SPEAKER_01 0:00

Welcome to the Lone Originator Pulse, the show for loan officers who want to know what's actually working in the market right now. I'm Courtney Lane Schaefers, and every episode I'm going to sit down with originators and industry voices who are in the trenches, and we get into the real tactics behind the numbers, the plays, the tools, and the habits driving today's top production. The pulse is produced by MMI1. So we use real production data to find the people worth learning from. And every conversation is built to send you back to your desk with at least one thing you can try this week. So let's get into it. Hey guys, welcome back for another episode of the Lone Originator Pulse. We are here today with Richard Brant with North Point Bank. And you guys just to give a little shum before I let Richard talk. Richard is definitely on the show today. I know Richard's success. And I think, honestly, I think you're sitting right now, you know, somewhere in the like 30 minute to 30 minutes, you know, somewhere like that year today. So what that means then um that speaks to what you're doing in your business, um, Richard. But welcome into the show and give everyone a 20-second version of what kind of business do you do? Who are you? You know, who do you serve? How long have you been in the business? Tell us all that.

SPEAKER_00 1:28

20 seconds. I might, I'm, I might, I might skip a couple things.

SPEAKER_01 1:34

That's quite all right. You can really take longer than 20 seconds, but what's your what's your pitch?

SPEAKER_00 1:39

All right, fair enough. So so I I just to let everybody know, I got into the business in two since 2018. Um, or 2017, actually. I got into the business in 2017, and how I got into the business is a little bit interesting. My mother's been, and you know my mother, my mother's been in the mortgage business for 30 years, over th almost 40 years at this point. And um when when in 2016 I had a I had a different business, and I had sold my business. I was working for the company that bought my business, and my mom got diagnosed with cancer. So when she got sick, one of the things that I one of the things that she had set up her business about, and and because we're on this podcast, it it it kind of has something to do with it but like the way that I kind of looked at her business then and and how I look at it now. So originally her she really didn't have a a business, she had a profession. Because if she wasn't there to service her clients, what the clients would have to go somewhere else, and what would she be coming back to when she got better? And we knew she would get better. And I had built a business, and I'm thinking I could I could do I could take the same thing that I did for for my business and I could do it with her. I could learn the business and and and stuff like that. And uh and then once I once I kind of get my feet into the business, I can kind of start to structure it so that it's a business, not a profession. It doesn't now the brand lending team doesn't rely on me answering the phone to take an application. I've got a team behind me that that that helps us with all the production that we we do. But um uh my so so my mom, my mom gets sick, she's she's doing, I get into the business, and one of the things that I one of the things that I say about this is that I very much look at the world. I'm sorry, I'm getting a call that's I can't decline. Um one of the things that one of the things that I look at the world very much like a puzzle. And so in my old business, my old business was a process service business. Not nothing to do with loans. You know the guy who knocks on your door and says you're being sued, these are for you. This is my company. So but but the way that I look at the world was like a puzzle. So even in that business, it was just where is this guy? Where's their assets? How are we gonna serve him? What time is he gonna be where? All this all these kind of questions that you have. And then when I got into the mortgage business, it's funny because I I acclimated to it very quickly because all it was was a puzzle. I was just I I the mental approach was exactly the same. I was just playing with different pieces.

SPEAKER_01 4:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 4:20

And so it enabled me to catch up really, really quickly, to to get to a point where I was super proficient, and um I did something, I did something that that I I can probably say I might be one of a handful of people that do. I read the Fannie Mae guide and the Freddie and the FHA guide, the seller servicing guide cover to cover. And I have a really good memory.

SPEAKER_01 4:45

We probably are the only person that's reading cover to cover.

SPEAKER_00 4:48

It's a boring read. It was a while ago, so I I have read updates, but um, but it it but it helped me tremendously just kind of know um what I was doing. And and from a business perspective, one of the things that you had said about what sets us apart, one of the things that sets me apart from my competition is I know more than the guy that I'm competing with.

