, exactly. They were the briefcase. It was pretty funny. Is that it? Now, so we got to speak to that because you're in Oklahoma City, so that's a different culture than Los Angeles, you know? Oh, yeah. Yeah, no, it's so much different. I've been in just some scary places. But I've seen a lot of Oklahoma that most people who grew up here have never had the opportunity to see. So I guess when you look at it that way, it was nice. But, you know, it also takes, you know, it's about three hours to drive all the way down to the southern border and about three hours to the top. And so when you drive three hours to show up to an appointment and nobody's there, it's a little aggravating. Oh, yeah, that's tough. Well, I'm sure you have, Amy, do you make house calls still today? I know people, they come into your office now, right? No, yeah, everybody comes to the office. Yeah, yeah, that's awesome. Wow. I bet you've got some stories there, man, like seeing the lady with 12 cats and all that. Yeah, oh, yeah. But, yeah, some crazy, crazy stories. We could talk about that for hours. Oh, that's so funny. Okay, so let's talk about this. Here's a, I really want to point this out because this is when you think about this right before we hit record, you walk through kind of your numbers with me. Why don't I let you say it? Why don't you start from 2013, which is when you started in the purchase business. Take us all the way up to 2017 in your units. Okay. So for units in 2013, from February to December, I funded a total of 16. That's one six. And so nothing to really write home about is very discouraging. But the next year, I funded 60. And then the year after that is when things started to really take off for me. I did 97. And I'm sorry. So in 2015, I did 97. And then in 2016, I did 198. And this year, we'll do, we'll, we'll write between 236 to 240 units. Wow. Wow. That's like phenomenal. Yeah. Okay, so naturally, when somebody hears that, or at least when I hear it, I immediately go to, all right, I want to know more. How did you do that? Because that does not happen by accident. Yeah. No, it does. What systems? No. I mean, I, from your notes, I, you know, I wrote down, decide, number one, it sounds like you made a decision to surround yourself with the best. But so, so what systems, you know, did you consciously, and what activities did you consciously, you know, intentionally, pursue to, to have that kind of growth? Well, the first thing I did was, I implemented Todd Duncan's high trust interview. And that for me was a game changer. You know, the high trust interview, it really allows you to get to know someone, whether it's the client or the partner, and not in like a weird way. It's not like you're just going to lunch because they're a realtor or somebody that you could potentially do business with, and you sit there and talk about your family and friends for an hour and nothing gets accomplished. You know, this really allows you to get to know the person and build trust and find out what's important to them. And then so you can determine whether what you have to offer is, is going to work with their business model. And it just, it was just a different approach that I hadn't been doing before. And when I was able to do that, it started making my, my client meetings and my, my business meetings or business launches more intentional. So, that really helped. Is there anything if you think about like highlights from like somebody listening to a high trust interview, there are people believe it or not out there that aren't familiar with Todd Duncan and maybe what that is? And sometimes, you know, to your point, it's not in a weird way. Some people hear that and they're like, you know, what am I just going to get to know all, all warm and fuzzy and kumbaya and hugs and all that? Yeah. Because it's a combination of both getting personal, but also being like you said intentional about having a business mindset as well. I don't know, can you provide like a, just a highlight of what that looks or sounds like? Yeah, I think the most important piece from that meeting is just the one question. What's important to you about the lender you choose to work with? And then just being able to sit back and listen and allow them to unpack what's important to them? Because you, you might go in there thinking, oh, I've got this great down payment assistance program or I've got this program and I'm going to be able to get all these realtors. It's like maybe not even what they want, you know? They want to know that they can trust you when they send you a client. They want to know that you're going to be able to close on time. They want to know that you're going to be able to communicate with them throughout the process. And so that when they essentially pass off that contract or that baton, you might call it, you know, that you're going to be able to take it from there and finish the race for them. And they don't have to worry about it. It's like, you don't want to focus so much on things that you don't even know are important to them. So that is really the question, the golden question. What's important to you about the