Category: Learn With A Lender With Joel Schaub

Welcome to the June episode of Learning With A Lender with Joel Schaub!

Aside from his reputation as being one of the top loan officers in the industry, Joel Schaub is as well-known for his passion in providing value to brokers and clients. In this episode Joel talks about the importance of connecting to your passions and interests, and how by starting from a place of giving back, that this will propel your success in your practice.

Joel Schaub can be reached at joel@rate.com or 773.654.2049.

Transcript

D.J. Paris 0:14
Hello and welcome to another episode of Keeping it real. The only podcasts made by Chicago real estate brokers for not only just Chicago real estate brokers but brokers all over. We are been getting tons and tons of email, and also private messages and social media about how much you guys appreciate the show in particular how much you appreciate this episode that we do monthly which is called learning with a lender with Joel Schaub from guaranteed rate. Now, if you’re new to the show, let me tell you a little bit about Joel Joel is the vice president of lending at guaranteed rate, he has been doing loans at a high level since 2003. has gotten to that level because of what he does directly for agents, which is he gives back part of his commission to the buyer on every transaction. In the last three years, Joel has closed 174 million in transactions in funding. In 2018. Alone, he gave back to the to the borrower over 271,000 in closing costs back to buyers who worked with him and that puts Joe’s volume in the top 1/10 of 1% of loan officers nationwide. Out of in fact that a 370,000 loan officers in the country Joel is ranked number 181. Year to date, Joel has closed 102 transactions for 33 million in funding, but he always has time for more loans and your business. And I also heard not to embarrass Joel but this is a very big month for him. It’s actually his biggest month ever. And he’s going this month of May is going to be doing over 10 million in funding. So congratulations, Joel, that’s amazing. Welcome to the show.

Joel Schaub 1:57
DJ, thanks so much for having me. Those are numbers that mean a lot. But really, the whole point here is if we can help if we can find a couple of things that will help the agents grow their business. That’s the reason that we do this.

D.J. Paris 2:11
And I’d like to before we get started, I want to make a real important point about Joel, because the reason we have him on the show, obviously, there’s a tons of loan officers out there who are all vying for business. Joel came to me with a very specific value proposition which he said I would love to be on your podcast every month. And it’s been almost a year since show’s been coming on. And he says all I want to do is give value. I don’t even want to promote myself. And I said no, I’m gonna promote you. But we want to make sure that that he said, I want to provide value. And it’s been really one of our most celebrated series. So we do comes on every month. So what are we going to talk about today?

Joel Schaub 2:52
Well, a couple of things that I really wanted to focus on here was I remember years ago when I wasn’t doing the kind of volume that I was doing. And I would look at other folks that were doing, say 10 transactions a month, and I was doing three, like how could I ever, you know, you’re doing three transactions? How could you ever build that up to five or 10, or this month, I’ll have over 30 closings this month, right? And it’s all about building a brand. Yes, it’s all about giving back. And it’s all about doing the right thing every single day. And so there’s no secret, I didn’t just get to $10 million of fundings in a month. Because I buy a bunch of leads, or I put up a bunch of billboards, it’s a combination of things. And that’s kind of what I wanted to share with the agents. And the focus would be if I can get somebody that’s on the podcast that could do just one or two more deals this year by some of the ideas that you and I will go through. That means a lot.

D.J. Paris 3:49
I think that’s a perfect, perfect topic. Let’s get into it.

Joel Schaub 3:54
So we know with all the technology out there, TJ, we were talking about this before the podcast don’t buyers and sellers seem to know it all these days?

D.J. Paris 4:02
Oh, of course, well, they have access to the entire inventory without ever talking to a realtor.

Joel Schaub 4:08
Right. And so when you get one of these new, let’s say it’s a buyer, they seem to already know what downpayment they need, what the rates are. And they they sometimes no more than their own good, right? Sure. And so when when you’re a real estate agent, and you’re trying to grow your business, one of the things I think you could really do that will set yourself apart is just building this brand. Okay? Because a lot of times Now all we’re doing is we’re opening doors, okay? They the buyers have a lot of the information. Sure. So with the different companies coming on the scene, what can we do so that five and 10 years from now, people still call us. It’s built a brand and try to give back. So one of the things that we want to focus on here is just the social media, right? People see me all the time and I’ve put up billboards, you’ve probably seen a couple of them. I If

D.J. Paris 5:00
they’re all over Wrigleyville there, I love it.

