SCRIPTS for Turning Your Database Into A Competitive Advantage for Realtors

Jeremy Forcier is 17% better at converting trigger leads than the 2,584 other loan officers in his company.

Today’s mortgage lenders and loan officers are faced with a 2% increase in interest rates in just a matter of weeks, so refis are down 70%. Additionally, we have historically low housing inventory, and we’re at the beginning of “Price Compression Wars,” so rate shopping is up 70% over just two months ago.

I’ve co-authored this playbook which is inspired by my recent interview with Jeremy Forcier, who’s one of America’s most successful local-referral-based mortgage professionals. His success is due to reaching out to clients with the best scripts, which yields a 66% response rate. 

The goal of this playbook and these scripts is to provide you with a competitive advantage by turning your database trigger leads into a huge value for Realtors so they can sell more homes and you can create extra loans now, while also increasing your market share.

If you adopt four principles and implement eight trigger alert scripts, you will create relationships with more Realtors, drive more leads from current agent partners and optimize your past client database.

Before I get into the strategies and scripts used by top loan officers, it’s essential that you first understand and execute these four principles.

Principles:

1. We will create clients for life with a combination of Mortgage Coach and Sales Boomerang.
2. We will respond to every database trigger alert.
3. We will work hard to turn database trigger alerts into value for Realtors and create new purchase opportunities.
4. We will see all alerts as an opportunity and use a multi-channel approach to each lead by calling, emailing and texting every single alert.

Strategies:

• Set up your database to alert you when there are major changes in a customer’s loan status. If you are not currently using Sales Boomerang, then request a demo to find out how it can help you foster sales growth using trigger alerts.

• Use every trigger alert as an opportunity to reach out to your former client.
• Don’t take it personally if they don’t contact you first. Loan officers often get trigger emails like, “Someone requested a payoff request,” and think it’s too late. Some won’t even try to step in and help. But remember, there is always an opportunity. You just have to proactively go after it.
• Call, email and text the client (in that order). And speed is critical. Do it as soon as you get the alert.

#1 Scripting for a Credit Alert:

Call: “Hey (borrower first_name), it’s Jeremy Forcier from CrossCountry Mortgage. I wanted to check in with you and see if anything has changed in your financial outlook. Whether that’s new car funding, a college education, consolidating some debt, needs for a cash-out refinance, maybe a home equity line of credit, or maybe you’re just looking to pay off your loan faster and reduce your term. I would love to review all these different options with you, get caught up and see what’s changing in your life, so I can help you plan appropriately. I’m going to send you a follow-up email with all of this information as well. Let me know when a good time to chat is. You can reach me at 415-717-7155. Take care.”

Email: “Hey, I just left you a voicemail. I wanted to connect with you and see if you had any…”

Text: “Hey, what’s up? It’s Jeremy Forcier from CrossCountry Mortgage. I just left you a voicemail and sent you an email. I would love to connect with you about all this information. Let me know when a good time to connect is.”

• State all the different things they could possibly be doing and follow up three different ways at the same time. It creates urgency.
• Keep it simple. Simple always wins.
• Don’t focus on what you have to offer. Focus on what’s going on in their life. Ask quality questions. Don’t show them that you’re interesting, show them that you’re interested in them.

Once you know what’s going on in their life, take the liberty upfront to send them a Mortgage Coach Total Cost Analysis. Then, adjust it in real-time when you have their feedback or are on the phone with them. If you don’t currently have Mortgage Coach, request a demo here.

When Creating a Total Cost Analysis, Follow These Three Essentials of Smart Mortgage Decisions:

#1 Provide clients with at least three but no more than four different loan options.

#2 A Total Cost Analysis (TCA) must be considered over both the short and long term.

#3 Always include options for prepaying a mortgage, as well as putting the money in an interest-bearing account.

See one of Jeremy’s most common Mortgage Coach TCAs in today’s marketplace. He’s helping Realtors sell more homes and helping home buyers make more confident decisions.

