National Mortgage News' Andrew Martinez speaks with Loandepot's John Bianchi about strategies for loan officers to work with high rates and soaring home prices, among other hurdles for borrowers.
Transcription:
Transcripts are generated using a combination of speech recognition software and human transcribers, and may contain errors. Please check the corresponding audio for the authoritative record.
Andrew Martinez (00:10):
Good afternoon and welcome to today's Arizent Leaders session. I'm Andrew Martinez, a reporter at National Mortgage News, and our topic today is Loan Officer Strategies for Market Headwinds. And today I'm joined by John Bianchi, Executive Vice President, National Production Manager in Market Retail Loandepot. Thanks for joining us today, John.
John Bianchi (00:30):
Yeah, nice to see you again, Andrew.
Andrew Martinez (00:33):
Good to see you as well. And for those that don't know already, can you just give us a brief look back at how you got here?
John Bianchi (00:42):
Well see, I got in this business in 1991, it seems like yesterday, so over 30 years of being focused on this business. I got out of this business right out out of college actually. College was, I call it my first real job growing up with very humble beginnings, raised by a single parent, and finally graduating college and trying to figure out what I wanted to do. And I probably did what a lot of other people do, which is kind of, you look around all your friends, you see what they do, and you kind of compare and ended up getting in the mortgage industry and never looked back. And so spent the first half of my career actually in the trenches doing loans as a mortgage originator, working my way up, branch manager, area manager, regional manager, and finally running national production. So it's been a great ride and I love this business. You have to love what you do, and I love helping consumers realize the American dream.
Andrew Martinez (01:48):
Yeah, definitely. And I'm wondering that you tell us when you joined Loandepot and what your role is at the company.
John Bianchi (01:57):
What was that?
Andrew Martinez (01:59):
I apologize. What your role is at Loandepot and when you joined the company.
John Bianchi (02:04):
Yeah, I joined the company just about six years ago, and my role is in market retail leader. And so basically we have multiple channels at Loandepot. We have a joint venture channel, a consumer direct channel, and then in market retail channel. So all those loan officers out in the marketplace, in each of the communities across the country. That's the group that I lead and the channel I lead
Andrew Martinez (02:33):
For sure. And you've been at Loandepot through the refinance boom and the market's recent churn, and I was wondering if you could just tell us what the company looks like today compared to four years ago?
John Bianchi (02:46):
Yeah, I mean obviously 2021 was probably one of the greatest markets I've seen in my 30 plus years. And going through that, it was kind of like two things happened at once. We got into this boom and then we also had Covid going on at the same time. So we had these two anomalies that had never happened before. And at that time, obviously the company took full advantage of what was going on in the market, helping consumers refinance their homes. We grew to over 10,000 employees at the time, and obviously loan officers and how they work really changed. Everyone was pretty much working from home through the pandemic. And as we talked, Andrew, we know that a lot of that hasn't changed yet. And whether it's our industry or any other industry, people are still struggling with bringing that sales culture back and getting people back in the office.
(04:00):
But we launched Vision 2025 a few years ago, and it was really about aligning the size of the current market while making investments and planning for growth as the market returned. And so that meant making investments in technology like our Mellow Now platform, which is an underwriting engine, which can provide conditional approvals in minutes. And so I think a lot of people, at least in the mortgage industry today, are thinking, okay, what happens if we see a hundred basis point improvement in interest rates? Are we prepared for it? Do we have enough fulfillment to support to actually process and get those loans through the system? And so with the investment that we've been making and technology through the Snow now platform, I think that positions us well for that next wave that's going to be coming. We've also made some investments in our Salesforce planning steady growth as the market returns. We focused on new products as well that support diverse communities and first time home buyers. One of the things that we pride ourselves on is that a large percentage of our business is through diverse consumers. And I think some of the stats that we've been looking at from information show that us being a top five lender in diversity lending and really helping educate consumers with their personal purchase, something that the company's very proud of.
Andrew Martinez (05:48):
Yeah, for sure. And I know you guys are doing a lot and just talking about our topic today, loan offers. Sure. Strategies. I think it's just really interesting, you mentioned it a minute ago, what they might be dealing with or what they're working with today, but I wonder if you could just dive into the big question of what challenges loan officers originators are facing today.