Joel Schaub 5:04
And these are high level form of advertising that literally cost 1000s and 1000s of dollars. Okay? People ask me all the time, how many phone calls do you get from those billboards? Are you getting a lot of calls? Right? And I have to remind people, that’s not the focus of the billboards, I don’t put up billboards to get people to call. I put up the billboards to build a brand, right? Okay. The same way, as a real estate agent, you don’t need to spend $10,000 on a billboard by Wrigley you can build your brand by giving back and doing things that are simple, such as their social media. So I want to focus on something that agents can do that genuine to themselves that will allow them to gain more business. Love it. And so for me, it was something simple, just took two things that I really liked. I liked the Chicago Cubs. And I liked my dog. And it really isn’t anything more special than that. It was literally I wanted to create a brand that focused, nothing to do with real estate, nothing to do with mortgages. And it really worked. Okay, yes. So I encourage the agents on the phone to really dig into what it is a lot of people could do, like mommy daddy groups, sure, maybe they have a child that’s at a specific school, maybe there is a charity that they really connect with. And, and when I mean charity, it’s not just for the sake of saying I’m part of a charity, but really get in and give back. Right. And that’s that focus that I always talk about here of givers gain, if you can find something that you’re actually passionate about, that you can give back, your business is going to grow. And I’m telling all the agents on the phone, if you’re doing three or four transactions a month, and you find something that you’re truly passionate about, and that you can give back people will see that for sure. So that’s one of the focuses that I want to thank and you’ve seen that before, right?

D.J. Paris 6:54
Oh, absolutely. And, you know, we should highlight, you know, you, for example, are very active in realtors, to the rescue real estate to the rescue, which is a group of realtors who are involved in animal rescue, you’re very, very active there. And I know you’re very passionate about it.

Joel Schaub 7:12
I’m on the board of directors for real estate to the rescue. And the idea is truly just to find a way that you can give back. And so when when people see that it’s not just about hitting all these numbers and closing these types of transactions in the volume that people always ask me about, but it’s he’s actually out there truly donating not just as money, but his time, right? It really has helped me grow my business, it really has led to somebody saying, Hey, I’ve seen you there, I’d really like you to handle my next purchase. And so it’s an it’s not self serving, I think it really is to the core of what most of us in real estate want to do is they want to build a brand. That’s long term. And it’s not just based on the next Zillow lead that comes in. Right. It’s, it’s based on true friendships and people that are out there that can give back to

D.J. Paris 8:03
you. Yeah, I couldn’t, I couldn’t agree with you more, you know, in what I think you’ll find I, for example, I’m very active with misery Cordia, which is a home for developmentally disabled men and women, I do it quietly. And also, I’m not a producing broker. So it’s not, you know, my business wouldn’t be affected. But getting involved in that has just enriched my life in a lot of different ways. However, if I wasn’t producing broker, boy, the opportunities would would be pretty significant. Because just as a result of the types of people who give to an organization like misery, Cordia are certainly potentially great buyers and sellers. And so yeah, I would say if you’re a broker out there, if you’re not involved in something that you’re passionate about, you’re missing out on the the feeling of fulfillment you’ll get from obviously helping, but also, you’ll be surprised at business that will just come to as a result,

Joel Schaub 8:55
I’ll give the listeners on the podcast here a real simple way, you don’t have to get in and start donating 1000s of dollars or hundreds of hours of time coming up on June 21 is the real estate to the rescue sixth annual cubs outing. And so for a $75 donation, it gets you tickets to the game, a three hour pre party, that’s all real estate. So it’s great networking, as well. And that will be on Friday starting at 9am. So we’ll make sure that a post goes out afterwards so that everyone can see that. Yes. And that’s a simple way to really be involved, get give back and be part of something that’s actually a fun, it’s actually a really great

D.J. Paris 9:39
event. And if you look in the notes, if you’re listening to this on a podcast app, if you look in the notes, we’ll have a link to that particular event or if you’re not even going to that event but you want to get involved we’ll have a link there as well where you can learn about real estate to the rescue.

Joel Schaub 9:55
Great. Okay. One of the other things DJ that I want to make sure that we cover here as far as building the brand. So the second thing that we talk about here is social media. And one of the things that everything is moving towards is video. And we’ve been saying it for a while now, but it’s still not too late. It is simple as a real estate agent to create short, meaningful videos that you can share to your followers. Yes, your friends. Yes. Okay. It humanizes you. It shows them that you are in the business. And it doesn’t have to be polished, it just has to be consistent. So cutting a video once a week, or even once a month, is better than doing zero videos at all. Yes, so I have a couple of ideas that we can talk about, let’s do it. Market Updates, talk about where you specifically as a realtor, do most of your business, and do a quick 30 to 62nd update on what’s going on in the market and share it with all of your people.