SPEAKER_01 5:12

Yeah. Well, first and foremost, um, by the way, I know your mom got better because I do know your mom. And um, and that's that's the biggest takeaway from that entire story is that um that she's still here and she's still as funky as ever, I might not.

SPEAKER_00 5:28

She honestly, she works harder than me. 76 works harder than me.

SPEAKER_01 5:32

I know, it's crazy. Um, and um, and and beautiful, I'm lying on as well. So I can't wait to see her soon. Um, I hope that she's with the group. Um, but so talk to me. Um, so so why so why are you known as the lone doctor? Let's talk about that. Where'd that name come from? Because you have your scrubs on, I know.

SPEAKER_00 5:53

I do have my I do have my scrubs. This is a catechist, but with a dollar sign. So um, so uh they call they call me the lone doctor for a couple reasons. Um one one, I'm I'm Jewish. My mom always wanted a son who's a doctor, so this was an easy way to do that without going to medical school. Right. But but the uh but the big reason is I often say that getting a getting a loan can feel like a financial colonoscopy.

unknown 6:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 6:22

And so it's so true.

SPEAKER_00 6:25

You need a dot, you need a doctor to perform it. It's it's funny because it's really, really it's uh it's actually good that that you say it almost like that because it's helped me kind of connect with people and actually set an expectation that we are gonna ask you for a lot of stuff. We are gonna, you know, dot every I and cross every T. And it's gonna seem irritating and and all that kind of stuff that we have to do. Um, but it but it's effective in terms of at least setting the expectation so that so that we have a good experience going forward.

SPEAKER_01 7:00

Yeah. Well, and to that point, I mean, you know, when you think about your doctors, right? You want a doctor that is that thorough. You want a doctor that's gonna take the time, it's gonna sit with you, you know, and and and make sure that they're doing all the things because that's your health, right? Well, you you translate that, and as you said, you know, it's it's much like, you know, it's much like, you know, buying a home is kind of like a, you know, getting a colonoscopy and a prep and all the stuff that comes with it. But but to that point though, we say all the time, this is someone's largest purchase, right? And especially if it's their first purchase of a home and they've never done this before, um, the care and the attention that they get from a loan officer, right? Um, rather than someone that's just, you know, here, here, this is the next step, yumada yumada, whatever, and they're not taking the time to really ensure that everything is done the right way and take the care to do it. Um, so it's it's a great, it's a great analogy. Um, and and to that point, again, you didn't say it was like going in and getting like a massage. You did say it was like getting something we all dread, you know, when you turn 50, right? Um so um for those that aren't there yet, they're like, what are you talking about? It can't be that bad, right?

SPEAKER_00 8:21

So honestly, you should see people run when I offer to give them a pre-approval.

SPEAKER_01 8:28

I love it.

SPEAKER_00 8:29

Okay, so I I I will say it's it's um, you know, there if if you think about health, there are three stages, there's three different types of health, right? There's physical health, there's financial health, and there's mental health, right? And so I definitely like to think that I pi I help people with their financial help health because we don't we don't we don't look at it as like we're giving somebody a mortgage. Like like so oftentimes, you know, people call us and and they have an idea of what they want or what they think they want because they don't know the whole options that are out there. But when we take a comprehensive look at their entire financial picture, then then we're able to kind of you know use that expertise and say, well, wait a second, what if if we did this and this and this, this might be better for you, here's why, what do you think? And then we're we're we're really giving somebody a loan that they they need more than the loan that they think that they want because they just don't know. Because we do this every day and they don't.

SPEAKER_01 9:27

Yeah. Well, and with that, you know, so when we talk about what you're working on now, you know, what is one thing that's really driving the most business for you right now in this market? You know, everybody kind of has a different feel for what's going on. So what's driving the most business for you?