John Bianchi (06:10):
Yeah, I mean, there's a lot of challenges. We got limited inventory out there. You got a lot of folks that are obviously not willing to give up three and a half percent interest rates to accept something in the high sixes or 7%. And so you got consumers that are holding tight. And so with limited inventory, there's challenges. It looks like, if you remember at the beginning of the year, the initial forecast from the NBA Fannie and Freddie was a little over 2 trillion. And then as each month has gone by, the most recent forecast was just a little bit over one seven. So it looks a little bit like last year, maybe a little better, but I'm thinking as we go on, those forecasts will continue to get trimmed. So with that now, yes, about 50% of the originators in the industry have left the industry.
(07:09):
That doesn't mean that there's that much more business to be had because my guess is 50% that left are probably those that have a smaller percent of the market share. But even with that, there's less competition. There's more opportunity for loan officers to get out there. I think one of the things that has been a struggle for a lot of people, it's figuring out how to go out and get back out in the marketplace. They've gotten so conditioned to doing calls like we're doing today, right? Being on Zoom, working from home, that we've lost some of that sales culture and that connectivity that we need as salespeople. The best salesperson, at least for me, it's meeting people in person. If I was meeting a realtor over Zoom or I was meeting a realtor over a phone call or a builder or even a consumer, there's not that connectivity that I would get if I was meeting him in person.
(08:14):
We had a loan officer last year that did about 19 million, and this year I think Andrew was telling you he is going to do about 70 million. And I said, listen, what are you doing that's different? Is it because you came up with some great marketing strategy or you're doing something on social? Or can we roll out a product that nobody had? What is it that's getting you from 19 to 70? And he said, I made a commitment to myself that I was going to leave the house every day. I was going to go to the office, and I wasn't going to go home until I met one new realtor every single day. And of course, I jokingly said, I hope your hotel bill isn't very high. And he said, no, no, I am actually out there. I'm meeting realtors. And he said, because I was getting out there and getting active and shaking hands and meeting people, he said, that alone changed my business.
Andrew Martinez (09:11):
Yeah, yeah. No, it Is there anything to hear, I mean, we're of course doing this call remote today, but on that remote topic, I'm wondering, are there a lot of loan officers out there today just in the industry that are still working remotely? Are loan officers I suppose, getting by out there, by working remotely? And is that really effective?
John Bianchi (09:30):
Yeah, I mean I think for some people it could be. You don't always want to say it doesn't work. There's always certain folks that can do well in certain circumstances. I think there are a lot of loan officers that work leads nowadays. Obviously we have a large group of loan officers that are lead loan officers, and they do very well. They're doing most of their business over the phone talking to consumers. And so there's that segment of the business. But I think for a lot of loan officers, I think it's very hard to transact for me at least over the phone or over Zoom or teams or something like that. I think that the first challenge is trying to get people to get into the office because a certain sense of energy that people get about being around each other, and I don't mean being locked in the office, sitting behind a desk all day because the argument is, and I've heard this argument a million times, listen, it takes me 30 minutes to get to the office office in 40 minutes to get home.
(10:47):
I lose an hour of productivity every day if I was to go to the office. And there's a trade off of that productivity of what I could be doing to fill that time. And that's a legitimate argument. But when you go into the office, especially if you have sales leaders that are in the office working together to create that cohesive energy and excitement, number one, it's better than caffeine, right? It's better than drinking a cup of coffee when you're around other people that are excited and energized about the business. But you also learn by being together, right? No one wants to sit on a computer and learn all day, but when you're around other people that are talking about strategies that are working, maybe some events they went to that are working, right? When you do those kind of things, you get energized, you learn something new.
(11:37):
So I think the biggest challenge, and it's still a challenge for us, Andrew, as I told you, we still have a challenge trying to get people together, getting everybody back in the office, getting them excited every day about really learning and being together and doing stuff within the community. But when you do that, the ones that are doing it successfully, some of our best offices in the entire country today are the ones that are going to the office every day. They've got a super sales culture, there's a lot of leadership going on, and leaders make a difference. I always say this, that the most influential person in the mortgage business is the branch manager. It's not me, it's not the regional, it's the branch manager because they're close to the field, they're close to the consumer, and they're the ones that are leading. And if I go back in my career and look at every successful office that I had in the mortgage business, it started with a great leader in the branch.