D.J. Paris 10:53
Yeah, and I want to tag on to that, all you have to do is turn your phone around, you do not have to have professional equipment, it’s so true. Nobody cares if it’s well lit. You know, just use your phone, it’s good enough. And it’s the quality of the it’s the quality of the content, not the quality of the broadcast.

Joel Schaub 11:11
It truly is because a lot of people always do this, they say okay, I’ll get to that someday, right. And then they don’t. So I encourage you this week after you listen to this, create a short video. And the simplest one is talking about something that you know, something that you really, truly are an expert at. And that’s typically an area where you do a lot of business. So you could do the Roscoe village update, yes, South Loop up this, okay, wherever you are at and just tell people what is physically going on right now in real estate, and then repeat it, it doesn’t have to be perfect. What it has to be is just something something is way better than nothing when it comes to this. And I’ve seen agents that struggled to even put one out. And then once they talked to me and they actually started putting out videos like I do, they started getting more listings. And that’s the that’s what we’re talking about here, getting more buyers and getting more listings so that these podcasts are truly beneficial. That’s why we’re doing this.

D.J. Paris 12:08
Yeah, I’ll give you a perfect example from this past weekend. So I was didn’t have my weekend totally planned out. And it was now like Thursday of last week. And I went oh my gosh, that’s the It’s Memorial Day weekend. So I and I get an email from Chicago magazine. They say top 10 things to do this weekend, which is a great little short little email. And they said, Oh, by the way, it’s bike the drive where they’re going to shut down Lakeshore drive on Sunday, and people can bicycle and I went, Oh, I’ll do that. And I’ve done it before. But I completely forgotten that that was going on. So I immediately went and did that. And I thought, you know, Boy, wouldn’t it be cool on social media. And this isn’t necessarily real estate related. But as Joel said, you know, you can talk about whatever you’re passionate about. And if you’re saying, hey, Chicago, city dwellers, here’s five cool things going on this weekend. Maybe the real estate related. Maybe they’re just that, yeah, I mean, even if it’s just here are three festivals, we’re in festival season. So here’s three neighborhood festivals you should check out. I like for example, the Sheffield Music Festival was also this week. And I the only reason I even know that happened is because a girl that I am seeing was like, Oh, I’m going to that this weekend. And I went I went I completely forgot. So my point is, is even if it’s not necessarily real estate related, although ideally, maybe it would be you can at least do that and think about this Instagram allows you 62nd videos. So do it on Instagram, say here, the cool here are the three cool things going on this weekend. If you have nothing else to talk about. That’s not a terrible idea. And do that every week, people will be hooked on your content very quickly.

Joel Schaub 13:36
And I just want to make sure that people know that it’s an action step today something that we can actually do and move forward with instead of thinking about this and doing it next week. As soon as you do this. Try it Yes, put it out there. There’s nothing bad about having something that’s new and from you. It doesn’t have to be perfect. So let’s make sure that we you and I will follow up. Let’s see who is actually going to post some of these. And I’ll make sure that I comment. Yeah, in

D.J. Paris 14:00
fact, I’ll even make a deal with the listeners. If you do one of these videos. And you do it two times in a row, email us and I will promote it to our 1000s of listeners via our Facebook page as a thank you. And by the way, we’re approaching our 100th episode. And this is in no way a pat on my back. Because really, it’s not. But my point is, is when I first started thinking about doing this podcast, I thought about it for two years, because I knew that the moment I start doing it, I have to be consistent. And I’m not going to see really probably any real listener growth at least for a year. And thankfully, it happened sooner than that. But now, you know, it’s consistency. People write us all the time. And it doesn’t make me special. It’s just something that somebody should have done and I decided to do it. But the point is, is I just decided to do it one day, and here we are. And now we have 1000s of listeners because we’re providing I think pretty good content from what everyone tells me. So you really well and this is why this is why we’re so honored that Joel You know speaking to the audience real quickly is is too busy to do this. And yet he still does it. He’s as passionate about giving back. So if you can figure out a way, whether it’s real estate related or maybe in another way, maybe you’re new and you’re like, I don’t really know enough about real estate yet to do those, okay, figure out something else you’re passionate about, provide that content to your to your contact list.

Joel Schaub 15:18
And as an agent, that’s the number one thing too that you need to do is once you learn how to close deals partner with a mortgage professional, even if it’s not myself, go find somebody that you can get along with somebody that will take your calls on nights and weekends, because that’s where over 50% of real estate happens, right DJ, it doesn’t happen just from nine to five. And that’s where most of the brick and mortar banks close. So you need somebody like myself, or somebody that’s at another company that literally will take your calls, and get those deals done. And that’s how I’ve been able to build it up where month after month, they close over 20 transactions by giving agents that actual access if you need a pre approval. Yesterday was a holiday and I did three letters, it was a true holiday and people respect that. That’s what they’re looking.

