Welcome to the June episode of our Learn With A Lender series with Joel Schaub from Guaranteed Rate!
In this episode Joel shares with us two strategies to help grow your business. He recommends hosting events with the right strategic partner and also how to delegate so as a broker you can focus on your most important tasks. Joel also shares his thoughts on rates right and how agents can easily increase their knowledge of lending practices. Joel also talks about the changes to jumbo loans and the FHA guidelines.
If you’d prefer to watch this interview, click here to view on YouTube!
Joel can be reached at joel@rate.com and 773.654.2049.
Transcript
D.J. Paris 0:00
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.
Welcome to another episode of Keeping it real with the largest podcast made by real estate agents and for real estate agents. My name is DJ Parris, I am your guide and host through the show and today we have our monthly series learn with a lender with Joel Shahab from guaranteed rate. If you’re not familiar with Joel Joel is the vice president of lending at guaranteed rate by the way they are located in all 50 states. He has been doing loans at a high level since 2003. And it’s gotten to that level because of what he does directly for real estate agents and their clients, which is he gives back part of his commission to the buyer on every transaction. Last year alone, Joel gave back over $291,000 in closing costs to buyers who worked with them. And that put Joe’s volume in the top 1/10 of 1% of loan officers nationwide. In fact out of 400,000 loan officers in the country. Joel is currently ranked number 137. Year to date, Joel has done to close rather 172 sales transactions for just under 66 million and closings. And over the last 90 days while we’re at the stay at home situation Joel has closed 122 transactions. Now Joel can be reached at joel@rate.com. Again, joel@rate.com. And also on telephone or text 773-654-2049. And before I bring on Joel, I want to encourage everyone in our audience, wherever you might be in the country, who is looking to partner with a great lending institution and loan officer to just call Joel so reach out to him. He’s the best I’ve ever worked with. And we recommend him to our agents and we would encourage you to do the same. So let’s say hello to the biggest Cubs fan. I know. Joel Schaub welcome our it’s our first remote this is you are not normally at home or in the office.
Joel Schaub 2:53
I know we’re out and about here today I’m calling from beautiful northern Michigan and we’re outside, I’m taking a 10 day vacation, you know, the wife, I got the dog, and we’re outside, we’re doing a little bit of nature, a little bit of camping.
D.J. Paris 3:11
If I know you you’re probably also working a little bit each day as well, because I know that is your it’s such a big, you know, you have so many clients and so many people work with you. I’m sure you’re still staying pretty busy, too.
Joel Schaub 3:23
We had six closings yesterday. And what happens here is once you start a new build it, it doesn’t necessarily matter where you’re at what we found right now. And you’ve probably seen this, it really is about getting back to basics as an agent learning what it takes to close transactions, and stop doing all this other fluff right now we think we’re staying busy and we’re doing these things. But does it actually lead to more clients, more referrals and a happier life? Or are we just keeping ourselves busy doing things that we don’t necessarily need to do? So based on what we’ve seen in the last 90 days with COVID-19? I think it’s time to really focus on what’s actually bringing in business and cut everything else out.
D.J. Paris 4:07
Yeah, there’s there’s a great book written by Gary Keller, who founded Keller Williams called the one thing for our audience. It is a book specifically about what Joelle just mentioned is what is the one thing that is going to drive your business the furthest, and then figuring out ways to delegate or even offloading some of the the extraneous stuff so you can focus on that most important part. Oh, I love that.