(12:47):
You could have every sales tool in the world, you could have great rates, great fulfillment, and I would walk into an office that was doing a ton of business, everyone was happy. I'd drive down the street, same company, and there would be negativity. And the only difference between those offices, even though they were five miles apart, was the sales leader. So leadership does make a difference in creating a culture within the office, excitement, education, all that stuff happens. And so I think this industry lacks a little bit of that nowadays where we can get those thought leaders, those educators, those managers at that level to energize and fuel this business. And so the more we have of that, the better this business is going to be and the more excited our loan officers are going to be.
Andrew Martinez (13:46):
Yeah. It's interesting. Just thinking of the cultural shift. I mean, there's greater societal culture shift going on right now, but I'm curious, in the mortgage industry, is this the most dramatic time in terms of a culture shift in your career that you could remember it's just coming back from remote work, people having different philosophies? I'm curious just your thoughts on how the culture is changing.
John Bianchi (14:07):
Yeah, I mean, I think there's a lot that's coming at people. Obviously the rates were great. We had a great run with interest rates. Loans were falling from the sky, as they say. And so that alone created an environment where folks were like, listen, I don't really need to go hunt anymore because the food is being delivered, so I don't need to go hunt for anything. And so good and bad, there was plenty of loans at the table, but it did take people away from doing what they do best. And it did take 'em away from doing the things that they had always done to be successful. And then with the covid lockdowns that confined people. And it was kind of interesting, I don't know if you saw this, but there was a change in housing at one point. I remember smaller might've been better than bigger from a house perspective.
(15:12):
And then when people realize, oh, you know what? I may have to work from home. I may have to work out from home in the gym, all of a sudden bigger homes started becoming more of a fad because everyone started making their home their office as well. So I started seeing a shift in some of the home prices. If you look at some of the markets, the larger homes that had been going down in price started going up in price that had larger square footage. I started seeing that in a lot of those communities because people wanted a bigger home.
(15:50):
But with that situation that we got into with the market and Covid getting out of that and getting back into, I tell Los go back to everything you used to do when you got in this business to earn this business. And I'll say, Andrew, there's a lot of cool stuff that's out there nowadays, right? One of the biggest changes in our industry from when I was doing loans I told you about to now, is obviously social media, the ability to reach a lot of people via social marketing has changed, but it's still marketing. Whether you were doing, as I told you, bus benches and movie theaters and magazine ads in the old days, and now you're doing optimization search spend or whether you're doing anything on social, it's still marketing, it's still personal branding. So I think los need to personally brand, but a lot of the same things that make people successful 30 years ago are still some of the same things that make people successful today.
(17:11):
I go to open houses on the weekends just because I like going to open houses and even though I'm not originating, and I always ask the real estate agents the same question, how many loan officers have come through today and asked you for your business or asked you how you're doing? Or if they could help you sell this home with some of their creative ideas, buy downs or something like that. And the response I get is sometimes one, sometimes none. And so I'm a little perplexed, at least we have, let's say 1.7 market los are talking about how tough the market is, yet some of the old school just get out there blocking and tackling. Are you making your 50 60 calls a week to realtors? Are you going to open houses? Are you going to caravans? Are you going to the broker open? What are you doing to get out there and meet people? And so I'm surprised that a lot of people aren't doing all those activities on a regular basis. And then these are the same activities I learned back in 91. And I would tell you if I was doing mortgages again, I'd be doing 90% of those same activities.
Andrew Martinez (18:27):
Yeah, no, it's interesting. You talk about the fundamentals, like an athlete, just remembering the basics. And I think when we were speaking, you even mentioned it's like some of the little things too, looking good and feeling good, and just that confidence in going out there. Is that some of the things you think are, I suppose, maybe slipping or maybe that people have been remote working and maybe just the little things might be getting lost?