D.J. Paris 16:04
Yeah. And you know, we always say it’s never crowded. What is it outside expression? It’s never crowded along the extra mile. Joel is somebody who’s routinely, the feedback people give me when I send them to Joel is Wow, that guy is always available. Of course he you know, he’s not always always available, but he’s almost always available. And his numbers reflect that. And it isn’t necessarily because he has billboards, it’s because he time after time again, does such a great job for his clients that that people are referring him business just left it right. I mean, we even have an opportunity at our firm, and the first and for to partner with a lender for this particular project in the first person. We’re like, we got to call Joel, because you know whether or not you know, the partnership happens is another thing. But it was like that was our first thought, because Joe has given us a ton of value even for this podcast. So you know, well,

Joel Schaub 16:55
if he asked my wife, she will say it seems like I am always available on vacation, or we’re at a dinner, I will excuse myself just to take that phone call. It means a lot because that’s really, I don’t do all this because I need to I do because I like us. I really am good at what I do I enjoy the mortgage part of it. And, and agents have said, Hey, go call Joel. He’s not. He’s not doing this because he needs a paycheck. Right? You know, he’s done, because he really enjoys what he’s doing. So he’s good at it. Let’s, let’s, I want to end on one guy. Go ahead. Let’s talk a little bit about rates. Let’s just give the since we’ve seen the yield on the 10 year treasuries drop down to 13 month lows, it has had a direct result in just the last couple of weeks on mortgage rates, and they’ve come down. So in the last week or so we’ve seen rates today that would have been lower than anytime in the last 13 months. Wow. So let’s let that sink in. If you have a buyer that’s closed 567 months ago, I’m gonna give the listeners an action step that will help them look really good. Yes. We talked about this before. And this is another one that I think really adds value. We want what the easiest way to get more businesses through our past clients. It’s not putting up billboards, it’s not doing TV commercials like I do, it’s literally doing a really good job. And staying in touch with these people, they already had a good experience when they closed. So call them I heard rates were down, tell them they should reach out to their mortgage professional to do a refinance. And that’s not to say, Hey, call Joel, that’s whoever their mortgage person was, you can tell them they should reach out. They have a good experience, I heard rates were down, now might be a great time. And if I get that phone call from my realtor, and that realtor isn’t trying to sell me anything, they’re just connecting with me. So many times these agents call up and try to ask for business from people and I don’t like I’ve

D.J. Paris 19:01
always, always felt if you have to ask you’re doing something wrong.

Joel Schaub 19:06
And it’s almost true. And so if you can continue to just, you know what people want in the real estate business, they want a friend. That’s right. They really want somebody that they can count on. And so if you could literally just take some time, I know we’re all busy, but maybe even just create, you know, for most agents, they can create a list of all the closings that they had last year. Okay, we’re not too busy to make those phone calls and what a great phone call. I was listening to a podcast. I heard rates were down around 4% on a 30 year. I heard rates were at three and a half on a 15 year huge. Didn’t we close higher than that? now’s a great time to reach out to XYZ and just see if they’ll do a no cost refinance for you. I would love that if my agent called me and said that

D.J. Paris 19:52
it’s funny and it’s not because I’m somewhat involved in this in this industry I have before I was involved in real estate at all. I was just a marketing guide and totally different industry. I owned a place for 11 years. Not Not once. Did anybody ever call me and I and I love my real I love my realtor. But not once did the lender didn’t call nobody. The only time I ever knew to refinances because I saw an article online. And and I called my loan officer and said, hey, it was It wasn’t guaranteed, right? But I said, if someone else and I said, Hey, should I refinance, and they went, Yeah, you probably should. Again, the point is, is it is never crowded, no one else is making this call. Very, very few brokers. And if you will look like a hero, you can call not only your past clients, anybody you know, that owns a home and say, Hey, I don’t even know if this applies here or not. But I was just thinking about you. And I don’t know if you know rates are at a 13 month low. And you might want to reach out to your lender. By the way, if you don’t like your lender, if you’re looking for someone else, I’ve got a great referral for you. But you know, just wanted to pass that along. You’ll be a hero