• Contact them yourself. Don’t turn the call/email/text plan over to an assistant. Once you’ve done the call, email and text, then it’s OK to have your assistant call to book an appointment.
• Take the mindset of a concerned advisor. If you do that, you won’t have any pushback about seeing their loan. Maintain control of the perception. “Don’t worry about how you might appear or what people might think,” Jeremy says. “Because the reality is when we think like that, what we’re trying to do is figure out ways to be more manipulative. We need to be less manipulative when we’re trying to help people.”

#2 Scripting for an Equity Alert Follow Up:

“Hey (borrower first_name), it’s Jeremy Forcier from CrossCountry Mortgage. I had an equity alert today that shows you have an additional $150,000 of equity in your house since you purchased the home. I would love to chat with you about what to do with it or what not to do with it to make sure that we’re still on track with your long-term goals. When is a good time to connect?”

Don’t be afraid to challenge the client. A cash-out refi is not always the right way to go. Consider this advice Jeremy gave a life-long client: “Hey, can we stop doing 15-year fixed-rate loans? Because you refinance every 18 months, it doesn’t make any sense to keep doing a 15-year fixed-rate loan. You don’t have an interest rate issue, John. You have a cash flow issue, and until we fix that issue, you’re going to keep calling me all the time about your equity.”

Example:

Jeremy: “Hey, you have increased equity.”

Client: “Well how much can I take out?” 

Jeremy: “Let’s see what you should do or not do. Maybe you shouldn’t do anything because it’s not in line with your goals.”

Include a Move Up Analysis in an equity alert follow-up meeting. Maybe it’s a move-down strategy. The key is to understand their needs.

If you need help learning to create a Mortgage Coach Move up or Move down TCA, attend one of our daily live training events or watch one of our how-to videos.

Turn your follow-up into a referral (or two). Here’s an example from Jeremy:

Client: “Oh yeah, I didn’t know that the payoff request was going to happen. I was just trying to see what my net sheet was if I was to sell my house right now.”

Jeremy: “Oh, awesome. Well, why don’t I just run the numbers for you? And then we’ll take a look at it. What’s going on?”

Client: “Well, I want to sell my house and I’m going to relocate to the Sacramento area. I’m just going to downsize. I’m not in any rush. I could even lease in the meantime, but I just want to see what that would do for me.”

Jeremy: “Great. Are you connected with Jennifer, who is the agent? Haven’t reached out to her yet? Hey, I’m going to reconnect you guys. I think she’s going to be the best person to tell you exactly what to do in this situation. By the way, I work with a lot of great agents in Sacramento, too. Would you like an introduction to someone who can help you figure out what neighborhoods might be of interest and where you want to be overall, with no pressure?”
Client: “Yeah. I would love that. But I’m not ready to start the loan process because I’m not buying yet.

Jeremy: “Now is the right time to start the preapproval process. You don’t have to do anything. You don’t have to buy right now, but let’s make sure that the loan is going to work for what you want to do, in advance. So on the off chance you do find something sooner rather than later, you can go ahead and purchase that house now and not have any stress.

Client: “Great. Sounds good.”

*Branch and regional managers: Use this script in your weekly sales meetings.

#3 Listing Alert:

Here, you don’t need to list all the options of what they could be doing.

Script: “(agent first_name), Jeremy Forcier, CrossCountry Mortgage. How are you? Dude, I saw you listed your house. What are you doing, man? Tell me about it. I’d love to help you with it. What are you doing? Are you relocating? Did you get a crazy offer off-market?

“I would love to make sure that your home closes smoothly. I would love to help prequalify all of the leads that come in from the house you’re listing of the people that are going to buy your house.”

Set up expectations for future conversations based on alerts when you close the sale.

Closing Script: “Hey (borrower first_name), just so you know, this is the start of our relationship. Not the end. I will be reaching out to you when I see opportunities. I have you on an interest rate alert already.”

#4 Interest RateWatch Script:

“I have you on an interest rate reduction alert. Don’t worry about watching it every day. I’m going to manage it for you. And I will reach out. Of course, you can reach out to me any time you want between now and then, but I’ve got this. I’m monitoring it. When there is going to be a benefit to you, where the cost makes sense, I will be the first one to reach out. If you have any questions in between, please feel free to reach out to me.”

Use a Mortgage Coach Total Cost Analysis to present different options, side by side.