lender you choose to work with? Well, that's the key question, like you're saying. I'm curious about this is because, you know, you answered that question. You gave the answers that most often I think agents say is, right? I want to be able to trust you that we close on time. And so those are typically kind of the initial, I don't want to call it knee jerk answers, but those are the most common responses, right? Yeah. And so I think there's two things I'm hearing here. One is, I think too many times you tell me if you've used experiences too many times to your point, the loan officer shows up assuming what's the point important to them. Number one, right? So they're going to come out and just like throw up and throw up, right? With, oh, I can close in eight days. Right. And V.A. F.H.A. for every loan under the, it's like, whoa, whoa. There's no relationship yet, right? Yeah. Yeah. So what I love about that question is it allows, it demonstrates to you, to, to the real tear that you actually care. You sincerely care about what's important to them. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. And, and it also allows you to find out not what's important to them, but maybe it's, maybe what's important to them doesn't align with your business model. And so, you know, it's, you're not going to be able to work with everybody or maybe you don't want to work with everybody. There are some people out there that I don't want to work with because what they are going to require for me is not going to align with my schedule or my model or, you know, things like that. They say, hey, if I call you at 830 on a Tuesday night, like to prequel somebody, I need you to be there. No, sorry. You know, keep, keep going on down the road. I'm not the guy for you. You know, I'm very, I always want to support my partners, but there has to be an understanding that, you know, I have a life and a family and, you know, there's certain things that, that I'll require in my business model. And it may be the two of us don't align. And that's fine because there is plenty of business out there. You know, I think I don't know who it was. Jim Rohn is the executive that says, you know, there's plenty of people out there that will do business your way to worry about those who don't or who won't. Right on, right on. Hey, let me ask you, is that question easier to say no to though as a loan officer when you're actually, you know, doing plenty of business versus when you're just kind of scraping along? Oh, yeah. Yeah, it allows you to be selective. And the funny thing is, you know, Todd talks about something, Todd Duncan talks about something called demand poll. And I always, my first heard that as a gosh, it would be so cool if a realtor called me and said, hey, I want to send my clients to you. And I was just like, I could only dream of that day happening. And then all of a sudden, as my business started to grow and the work got out that we did a, you know, provided a great service. It was like the phone was ringing and people were like, hey, I just heard about you. I want to be able to, you know, want to meet with you and, you know, start sending my clients. And I'm like, gosh, that is crazy, you know. And so it gets to a point where you actually can be selective with who you work with and it does change the game. I mean, it changes the quality of the relationship, it changes the quality of the business and your overall quality of life. Yeah. Absolutely. Okay, so back to the systems and things you did. You said the first thing you did was implement the high trust interview, which really set you apart from most other loan offices they're meeting with. What other things, you know, did you do to set up to scale that business? And, you know, what things did you implement that started generating additional business? One of the other things was meeting with clients face to face. I mentioned on stage that our industry is becoming more and more commoditized where you can essentially push a button and get a mortgage. And that's all fine and great. But at the end of the day, how do you set yourself apart from others? I mean, it seems like so many people want to do business over the phone and through email and they think that's what everybody else wants. But really meeting with the client face to face and having that opportunity to build trust and really spend the time with them so that they have the information that they need to make a good decision moving forward. You know, it's like, generally, if somebody's going to come in and meet with me and then we have an opportunity to spend 30, 45, 60 minutes together, I get to know more. They see me, they see my office, they know that I'm a real person and then I spend the time giving them all the information that they need to make this big decision moving forward. It's like, they're not going to shop after that. You know, so that right there took a lot of that shopping around away. I love that, the person to person. Were you resistant to implement that? It was initially, I was only resistant because of the fear. It was like, okay, well, what do I actually do? What can I do to make