Joel Schaub 20:58
30 year, you’re exactly right, the 30 year fixed rate, which is what most people target when they say our rates is at or below 4%. And that’s the first time we’ve seen that in 13 months. And a little little tip for maybe it’s maybe you’re an agent on the call, and you own a house. I’ll give you the like the mortgage inside tip of what most mortgage guys, if I’m refinancing my own house, what do I do? Okay. So instead of just going down and taking the lowest rate that’s in the market, for example, if the best rate in the market today is 4%, you want to select a rate where there’s no closing costs whatsoever, even if that rate is 4.1 to five, right? Okay. So for example, six months ago, we closed the bet at the time, the best rate in the market was 4.75. And that’s what I locked in at. And that’s what I’m paying, the banks would love you to call up, take the lowest rate which is 4% and pay 2000 or $2,200. In fees. When I recommend doing as you call your mortgage professional say what is the rate if I wanted to pay no closing costs at all. mortgage professional definitely walk you through that. And as long as it’s at a lower rate than what you currently have, that might be the better option for you than paying fees. So if I could save $180 for free, or I could save $195, but I had to pay over $2,000, which 1am I gonna take I’ll take one and a lot of people don’t know how to do that. And so when we’re talking about a refinance, you can always ask the bank, what would be the rate if it was a no cost refinance, where the Lender Paid all of the costs, right, and then look at those two options, that’ll be a big win for certain people on this.

D.J. Paris 22:45
So let’s just recap we have two action steps for everyone listening who’s looking to increase their business through branding and providing value one is come up with some sort of regular communication video I think is a great media medium for this because it can be short, quick, it doesn’t have to be super professional, come up with some item of value that you can on a regular basis, start to condition your your your clients and your contact list on social media to start, you know, appreciating this this content. And then the second thing is right now call everyone you know who owns a home and says hey, I was just noticed that rates are at a 13 year or 13 month low and contact your your mortgage professional to see if a refi makes sense. You love to those, I love those two things, I promise you, you’ll get at least one or two deals out of it at least

Joel Schaub 23:39
you truly Well, there’s enough time in the day to be able to do so. And so sometimes it just takes somebody telling you something that you could actually do. So take those two steps. And I guarantee when we talk next time for the next monthly podcast, you’ll get another buyer or two out of if

D.J. Paris 23:54
you’re in doubt if there’s anyone speaking of guaranteed if there’s any, if there’s anyone who doesn’t have a great relationship with with a loan officer, and they’re looking to you know, speak with you, Joe, what’s the best way they should reach out to you?

Joel Schaub 24:09
So one of the things that we do for anybody that’s listening is I do partner with real estate agents. And when I get referred as the preferred lender, I do give $1,500 In my commission back on every single transaction. And so that’s how in the beginning when you said I gave $271,000 of my Commission’s Back. This will help agents close more deals. Okay, so my phone number is 773-654-2049 and you can shoot me a quick email, just use my short email Joel JOE l@rate.com r a t e.com. Put in the subject line podcast and then I’ll get you guys on the phone and we’ll go from there.

D.J. Paris 24:51
And Joel also does events you know, regularly and so keep your eye out for those we’ll be promoting those of course on our keeping it real page On Facebook, which is also a good reminder, if you’re not a subscriber to our Facebook page, go to facebook.com forward slash keeping it real pod or just search for keeping it real podcast, you’ll find us subscribe, like the page. And you’ll see, for example, when Joel does an event, we’ll be promoting that there, as well as also visiting our website, which is keeping it real pod.com. And you can stream every episode we’ve ever done. Of course, all of our episodes are on iTunes, Google Play any podcast app you might use to search for keeping it real podcast, you’ll find us and, again, if you have any questions for Joel, whether it’s lending related branding, I mean, Joel is, you know, aside from being a superstar loan officer, he as far as a branding expert goes, I’m a marketing person, I have a tremendous amount of respect for what Joel has done. In addition to just providing value and closing a lot of transactions, his branding is pretty impressive. So stay in touch, Joel is going to be providing this content every single month to us if you’re a listener, and you don’t have someone that you’re working with as a loan officer Joe’s your guy. And other than that, Joe, thanks again for being on the show. We will see Joel will be on again in a month for another learning with a lender. Oh, by the way, send us your questions as well. If you have questions that you’d like Joel to address, whether they’re lending related branding related, really anything related to this industry? Let us know and we’ll we’ll bring them up on the next episode. But other than that, Joel, thanks, and congratulations on your biggest month ever.

Joel Schaub 26:32
DJ, we appreciate it. I definitely think we’ve provided a lot of value on today’s show and I look forward to the next Thank you very much

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Welcome to the January episode of Learning With A Lender with Joel Schaub!

In our first Learning With A Lender episode of 2019 Joel Schaub, Vice President at Guaranteed Rate, talks about how how the government shutdown is affecting lending rates, providing a real estate broker with an amazing opportunity to add value when contacting clients. I take a listener question to ask Joel about the difference between a pre-approval letter and a pre-qualification.

Joel Schaub can be reached at joel@rate.com or 773.654.2049.

