Mortgage Broker Tip – How to Close More Mortgage Deals

Jack and Marcy talk to Mortgage Brokers and give tips on closing more deals.

“Jack: Jack and Marcy at Gelt Financial.
Marcy: How are you guys today?
Jack: Hopefully, you’re having a good day. Yeah, we’re making this to mortgage brokers. I don’t want to say a tip for the day, but a tip. First, like our YouTube channel. Don’t be afraid to leave comments, criticisms, questions. So we’re talking earlier, Marcy and I literally, that a lot of brokers don’t seem to understand the goals of the borrowers.
Marcy: Correct. They don’t really know what the borrower needs. So then they present the deal, and then they go back to the borrower, and then the borrower is like, “That’s not what I want.”
Jack: Yeah, what I think happens, Marcy, I could be wrong. Brokers are so anxious to get the deal, which is a good thing. They get the deal, they assemble it, they send it out to two or three lenders, they get some term sheets, they send it to the borrower, and sometimes the deal dies. So my advice or our advice would be that a broker should—
Marcy: Know what they want.
Jack: Yes, know what they want. Really spend the time. We’ve made other videos on this that brokers should speak to the borrower—
Marcy: But we have made other videos, but it’s a good reminder, you know. We’re trying to remind everyone because we want the brokers to be successful.
Jack: I believe they should really speak to the borrower, listen to the borrower. It’s really more than speak. The borrower is listening to the borrower and really drill down and understand their needs. If it’s a purchase, the time frames, you know, whether they can verify their income or not. Where is the money coming from? If it’s a refi, is the motivation rate and term? Is it cash out? Is there another problem?
Jack: Right, and also know the value of the property. It’s like huge because we have deals that come to us all the time, and the broker presents the deal with a certain value because they may take the borrower’s explanation that’s what they think it’s worth, and it really isn’t. So there’s the beginning of the loan not working out. So you need to know the value of the property. It’s very important.
Jack: Know the whole deal, yeah. So ultimately the message or the tip is that brokers need to dig deep into the deal into the borrower’s motivation, the value, the documentation, and really understanding—
Marcy: And make sure that you know their expectations.
Jack: Set the expectations.
Marcy: Because you know a lot of times we’ll go back to a broker with the deal, and then they present it to the borrower, and the borrower’s like, “I don’t want a hard money loan,” or “Why is the rate so high?” or “Why is the term so short?” There are so many different reasons. Know ahead of time.
Jack: Yeah, well, that goes down to listen to the borrower. Some borrowers want short-term deals; some borrowers want long-term deals. So again, understand the borrower’s goals. You know, in any relationship, you have to understand the person you’re talking to—wants and needs and their desires. And you really
have to understand them and listen to them. And I would even say not only listen to them but really question them because a borrower will say something but then they don’t realize. So, give an example—
Marcy: Well, then because they don’t understand, like that’s why they came to you for help to get their loan is because they need help with their loan.
Jack: A perfect example. I’ll give you two examples that we get all the time, and you know this. I think it’s a pet peeve of yours. Someone comes to us, and they say, “Oh, they only need the money for six months, and they’re going to pay us off.” And then what happens is their credit—maybe the FICO scores are in the fives—and we know it’s almost impossible to pay us off in six months.
Marcy: And I’ll advise them. I’m like, this is not happening in six months. This is how much time you’re going to basically need to try to get out of our loan.
Jack: We literally had an email a little while ago. A broker or I don’t want to— I hope I don’t get in trouble with the broker, but the broker basically, he said it was a strip shopping center. They’re going to take our loan for a short period of time and refinance it into an SBA loan. SBA doesn’t do investment properties, so the broker, like I guess the borrower said to them, “Oh, we’re going to refinance it in an SBA loan.”
Marcy: But they can’t.
Jack: It’s not going to happen. Maybe it’ll refinance into something else, but the bottom line is mortgage brokers again need to dig deep into the situation and understand the goals and then present it to the best lender possible. If we’re the best lender, that’s great. But a lot of times we’re not. Present it to the best lender possible.
Marcy: And if we’re not, we’ll let you know. It’s not a problem.
Jack: That’s correct. So we are portfolio private lenders. Some people say hard money. It all depends. By the way, probably 75% of our deals that we do are bank—bankable credit. They can go to a bank; they just don’t have the time. People need to close quick; they need a bridge loan. So they’re coming to us with us. Remember, you’re always going to get a straight answer. You’re going to get reliability. You’re always going to speak to a decision-maker. Decisions are usually made on the phone today. I think we issued—I don’t know what time is it—12 o’clock? I think we should three or four term sheets all within a half hour of finding out the deals. Boom, boom, boom. We’re closing deals in a week, two weeks. So you’re getting that with us, but we tell people we’re not as cheap as a bank. We’re probably double what a bank is. So you come to us for a specific need. Our loan amounts are a hundred grand, let’s say. The three million is our sweet spot.
Marcy: We do have a minimum property value of 250,000.
Jack: Yes, we do. We make exceptions to everything. Generally, one to five-year terms. Check us out at geltfinancial.com. Remember when your bank says no, we say yes. And my new line I’m going to start saying, home of the 10-day or less close.
Marcy: I’ll stand behind that because I’ve done it. I do it.
Jack: We closed the deal the other day. Well, it closed in four days. It wired in the fourth four working days, but the package was there in three days. So I don’t know if it was a three or a four-day close, but three days.
Marcy: It’s exceptional. You don’t hear that out in the marketplace.
Jack: But that’s what we do a lot. Anyway, thank you. Have a fantastic day.”