this worth the time? For them to come up, right? You know, like, I don't want somebody to take off work and then they come up and... And you just, you fill out a loan app in front of them. Yeah, all right. I like a little black and white estimated cost analysis. You know, it's like, this isn't, this wasn't service to me. So over time, you know, it took some time to develop some different pieces of marketing material and just ways to present it in a way that's easy to understand and easier to read. Well, let's talk about that because I've talked to a number of folks who follow this high trust interview process. And I know some people, you know, it's to the point of like they're coming in for an appointment like with a, you know, an estate consultant, a financial advisor. And, you know, you've got the, you know, the, well, I've seen stuff where people do the name on the parking placard out front to their name on the TV, on the way in. And even during the presentation, you got like this big screen and you're walking through scenarios. What kind of stuff are you doing to make them feel special? You know, some of that stuff we offer, but I think, you know, initially that was one of the things that I was doing at the company prior to where I'm at right now is, you know, we would, we would do the parking sign. And we would do another sign when they came into the office. And I was always like, I heard Jeremy for C.A. on a mortgage coach video, like four years ago, talk about how he would have one of the homes, you know, that they were interested in on the big screen and kind of showing different rooms and whatnot, which I thought that was kind of cool. But, you know, it's all about the, it's the whole experience, Jeff, it's, you know, coming in and being welcomed and greeted professionally, just, just going over the top to provide just a red carpet service for these clients when they come in, you know, given them a list of beverages that they could choose from. And, you know, just having without going into too much detail, I'll just, you know, making it an experience and not so much a process. Yeah, yeah, exactly. And I think that's the big takeaway I'd like for listeners, it's about making an experience. Think about a time where you went and had an awesome experience somewhere, you know, this could be a dinner, could be a, you know, a theater thing. I've had it happen to me on certain occasions when I am visiting a professional, like, for example, dentist, chiropractor, you know, even some doctors, believe it or not. But yeah, it's all about that experience that you create. Because that's to your point earlier about technology, that more and more, the only thing we have to separate ourselves is our borrower experience, right? Yeah, absolutely. It'll kind of turn you into a service nod though, because everywhere you go, you expect that same level of service and too often, my wife and I are disappointed. Oh, man, that's, that's a whole other session we could go off for an hour or not. Yeah, yeah. I'm equally frustrated today with the level of service and most establishments, to which again, talk about an awesome point, that's why it's so surprising and impactful when it happens. Because people are blown away. It's so rare today. They're like, oh my god, look at the level. And then they are, which I know happens for you, they're enthusiastic to talk to you. Up, even sometimes without you asking, right? Oh, for sure. I mean, I can't tell you how many people just when they leave the office, and once they're, once we've closed, once we've closed on their home. I mean, it's just like, we don't really have to ask to do it. They're already talking about it with everybody that they can possibly tell because they're so blown away with everything that happens through the process. And even just that first initial experience, you know, it's like, you know, we're not showing up into that meeting with cargo shorts and, you know, some sneakers. We're fully suited up, shirt, tie. It's very professional. And we want them. It's a huge investment. It's a lot of money. And I'm not saying that you shouldn't want, you know, in our markets, that's what's acceptable, I think. And, you know, it's just we want them to know that we're serious, we're professional, and that they're going to get taken care of. Yeah. So the whole presentation is important. Absolutely. Critical point. How do you then deal with the people who are resistant to come in because they're too busy? I'm guessing you don't get 100%. Yeah. No, you're right. Some people are essentially too busy that I say. So we have some different scripting around that. But at the end of the day, if they can't do it, you know, I'll offer to do a phone to phone conference, which is then basically our face to today's conference over the phone as long as they're in front of a computer. Because the thing is, like, you know, some people will be like, man, just, just send me a quote. Well, I don't do that. I'm not just going to send you a quote because there's no value in that. And then I just minimize everything that I do back to a commodity. And I'll tell you right now that