Transcript

D.J. Paris 0:14
Hello and welcome to another episode of Keeping it real the only podcast made by Chicago real estate brokers for Chicago real estate brokers. My name is DJ Paris, I am your host, and welcome to learning with a lender. This is our monthly series with guarantee rate Lending Specialist Joel shop. Little bit about Joel, if you’re a new listener, he’s vice president of lending guaranteed rate, Joe has been doing loans at a high level since 2003. has gotten to that level because of what he does directly for agents, he gives part of his commission back to the buyer on every transaction. Last year alone 2018, Joe gave back over $271,000 in closing costs to buyers who worked with him. And that put his value in the top 1/10 of 1% of all lenders nationwide. out of 380,000 loan officers in the country, Joel is ranked 100 and 81st. Year to date, or rather last year, Joel closed of 200 transactions for just under six or just reps are just at 65 million in closings. And obviously it’s the new year. So we don’t have his numbers yet. I’m sure they’re going to be as good if not better. And by the way, you should reach Joel before I get before he says hello, you can reach Joel at his email address, which is joel@rate.com. Let’s say hello to the biggest Cubs fan. I know Joel Shah. Good morning.

Joel Schaub 1:39
Thank you so much. It’s pleasure to be here, again, and I appreciate all the props. But this is all about giving back and actually helping these agents that are listening, find their genuine self and grow their business.

D.J. Paris 1:52
Great. So what do we have to what are we talking about today?

Joel Schaub 1:56
Well, it’s just that how can we add value, right? People come to me all the time, and they know the volume that I’m doing and they think there’s a secret, right? Right? Watch this guy do it. And there really isn’t anything that is other than hard work and finding out what you like to do. And being that genuine self. So for me, you know all about the Wrigleyville buildings, right? All the billboards, and the charity events. So if you find what it is that you like to do, it’s so much easier than buying leads or going through all of these different steps. You build your business, and if you can find that, that you are genuine about. That’s how I grew my business.

D.J. Paris 2:40
Yeah, and we should also talk about realtors to the rescue since I know you are a part of that organization on the board. I have attended a few events of theirs years ago, and I sort of just fell off. Carrie McCormick, by the way is also associated with Arizona, who’s on our podcast, and that’s a passion of yours. Can you talk about that a little bit?

Joel Schaub 3:00
It’s the exact same thing. We’re on the board of directors, my wife Christina and I for real estate to the rescue. It used to be called realtors to the rescue. Right?

D.J. Paris 3:08
I remember what it was called that. Yeah, right. And so

Joel Schaub 3:11
it’s the exact same organization. And what we do is we help no kill animal shelters throughout the state of Illinois. And our big annual event is the Cubs outing. Last year, we raised 10s of 1000s of dollars for no kill animal shelters via cubs outing, we did raffle we did silent auction. And the date this year will be June 21. So save the date. And it will be a great event for real estate as far as actually growing your business networking, and not all about you. It’s about trying to find a way to give back. And it’s a perfect example of one of the ways you can be really active and give back.

D.J. Paris 3:54
I agree. And I recently I’ll tell you a quick story, Grace Goro, who’s been on the show, she has an app properties broker, she did an event that I wasn’t she was nice enough to invite me to, which is nice because it was also down the street at the paws facility downtown. And she did an event she contacted all of her clients and said, Hey, why don’t we go volunteer over at PAWS together as a group for a couple of hours on a Sunday. And she brought in pizza probably I don’t know, you know, if it cost her a lot to set this up. I suspect it didn’t. But I was happy to go because I support pause as well. And, and I went there to support grace and we got to play with the animals. We got to make toys for them. And you know, and again, I’m not one of Grace’s clients. I’m more one of her friends. But a lot of her clients were there. And this is something she’s Ultra passionate about. And as a result, it made everybody feel feel great about themselves, hey, we just did something good and also supported Grace and I suspect it may have even landed her a few deals as well. I don’t know it happens

Joel Schaub 4:56
that way. You’re exactly right. If you can use it and promote it and social media and show that you actually are out there doing something. So many agents get stuck in the same rut of posting on social media and saying, Don’t forget about me, I’m never too busy for your referrals and the nice thing, right?

D.J. Paris 5:14
Every, everybody says, I’m never too busy for your referrals,

Joel Schaub 5:18
we’ll never be too busy to go back and volunteer never go out and give back. People were attracted to that. And so years ago, I realized if I could actually find a few things that I’m genuinely passionate about, it will help grow the business. And that’s how I’ve just been genuinely involved in these different events, these different charities, and it truly is this concept. You’ve heard me say it before givers game, okay? If you can find something that will be genuine to you that you can give back your business grows. And it really truly, in my case has.