#5 Credit Score Improvement Script:

“Hey, what’s up (borrower first_name)? It’s Jeremy Forcier, CrossCountry Mortgage. Hey, I just got an alert that your credit has soared. It has moved up significantly, which is great. This means that whenever you purchase anything moving forward using credit, it’s going to be cheaper for you and that’s fantastic. Let’s hop on a call, and make sure we can keep the integrity of whatever you’ve done to stay on that track. So that way, next time you’re looking to purchase or refinance, we can get you the best loan humanly possible. When’s a good time to connect?”

#6 Reducing PMI Script: 

“Hey (borrower first_name), it’s Jeremy Forcier at CrossCountry Mortgage. I don’t know if you know this, but we can reduce your mortgage payment by simply getting rid of your mortgage insurance. We can get rid of the $465 a month you’re paying in mortgage insurance right now because of your equity increase. I would love to schedule a time to talk about it with you. It may or may not make sense depending on where interest rates are compared to what you have right now. But I think it’s an opportunity we should take a look at and investigate further.”

#7 Early Pay Off (EPO) Prevention Trigger Script:

Jeremy: “Hey, here’s the deal. You can pay off the loan if you want and that’s fine, it’s not a problem. You don’t have any prepayment penalty. But I’m going to be penalized and my company is going to be penalized if you pay this off before March 30th. Can we work something out? Have you thought about recasting your loan and keeping just a small balance on it and then you can pay it off in the future if you’d like.”

Client: “Well, what would that entail? I appreciate you sharing that with me. We just really don’t want to pay a lot of extra interest.”

Jeremy: “No, I totally get it. What if I show you that you can pay the balance down to $100,000 and lower your payment by $2,900 a month. You just keep it for two months and then pay it off. That would be a huge benefit to me. You don’t have to do it, but I would appreciate it if we could look into it.”

Client: “OK.”

“The biggest opportunity alert is for EPOs,” Jeremy says. “When you get them, very, very quickly try to retain that client, because remember, retaining the client doesn’t mean they can keep their loan forever. I believe in free-and-clear homeownership. You know, if that’s someone’s goal and they can reach that, but you can still tell the truth and people usually want to help you because you have helped them. So, I think that’s important to know.”

Don’t forget to ask for the referral. Script: “Do you have any homeowner friends that are in this situation where it may or may not make sense for them to do a cash-out refi? I’d love to connect with two of them.”

#8 Script for When The Alert Says They’re Going With Someone Else:

Background

The borrowers are nice, but they have a hard time understanding why they can’t just take the wife off or why they can’t take the husband off and just use the wife’s income because her credit score’s lower, but she doesn’t have any credit. And whenever we run DU and LP, even though the credit’s better and they still qualify DTI-wise, Fannie Mae and Fred Mac just don’t approve. They are ineligible because of credit history with 3% down.

Client: “We talked to X person and he said that we could have saved $13,000 in fees using the higher score, removing the person, but it won’t work.”
Jeremy: “Hey, I totally understand. It’s an emotional thing. It’s a lot of money, but I’m telling you that this is the only way it’s going to work. So, here’s what I would ask that other individual: Have they run the DU and LP? Can they get fully underwritten, approved with the fees that they quoted you? Can they do that within 24 hours?”
Client: “Hey, I really appreciate it. But we’re sticking with what we got.” 

“Just tell the truth,” Jeremy says. “Don’t be afraid to have the conversation. Make sure people understand. Sometimes people are going to look somewhere else because they’re scared and that’s OK. Acknowledge the fear and help them solve the problem.”

Here Is Your Homework Assignment As You Leave This Playbook:

1. Request a demo of Sales Boomerang if you’re not already a customer.
2. Request a demo of Mortgage Coach if you’re not already a customer.
3. Set up your database to alert you when loan milestones are reached that may require a mortgage review. Train your sales team to do the same.
4. Write down and practice all the above scripts. Practice role-playing them in sales meetings.
5. Start doing a TCA a day. Practice creating a TCA with every script. Train your sales team to do the same.

Resources:

Watch the video interview.

See how Josh Mettle made the scripts on his own.

Request a demo from Sales Boomerang.

Request a demo from Mortgage Coach.