John Bianchi (18:49):
Yeah, I think a little bit of that. Listen, anyone who's good at anything has got a coach and there's accountability. I think sometimes as loan officers, we feel like we've reached a certain success. We don't need a coach. We don't need anyone to hold us accountable. It's hard to hold people accountable from a distance. I remember when I was a manager or if I was coaching or mentoring someone or holding them accountable, it's a lot easier when we're doing it face to face. It's interesting because I didn't tell you about this, Andrew, but I had been working out and going to the gym for a few years and trying to stay in shape while you're working and get in the gym two, three days a week. And I thought I was doing okay. And then my son challenged me and he said, listen, have you ever gone to Orange Siri?
(19:48):
And I said, no. I said, what is that? He goes, you got to go try it. So I went and tried it. Of course, for all those who have been to Orange Siri, I hit the red. I thought I was going to have a heart attack, and I said, should I be in the red this long? And he goes, I said, it's like one 90. It's really bad. And I had learned how out of shape I really was, even though I thought that I was in shape. And I also learned that the difference between going to the gym on your own versus going to Orange Theory was accountability. You can really relate this to mortgage, right? Because you have 30 something people that show up. It starts at the same time, the heart monitors are on a screen, everybody can see everybody and how they're doing.
(20:40):
And literally, I would go in there and I was asphyxiated on the screen, how's everyone doing? How am I doing? Am I able to keep up with the people next to me? And it's funny, when you start to compare results and there's accountability, you push yourself. And I'll tell you from when I did started a year ago to now completely. And so I started thinking about that in the context of mortgage and loan officers who might be thinking they're doing the right things, they might be thinking that, okay, listen, I'm doing okay. Versus getting into something with accountability where they can hold themselves accountable. And I encourage my managers and my regional leaders to really go out to people and ask them, do you want to be held accountable? Do you want to go to the next level? When people tell me and they're like, listen, hold me accountable, I want to be better, that person's going to improve.
(21:44):
There's no doubt. When you measure performance and you measure it often and you're open to accountability that you're going to improve all the coaching companies out there, the content that you see isn't like something like, oh, I've never seen that before. It's a new idea. Maybe there's a few new techniques out there or strategies, but for the most part, it's a lot of the same stuff. But what coaches will tell you, it's the showing up, it's the accountability, it's the measurement. All that makes a difference. You got to have a plan, you got to have a vision, and you got to be at least accepting accountability. So I believe in coaching, I think it's a big part of it. If you're a loan officer and you're on here today and you can't afford to coach, that's okay because if you work for a company and there's a manager, that's free coaching, right? That's the manager's job is to help you get to the next level and hold you accountable should you want to do that.
Andrew Martinez (22:49):
Yeah, no, it's good advice for any field really. I think it really translates. And I'm wondering, we talk about doing the right things, and I'm curious, what are the traits of a successful loan officer for today's market? I think you hit on a few points earlier, but I'm wondering how you're coaching, I guess what you think are the benchmarks.
John Bianchi (23:12):
I've interviewed a lot of successful loan officers in the day. One of the traits that I've seen that was very similar among top producers is they're very organized. They're very organized in their business. They have systems that they stick by. I find it very hard. I don't think I've ever interviewed a top producer that said, Hey, I go to the office. I'm not sure what my day is going to be. And it's versus proactive. Most of the top producers that I talk to, they know what they're going to do every single day. They have a time blocking schedule. They're extremely organized, and they have a process that they utilize and then they're very consistent with that, very committed to what they're doing. The one thing that I always tell loan officers is know your market. You have to know, I ask this every time I do a new hire class.
(24:20):
I get on with every new hire class. I present to all the new hires in the company. Over the last year, we've had over 200 loan officers rejoin the organization that had left us previously. And they have come back to Loandepot and I tell everybody the same thing, and I ask 'em all the same question, do you know your market? How many transactions were done in the last month or quarter? What kind of product are people taking? Is it a va, FHA conventional jumbo high about most loan officers don't know how many deals are being done, product mix is so they don't know what's out there. And then I asked 'em all to, and who's doing all that business? What realtors, what builders, what do you see out there? And so I coached 'em all to put together, and with today's, it's a little different.