Joel Schaub 4:33
It’s absolutely true. I’ve read the book twice. And it literally is what is the one thing that you can do to grow your business? Or what is the one thing you can do right now? Right? Because there’s always this. I used to be a guy that made lists and at the end of the day, I felt really good because I checked everything off from the list. I got away from that wasn’t about just checking everything off the list. It was actually figuring out the things that actually resulted in closing Business. And that’s what we did over the last 90 days to close 122 transactions in a 90 day period. While we’re all really working remotely, it wasn’t all the extraneous things that we thought were bringing in business. Okay. So I want to share a couple of things that I found over the last 90 days that really, if I were an agent, I would actually be planning my next six months, 12 months and 18 months, based on doing less will get us more. So we’re ready. Yes, I love it. Okay, so it’s all about making sure that we do the right type of events. Okay, as an agent, if you’re not doing events, you’re doing something wrong, okay. And they don’t have to be big time money, events. But it has to be a way that you can get more buyers or more sellers. And you can only work your sphere so much, okay, if you’re a good agent, everyone knows you do real estate, okay? Everybody knows that you do real estate, everybody in your phone should know that you do real estate. But the more successful people are really branching out and getting people that know people that you know, to come work, right, they want to list their home or sell their property. So doing the right type of events. And right now, it’s literally just getting back to basics. And doing those client appreciation events coming up when we’re allowed to actually leave the house again, depending on what state you’re in. So planning ahead for the next 612 months, what’s going to be the event that you will put on when when it’s safe, to be able to get people back out together and really start planning for those things. You don’t need to do a ton of events. But what you do need to do is get ready to have people out and make it the big event. Make it something that people will want to come to it will help you grow your business.
D.J. Paris 6:48
Yeah, we should talk a little bit about about your events, because I think you you did not only you really walk this talk. I mean, Joel is always doing something I know, you know, right now, you have been giving back a lot. You’ve been doing daily giveaways, you’ve been also bringing food to first responders. But even before all this happened, you you were doing a lot of Joel does a lot of bingo events, which honestly I don’t know that I’ve ever been to a real estate event that’s more fun. Because it’s it’s right up your alley, it is absolutely you and your wife’s personality, and also your staff there as well. And it is so much fun in the middle of the day to go for a couple of hours. And bingo, you you give away very generous prizes. But boy does that just pack the house. In fact, you run out of space every time Yeah, a certain number of people because it’s so so well. You know well attended?
Joel Schaub 7:41
Well, we’ve done it at the yacht club a couple of times in a row now where people come over and we do a real estate bingo. So nothing more fun than for an hour and a half on a weekday afternoon, to get a bunch of people into a room and we give away big screen TVs, we give away trips to Las Vegas, we’ve done things that are just outside the box, which is something that’s fun and unique. And who doesn’t want to go to a yacht club and write something that’s different. So here in Chicago, where we’ve had our bulk for the last seven or eight years, they are very generous with us, they allow us to use the space so that we don’t have to have a big expensive cost to rent the room, or pay a bunch of money for food we just haven’t brought in. And a lot of times partners are giving us those contributions and gifts as well. So rely on your people, if you’re a real estate agent right now connect with your lender and literally say I’m getting ready to do an event would you want to contribute because good loan officers out there should want to be a partner to you as an agent. And that’s how I’ve gotten so many agents is making sure that I partner with them. So go back to the lender that’s calling you up and saying, hey, send me some of your buyers. say that’s great. Can you contribute to my next event? Good one. Yeah. And if they say no, drop them.
D.J. Paris 8:59
But well said, what? So tell us a little bit more about what’s going on in the lending world right now. I know, we know that rates are incredibly low. It’s not all about rates. We know that too. But boy, is it a great time for buyers with rates being at where they’re at.
Joel Schaub 9:17
Okay, they’re gonna be low for a while. Okay, this is the thing that’s happening. So a lot of people are saying you better hurry up. Never work with anyone that says you better hurry up sales pitch work with people that want to actually help you and be a friend to you, and that are educated but have done this for a while. So rates will be low for some time. So let’s get an idea of where the market is. So that we can speak to buyers not about rate, but about payment. Okay, if I was a real estate agent right now, what I would be explaining is what the difference between the payment is this year versus what that payment would have been last year. Okay. As a buyer, you don’t write the rate on your check or you don’t you know, Chase QuickPay the rate What do you pay you pay a payment. So right now
D.J. Paris 10:06
think about your back your back.