D.J. Paris 5:52
Yeah, it’s a win all the way around. I couldn’t I couldn’t agree with you more. And if you haven’t attended one of Joel’s his, his events outside of Realtors, the rescue events Joel puts on he does a lot of bingo events. They in a weird way, in that weird way. But you see the absolute passion Joel has for the people who attend. And these are realtors, these are clients. I mean, between you, your wife, and I Oh, gosh, I’m blanking on the third person’s name, who’s also there helping out but I mean, everyone is on board, it is a party and it’s in the middle of the day. You know, it’s it’s a great getaway. And you give away a lot of wonderful prizes. But again, that is that is giving back you are actually giving back in those instances. And it’s, Boy, I’ve never been to an event quite like that. And if you’re listening and you, you want to see what it’s all about. I’m sure you know Joel can can send you an invite, but

Joel Schaub 6:51
there’ll be another one coming up, we do an annual or we do a four times a year annual bingo event and it’s fun, we’re giving away large screen TVs, trips to Vegas 12 person boat cruises, brand new iPhones funds, things that you could actually get excited about coming to an

D.J. Paris 7:10
event like that. And by back to realtors the rescue for a moment I forgot to mention I will put a link to Pete if you’d like to get involved and donate some time, donate some money or or just just spread the word, I will have a link to realtors, real estate to the rescue rather on the description so people can get involved that way as well. Yes,

Joel Schaub 7:31
absolutely. There’ll be a link as soon as that goes up for the June 21 event. This is one of the easiest simple ways to get involved. You donate $100 Not only does it get you good tickets to the Cubs game, it gets you a pre party, as well as your name out there in the community as somebody who’s giving back.

D.J. Paris 7:51
Wonderful, wonderful. Yeah, so what I’ve always thought so I’m involved with a with a with an organization myself that’s unrelated to real estate. And it’s something that that I’ve become passionate about over the years. It’s a place called misery Cordia here in Chicago, I’ve been doing that forever. And I will tell you, when you find your your passion in with respect to giving in particular, I mean, I can honestly say that for me personally, and this is something I did Gosh, I’m now in my fourth year there. It’s I can divide my life up into pre misery cardio and cardio, and it is much better post. And so yeah, you know, and we’re so lucky in Chicago in the suburbs as well to have so many opportunities to to give back. There are just a million a million ways to do it.

Joel Schaub 8:42
I think I’ve told you this story before, but this is perfect for the listeners that haven’t heard this. So years ago, I was a mortgage broker. And it was 2006. And so let’s think back to that time, right? Everyone in their brother was getting into mortgage getting into real estate, because you could not work very hard. make six figures just kind of bumbling your way through it. Right? Every person that you would meet would be part time realtor or part time mortgage guy. And it was back when I could actually do mortgages for almost anybody and I would give my business card. This time I gave it to a cab driver. And he looked at it and he said, Oh, I also do mortgages, man. And so think about that for a second. I’m sure the cab driver was also doing mortgages, right? Everyone was doing one or two deals a month. And those guys are all gone. Right? Right. Sure. I decided then then I’d have to do something to differentiate myself to actually grow the business to this multimillion dollar level that I wanted to get to. And I knew DJ couldn’t control rates, right? But I could control closing costs. I could give back part of my commission and actually help people get over For the edge, if they couldn’t quite come up with the cash, foreclosing, I could give part of my commission back and help them get over the edge. Flash forward to today, that’s what I do is on every transaction that a realtor sends me, I could be their real estate partner on the mortgage side and give their buyers $1,500 In closing cost credits, it covers our underwriting fee and appraisal. And that’s how I got to over 271 grand out of my commissions last year alone, that I forego, and I give back to buyers. Yeah, it’s

D.J. Paris 10:33
it’s incredible. I mean, you know, Joel has has a very impressive reputation in the broker community as well with his directly with his clients. And part of the reason in addition to being so generous with giving closing costs, you know, credits is how quickly you are to respond. I mean, this is you were just on a massive vacation down to South America. And, and I had forgotten Joel was down there, because I’m way too wrapped up in my own life to realize what everyone else is doing. And I said, Hey, when are we doing our podcast, and it was already on my calendar. That’s how dumb I am. But Joel, was probably on a beach, or wherever you were doing it, I know, you’re doing other things down there, too. But he goes, within five minutes, he responded. Now I you know, obviously, I’m sure you take time off too. But this is another yet another example. And for anyone I’ve referred business to Joel as well, and everyone has the same, the same, you know, sort of experience and this isn’t specifically a commercial for how great Joel is, but he but he is actually that great. So it’s one of those things that I am, you know, happy to tout your your praises, because, again, please understand, you know, Joel takes time out of his his very, very busy calendar to, to do the show, which we’re very grateful for the fans and listeners love it. In fact, I have a question for you from one of our listeners, if you have a fantastic, let’s question. All right, so the question is, and it’s a good question, I think maybe not every broker fully understands the difference between pre approval letter and a pre qualification?