(25:13):
When I was doing loans, getting that information was a lot harder. Today, it's very easy today you can push a button and you can know every transaction that was done in the market. You can know the product type. You can know which builders are selling, which realtors are selling, and who to go call on. So I always call it the greatest fish finder in the business, but nowadays, all that technology is available to point the yellow in the right direction. And then it's just a matter of doing all the things consistently. And I will find that a lot of people aren't consistent. They'll say, Hey, listen, this was a great idea. I'm going to do the weekly economic update of the week and one week they'll deliver it on a Friday, and the next week they'll deliver it on a Wednesday because they're going on vacation on Friday.
(26:06):
And even though they did it consistently two weeks, they do it every, but it's not the same day at the same time. I'm very much a fanatic about delivering a process of consistency, same time, same day of the week, every single week. And as you know, Andrew, with marketing, consistency is key, right? You can't go do something from a marketing perspective, expect to get results in one month, two months, three months. If you do it every week or every month and you do it for a year, you are going to get returns on that marketing that you do. So I kind of feel the same way with the mortgage business. You can't go out and hit open houses for two months and go, oh, it didn't work. There was no results. You got to do it. I mean, I think my longest recruit took me nine years. It took me nine years to get a recruit to join me, but I consistently marketed this person for nine years. And it was that one last time when the person called and said, this is when my company failed me. It was nine years. It was a good ride, but now I'm going to listen, potentially make a move. So you don't know if that realtor or business partner is going to make a change, but you have to keep doing it and be consistent with it.
Andrew Martinez (27:33):
That nine years is, I can imagine a good lesson in patience for everybody. We recently published a story exploring why now is a particularly interesting time to hire, to be recruiting talented loan officers. And I'm wondering just your thoughts, you talk about bringing some veterans back. I'm wondering what you could tell us about Loandepot's recruitment efforts and just what you're seeing out there in the talent pool.
John Bianchi (27:58):
Yeah, I mean, listen, anyone who's out there today is, first of all, my hat's off to you. You're still here, you're still in the business, right? Half the people have tapped out, you're still here, you're still working hard, you're helping families. And obviously if you're doing two deals a month, you're doing well in this business. From an average perspective, you're very successful. So I would tell you to stick with it and keep doing what you're doing. There are a lot of talented people in this industry that are doing very well, thriving in this industry. Even with the 1.7 trillion market, we continue to grow and obviously we made the move early to the market opportunity, and now our goal in retail is to double the size of our platform in the next three years and continue to grow with phenomenal technology. We are a big believer in technology.
(29:05):
I mean, it's one of the things that probably separates Loandepot from other companies is our investment in the future. Because if we can make the process easier for consumers and business partners, our goal is to make it faster, more reliable, and in the end, save everyone money. The idea is to have a savings to get the deal from A to z. I mean, I know that in this industry it's always, for every home buyer out there, especially first time home buyers that are very emotional about their first home, I've helped many. And those are the ones that are like, it's day two of the process. Are we done yet? I'm really scared and you want to give them assurance. So with technology, our goal is to give consumers assurance as fast as possible while saving them money to get 'em into their home. And so the talent pool out there is still really good.
(30:04):
I think a lot of the crazy offers that we saw in this industry have kind of died down. I think a lot of people, Andrew made moves in this industry candidly for money versus let's say platform. And I think platform does make a difference. Leadership does make a difference. Money is short term that eventually runs out, and then you're stuck with the platform that you signed up for. And so what's interesting, if you go look back last 24 months, the attrition rate in the industry is very high. I'm looking at some of the best companies and you're seeing 50, 60% attrition rates in maybe a normalized market. It's somewhere around 25 to 30%. So the attrition rate and the industry has been very high over the last four or five years. And that's just because people have been changing jerseys. And a lot of that was due to the money that was being spent in the industry versus people maybe making wise's decisions based on platform and long term.
(31:16):
And so we're starting to see that now become more normalized. The offers are going down, people are starting to pick companies because of what is it you can do for my business? Can you help me do more business? Do you have the product, the technology, the fulfillment platform? And in my 30 plus years in this industry, the most important thing that I think I've ever seen in the industry, or at least the reason most people have made a move, was the process. It's really getting the loan from point A to Z and how you do that. It really wasn't that a lender had a product that no one had ever seen before or an interest rate or a commission plan. It's really always in our industry, been the process. Are you able to get deals done from A to Z with less effort so I could be more productive and I can have happier customers and business partners? That's always been the secret sauce.