my quote's not going to, it's not going to last in that game. You know, they're just going to shop around and chat homes, the author of God. But as it called, the ultimate sales machine, you know, he talks about how 15% of people are going to buy solely on price. And I'm not a good fit for those people because there's no value in price. So are you saying that if you had a borer who pushed you for just a quote, you would just say, you know, essentially, hey, I don't think we're the right fit for you? I would. Yeah. Okay. Cool. I love it. Yeah, I would definitely try harder to just get them on the phone and, you know, have just a five or 10 minute conversation with them. But at the end of the day, if they're shopping me like that, I'm not going to be the cheapest locally or all going to be around the same. But the cheapest I'll let them know is going to be an internet lender. And so they're looking for the absolute cheapest price. Then the internet lender is going to be the way to go. Right. And I'm okay with having that conversation with them. Yeah. Yeah. Because you're probably going to have a hard time making them happy anyways. Yeah. I mean, they're just going to take that quote and they're going to find somebody who's cheaper. And then I just waste the time working up money or working up a quote for them. You know, so it's like I just know better and from experience now that it's better just cut my losses early and spend time on the people that want to do business my way. Yeah. All right. So I'm going to come back and take another swing at this question. Okay, man. Let's unpack the box here. How do you go from 16 loans to 236 loans in what four or five years? Yeah. I mean, it's like either you multiplied yourself times a hundred or I don't know. But how do you get that volume increase? Yeah. So that's the key. You've got to multiply. So, you know, the team is the important piece. It really helps you to get to that kind of volume. And without it, it's impossible. There's just simply too much involved in the process today to be able to handle that kind of volume on your own. So you have to scale it and you have to be able to build a team and build a great team in order to be able to handle that volume. So the first thing that I did was after I got back from Todd Hyattressdale's Academy was I hired my first assistant. And I basically, from the stage, I also made the point that I didn't know what they were going to do when they came on board. So I wasted a lot of time trying to figure that out after I hired them. So if you're listening and you're thinking about hiring somebody, I would suggest that you know what you want them to do before they come on board, which is basically everything that you don't want to do. Exactly. And then from there, you know, that person helped me primarily with clearing conditions, answering that phone. I took a lot of those time, just time wasting tasks off of my plate, which allowed me to continue to go out, meet with partners, sell more. So a lot of times in this business and on the real estate side, it's like you kind of go up and you come down and you go up and you come down. And it's because you're up and then you've got to spend all the time taking care of those loans or contracts that you have, and then you don't have any time to sell. So you're back down again and then you go up and it's just painstaking process. Whereas, you know, if you can go up and then kind of level off and then go up again and each time you level, you're building, you know, you're adding a team member. So instead of going up and then coming down, you're leveling, you're getting them used to the business and the process and the way you want to do it. And then you continue to grow again and then once you get to a point, you know, eight, ten loans more than you hire another person. And so right now, if you fast forward from 2014 to where I am now, we've got a team of six people. So there's quite a bit of support to help when the contracts come in, which really allows it frees me out to do a few important tasks and that's making calls, meeting with clients and meeting with partners. How many of that six are actually originating? None of them. I'm the only originator. Okay, so all those units are because of your personal efforts. That's correct. So three of them are licensed, but they do not originate. They're not, they're not loan officers. They're just licensed because they're dealing with certain parts of the process. But yeah, I'm the only producing loan officer on the team. Yeah, you got closing coordinator, obviously a processor, loan analyst, for example, each of them have a very specific duty. So give us a quick picture. You're meeting with a client face to face. You're doing the high trust interview. Have they done an online app typically ahead of time and then what happens after that interview, where are you involved? So typically they're either doing it online or we'll take it over the phone. And then we want to make sure that we know what we're getting into before they come into the meeting because we want to be mindful of their time and we want to be mindful of our