Wednesday’s posting has created some good comments. If you haven’t been back to that discussion, please do so and give us your input.
I’ve written and had comments the past couple of weeks about communication, listening, disclosures, values, trust, audits, software, hiring, underwriting, processing, loan officers, do’s and don’ts. There have also been a few concerns about my management, or leadership, abilities; thank you – I welcome the comments and know I have blind spots that need to be pointed out.
Today, and over the weekend, I’d like to hear from you on what you believe to be the “Basics of Best Practices.”
Have a great weekend,
Danny
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7 comments:
This is just a list of things I'm thinking about, not saying we do or don't do them at Alethes -
1. Hiring people at pay splits commensorate with what they know;
2. completing a loan application; knowing how to qualify a borrower CORRECTLY;
3. complete the GFE at time of loan application; giving the borrower honest answers;
4. processing a file so that it can be underwritten without conditions - look at underwriters in other industries
5. everyone returns phone calls
6. really practice values; which means - learn what it means to practice values
7. pay loan officers in a timely manner (I will say we do this better than anyone)
8. tell the truth
9. keep learning
10. written policies and procedures in branches
11. do compliance well
12. good training
13. accountability with all levels
14. be able to pass any audit any day, on a moment's notice
Hope this is what you are looking for...and thanks for the blog -
John
John,
Those are excellent things we need to do as Loan Officers with Alethes. I do think the only way Alethes will proceed with the best LO's in the market is through training and making it mandatory like other companies. This would also solve most of the problems we have in compliance and all the exceptions that the underwriters have to deal with. If it's not mandatory then our loan officers will put it off and put it off. Other big lenders make a loan officer go through a training class BEFORE they submit a loan such as 203k's. Just some thoughts
In its purest form, a Best Practice can be benchmarked (what it looks like when it's implemented) and measured for performance increases and/or decreases.
Whatever changes we implement, let's make sure that we can measure how far we move the needle of performance! And, if need be, modify the tactic, remove the tactic, or better yet, duplicate the tactic if it's successful.
Danny ... you asked for basics .. and the most basic .. i feel is Training.
I thoroughly believe in the concept of training. Not just training on how to be a better person ... but the details of how to do the job, the way it should be done.. Most of the issues that I see have to do with Lack of training or Inconsistency in training.
Not only in loan officers but in processing and the home team at corporate.
Our competitors seem to have Loan officer training at a corporate level. Their websites have templates and how to's available for down load by the employees so that the GFE's are consistant. The companies provide the soft ware at discounted rates ( due to high volume pruchases) so that everyone is running on the same versions
when new loan officers are hired they must attend a full week of training to go over not just philosophy of the company , BUT how the company expects their loan officers to conduct business and trains them on how to do this business ... starting with the basics.. I know personally a lot of loan officers that are Great at Selling the product. But when it comes to the details of actually completing the loan application they lack the knowledge of exactly how it is supposed to be done because in the past... it was " overlooked" when the initial HW loan applications were taken .. as long as the Final loan app was completed. This is a BASIC task, but one which most dont take the time to complete.
A company i worked for in the past had processor training ... even the contract processors were invited .. every friday for 30 minutes. they went over items that they see were being done wrong.. changes to forms and how they now to be completed ..Things that all needed to know.
I worked at one time for a company that requried all the initial 10 or so loans be complelty processed by the loan officer. when the loan officer thought it was ready for submission, the Branch manger .. looked thru the file like an UW and made a workup sheet as to what was missing .. incorrectly done etc.. yes it slowed the process down a bit at first ... BUT .. the loan officers learned from this. and had much better files to be turned in from that point on ..( it was a net branch company as well)
Basic Task ... Learning...if you dont know your product you dont know how to complete the loan application/ Good Faith and TIL.
This could be accomplished by doing web based training .. and make it mandatory..
Basic Task ... Communication..
Most of the Time you dont know who or where to contact someone to get a issue resolved. you get passed around from person to person. Most of the competitor websites I have seen there is a Contact list with all employees and what there job title is... not just some of them ... all of them
Written procedures are nice and all ... but if not enforced... they are ignored.. and the consequences have to be universal
Just a few thoughts ... I wish i had time to blog more but back to work
In every relationship there is three things. (1)Trust - Your client (the Realtor) has to trust you will do the right thing for their client. Your customer, (the Realtors client) must trust your going to look out for their best interest. (2) Honesty - Always tell people the truth. I use the Dr. Pepper theory here. I tell them the same thing at 10-2 or 4 oclock as I dont think I could remember what lies I told earlier.
And most important (3) Communication: I let Everyone know what is going on with the deal. There is nothing held out to the Realtor. I figure even if it is bad news, they need to lose sleep if I am. :-)
The last thing I can tell you is to read. Read every day something that is positive and something about your business. Make sure you know what is going on. Mortgage implode is NOT a Positive website to be reading. I do go to see the latest numbers and such but I will read something from HUD or other good websites. This looks to be one that could have great things to help us.
When I got started in this business as a mortgage broker in California, our company required all loan officers to process loans for the first month of their hire. Many don't understand the value of a proposition and what their job entails, what is expected of a loan processor and what is not. I also think it's a good idea for a loan officer to occasionally process a loan every now and then. Makes for a clean submission.
Seems to me that the loan officers that are being hired obviously need training. I believe that it should be assessed the amount of business that full time loan officers and rookie one a month loan officers do and then submitted to appropriate underwriting based on volume/quality. I believe veteran loan officers waiting in line with people that don't know the basics is not completely fair. Also address the fact that underwriters adding conditions time and time again after underwriting a file makes it impossible for a processor and or loan officer look as though they know what they are doing. This does not seem to happen at other investors. It is amazing that through the eyes at MBO a branch/originator is viewed as insufficient processing/originating however if this loan is sent to another investor they thank us for being so on top of our file and effecient.
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