Andrew Martinez (32:24):
And actually, I'm really interested in just learning some of the tools that when we talk about just the technology and the process, if you could talk about maybe some helpful tools that you're using at Depot, you mean it artificial intelligence. I'm wondering what are some of things that have really helped los or maybe Anello can go out there and use? Just curious what helps everybody.
John Bianchi (32:46):
Yeah, I mean, I think one of the things that we do, I dunno if it's a tool, but I think it's a great relationship builder, is we're one of the largest lead buyers in the country. And so when you look at competitors across the country, you think of competitors that are consumer direct that are working leads, and we spend a lot of effort in passing what maybe other companies might see as a call center business or a direct business. We actually utilize that in the in-market retail platform. So we go out there and buy an immense amount of leads and we push those leads to our loan officers in the field. And for one, we're helping educate these consumers. A lot of these are first time home buyers. So we present the leads to our loan officers via live transfer. So you get a live consumer on the phone after we purchase that lead.
(33:52):
It gives the loan officer an opportunity to not only win the consumer, help 'em achieve the American dream, but it also gives us the opportunity to be a true business partner. Our business has typically been historically serving builders or realtors by taking care of their customers and closing on time, delivering for that realtor or business partner builder with consistency and creating rating fans of their consumers and repeat business. That was all our business, but the average loan officer wasn't going into the relationship saying, it's a partnership where I can provide you as much business as you can provide me. So this lead platform provides the opportunity for loan officers to go out there as a true peer to the realtor and say, listen, I've got a lot of business that I need, great realtors like yourself to handle. And so that's one of the unique things I think that we've done as a company to differentiate ourselves.
(35:02):
It's a little different. There's a lot of loan officers individually buying leads through various platforms, Zillow, whatever, and they're doing that on their own. But as a company, it's a big initiative for us. We've actually rolled out social media education for veterans. We rolled that out about 60 days ago. We brought in over 2000 leads from that. So educating veterans via social Instagram meta, and then taking that information should they want to learn more about getting pre-approved and pushing it out to what we call certified VA loan officers. So we've taken a step to further educate our loan officers and created a three tiered testing process around VA alums. And so that's where we're disseminating all those leads to those loan officers who passed that kind of more increased highly intensive VA training for VA consumers.
Andrew Martinez (36:13):
For sure. And maybe on that note, I'm curious, maybe a question maybe from the consumer point of view, but maybe for the loan officer as well, I'm wondering if there's any, I suppose, tips that mortgage customers don't know, maybe something that loan officers can tell possible borrowers out there today that they really just don't know other than conventional and government sponsored. I'm wondering the differences, the tips that can make a difference for them out there.
John Bianchi (36:44):
It's crazy, right? Because I've watched all the cycles in this business, and you go back pre Frank, oh 5, 0 4, 0 3, there was a point in the market where it got to be stated income, low dock, easy dock, whatever you want to call it. It seemed like everybody was in the mortgage business. I used to joke, I would go out to a restaurant order dinner and the whiter was like, oh, yeah, I do mortgages on the side. Everybody was in the business. I actually appreciate licensing. I appreciate the fact that there's a bar to get in this business, and I also appreciate that. Nowadays, more than ever, product knowledge is extremely important. You have to know what you're talking about. And there's so much out there that's available. Andrew, especially in the first time home buyer segment, obviously Fannie and Freddie have specialty programs out there. There's programs that are getting grants down, payment assistance, subsidized interest rates.
(37:54):
And so not only do you have to know every Fannie and Freddie program, every FHA and VA program, but you also have to know all the programs in your state, in your community bond programs. And then after all the bond programs and all the agency programs, then you got to learn all the brokerage programs that are out there. And so it is interesting when I'll get on a forum with loan officers, we have a lot of these morning calls and people will go, I got this situation, don't know how to solve it. And a loan officer will go, well, did you know you could do this? And the amount of product knowledge needed today to navigate the market is immense, right? And those that are very knowledgeable, you could see that I had a situation the other day where a competitor had a deal that came in with a subject to appraisal and a low appraisal, and they couldn't figure out how to get the loan done. And one of our top producers said, that's simple. I can convert that to a 2 0 3 K and we can get those improvements taken care of for the consumer and close that in less than two weeks. And it's not that the other company didn't do renovation loans. It was that the loan officer didn't know how the product worked.