SPEAKER_00 9:44

Um, I well, I think right now is I I I I work with a lot of I work so I work with a lot of people who are self-employed, I work with a lot of investors. And so in investors are are really what would drive a lot of my business. Not only because they are they're acquiring property, but they're constantly taking advantage of leverage. And and I I I say this kind of all the time, right? If it costs me 7% to borrow money, right? And and I can make 10 or 11, I'd borrow a hundred million dollars if somebody would give it to me. And so investors are kind of thinking about that all the time. It's it's if I can make more than what it's gonna cost me, I'm gonna keep I'm gonna keep leveraging. And so I so we do a lot of um, we might do like second mortgages to fund per new purchases and and all that kind of stuff. So I I would say that's that's probably the thing. And and I mean, at the end, I also live in Florida. A lot of people are moving to Florida, so one of the other things that drives, you know, a lot of business is these people who are migrating from other parts of the country to it to you know a state as great as what we have.

SPEAKER_01 10:53

Yeah. Well, now let me tell you something. They might not agree with us right now today with the heat advisory that we have in Florida right now, but um but I would take that over the cold any day. So um, so yeah. So all right, so let me ask you, is there anything that you used to do in your business that you have now completely stopped? You're like, nope, not gonna do that anymore. That doesn't work, or anything that you would say that you that you kind of just funny kind of flips it on it.

SPEAKER_00 11:28

The the the the the the the first thing that comes to mind, this this is just it it just the first thing that pops up, it doesn't have anything to do with with with mortgages. But when I but it but it's just it's just a funny story. When I when or at least I think it's funny, so I guess everybody's gonna hear it.

SPEAKER_01 11:46

I like funny stories.

SPEAKER_00 11:49

So when I had before, so when I had my process service company, my process service company started out as a delivery company. Okay, and I had this idea, we're in Florida, I had this idea that we're gonna do every delivery with a kiss. That'll be how we'll be known, right? Every delivery done with a kiss, and when we leave do a delivery, we leave a bunch of Hershey's Kisses.

SPEAKER_01 12:08

Right. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 12:10

So I'm thinking this is the greatest idea. I went to Costco, I loaded up on Hershey's Kisses, I gave it to all my guys, they're going out on the road, and we're gonna do this big promotion thing. We we changed marketing material, we had we had flyers and everything for it. And we started the promotion in the middle of July. And it's hot, and people are driving around in their car, they have Hershey's Kisses in their pocket. By by one o'clock in the afternoon, you didn't have a Hershey's Kiss.

SPEAKER_01 12:41

You had oh no. Well, it was a good idea. It wasn't it was a good idea.

SPEAKER_00 12:50

We ended up switching to lifesavers, and we would give lifesavers because we're your lifesaver.

SPEAKER_01 12:55

Yep. I love it.

SPEAKER_00 12:59

But that was kind of a disaster. But but no, from from a work perspective, um let me see. What do I do differently that that that that I didn't do before? You know what? There there's not a lot that I do I do different than I did before. There's probably some things that I do better, but I I think one one of the things I I will say this, one of the things that my other business kind of brought me was sort of a skill set and and and an idea about how I want my customer experience to be. So I'm a big I'm a big believer in something called givers gain, and it's not my philosophy, it's something that was brought to me from a networking group, and and and really if you if you want to talk about like how how I sort of got here when I when I had when I had my old business in in like 2012, I was very much a business. I was I was I was a profession, just like I described with my mother. And then I met this guy and and he became a great mentor of mine and just taught me the value of uh Giver's game and and doing doing something, trying try trying to come up with ways to be of service, to be of value without having to say um with without having to uh like require it, like like without being asked for it, just giving that value. And uh and it's funny because I I can't I don't know you know if anybody in your audience is Jewish, they'll understand this. It's essentially givers' gain is Jewish guilt. I'm gonna do so much for you that you're gonna feel bad not giving me business until you give me business. So a lot of my realtor relationships are us giving something a value, constantly giving something a value until they feel so guilty about it that there's something else work.