Joel Schaub 10:09
rates are so low people are calling right? What we talk about right now is what is the difference in payment on say a $300,000 single family house this year versus what that house would have cost last year. And rates right now and 30 year fixed or at 3% or below in certain scenarios, which is crazy. Yeah, 15 year fixed rates that are in the twos. So you could lock in 2.5 2.75, somewhere in that range for 15 years. But the big focus here is what does it save if you buy now versus waiting if we buy a year or two from now, and the payment might be another 150 or $200 Higher, because when rates do eventually go back up, and they will, what is the difference in payment on a rate of four and a half percent versus if you could lock in at 3%. And that’s the big focus is making sure as a realtor, you can explain those types of small things, you don’t need to know everything about the mortgage industry, just enough so that you can genuinely be a partner, to the buyers that are out there. So on a $300,000 deal with just say 10% down. Today’s rates mean that a buyer would be spending about $147 less per month than they would have with rates last year, that’s 1800 bucks a year, it’s a sizable number for a lot of people.
D.J. Paris 11:29
Huge and also to as agents, we need to remember that not all loan officers are cut this from the same cloth, right, some have have more more information to provide some have less. And you know, I remember when I bought a condo about, oh gosh, about 15 years ago, I bought with a some sort of arm I can’t remember five years, something like that. And then eventually, I thought, you know, maybe I should switch over to a 15 year because I I kind of would like to pay this thing off a little faster. And I was able to do and it made sense for me to do that. However, I will say that my loan officer, or and my realtor did not come to me and say, you know, you may want to think about refinancing, this is a great opportunity to switch and you know what? Maybe let’s what are your goals? What are you looking to do with this property. And it made sense for us to switch over to a 15 year, but I but I had to come up with that myself. Nobody was guiding me. So I think this is such a great, you know, as an agent, I would want to partner with it with a loan officer who can have those kinds of conversations to really be ongoing, communicating with my clients to let them know, Hey, what are your goals? And then let’s figure out the best product for it.
Joel Schaub 12:42
It’s about a partnership. And so I always talk about this, how do you grow your business as a realtor, and one of the biggest things is finding a good lender in your community, somebody that actually wants to help you grow your business. It’s not about just somebody that can get rates and close transactions, it’s somebody that will actually be there to be educating the clients holding their hand. And then once they close, hopefully, if the person did a good job, they’re gonna get repeat business because of it. So you can go out there, there’s so many good lenders that want to partner with a real estate agent. If you’re not getting that from your lender, go find somebody literally that wants to contribute. It’ll help you grow your business like crazy. And that’s how in the last, you said it 90 days, I did 122 transactions, it doesn’t mean that you need to be in the office, I’m outside right now. I got 11 day vacation. And it’s based on setting your goals, and getting expectations for your team so that you can actually go out and not be in the office every single day.
D.J. Paris 13:44
Yeah, I was in. In Georgia recently, Joel actually gave me some great suggestions about where to go. And I was there. I was in Savannah, as Joel knows, and boy, I had been there, but I hadn’t been there in 20 years. And your suggestions were were very appreciated on I went to most of those places. And I think I could live there, although I was there when there was virtually almost no tourism. So I don’t know what it’s like, you know, in when when things go back to normal, but I loved it so much. But I was able to also do just about everything for my own job, which is a little different. I’m not a practicing real estate agent, but I do sort of similar things. And I was able to work fully from there. And and I think so many agents have embraced some of the technology that’s now afforded to them. And now we’ve all been kind of forced to use some of this technology that maybe in the past we went well I really prefer to do face to face business. And of course, all of us would probably prefer to do face to face business. But you know, this probably is the new normal for a while and how lucky are we that the whole country has really embraced this technology mean? My parents are doing zoom, everybody’s zoom, and it really makes things a lot easier and it really makes you mobile and efficient. You were saying the same thing about guaranteed rate they had what 2000 People they moved They got everybody working remotely and you guys didn’t skip a beat.
