Welcome to the February episode of our Learn With A Learn series with Joel Schaub!
How do you stay top of mind with your clients in 2020? How often should you schedule client appreciation events? What’s the best way to navigate networking events? And why did Joel stay in on Friday night emailing every client of the past few years? Another amazing episode with Joel Schaub of Guaranteed Rate!
Joel can be reached at joel@rate.com and 773.654.2049.
Transcript
D.J. Paris 0:00
On this episode of Keeping it real is brought to you by Joel Schaub at guaranteed rate. As a realtor it’s important to partner with only the most trusted name in mortgage lending. Joel has 1000s of satisfied clients and gives $1,500 of his commission back to your buyers on every closing. He is known for his ability to close even complex deals start to finish in only 14 days to learn what 1000s of others already know. Make a note to call Joel at 773-654-2049 or email joel@rate.com Guaranteed Rate is an equal housing lender licensed in all 50 States Consumer Access Number 2611 And now on with the show.
Hello, and welcome to another episode of Keeping it real the largest podcast made by real estate agents for real estate agents. Today we have our monthly feature which is learning with a lender with Joel shop from guaranteed rate. And before I talk about Joel’s bio which I’m about to read Joel is by far the best loan officer I have ever met and work with super honored to have him on the show. But if this is your first time hearing an episode with Joel, let me tell you a little about him. Joel is the vice president of lending at guaranteed rate. He has been doing loans at a high level since 2003. And has gotten to that level because of what he does directly for agents, which is he gives part of his commission back to the buyer on every transaction. Last year alone 2019 Joe gave back over $291,000 in closing costs directly to the buyers who worked with him and that put Joel’s volume in the top 1/10 of 1% of all loan officers nationwide. out of 410 loan officers in the country. Joel is in the top 150 year to date. And this is only January, he or sorry in the last year rather Joel did 326 transactions for just under 117 million in closings it was his highest year ever. It this year alone in the month of January Joel’s close already 6 million in sales. Now to get in touch with Joel he can be reached at joel@rate.com Again joel@rate.com or call him at 773-654-2049. Let’s say hello to the biggest Cubs fan. I know Joel shop.
Joel Schaub 2:36
Welcome, DJ, thanks so much for having me today.
D.J. Paris 2:39
We’re, you know, I wasn’t even joking when I said you’re that you’re the best loan officer I’ve ever spoken with. It’s definitely a high bar to clear what you’ve said. And would you mind before getting into what you wanted to discuss today? Would you mind sharing what you told me how you spent your Friday night, which you probably did not ask me to share? I would like but this just goes to show just how great of a loan officer your
Joel Schaub 3:02
DJ asked me. So before we got on there, he said, So how was your Friday night and I said, Well, I’ve kind of just stayed home. And I was emailing all the clients that had closed in 2019. And rates are so much lower right now. I mean, they’re crazy low. And anybody who bought in the entire year of 2019, when we fought like tooth and nail to get that really good interest rate, you know, we got down to four and a half or four and a quarter and we couldn’t believe it. Everything’s down way below that now. So I spent Friday night, four or five hours, my wife is like Come to bed. And I think I got a few more emails. So I was just sending them out to past clients and saying we should connect next week rates are way lower than where they are, when we closed, we should be able to save $100 to $200 a month. And I can get all the fees waived in full. So I was just doing some follow up you got to stay in top of mind.
