The Mortgage Leadership Outlook returned on Wednesday, April 7, featuring Dave Savage, CEO of Mortgage Coach. Savage and series' host Andrew Berman, head of engagement and outreach for National Mortgage Professional Magazine, explored the changing outlook for 2021 and beyond, how to beat big FinTech with independent FinTech tools, what borrowers need to feel confident about their decision to buy and more.
Savage is the founder of Mortgage Coach and mobile marketing company SmartReply. He is a mobile tech pioneer and speaker and is dedicated to helping loan officers turn the digital mortgage revolution into a competitive advantage. Savage speaks at industry events such as MBA Tech, Digital Mortgage, Sales Mastery, and the Mastermind Summit.
Highlights From The Interview:
- “I think it’s never been harder to get an offer accepted on a purchase. There’s issues and from what I have heard there has started to be some profit compressions, margin compressions and a loan is not worth what it was. So, I think the party of 2020 in the mortgage business is over and it’s time for serious operators. It’s time to trim the sails. It’s time to be more efficient. This is where the best of the best pick up market share.”
- “Rates have gone up to a point where a lot of refis are out of the money. We forecasted that; we knew that. We’re smack dab in the middle of the purchase market and I don’t know exactly what the months are but I’m pretty sure that 70% of purchase business happens in the spring homebuying season. So, game on. I think their thinking we hired a lot of ops staff and resources to do a lot of capacity that has gone away. So, that’s probably stressful at the C-Suite level.”
- “Yeah, COVID happened, but it accelerated what was happening. There was this digital transition that was happening in the world and it’s all fintech. What loan officers need to do for the decade, not just for today’s market, but literally for this decade, if you want to make this decade better than last decade and you’re a referral-based professional, you need to embrace technology and media.”
- “I began my journey over 30 years ago as a loan officer. It all started with making a simple calculator in excel to show clients how much the cost over time would change based on the different loan options," says Savage. "I called it a Total Cost Analysis and made my marketing slogan 'My advice makes a difference.'"
- Savage founded Mortgage Coach to improve the conversion, to build trust and to deliver value to a consumer. “Instead of a family getting, ‘Hey, here’s your rate, here’s your payment, here’s your cash to close,’ to say, ‘You know what? Here’s some options and let’s look at the cost of those options over time.’”
- “The biggest threat is not disrupters, tech companies, consumer direct, you guys know all of the brands. Your biggest threat is local referral-based leaders that leverage technology and media.”
- Savage insisted that mortgage professionals need to do what Amazon can’t do and then you need to do what Amazon can do, which is delivering a super slick, modern experience to consumers.
- “I’m seeing a lot of move up stories where families don’t know it, but they can move up, get a $100,000 bigger home, get an extra bedroom and a better school district and actually lower their monthly payment. Most loan officers don’t know how to tell that story. They don’t know how to vision-cast that to a family. If your loan officer can’t vision-cast and show a family why they should list and move up, they’re not a modern loan officer. They may be good, they may be great, they may be super, super successful but there is another step that they need to go to.”
Check out the full conversation between Savage and Berman below.
Click here to see the previous episode featuring Kristin Messerli.
Previous guests include Robert Broeksmit, Josh Friend, Joe Dahleen, Tim Nguyen, Kristy Fercho, Tony Thompson, Mat Ishbia, David Luna, Barry Habib, Rob Chrisman and more.
See all the interviews from the Mortgage Leadership Outlook series on its YouTube channel.