SPEAKER_01 14:51

Yeah. Well, obviously we've proven that you know you you have a way of um you know making it fun, right? Um, bringing creativity to it. Um, you know, again, you know, the the way you describe, you know, a mortgage to a colonoscopy, right? Um, you know, I'm gonna leave this in your previous business with a kiddis. Um but um but walk me through. So if a new lead comes in to you, right? Um you're not in process yet, so you're not going through all the other. Um, what happens after you get that new lead? What is that first touch to getting to application look like?

SPEAKER_00 15:33

Sure. So so so generally what happens is if a lead comes in, the the the the encouragement is to get pre-approved, right? That I think I think we we kind of want to get an idea of what their timeline is. That's a big step. Um the other thing we want to know is is you know in try and trying to answer your question, the the timeline sort of dictates kind of kind of where the conversation goes, right? If you're if you're uh if you're a buyer and you're actively looking for property, it definitely makes sense to get pre-approved, even if you're thinking that you're not gonna buy for six months, because you there's a chance that if you're looking, you're gonna find something and then you're gonna want to make something happen sooner than you expect.

SPEAKER_01 16:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 16:18

So you might as well be prepared for it. Right. So the the timeline has a lot to do with it. So so typically if it's somebody who is off in the distance, right, with a future timeline, I'll kind of talk to them, try to get an idea of what their what their eventual goals are, um, and try to connect some of the pieces to their puzzle. Um, like how long, like are they self-employed, that kind of thing? Do they own any other real estate? Not nothing extravagant, but just answers to questions that that like documentation won't tell me, right? And then what we would do is we would send it say, when you're ready, here's a list of stuff that we we get, and then depending on their timeline, um, I have on my team, we call her we call her the loan traffic controller. Uh it's Garen. And so what she'll do is she'll follow up with them. So if their timeline is in three months or six months, she'll call them every month just to check in to see if their timeline has changed and to see if they have any unanswered questions. Which is which is one one of the one of the things that's really big for us is is we have a we do a good job of converting our our our clients, our our past client database converting that. But that question of um, do you have any unanswered questions is a really good way to just kind of be a reminder. It's not, I'm not, I'm not, hey, I'm I'm I'm calling you. I know you know why I'm calling you, but I want to make sure that something in the last couple months or in the last couple weeks didn't pop into your head that that you need an answer to.

SPEAKER_01 17:50

Right. Well, and keeping with that, um kind of that theme, right? Um, you know, you're staying top of mind to those leads that maybe aren't quite ready yet. Um so keeping with the theme of staying top of mind, how do you stay top of mind and the choice for the referral partners that you're working with? Because, you know, obviously you can have a group of them, right? Some maybe you've got a little bit more lion's share of their business than others. But how are you continuing to stay in front of them? And, you know, with such creativity that you have, you know, are you gonna tell me that you throw like a like a prep, you know, a prep party for the colonoscopies or what you got all the drinks ready?

SPEAKER_00 18:33

So so I yeah, no, I well I think we have a um we we we have uh the company uses a good CRM that kind of keeps us in their mind, and then we do a good job of of making sure that we're reaching out to them on a regular basis. Um depending on on the referral partner and the referral, you know, it it it it's funny just because in real estate, if you think about it, the the the vast majority of realtors are out there that that that send you business don't do a lot of business themselves. And it's part of our job is to help them you know get a little bit more busy. But it also doesn't make sense for me to call you every week to because there is there isn't b there right? We we still have to develop business that you want to get. Unless we're at a stage where we're saying, okay, how can we help you grow? You know, and then and then we're doing it together. We do we do a lot of what I would say like sales personal training. So I've I've built businesses that that that have sold. I I built this into you know a business where I'm one of the top people in my industry. And and selling, it doesn't really matter, you know, what you're selling a lot to a lot of time. So for so for some realtors, they want they want that help and they want that accountability. So we act as that accountability partner to say, okay, this is what you said you're gonna do. I'm gonna call you every couple weeks to make sure you're actually doing it.