time. So we want to make that meeting as impactful as possible. So it's imperative that they fill out the application prior to coming in so that we know what we can qualify them for kind of widget loan programs to look at and just have a bigger picture. So basically they qualify or they fill out the free call. So client specialists will end up, they'll go over all the questions that they have post set up and then they'll schedule the appointment for them to come in. And then when they come in, I'll meet with them. Client specialist gets the docs. Is this what you're kind of referring to? Yes, like the process. Okay, cool. So client specialists will get the docs, scan them in and then the loan analyst will review the docs, make sure that they're good to go. Loan analyst is kind of like a, just like an underwriter on the team. And then from there we'll issue the pre-approval after the review of the document. And so then we'll kind of just take a break while they are at house hunting and then once they go under contract, then we're looking at the closing coordinator taking it from there. So this list will actually lock the loan as well. And then it'll go into kind of the back end. The back end is the closing coordinator, the junior closing coordinator and the processor. And so from there, contract to close, it'll be handled from both closing coordinators and the processor. And what systems do you have set up of when you're looped back in to either communicating with the client or related to the loan, if at all? Yeah, so I'm communicating via email through our CRMs at different updates and things like that. And then I'll follow up toward the end of the process just to go over all the final numbers and make sure that they know where they need to be, where they need to be there, how much they need to bring, and just to make sure that I can answer any final questions for them. Okay, so a lot of people do the doctor patient set up. You have something similar to that where it's like obviously you're doing the front end consult. Where does it hurt kind of thing, providing a prescription, which is the loan recommendation. And then your team takes it over from there and you're only popping in for perhaps good news. Or if there's something going sideways, you need to interface with the client for some reason. Yeah, I mean, if there's bad news, if it's something like terrible, which doesn't happen often, you know, thank God we haven't had to decline alone. So initially that first space that base meeting is very like Dr. Nurse model, you know, like my client specialist will go in there, she kind of set the table, I'll go in, go over the loan programs, a little bit about the process. And then I'm out, she comes back in and she wraps everything up, you know, goes over the 1003, just make sure that everything is good to go. And then in terms of going under contract, then, you know, I'm not really involved right there anymore. But I do follow up back on the on the backside just to make sure that they're familiar with all the final numbers and whatnot. Got it. And are you doing any special touch points, you know, mailers at the office, whatever fruit baskets, right on appraisal, loan approval, whatever. No on the fruit baskets, but we send some handwritten thank you now throughout the process as well, just to kind of make it a little more personal and the team helps with that. Okay, awesome. What is your, so your average week then, I mean, how many face to faces would you say you're having in a given week with buyers? Right now we're probably doing about, probably about 10. Wow, that's awesome. Right now I'm just trying to focus, I'm focusing more on getting in front of my existing partners. We forget about our existing partners and we're trying to build more business, you know, that was sometimes we forget about those that we're already working with. And so it's important if anybody's listening in like touch base with with your existing partners and just, I don't know, take them to launch or just get in front of them, talk to them, see how they're doing, see how they're doing with their family. It's amazing when you follow, it just, it just happens organically. It's like after you do that, it's like more business just starts coming in. You know, I don't know why we don't do it more often or why that kind of falls by the wayside from time to time, but. Well, that actually leaves us. Yeah, that leads me to a great point. One of the other topics I wanted to talk to you about, which is the weekly calls you do to real estate agents. These are notes from your stage time there are Todd's event. And you, if I'm correct, you do a weekly call to your agent partners. Yes, each day I have a list that, you know, I call certain a group of my partners on that day, that whether it's broken down. I don't have a million calls to make on Monday. I just kind of spread it out throughout the week. Well, just call and connect with them and just see how they're doing and make sure that they don't forget about me. Well, all right. It's more intentional than that because I don't have this question written down that, you know, you