(39:23):
Obviously they lost that customer and potentially a referral source. But I would tell you, you really have to know all the products that are out there and what's available and what kind of things obviously can move the market. And so once you have that knowledge, you have confidence. And once you have that confidence, you can go out there and help educate realtors and builders and consumers on what's available in the marketplace. It happens every day as Andrew, where a consumer's being told about, Hey, did you know in this market there was this available grant and I don't know all the programs. I had one of my top producing managers tell me a program that Sony Mae had in New York. I wasn't aware of it. And I was like, wow, that's amazing. I was like, are they telling you? Is every consumer learning about this? And it's like, yeah, maybe not, right? Only those loan officers that know about the program are educating their realtors and business partners. And so having product knowledge, knowing what's out there and being able to use that to educate consumers and business partners is super important right now.
Andrew Martinez (40:34):
For sure. And I'm familiar with those calls and emails and texts, so I totally hear you on that. We're coming close on time here, but I'm wondering if there's any parting advice you would give to loan officers or sales managers just for the rest of the year as we enter, as we close the years, if there's anything you would let people know here.
John Bianchi (40:54):
Yeah, I mean, listen, this is the advice I'd give you. First of all, work hard, be consistent.
(41:06):
Work with humility. The one thing I always try to tell people, no matter how good you get, always be humble people like the underdog. I have a lot of talk realtors I've worked with over the years, and it's funny because obviously I'd always be checking on 'em, make sure they weren't cheating on me or anything like that. And I'd be like, so tell me who's calling on you? And they would give me this one person or this girl, or they've been calling me for three or four months and they've worked so hard. I want to throw them a button. And I'm like, wow. And they're like, I said, well, what do you see? Well, the biggest thing I see is they give up too soon. They called on me, I'm a top producing agent. They called on me for three months and then they gave up, and if they would've given it another two months, I was about to give them a deal.
(42:03):
And that kind of really resonated with me. So don't ever give up. Don't ever let anybody tell you you're not good enough, enough. Listen, I wasn't a 4.0 student, right? I came from extremely humble beginnings. We were on welfare food stamps. I was going door to door when I was a kid getting coke bottles and returning 'em to the Safeway. And so it doesn't matter what your background is, it doesn't matter if you're the smartest guy in the room or gal in the room. It's all about being committed and hard work. I truly believe that anybody can be a great producer if they work very hard. They stay consistent. They're willing to learn, they're willing to be held accountable if you do all those things. There's no doubt that anyone can go from doing one loan to five loan to 10 loans a month. I've seen it done.
(43:06):
Or early in my career, I was in an office and it wasn't the 80 20 rule that you always hear about, or the 90 10 rule where 20% do 80% of the business. I was in an off office culture where 80% of the people were presidents of publics. It was really a different dynamic, and that's because everybody was willing to be held accountable. Everybody was willing to work hard, and we had a great sales leader. And so I would just tell you that, stick with it. Keep working hard. Be consistent. Don't give up. And if you do all these things, you will be successful in the marketplace and truly, get out of the house.
(43:49):
Get out of the house and go out there and just shake hands and meet people because they do want to see you. Believe it or not. I think one of the things that's changed in the old days, it was a lot harder. You'd call an agent and they'd be like, yeah, I don't want to talk to you. I don't want to see you. I think people want to see people nowadays. I talk to agents and I go, if I called you and said, would you want to go to lunch? Or If I came into your open house, would you be open to a conversation? I feel like agents are like, and business partners are more open to conversations than ever before because they don't see people as much as they used to see before. So the opportunity is there.
Andrew Martinez (44:28):
Yeah. Yeah. No, that's really good stuff. Unfortunately, we're out of time for today. I feel like we could do this again and keep going, but this was a fun topic. This was a good chat. Thanks a ton for joining us today, John.
John Bianchi (44:42):
Yeah, no, thank you for having me. I really do appreciate it.
Andrew Martinez (44:45):
Yeah, likewise. And thanks to the audience and everybody, have a great afternoon.