SPEAKER_01 19:59

Yeah. All right. Well, let's talk about the market as a whole. Let's talk about kind of the pulse of the market and you know, not that we're any of us are mind readers, right? Um, but I mean, for someone that has read, you know, front cover to back cover of a few books that some of us have not read. Um, you know, where do you think the market goes from here? Like, what do you, you know, like what are your thoughts?

SPEAKER_00 20:25

How are you positioning for what you think might be so so it's a it's a one, the the the the Fannie Mae seller servicing guide is a really boring read. Um I'll say I would imagine it is. It's it's it took a lot. And I I read it in a m in in both books in less than a month. Um so while I was working at my other job. So um the the the funny thing is, is I don't know if you're gonna love my answer to this. Because I can't control it, I don't really worry about it as much. I mean, you know, you you you think about like you worry about like what is how is AI gonna impact you you might think about it, but I tend to focus on the here and now because I'm dealing with what's happening today, and everybody else is dealing with what's happening today. And you know, we have clients, right, who who tell us all that, oh I'm waiting for rates to go down. Okay, but if rates don't like like I had people, you know, a year ago, year and a half, telling me they're waiting for rates to go down. Rates are about the same as what they were, maybe a little bit better, but you know what hasn't gone down? Prices. Right. So it was awesome that you waited, except now the house that you want to buy is now, you know, eighty dollars more or a hundred dollars more a month than it would have been had you bought it then. So so I'm not a big believer in timing the market. I'm not a big believer in trying to forecast. I am I'm one of those people who tells you if it if it makes sense today, right? If it makes sense today for you and your family, do it.

SPEAKER_01 21:58

Yeah, but no.

SPEAKER_00 22:00

Nobody, nobody gets nobody has like like I I I if you want to like sort of measure regret, right? You might have a little regret if I paid fifty thousand dollars too much for a house, right? And I'm using fifty as a number, just yeah, you know, I'm in Florida, house prices are five hundred thousand, paying 10% more. Right. Um, if you're if if you pay a little bit more for a house, you might have a little bit of regret. But if you can't now get the house and you're gonna have to continue and you're gonna continue renting, you have a lot of regret.

SPEAKER_01 22:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 22:33

And so I I tend to say, let's put you in a position where the worst that can happen is you might have a little bit of regret.

SPEAKER_01 22:40

Yeah, yeah. No, it's it's very true because I mean that was, you know, kind of leading into another question of mine is how do you how do you, you know, have the conversation around rate, right? Because there are so many folks out there that are just that is what they keep saying, right? So you you pretty much answered my you know my next question because I think a lot of the borrowers obviously waiting for that and we're not seeing that. And then furthermore, you know, then you you have some LOs that don't, you know, they're not really quite sure how to sell against the rate, you know, conversation. And so they get they get stumped, right? So um, so it's it's you know, you're right. I mean, listen, I mean, if you want the house, I mean, and you know, this is exactly all the stuff that you were looking for, right? I mean, you know, I really don't think tomorrow, you know, you're gonna see a different rate. And when was the last time that we, I mean, gosh, I now I'm not even gonna remember, but I mean, like, I mean, we definitely haven't dropped below five something in the last like how many years now? I mean, you know, if you're waiting for the three and the four again, like it's it's like, yeah, I mean, like, like you're gonna be waiting a long time, you're gonna be written for a long time.

SPEAKER_00 24:03

You're you're you're not you're not getting look, the other thing is history shows that the the rates right now are are are pretty stable as to where they are historically. And what hap what happened to got the rate to down to four percent, right, was a a a financial crisis to the likes that we're never gonna have again. Yeah. What got that rates down to two percent or three percent, COVID, right? God, god forbid we have another world pandemic. Like, like those things aren't gonna happen unless something really, really bad happens, and then you got a lot more stuff to worry about.