ask. I love this question, which is, you know, you call the, and I'm sure you don't ask it of everybody. It's got to be the right agent and all that stuff. You know, after some basic small talk, you ask this question that basically says, hey, are you showing houses to anybody right now that we haven't had a conversation with yet? Right. So that's, that's a great question. Yeah, we got that. I got that right from Todd. Yeah. That's one of Todd's questions with the follow-up calls because that's another thing that people might be fearful of. It's like, well, I want to call my partners and I absolutely would, but I don't know what to ask them when I come all. I don't know how to position that conversation without it sounding weird and asking for a referral. So that's a powerful question because sometimes they're out there showing homes and you haven't had a conversation with them yet. And so if I can get on the phone with that person and I can get them pre-qualified, then, you know, they can sell a house a lot quicker and they can make more money and they can help that family get them into a home. Yeah. So it's a benefit for everybody, but it is a very powerful question and it helps to jog their memory. And it's a little bit different than the usual question that I hear L.O.'s call and they're like, hey, yeah, how was your weekend? By the way, did you run any buyers over the weekend? Yeah. That's a little bit different of a fear. Yeah. I mean, it's the same result, but it sounds, and here's the other one that Todd shared, by the way, and I'm sure you use this as well. Because, hey, who have you talked to in the last couple of weeks that you know is active in the market, but you're not 100% sure they're going to go with you as the agent? Absolutely. Super powerful. Yeah. You know, one of the things Todd talks about is, I don't know if he calls it this, but you can look at it as more of like a triangle of trust. But when you're working with that partner, that's your partner, right? So what you want to do is help to sell that client on that partner as well. You know, so they have to understand that you're working or so the agent or the realtor that you're working with, it's important for them to understand that you're going to help them when they refer somebody to you. You know, so if they have somebody that they're not sold on working with that person, and then they send to you, you can have that conversation as like, hey, I know you're working with John Smith over at ABC Realty. I just want you to know that he's a great agent. He's going to take great care of you. He's number one or whatever, whatever it is you want to say there, just to help build that trust and get them back to that partner. So that's really that's a powerful question as well. Absolutely. Love it. Love it. Okay. So speaking of partners, let's transition then to prospecting partners in real estate agents. So we're talking about the high trust interview. We've talked about the high trust interview with with borrowers and prospects and clients. Now let's briefly talk about the high trust process when you're marketing to agents. I've been a big fan of this for years. You should do it when I was originating and you, you know, have this process where it's I've written down a book, a letter, a call. Can you unpack that a little bit and tell us how you use that? Yeah. So if you haven't found it out by now, a lot of what I do is based on Todd Taitra methodology. And one of that is one of the things that he introduced was using a book or basically when you're prospecting a partner, I mean they don't want to be called. Well, then then have you say, hey, let's go to lunch. They have no idea who you are. And it's a really awkward call. But when you can send a book that might add value to their business and then, you know, send a letter along with it. Nice typed up letter that lets you know that you're interested in meeting with them and you have some things that you could potentially bring to their attention that would add value to their business. That you want to follow up with them on this day at this time, then it makes that call a lot more intentional and it takes a lot of that awkwardness out of there. So when they get that book or that that box however you send it, they open it up and they're like, okay, I don't know who this person is, but based on what I'm reading in the letter, it looks like they're going to call me on this day at this time. You know, they might not answer them or they might, but it just makes it a lot easier and it kind of helps hang the guard down when you are prospecting these different agents. And the ability to potentially turn that into a partnership is a lot greater. Are you still actively implementing that program? Are you all set for partners? It's not that I'm set for partners, but with what we're able to do now, we're doing about 20 or so families amongst them. And so what I've done is I have a lot of partners, but what I'm typically doing now is just calling the Living Agent and prospecting them because the process is so dialed in that they're typically impressed with the way we operate. And so I