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We are on a quest to transform the mortgage industry.
We believe there needs to be more transparency, which is one reason why we decided to share a monthly report on what we have learned, what worked and what didn’t, and what’s next in our plans to grow a Billion Dollar Brokerage.
We hope you find a few useful ideas and tidbits to help you in growing your mortgage business.
Welcome to February 2024
Brokerage Stats
Production since August 1, 2021
Volume: $1,246,429,122
Files funded: 2,874
January Production
Volume: $83,814,735.96
Files funded: 196
January Agent Stats
Rookies: 121 (+2)
Pros: 120 (+10)
Total: 241
Phone Calls vs DMs – Which is Better?
Prior to launching BRX, I ran a coaching company called “The 10 Loans a Month Academy.” One of the most impactful parts of the program was something we affectionately called “Game of Phones.”
Game of Phones was how we gamified making phone calls. Everyone knows they should make calls, but most people struggle with it.
Game of Phones (GOP) was actually created by accident. A couple of mortgage broker friends and I decided to have a little competition between us, so I created a simple scoreboard and scoring system.
The plan was for us to compete for bragging rights and a steak dinner. Surprisingly, this had a massive effect on all of our businesses.
Never mind that we were making more money, the bragging rights alone were enough to impel us all to make more calls than we ever thought possible.
A few years later, we implemented an improved version of the original concept in the 10 Loans a Month Academy.
When people would tell me, “You don’t need to make phone calls, just use DMs instead,” I was skeptical. I decided to test whether DMs were in fact better than phone calls.
So, when we launched our recent GOP competition, we rebranded it as Battle Royale, and added DMs to the game.
If I had to bet, I would have said that phone calls would crush DMs.
It turns out, I was wrong.
In this version of GOP, we also tracked DMs, Opens, Talks, Voicemails, and Leads.
A DM is when you send a direct message to initiate a conversation. An Open is when they respond to you.
A Talk is when you get someone on the phone, and a VM is a voicemail that is left from a call.
We assigned different point values to the different activities, and had five teams of six competing against each other.
The team with the most points would be crowned the winner and win some prizes.
Here are the stats from the very first Battle Royale:
DMs: 2,527
Opens: 1,092
Talks: 1,311
VMs: 1,017
Leads: 222
We also added the option of allowing people to do DMs, phone calls, or a combination of phone and DM.
The brokers who did both DMs and phone calls generated 115 leads and took 9 of the 10 top spots for leads generated.
This was unexpected to me—I thought pure phone calling would win hands down. Remember, I have been running a version of GOP for five years, and have seen thousands of leads generated from this.
However, it turns out that doing a combination of DMs and phone calls outperformed both the pure callers and the pure message-ers.
When I think about this logically, it makes sense.
Some people are going to be easier to connect with on social media via a DM, while others are going to be better to connect with on the phone.
I love learning more than I love being right. After witnessing these results from a 30-day Battle Royale, my personal recommendation is that you do both.
Use DMs to set up phone calls, and use straight up phone calls as well. The goal should be to do what is best, not to stick to something just because that is the way you have always done it.
Two Powerful Questions to Help You Improve Your Business
On a podcast I listened to a few months ago, the guest speaker shared two questions you should ask your team members, or your agents, to help you improve your business.
Question 1: What is your single best idea for improving the company?
Question 2: What is the dumbest thing you think we are doing as a company?
These questions will help you identify areas for improvement, and see things you might otherwise miss. I recently went through our team and asked them those two questions.
A topic that came up a couple of times was, “We should have a corporate social media account.”
Now to be fair, Denise has been harassing me for months about getting this set up, and I just didn’t think anyone would pay attention to a brokerage social media account.
It turns out, I was wrong about this as well. (It’s a theme this month.)
The BRX IG channel has been fantastic for us, even though it is still pretty small and relatively new.
I know we would have eventually launched the social media page, but I believe that asking my team those two questions resulted in it being implemented that much sooner.
If you have never done so, I recommend asking those two questions of your employees, referral sources, and clients.
I am willing to bet that, if you listen, they will give you pure gold that you can use to improve your business.
(Note, this is a public apology to Denise for dragging my feet on this. You were 100% correct on the value and importance of getting this channel going.)
Contracts
As mortgage brokers, we know the importance of paying attention to details. We may not enjoy details, but we know this is part of the job.
Most of the good brokers that I know pay a lot of attention to the mortgage commitments their clients sign.
This is a good thing.
However, I have seen more smart brokers than I can count fail to apply the same level of due diligence to their own brokerage agreements.
I have a few thoughts for you on brokerage agreements.
First, and this should go without saying, make certain you actually read it. I have spoken with brokers who were shocked to find some clause buried on page 63 of a mortgage agreement that they missed because they were in a big rush to get the agreement signed.
Second, have your lawyer review the contract for you. As mortgage brokers, we understand mortgage commitments and daily help our clients navigate and understand the agreements.
However, all of that care and attention to detail is thrown out the window when we are dealing with our own contracts. If this is something you struggle with, take on the mindset of how you would review a brokerage agreement for one of your adult children. I’m willing to bet that most of you would give better advice to your adult children than you would to yourself.
Third, ask to see a copy of your broker owner’s agreement with the franchise. This is something most people forget to ask, and it has burned more than a few people. The agreement your broker owner has with the franchise can impact you. I have seen instances where a broker owner leaves one franchise for another, and all of the commission, including the commission earned by their sub-agents, is held because of a dispute.
I am not commenting on whether the dispute is legitimate; that is for the parties’ lawyers to decide. What I am saying is that their contract can absolutely affect you, and it behooves you to ask to see it.
I feel there are far too many games in the mortgage industry when it comes to contracts, which is why we have decided as a company to keep things super transparent. Everyone gets the exact same contract, and the contract can be viewed online. This prevents people from playing games.
Check out our Agent Un-Contract here.
BRX rocks