D.J. Paris 3:55
Now before I met Joel, I’ve had a lot of other loan officers in my life with my own transactions. No one ever did that for me. And by the way, we should also mention one important point Joel, left out of the story, he copied the agent who was representing the buyer, you know, on that transaction so that way the buyer even looks like a hero as well. He’s like, wow, you know, he knows what’s going on as well. Or he or she rather. So
Joel Schaub 4:19
the agent. Yeah, it was just nice that the agent could know that. They’re being stayed top of mind. I was able to I copied the person that referred me. So client referred from an agent made sure that that agent was copied in on the email. And I got several emails back last night just with like thumbs up and like Wow, thanks for doing that. They’re definitely appreciative of it. So pretty easy stuff. It’s just one of the things that a lot of people fail to do or they they get so busy with their life on Friday night they go out and do other things. And believe me that’s not my every Friday night, okay. But it was cold. It was a good thing to do and as you know If you listened to the last time I was out of the country, almost half of January, we were kind of jet setting at a couple of different places. We were in Africa, and we were on the islands. And then we were down at a wedding in Mexico. So it was just good to get back. Get your feet settled, and I can’t believe it’s already
D.J. Paris 5:18
February. Awesome. Well, what would you like to discuss today? Well, guys, the
Joel Schaub 5:22
idea here, if you want to be top of the game, right, if you want to be in the top in real estate, you got to just stay top of mind. So I wanted to go over things that I’ve been doing for years and kind of perfected so that agents can go out there and do the same thing. So a couple of things that we’re going to touch base on would be client appreciation, events, networking events, gifts, and giving, social media, all these different things where we can stay top of mind. And I want to start with client appreciation events. So map out the year now, it’s still early, people are saying it’s really busy, right? It’s never too busy just to grab a calendar, and I literally printed all 12 months on a piece of paper. We sat him down. And we got to business on picking what events we wanted to do this year, and having them laid out and having a game plan. Don’t you think that kind of helps to know what you’re going to be doing? Versus Oh, we should do something in three weeks? How many people do you think come to an event? If you plan it for a couple of months versus plan it for a week? Yeah, yeah, it’s a world of difference. Yeah, you’ve been to a lot of events you got to do to slap this together yesterday, right. And these don’t have to be large events. And a lot of times you can just piggyback from other events. But the idea is getting it down in paper so that you know what your 2020 looks like. So you don’t have to actually go print 12 pieces of paper, like I did with all of the dates. But taking some time right now before it really does get busy to come up with one event per quarter. That’s easy. One event every 90 days that you’re out there, either doing a client appreciation event where you’re inviting a bunch of people, or you are piggybacking on another event, and you’re going there with purpose and making sure that you are out there in the community. And that’s one of the big ways that I over the years grew. My presence in the Chicago market wasn’t just doing my own events, it was going to events with a purpose, and trying to help people that are at those events.
D.J. Paris 7:29
Yeah, and that’s really true if you’re in the Chicago land market, and you’re a realtor here locally. Of course, we have listeners nationwide. But Joel is everywhere. And he is really busy. It’s not he’s everywhere, because he doesn’t have much going on. He’s one of the top 150 loan officers in the country. He’s too busy to go to events, but he realizes the value of them.
Joel Schaub 7:50
And the the idea that a lot of people fail when they walk into a room. And this leads me into the next one, which are networking events. When you go to a networking event what most people do, they go there and they talk about themselves. They’re like, right, what’s the first opportunity that I can put in and tell them what I do? Why I’m the best. I rarely talk about what I do. When I go to a networking event, I have one goal in mind, I want to meet three people that want to get their business card. And then I want to find a way to send them a referral, send them something, okay. Most people go into this event or going to events and they end up with just a big stack of business cards and they don’t have any way to follow up with them. It feels disingenuous, because the only thing they want is something for themselves. Sure. How many times have you heard me say this phrase? givers gain? Yep. If you can go into a networking event and just try this, okay. Find three people, you’re going to talk to a ton of people, but at the end, you’re going to have three business cards, follow up with them and think of a way that you can refer them to somebody, okay, maybe it doesn’t have to be a client, you’re talking to somebody and they wanted to a great hairdresser, or a plumber. These are the types of things you have to go out there and look for ways that you can add value if you go out and the only thing you’re saying is I’m the best realtor, I’m the best lender or insurance person. Everyone else in the room is doing the exact same thing. It doesn’t work. And so that’s why I’ve been so successful over the years. It’s just adding value to everyone else in the room. People get to know who you are if you’re doing it the right way.
D.J. Paris 9:28
Yeah, this is called the law of reciprocity, right? So you you provide so much value to someone else expecting nothing in return, right but are as human beings we are wired to want to reciprocate people that do favors and are kind to us and compassionate and empathic and help us and it’s just natural and so Joe’s right givers get for sure. And it’s just a better way of living.
Joel Schaub 9:51
Yeah, literally it doesn’t matter how much money you’re bringing. It just feels good. That’s what I like it’s such a better way. I sleep well at night. They know that I’ve made real friends in the business. And you can, you can sense the difference between people that are just struggling trying to make it. And those that are out there really adding value. And being friends, it’s not the, the top people don’t have the perfect sales pitch, they don’t have the right thing to say at the right time. They’re just personable, and they’re friendly. And people want to be around him. So that’s one of the things that you can go and do at those networking events, is not make it about yourself, try as hard as you can, and go find some value for others.