can usually get an appointment with the Living Agent on that side, which is even more powerful in my opinion because they've experienced firsthand. And so that's kind of what I've been doing now. So I'm a big believer in that as well. And oftentimes when I suggest that to loan officers, I get a variety of different feedback either like that idea or they're not willing to meet or the classic. I'm only a listing agent. I don't have buyers or people do nothing at all. Why do you think the listing agent is just this untapped source of business and how do you convert that? I still get that too. I'm just a listing agent. I don't really do a lot of that. That's fine and there's scripting for that too. I don't come across it often, but there's a lot of agents out there that are just listing homes that still do buy sides. So if you're not doing that, you're crazy. Why wouldn't you do that? Yeah, I mean, why wouldn't you? It's such an easy way, like unless you know the loan closed late or just never answer your phone when they call. But if you're doing a good job and you're working hard on it, then why not? That just seems like an easy, easy lead to me. Early in the process, do you call and introduce yourself to the listing agent? Yeah, absolutely. So I thought. And the thing is, I can tell you, they're generally blown away by that introduction call, like what? You're calling me? Yeah, it's just to make sure that we're doing everything we can to make this go as smoothly as possible for you. Is there anything that you could suggest that we could do to make this go as smoothly as possible on your end? They're like, no, just close one on time and keep the post. Okay, great. We can do that. I mean, it's that simple. And then at the end of the transaction, you go for like a post transaction review or whatever. Hey, let's, you know, here's a script that I tend to use, which is like, you know, and I set this up in advance usually. But basically, it's like, you know, just so you know, assuming we blow your socks off and do an awesome job, right? What I'd like to do is connect with you after this transaction closes and just do a post review to find out what, well, what we could do better, you know, kind of that thing conversation. Do you guys do something similar? I've thought about doing that. Yeah, just kind of setting it up in advance. But what I've just done is just made the closing call instead and just said, hey, you know, based on the service we provided, you know, do you feel that we have a basis for starting a business relationship? And you're just going for it. Yeah. I like it. Yeah. If you have to, you know, be intentional. Get rid of the fluff. There you go. So that's that Boston attitude. And then I see you're rigid from Boston. That must be it. Yes, man. I saw that I meant to bring that up. Gosh, you're from Massachusetts. That's great. Yeah, man. Where are you from? Home. Home app. There we go. You know, people get pissed off when I bring up the Patriots on this podcast. But I'm sorry to say, you know, there's a W last, there's a W Sunday. Yeah, that's right. Anyway, not the sidetrack. But hey, back to the book thing for a second. Is there a bit tick, you know, people get all caught up in the details. What book do you send? Yeah. You know, I order a variety of different books. I'll order a case. You know, the compound effect. I sent that Darren Hardy is the compound effect. What got you here won't get you there. The ultimate sales machine. It just depends on who I'm sending it to. You know, I try to, I stalk people on Facebook. I try to figure out what they're, what they're, what they're into and determine what I think would be a good book for them. Yep. Awesome. I love it. It's stalking on Facebook. You got to do, you know, I always tell that I was just like, you got to, well, I can't say this reference was going to date me. I don't know if you remember that show, Colombo, the detective, right, the bumbling detective. But anyway, he was great at asking questions, but being a detective and you're right, you got to find out who the heck are you prospecting. You know what I mean? Learn about them. Find out family, church, occupation, recreation, money, all that stuff. Yeah, absolutely. Okay, so a couple more questions before we wrap up here. Are you, so with your relationships with agents, are you doing any type of lead share, spending money on leads, that kind of stuff with agents? Yes, with one. And it's the worst thing ever. So I, in my opinion, it's because there's just, and we're about to cancel it. And I can't even tell you what this agent team, there's such hustlers that they don't even need it. They probably can't even, if I'm going to say anything, don't do it. I agree. Yeah, it's just a waste of money and your efforts will go much further if you approach things differently. So don't do it right out of the gate. Don't make that to be the basis of the start of your relationship. Oh, yeah. So, gosh, somebody said to me once, and I've taken this to the, I will take this to the grave with me, but, gosh, how did they put it? Basically, a relationship that starts off, you know, based on