TOP MORTGAGE BROKER
A Q & A WITH RAMON VON WALKER TOP MORTGAGE BROKER
Q & A session conducted by Marc Summers, President of AIME, with Ramon Von Walker
THE WORLD OF MORTGAGE LENDING is a complicated one, so there are solid lessons to be learned from those working in the top of the industry. With that in mind, the following Q & A session was conducted with Ramon Von Walker, broker and owner of Mount Diablo Lending, one of the top-producing loan originators in the United States. His knowledge illuminated not only some of the lesser known aspects of the brokerage industry but also some of the things that new brokers can( and should) do to get a leg up.
Q: HOW MUCH PRODUCTION HAVE YOU DONE THIS YEAR?
A: Right at about $ 121 million for the year in loan origination value. That’ s spread out over 307 separate units [ loans ].
Q: WHERE WOULD YOU SAY YOUR MAIN SOURCE OF CLIENTS COME FROM?
A: We specialize in buying online leads. I have years of experience dealing with the different lead aggregators like Lending Tree, Zillow, Leadpoint, etc. When working in this space, it’ s extremely important to know your ROI [ return on investment ]. You’ re constantly searching, negotiating with the lead companies in an effort to achieve the best ROI.
Prior to this year, we were mainly a refinance business and didn’ t do much purchase business. The increase in rates has lowered origination totals for 2018 and [ led to our ] diversification into the purchase market. We’ ve aggressively gone after purchase business due to changes in market dynamics.
To that end, we’ ve established relationships with mid-sized
real estate brokerages to become their preferred lender. The key to forming these relationships is value add. Our value proposition is to assist with lead generation. A lot of the strategies used to generate success on the refinance side we’ ve modified to help the realtor secure more leads.
Q: HOW DO YOU APPROACH REAL ESTATE AGENTS AND BECOME THEIR LENDER OF CHOICE?
A: It’ s very hard to establish one-on-one relationships with real estate agents. It’ s also very time consuming. You can only talk to a few a week in addition to dealing with your own business. You must speak with 10 – 20 agents in the hopes of sitting down with two for a lunch or coffee.
The most efficient strategy is to go after the ownership group. Network with them— they are the key to success. Look for individuals who own smaller brokerages, 10 – 25 agents. At the larger firms, look for real estate teams. It’ s very common to see agents work in groups of three to five. This is a much more efficient strategy than having coffee with one agent at a time.
Q: AS A TOP MORTGAGE ORIGINATOR, HOW DO YOU KEEP TRACK OF CLIENTS AND STAY ORGANIZED?
A: It’ s an absolute necessity without question to use a CRM. If you aren’ t currently using a Customer Relationship Manager, get online today and start researching to find which is a best fit for you. Even for people who have a CRM, many aren’ t using it to its maximum potential. A lot of companies sell out-of-thebox versions.
Once you’ ve established a sales strategy and working patterns, I’ d highly suggest customizing your CRM to support
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