D.J. Paris 10:37
And this applies really outside of business as well, if we want to just quickly take a quick detour, because I apply the same principle when I go to social gatherings, which again, are networking events or social gatherings. I try to, like what’s most interesting to me when I meet somebody new is I want to find out what gets them excited, or maybe where they’re struggling. But just beyond DJ talking about, you know, this podcast or my real estate stuff, I want to just learn about someone else, because I, to me, that’s more interesting. And I don’t like talking about myself. I know, Joel, you’re the same way. And you know, we just be interested, it’s like the Dale Carnegie, How to Win Friends and Influence People, it’s basically get interested in other people.
Joel Schaub 11:19
Oh, my gosh, you kind of read my mind on what I’m going to talk about, like two prompts from No, I stole your thunder, I’m sorry. But the idea here is we want to be at the top of our game in real estate, you have to stay top of mind, right? So we got to go do those types of things that are outside of the house and outside of the office. But if we’re inside of the house, and we’re in the office, and we’re doing social media, there’s a good way to do it. There’s a terrible way of doing. So for social media, what we want to do is, you see all these people that are just liking every photo, right? Right. provide some context, if you are and it’s supposed to be social, right? We’re supposed to be having conversations with each other. So when you make a post, and you get all these comments reply to these people, it blows my mind. So many times we’re trying to put good out into the world. And I see these agents or I see insurance people, and they’ll make a post and they’ll get 30 likes, and they’ll get 15 comments. And there’s no replies talk to these people. Yeah, thank them and like start a conversation versus just commenting or just putting out photos. So the whole idea if you make a post, and people are commenting on it, reply back, get a conversation going.
D.J. Paris 12:33
Yeah, my my boss here at my company, instituted a rule with us about five or six years ago, he must have read it somewhere. And he said, because we have so many realtors in our own firm, and they’re constantly contacting us for support and training. And they he said, Whenever you get an email, always, you know, answer their question. And then if they write back and say thank you, because sometimes people just write back and say, Thank you, you write them back and say, You’re welcome. Right? You never you will always be the last person to email. You know, which is such a it’s such a simple thing, but it really people really appreciate it.
Joel Schaub 13:08
Oh, that’s the key. Okay, I like that, then it’s true. It goes a long way. Right? It means that people are actually feeling that they’ve been heard. Absolutely.
D.J. Paris 13:20
And, and also to people put information on social media, they want to hear your thoughts they want are, they’re interested in your comments. And if someone’s nice enough to spend time to write a comment for you, thank them, or continue the conversation, you know, from that thread. But yeah, you’re right. It’s a lot of things go unanswered or uncomment it.
Joel Schaub 13:40
And a lot of times, when I come on here, I always want to think should I be sharing all of these like mortgage tips, because that’s what I do. But I think a lot of my business is really focused on how I made so many connections and got to the level that I did. And so I really like this type of conversation where we’re talking about how you can stay top of mind and real, bonafide things that you can do in 2020. So that you can pick up one new buyer, one new listing, close one more transaction, and one of the focus that I do is gifts and giving. Okay? It doesn’t have to be something huge. But on every single closing, if you’re not sending at least a thank you card with something small in it, you’re missing an opportunity, right? Even up front when you get the opportunity and you were introduced somebody said hey, you know my sister selling a place, I want to introduce you handwritten card $5 Starbucks something or more importantly, figure out what that person liked or they had dog person $25 to Petco, something small a couple of dollars here and there are gonna go a long way. And so many people failed to do it. And even if you did in the past, and you started falling off from it 2020 I encourage you, if you’re getting a new client, right little note, put something of value in there. It makes you stand out if they’re talking to three agents about who to list the house to and I got a letter in the mail three days later with a little thank you, you know, I’m choosing you.
D.J. Paris 15:13
Yeah, I couldn’t, could not agree more that is so important. And it’s so you know, if you think to, for our audience that people listening are mostly Realtors 99% are probably realtors. And if you’re not giving something, even if it’s just a heartfelt handwritten thank you, you just made probably two and a half percent of the price of the home as a commission, you do something for that person, right? You just made a ton of money. And yes, you earned it. But you should, you know, always give back.
Joel Schaub 15:43
That’s where a lot of the referrals are coming from. We know this, right? We can put up billboards, we can do Zillow, we can do all of these things, but a person that you delivered for that you went for weeks or months to sell the property and it came to a conclusion and it’s a positive one, they will say your name to other people. And if you can give them even more of an incentive to do so even if it’s just subconsciously that you got something in a gift form. It’s not a lot of money, but you have to invest. I always say it like this, you wouldn’t expect that you could open up a McDonald’s franchise and not be able to afford the cups or the plates or, you know, the signage. You can’t be a realtor and not put more money back into your business to help it grow. And these are some small little things, gifts, be a given person be known as somebody that’s charitable and giving back and boy, it does come back to you. Five and 10 fold.
