there should be a mechanism in place to handle that. Everyone wants to work for themselves, but nobody want to work by themselves. It takes a village to get a loan done nowadays. Make sure the support is there for them to make money for you.
Back office support We had a very simple rule at Carteret. If a question was asked once, we would answer it. If it was asked twice by two separate people, it went in the employee manual and on the Web site. The chances were that if two separate people had the same question, a hundred others did too, but were too shy to ask. Office employees were taught to first answer the question and then gently tell them where to find it on the Web site. Some of the common questions led to some really innovative things on our
Web site. You always got questions like, “What is so-and-so’s junk fees or mortgage clause? Who is our account rep there? What is their FHA lender number? We developed a “Lenders List.” This was a file they could download from our web site and search by lender. It contained all the human knowledge in the world about each particular lender and a comment section where you could praise or trash the lender based on your experience. Loan officer could send us “edits” for when information changed and we would keep it constantly updated. It was the first Wikipedia, before there was a Wikipedia. Wish I had patented that idea! Other links included: l “Why aren’t we paid as Statutory Employees?” linked to a paper I had
our CPA write when that came up on a few employees personal IRS audit. l “What is the Payroll status of my file?” which tracked the movement of the file through the post-closing audit process and finally payroll approved. l “What is my license status?” which tracked the coming expirations and renewals of loan officer licenses through the licensing department. l A ”Marketing Library” with media ready, compliance approved TV, radio and print advertisements, flyers, door knockers, etc. for the loan officer’s marketing needs. All this and more costs me tons of time and money, but it was for people who were paying my mortgage with their labors. I think having four kids helped me a lot. You love your kids and
you want them to get ahead. That’s how an employee should be treated. That’s how I wanted to be treated when I was a loan officer. Now granted, if you are a three man shop, this may not be feasible at this time. But now you know how to get there. Be a virtuous boss. Be good to people. It will come back to you tenfold. Eric Weinstein worked in banking, on the commercial real estate side until 1991, when he fell in love with residential lending. In 1995, he started a small mortgage company in his basement called Carteret Mortgage Corporation, which in 2003, grew to one of the largest mortgage broker companies in the United States. Eric is semi-retired, doing mortgages by referral only. He may be reached by phone at (703) 505-8692 or e-mail eweinstein4u@gmail.com. 65
NationalMortgageProfessional.com
n Texas Mortgage Professional Magazine n JANUARY 2016
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