finances is just simply going to crumble. And, you know, that's happened twice to me. So it's, hey, yeah, I'd love to do business with you. Hey, do you want to pay X amount of dollars toward Dilla? Like, how crap, you know? No, I don't. But I will. And then this isn't going to work out. So I've wasted a bunch of money and a bunch of time. And so I would say if somebody doesn't value what you bring to the table for, you know, what you're going to provide to their business and that relationship, without having to pour a bunch of money into a lead system, then just stay with it. I'm an effort. Amen to that. Don't feel so desperate that you got to pay to play, like you said, what you provide is very good enough. And if you do the things that we're talking about here with you, creating that high borrower experience, both with realtors and clients, right? That's going to, that will surpass any of those traditional knee jerk reactions agents have, or it's just like, oh, how do I get value out of my lender? I haven't paid for something. No, how about I do an awesome experience for your clients that drives more referrals back to you? Exactly, exactly. That's so huge, man. It's like, you know, the thing is, my partners aren't coming to me and saying, hey, I sent you three referrals. Where's my referral? You know, it's like, they can't wait to get every person to me because they know their life is going to be a lot less stressful. They know that they're going to get paid on time. They know that their clients are going to get taken care of. And it's like, they don't want it to go anywhere else. You know, they don't care about if I'm providing referrals back, which I do, but it's not the basis of our relationship. It's the value I bring to their clients and to their business is what keeps us going. No, no, no. Okay, last question to close this out here. 236 units tracking plus that for 2017. Your total partners, your real estate partners, let's say your referral partners. I have written down, let me ask you this way. What percentage of that business of your overall volume comes from agents and how many agents? It comes from, well, it's, it's, gosh, it's, it's probably about 95% purchase. Last year was about 92% purchase and most of it comes from realtors. I'd say I've got, I have a couple builder relationships, but they're not nearly as, they're not coming through. It's coming through like they are from the agents. I'd say probably 95% is coming from agents. And you have about, if I'm correct, about 10 core agents on your team? Correct. Correct. So is that to say that 10 agents roughly, you know, sent you most of that, I mean, obviously you did revise and pass client database and stuff. But why I'm bringing this up is because a lot of people here, they were thinking, oh my god, I need all these agents and everything, but in your model, you don't. No, you don't. You need, you need a few good ones. You need a few good ones. And obviously, you know, if, if you don't have a few good ones, you need to go get some, some more agents and determine who's going to be the good ones. But you really don't need that many. You don't. You just need some, because when you have that many, you've got so many more to take care of. You've got so many more phone calls to make and so many more phone calls to take. And it's just, it gets so stressful. And so, I mean, I still have a lot of partners, but the core group is about 10. Yeah. Yeah. So there's your A players. Nice. Yeah. Very cool. Awesome. Well, listen, Dominic, I know you're very busy. You've got a lot going on and I appreciate you making time. So thank you for sharing on today's session, then. Thank you so much for having me, Jeff. There's a pleasure. And by the way, for those of you who want to reach out to you and maybe, you know, see what you're doing. I mean, you've got a great professional website. Where would you say they go to connect with you? Easiest way would be to email. Okay. And that's just D-Dangora that's D is in Delta. D is in Delta A. And is in November, G-O-R-A at HouseLone.com. Awesome. The D-Dangora at HouseLone. Yep. Yep. And by the way, I'll also point people to your Facebook page. The Dominic Dangora team at Cornerstone Home Lending. You've got what I think is a really cool Bruce family testimonial on there. Which is, to me, just a great example. Yeah. Yeah. How do you use video, right? Especially testimonials. Absolutely. Absolutely. You've got to be, you know, the people are more interested in video these days. So you know it. You know it. So what's going? All right, my friend. Well, thank you again so much. And for your listeners today, thanks for tuning in. Hope you got a lot of value out of today. As always, I appreciate you listening. And we will see you on the next one. Bye for now. Thanks for listening to Mortgage Marketing Radio. One more truth in Mortgage Marketing. Get more free training and resources at MortgageMarketingInstitute.com. Hey guys, what's up real quick? You've heard about the Mortgage Marketing Pro membership before. And I just want to quickly remind you of that. 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