D.J. Paris 16:46
Yeah, I couldn’t agree. So do you mind talking about what’s going on with with rates? is, you know, I know there’s been some really favorable news recently.
Joel Schaub 16:55
Yeah, a lot of people are getting sick with this virus. It’s very favorable news DJ. There’s Coronavirus fears. And what’s really strange is that anything in this level of contagious when there’s these types of things that are happening, it does lead to lower interest rates. And so we just saw this thing. It’s a flight to safety. So instead of putting money into the stocks, all this money goes into the safety and security of bonds, when bond prices go up, yields come down. And so now even though we talked about this, just before my Africa trip on the last podcast, yes, rates were lower. Again, we saw another substantial leg down over a quarter point drop, again, we’re seeing these 30 year fixed rates getting really close to three and a half percent. We are seeing 15 year fixed rates at 3.1 to 5%. And we’re seeing a lot of the jumbo money. So stuff that is over $510,000. In most cities and municipalities on arms, we’re getting rates in the twos. So it’s absolutely crazy where the market is. And this is kind of like gas prices, they’re they, they they’ll come down, but they’ll spike right back up, you just don’t know when they’re going to go back up. So there’s an opportunity right now. Okay. And if I was a real estate agent, and I had 10 closings last year or 50 closings last year, I would get my list out. And over the weekend, I would make some phone calls. And it’s just the follow up to say, Hey, I’ve seen it in the news recently, the interest rates are low, I think you should reach back out to Jim and Susie, your lender, you know, and see if they can do a no cost refinance for you.
D.J. Paris 18:50
Yeah, that that is again, that is going the extra step. And, you know, they always say it’s never What’s the expression, it’s never crowded along the extra mile.
Joel Schaub 19:00
It’s true. And notice what I said there, though, I didn’t say call him up and see what the lowest interest rate was. So that you pay a bunch of fees to the banker, what I want us to do is, remember the old trick where we can call the mortgage company that has your current loan, okay, or the person that helped you so much during that transaction? And you say, I know that my rates are in the fours and I heard they were lower. What are the current rates today? What would you recommend? And then ask, what would be the rate that I could get? If you Mr. Banker covered all of the costs because it takes a couple grand or refinance a mortgage? There’s no secret there. Right? That’s why these banks and there’s banks that mail you stuff in the mail. There are banks that call you left and right. They’re not doing it because it’s free. They’re doing it because they hope you call and ask for the lowest rate that’s available and they’ll happily give it to you in exchange for a couple $1,000 in profit. St. George’s? Sure. So what we want to do is we really want to see if my interest rate today was at four and a half, and the best rate was three and a half. I might be interested in 3.75. If I had to pay $0, why don’t you go from four and a half down to 375? And pay nothing? That might be a lot better than going down just an extra quarter of a point and paying $3,000? Yeah, absolutely. So as an agent, we can go back and we can just provide this value. Remember, the whole topic here today is staying top of mind. And it’s so much easier to call them up with something that will actually hit their bottom line on a monthly basis. If these clients can save $200 a month, and they didn’t have to pay anything, boy, will they remember it because you prompted them, they know that the rates are low, but a nice phone call from the professional to help them and pushing them in the right direction. And if they didn’t have such a great experience with that lender, you know, somebody now because of me on this podcast that can handle a refinance transaction, you say, you know, you didn’t really have that great of an experience, let’s make sure that I connect you with somebody that I just learned about his name’s Joel at guaranteed rate, and they can do a no cost refinance for you. I love that business. But by no means is that a push for me, I really want this to be a focus for the real estate agent to go out there and connect with their past clients, so they can get one or two more deals in 2020.
D.J. Paris 21:27
Yeah, and in addition to that, you know, obviously Joel is happy to, to speak to your clients, but also, you know, job partners with brokers all over and basically can help them possibly with some of their own efforts, right. So, you know, definitely call Joe and when your clients need need a refi or, or they need a loan. But also, you know, this is the guaranteed rate, especially with Joel is a great partner to have. So if you’re a realtor that’s looking for a really solid loan officer who’s who’s going to really help you grow your business. And quite frankly, Joel is the only loan officer that I would ever recommend, because of how much he gives and gives back, Joe, what is the best way whether it’s a, you know, somebody’s looking for a loan, or a broker who wants to work with someone like you, what’s the best way they should reach out?