Joel Schaub 15:04
Yeah, just under 6000 people were in a physical office, wow. That physically that we ended up sending the laptops, the extra monitors, etc. So that in a seven to 10 day period, the entire workforce was remote unable to do so. And I was talking to you off air about this, I think a lot of people can be more productive at home, depending on how many kids are running around, right? How many other distractions they have. But you can actually accomplish just about the same if you focus, and you’re not just turning on the TV and doing these different things. So we talked about one thing, we talked about events. The other thing that I want, if I was a real estate agent that I would really be doing is learning how to delegate and hire, yes, finding the next person to do the inspections. As an agent, you think, Oh, I have to do each one of these things? Well, during COVID-19, we’ve realized we can do a lot more with a lot less, okay, you can actually be a much better ally to your clients, by doing the high level, the high dollar amount costs, and delegating. Okay, a lot of people think, Oh, I have to go to the final walkthrough, oh, I have to go to the closing. Certain times, you could pay somebody to do those things. Well, you can continue to focus on prospecting, and getting new transactions in your pipeline, especially right now we see how much we can do. Where we don’t physically have to do all those tasks, we thought that they were so important. And we were so busy doing these things. But if you could actually take those activities and turn them into money making activities, you’ll continue to grow. So figure out what you want to earn. And figure out if there’s somebody that’s less that you could actually hire to do those type of tasks, it will help you grow your business. You don’t have to do all of those yourself.
D.J. Paris 16:52
Yeah, and remember to we live in a global economy, this is what we call like gig economy. gigs, we used to only use the word gigs. I’m a musician. So we use only word they use word gigs with respect to, you know, going and playing a show. But but we are we this is a gig economy. Now we have so many players, pardon the pun, who are from all over the world who are eager and want to work with you and have really competitive rates. So if you’re an agent, and maybe you’re just an individual agent, you’re not on a team, you don’t have a ton of support from from your office, or maybe there just aren’t enough resources, or you’re starting out there isn’t a lot of money, you’d be shocked at how an admin that you can hire a virtual administrator, or what they call a transaction coordinator. It’s incredibly reasonably priced. You can have people compete for these jobs all over the all over the world. And it’ll allow you, as Joel said, to then focus on maybe what you really do best, which may be its prospecting or, you know, it could be anything really. But yeah, it’s it’s just amazing. We’re so lucky to live in the time that we live in. Obviously, there’s a lot of challenges right now during this time globally, as well, as well as here in the United States. But we still have the ability to reach out to people and, and get them on our team. And it’s not always as expensive as you might think.
Joel Schaub 18:12
You’re exactly right. And since this is learn with a lender, before we go, I wanted to just go through one thing that I think would be really helpful right now and just talk about the mortgage qualifications, because there’s a lot of misinformation out there. And it’s so much harder to get an approval. Now, the guidelines have changed like crazy. So let’s just talk about a couple of things. So as an agent, when you’re out there in the next couple of weeks talking to buyers or sellers, you can have a couple of pieces of information that will make you sound really intelligent about it. Because you learned it here on the keepin it real podcast. So the big things that did change were jumbo financing across the United States, they have pulled back on the low downpayment for jumbo transactions, it used to be no problem to buy a home at a million 2,000,003 and put down five or 10%. A lot of that stuff has come all the way back to what it used to be where you need to have a 20% downpayment connect with a couple of lenders because at my company, we do have options that allow for 10% down and that could help get a buyer that normally thought they could not buy right now because of the news. They could still close. So jumbo transactions, a lot of banks and move back to the 20% down, reach out if you need somebody that can do 10% down. We do that in almost all 50 states. Okay, that’s incredible. Yeah. Okay, that’s one. The second thing is the other end of the spectrum, which is the FHA low downpayment buyers, the credit score requirements for a lot of the banks have come up. So it used to be that you could go down to five add on an FHA or even lower with some banks. It’s not that FHA changed, it’s that all the lending institutions out there put in overlays, they wanted to protect themselves. So what they did was they said we won’t do loans if the credit score is in 626 40, and sometimes 680. So now more than ever, the different banks have different guidelines. So it’s just important before you’re working with somebody that is an FHA buyer, putting down say three and a half percent, that you actually reach out to the lender and say, What are your FHA guidelines right now, it’s just helpful to get somebody on the phone. And if the guy doesn’t seem to know what he’s doing, or the woman doesn’t seem to know, call someone else.
D.J. Paris 20:30
You know, perfectly well said. And, and I want to remind everyone else who’s listening. So we have on average, we’ve got about 20,000 people that listen to or watch now, our episodes, we’re super grateful for that. So everyone who is listening, if you are looking to to speak and work with a lender, that will take really great care of your clients. You know, we couldn’t more highly recommend Joel. Joel, what is the best way an agent or it may be a buyer or a seller or you know, an investor, anyone who’s who are really looking to do a refinance, even what’s the best way anyone should reach out to you if they want to work with you?