SPEAKER_01 24:36

Yeah, exactly. Yeah, the last thing is is that, right?

SPEAKER_00 24:39

So hold on, but because just because the rate conversation, it just brought me to something. Oh no. One of the things that I one of the things that I love are people who are shopping for a property that where they're they don't have a property in mind, right? They haven't found a house, and they're calling me today and asking me what my rate is, and they're shopping me, they're shopping me on rate today. Yeah, right. And I and I and I I use this analogy all the time, but I want you to call your financial planner and I want you to tell them that you want to buy Apple stock and you want to know the price of the Apple stock, but you're not buying it for another three months.

SPEAKER_01 25:18

Right, right, exactly.

SPEAKER_00 25:21

Right, it's you know, and and so so many times if if if the the one thing that I try, the one thing that I I I tell like prospective clients is until you find a property, shopping for a rate is an exercise in futility. Yeah, number one, you don't know how reliable the information you're given. You don't know is somebody giving you their rate today, is somebody giving you a rate that where they believe the rate's gonna be by the time you do find a property, it doesn't make sense. Find somebody who you know, like and trust. And if you know, like, and trust them, the odds are they're gonna be really competitive. And if you want to shop for rate, once you lock into a property and then let and and and then give the person who you like and trust the opportunity since you already like and trust them, that that's kind of the smarter way to do it.

SPEAKER_01 26:16

Yeah. All right. Well, now we're gonna do what we call our pulse check. So a little rapid fire, if you will. So one piece of advice that you would give to a newbie first year loan officer.

SPEAKER_00 26:35

Ooh, um, the the piece of advice that I would give to a new loan officer is stick to a calendar.

SPEAKER_01 26:42

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 26:43

Be disciplined about your time because it'll get away from you real quick that you where you're not doing the things that you're supposed to do to help grow your business.

SPEAKER_01 26:52

All right. Another question. What is one number that you think every LO should know about their own pipeline?

SPEAKER_00 27:03

Ooh, um, their conversion rate.

SPEAKER_01 27:06

All right. I love it. All right. Okay, takeaways. Here's the deal. If somebody wants to find the lone doctor, Richard, how can they find you? Um, what is your best contact? And um, and then I think if I'm not mistaken, don't you actually have a podcast or show yourself that's actually called The Lone Doctor?

SPEAKER_00 27:30

We have the Lone Doctor Podcast. Yeah, the Brandt Lending Team has the Lone Doctor Podcast on YouTube, so you can find us there. Um you can you can always find us at North Point Bank by going to North Point Bank um and looking up Richard Brandt. Um and I think uh we have our our website is the Brandt Lenning Team at the BrantLending Team.com. And uh can I say my phone number?

SPEAKER_01 27:54

Uh sure. You can say whatever you have.

SPEAKER_00 28:00

Nine that's nine five four four seven six eight two two three. And uh honestly, if if if if somebody's in the industry, we're we're always looking to North Point has a really, really good way of doing this, and you've experienced this where we kind of help each other. And and even though to a certain extent we're really competing, there's enough business out there for the right people. So I'm always willing to, you know, give people guidance if they need it.

SPEAKER_01 28:28

Yeah, well, you're right. I mean, the team there at North Point, um, you know, obviously, um, you know, I I spent a lot of time with you guys. So um, so good people, the entire team, good people. So um, well, Richard, thank you so much for joining us. Um, this has been fun. Um, I do not um plan to have to prep again. Um, let's see, I think I did mine, you know, a few years ago, so I got 10 more years before my next um, you know, call. But um, but remember you're doing it now. I'll certainly be thinking of like our conversation 10 years from now. But when I do, in fact, um look here in the next several years um to um to to find um our home over by our other kids in the um St. Pete area. Um I will um I'll have to I'll have to keep that in mind as well. So um, but thank you again for joining us and um and it's been fun. All right, guys. Next time, until then, see you guys later. Hope you have a great time.