Winter is Coming: Improve Your LO business in Slow Months

Winter is coming, and it's time to prepare for the slow months ahead. As loan officers, we want to continue growing our business in these months. While you might be at a disadvantage during this time because loan seekers are usually less motivated than they are during other times of the year, there are many things that loan officers can do to keep their businesses thriving. This blog post will give you some tips on how you can continue growing your loan officer business during wintertime!

Refinancing for Existing Home Owners

The mortgage industry follows a fairly consistent cycle and while winter sees less demand for new home purchases, that doesn't mean that but that doesn't mean your well of business has dried up. You can use this opportunity to look into potential refinancing for current homeowners in your network and to get referrals and testimonials from happy customers.

An experienced LO knows that it can take a long time to prepare a file for submission to a lending institution. They should also keep in touch with people who have loans that are closed or denied, as well as possible new borrowers, so they will have more business.

• Clients that aren't active. You'll want to include a message in an email drip campaign for clients who were happy with your work. Check your closed client list to see if interest rates have dropped low enough for them to refinance. Use this opportunity to reach out and check in with everyone, even if the customer isn't currently gaining anything.
• Clients who were turned down for a refinance for any number of reasons - bad credit, lack of down payment, and so on — may have overcome their issues and are now ready to reapply. Even if they aren't yet prepared, you have the chance to reconnect.
• New clients. The referral business of mortgage lending is an example of this. To discover new customers, you must continue to strengthen your ties and relationships over time. Don't forget to ask your current and past clients for recommendations of other people who may benefit from the services you offer. Begin with relatives and friends.

Referrals From Your Community

Your efforts to develop and maintain a strong network of business connections should be sustained. When people are not working, they can get out and reconnect with people in their community who could become referrals. Other real estate professionals also report slower activity, which makes them more likely to respond.

• Real estate agents. Get in touch with the real estate advisers that you work with. Your agent partners may have consumers who are considering purchasing a home or refinancing their mortgage. This is also an opportunity to develop a crucial relationship and, perhaps, provide referrals.
• Builders and contractors are two examples. Builders and contractors may serve as both clients and referral partners. Find out what new housing projects are in the works for next year, in addition to looking for possible refinance clients. Ideally, you want to become a lender of record for new houses in your area. If you're an LO looking to specialize your business.
• Organize a conference. Sharing your expertise may be one of the most effective methods to connect with possible clients. Consider hosting a first-time homebuyer seminar. Assist future prospects by walking them through the house buying process, with a particular emphasis on mortgage loan approval, as part of your volunteer effort. Collaborate with your real estate agent partner and other professionals.
• Community involvement is important. You can get in touch with people in your community by doing things like volunteering to help the local food pantry or leading a 5K walkathon for cancer awareness. This will allow you to meet new people and expand your database. It is also the right thing to do!

Backend Updates

Downtime is the time when you can take care of small things that can have a big effect on your business. For example, you could update your database of customers and look at how well marketing has been working. You should also work on things for the future. For example, you could do more marketing now so it will be easier when you have less time to focus on it.

• CRM: If your customer relationship management system is out of date, you have to refresh it. You need to look at all of your contacts and make sure they have the latest information.
• Reviews: Get feedback from customers and update testimonials.
• Website, blog and web presence: Create a website and post things on social media. Update and refresh your website so it is better optimized for search engines. Consider adding videos or making instant chat available to your contacts. Add social media sites like Instagram and Pinterest in order to get more people to see your site.
• Marketing: Review all of your marketing pieces and make sure they are updated with what you learned from the marketing review.

Winter is coming, but don't let that be a harbinger of doom, but an opportunity to grow, connect and manage your clients, make friends and get your website and relationships in order. It's a perfect opportunity to store away clients for the future and improve what you already do well at. You might have less downtime in the future if all goes according to plan.