Joel Schaub 21:08
Call me next month, I’m on vacation. No, we’re working. As you know, as my wife, I got up early, and I do five or six hours, even from here. We’re working nonstop. And even when it’s vacation, it’s more fun to actually work while you’re on vacation. You can literally wake up, see the trees, smell the breeze, and enjoy yourself. You can always reach out to me it’s easy. It’s Joel JOE l@rate.com. r a t.com. That’s the short email. It’s a lot easier than Joel dot shop at guaranteed rate.com. It’s a mouthful, right? Yeah. And then a direct line for me anytime you can literally call, I answer almost all day 773-654-2049. And if you get my voicemail, leave a message. say I’d like to connect with you. And I’ll make a phone call back usually within 24 hours. And if it’s not me, again, as a realtor, you want to connect with a lender that can actually help you. So if you kind of have some of these relationships, reach out to them and say, Hey, I really want to strengthen our relationship. I’m getting ready to do an event. Do you mind being a sponsor? Right? Can you donate and work with the people that want to help you grow your business so that it’s a two way street? Good lenders out there really want to partner with agents, okay. And there’s certain people that just want to make it a one way street. And those are the ones that we definitely don’t want to invest our time with. So as an agent, partner with those type of people that want to help you grow your business.
D.J. Paris 22:37
Yeah, I will say and you know, we are this is sort of a different example. But very similar to what Joel was mentioning, is we partnered with Joel on our podcast, the reason why we do that is he provides incredible value. He does not pay, he’s not paid to be here he is he is here because he wants to be here, we couldn’t be more thrilled because he is providing incredible content. So if this is any indication of what of what Joel was like, with clients, and I know what he’s like, with clients, because I’ve referred many clients to him. He’s an incredible lender, and and just a great loan officer, please, please reach out to him. In fact, he
Joel Schaub 23:13
was in the mail. Right, you’re right. Is it still on the way? Right?
D.J. Paris 23:18
Well, I will tell you, because of the content that people like Joel provide, and our other guests who come on, which we’re so grateful for, we actually have a big announcement. I can’t make it quite yet. But we just we’re going to be partnering with with a massive, massive, massive institution. I can’t say any more at the moment, but it’s because of us continually providing this value they saw value in us and, and are going to be providing some content for our show. So I’ll have more to say about that in the next few weeks. But we’re very excited because even you know, people like Joe will help us grow as well. And he’s they’re going to he’s going to help you and your clients as well. Also, Joe, you’ll get a kick out of this last night I had dinner is my birthday. As you know, I had dinner at Chez gol here in Chicago, which is one of my it’s probably my favorite French restaurant all of Chicago. So I was at Chez Joel last. Yeah, that’s right. It’s a great place. Well, anyway, on behalf of our of our listeners, Joel, we want to thank you once again, you’ve been with us almost since the very very beginning. We couldn’t be this has been four plus years, almost 200 episodes, we’re so grateful that you’re continuing to be part of the show. Also, on behalf of Joel and myself to everyone who listens. Some of you have been with us since the very beginning and we couldn’t be more honored and grateful to continue to serve you. Please continue to share this podcast tell a friend, anyone you know who could benefit from hearing and remember these kinds of episodes specifically could go to your clients. Your clients need to hear this sort of thing as well. Right? So send it to your clients, send it to other real estate agents and continue to tell everyone you know about our podcast. We’ll keep pumping out great content for you with Joel every month. And Joel have a great time. I have a great vacation. Thank you for taking time out of your day. dashing to do this, we couldn’t be more happy.
Joel Schaub 25:02
Guys stay consistent. All right. And remember to always be finding ways to give back. This is why this podcast is so successful and you guys are going to be successful is that we continually do it on a regular basis. You can’t just try something and let it go. By staying steady, staying consistent. You have no choice but to be successful. So I’ll see you guys next time. Thanks, Joe.
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