Joel Schaub 22:18
Well, right now, I’m actually looking for a couple of agents that want to really do marketing dollars. So if it is something that they’re doing as far as marketing, and it requires a lender to come in and actually spend some money. And I don’t care if this is five grand a month, or it’s five grand over the year, I want to work with like minded people, agents are actually out there trying to grow their business. And so an email to me as simple, we can use the short version, which is Joel JOE l@rates.com, R A t.com. So that is the quick email for my guaranteed rate.com email address. And just say, I heard you on the podcast, here’s my phone number I’d like to talk. And that’s it. It’s something simple so that we can start the communication, I can learn a little bit more about what you’re doing in your market, and how I can come in and actually spend some money RESPA compliant, and help you grow that business. So we’re definitely I won’t share on air the dollars that we’ve been spending because it’s sizable, but we’re definitely looking for some like minded agents that want to grow, no matter whether you’re right at the bottom just starting, or you’ve been doing it for a long time, we can definitely help grow and partner together no matter what state so we’re in all 50 states.
D.J. Paris 23:39
Yeah, well, let’s, let’s recap sort of what we went over. So we first talked about client appreciation events, every broker out there should be you know, hosting them, or attending them once a quarter right and hosting them. It doesn’t have to be expensive. In fact, you can even find a volunteer organization and invite your clients to come help volunteer, Joel is very proactive and animal rescue. And he’s on the board of real estate to the realtors to the rescue. And, and there’s lots of organizations and the cool thing about about working with charities or volunteer organizations is every human being on the planet wants to volunteer more. So most people just get caught up, they’re busy, they’re living their lives. And so you can provide them an opportunity to do some good as well. And also, you know, create a lot of good feelings. So I always think some of the some of those are the best events
Joel Schaub 24:31
and map it out. Now. That’s the whole point is take the time right now in the next week or two to actually map out the year and get pen to paper so that you actually do it.
D.J. Paris 24:42
And then Joel also talked about networking. So if you’re going to a networking event, don’t make it about you learn about other people and think how can I add value to them? What can I what what pain points do they have, what problems can I solve? What value can I provide and then watch as all value returns to you after you provide value. And then also talked about contacting your clients. So anyone that owns a home, whether you help them, purchase it or not call everybody, all your clients, all your friends and say, Hey, I’ve been noticing that rates have been dipping, you know, and even if you don’t know their mortgage situation, I was just thinking about you, like Joel did last night for all of the clients he worked with last year. But you can do this as well with anyone you know, who’s a homeowner and say, I don’t know, you know, if you don’t know the mortgage situation, I’m not really sure your situation, however, you may want to reach back out to your loan officer. And if you don’t have a good experience, I’ve got a great person you need to talk to. So if you have the reluctance it
Joel Schaub 25:39
is to pick up the phone do an email as well, the whole point is that if they bought the last year, the rates are lower today by a big amount than anytime that they bought in 2017 2018, or 2019. It’s just the fact that there weren’t rates this low in any of those years. So if they were like a rate chopper, and they were so focused on making sure that they called the person that gave them the lowest rate, that rate is at least a half a point higher than what’s available easily today. So there’s something that can be done.
D.J. Paris 26:12
Wonderful, everyone listening, reach out to Joel, if you’re looking for a loan officer who is going to be your partner, if you’re a borrower, and you’re looking for one loan officer who actually gives you back on every time you close a transaction Joel is also your guy. So reach out to him at joel@rate.com which, by the way, is the smallest email address I’ve ever heard. And it’s so easy to remember. I love it. Thank God there You weren’t like the second Joel to join, guaranteed rate. Joel to rate that go. So joel@rate.com or call him or text him 773-654-2049 Joel on behalf of the listeners, we thank you. You are actually I was looking at our this is this is absolutely true, although I don’t have the data right in front of me. But I was looking at this two days ago. And your episodes are the second most listened to series. We have five regular guests on the show and you’re an Aeron second position, which is and I know that I know you don’t care. But that is how appreciated you are to our listeners. So we’re super appreciative appreciative to you. And on behalf of Joel and myself to everyone who is listening, please continue to listen, tell a friend, if everyone just tells one other realtor about this show, we can help twice as many people and obviously get twice as many listeners. And that opens up the opportunity for us to do even more episodes. So this really supports the show and support Joel reach out to him for all your lending needs. So Joel, thanks again. And we will see you next month.
Joel Schaub 27:48
Absolutely guys, it is time to stay top of mind. 2020 is going to be amazing. And we will be here for you every step of the way.
D.J. Paris 27:57
All right. Thanks again. We’ll see you next month.
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