Joel Schaub 12:10
Oh, that’s great. Okay, most of the time, we’re using that word pre approval letter, right? It’s kind of across the board. But there is a major difference, whether or not the clients provided documentation so that we can actually prequalify the borrower. So let’s start with pre approval. A pre approval letter will help a client go through just the basics to understand what they qualify for, on a monthly payment. Okay, the pre qualification, I actually collect the pay stubs, the bank statements, the tax returns, run it through an automated system, and actually have the knowledge and expertise to say, Okay, if you got a property under contract, you’re already qualified. All I need to do is send it in to my underwriter. So there’s a major difference between just getting one of those online pre approval letters. Sure, right. We’re not here to talk good or bad about any banks, but we know some of them that will just issue you a letter sir matter of minutes without even looking at anything. We might not want to take that with as much of a grain of salt as compared to having true pre qualification. So it’s, it comes back to this as an agent, whether the letter says pre approval or pre qualification, call the loan officer that’s listed there. Okay. Right, just have a conversation. See, if they pick up the phone, you’ll know where you stand pretty quickly if the person on the other end says, Wait, who? Right What borrower name? I don’t, or, Oh, the Johnsons? Yeah, I spoke to the Johnsons last week, their pay stubs are in, we know exactly what’s going on in that file. They’re good all the way up to 380. But I think they should keep their assessments on the place below x. And this is based on a maximum tax bill of why those are the types of things that you really want when you’re finding your team and your partner. It’s not just me, there’s 1000s of great loan officers out there that actually take the steps to do the pre qualification. And that’s the major difference.

D.J. Paris 14:10
That’s great. So I know you had some thoughts about what’s what’s currently going on in the lending world. Would you like to share this?

Joel Schaub 14:17
Well, the government shutdown, do you know about this?

D.J. Paris 14:20
I you know, I got a text about it from a friend. But that was No, yeah, I’m very aware of the

Joel Schaub 14:25
thing. Something about this, right. Yeah. So what does it mean? It’s actually one of the first time something is good for the buyer rates have dropped, right, right rates have dropped specifically because of this. So I’ll get into a little bit of the behind the scenes, right. When the stock market falls off, a lot of money goes into the treasuries, right safety and security of US backed bonds. When the price of those bonds goes up, the rates come down. So what happened we’ve seen rates right now at eight or nine month lows, okay. Just as early as November rates were at almost 4.8 Seven, five. Today they’re half a point lower, we’re at 4375 or below for a great borrower. So this is a great opportunity for these agents to do two things. One, add value by connecting with your past clients not about selling them anything, not calling up and saying hi, I’m never too busy for referrals, literally calling up and saying, guess what? We got the property closed seven months ago, did you know that rates dropped, it might be a good opportunity to reach back out to your loan officer to see if they can lower the rate for you. Wow, what a phone call that could be to an agent just calling back their past buyers. And adding value

D.J. Paris 15:40
some Well, I’m like that? Well, I’ll tell you I, you know, and I, my last mortgage I did was actually a refinance with guaranteed rate. And I had an amazing experience. But prior to that, I was with a different lender who I really liked who is at a different company, and they were very nice and professional. And for the, I don’t know, 12 years or so I had that mortgage, not once did any did my realtor call and forget about the loan officer, I never heard from them. And this is not guaranteed, right? Never heard from them. And certainly never, never heard from my realtor saying, Hey, this is an opportunity to you may want to look to see if you, you know, could refi and I was always the one proactively contacting the loan officer. And so for brokers out there listening, you know, all you ever have to do is once a year contact, you know, when there’s news like this, contact your your owners and say, hey, you know, you, I don’t know if this would affect you in any way. But here’s something to think about. Here’s a guy that you can talk to, and obviously pass a loan, pass along the lender that does a good job and answers the phone. And it’s such an amazing reason to pick up the phone and contact someone after the sale. Yeah.

Joel Schaub 16:49
And a lot of agents don’t really know this, this is a major drop right now for people that locked in the best rate over you know, close to 5% for below four and a half for them to call up and just have that knowledge and say, Hey, this is what’s going on in the market, it really adds value. Now you’re doing something that’s not asking for sale, you’re not asking for a referral, right, you will get a referral, you will be looked at as a trusted adviser, look who reached out to me. Because here’s what happens.

D.J. Paris 17:17
And there’s and by the way, there’s nothing in it directly for the realtor other than it’s just, this is a very nice thing to to let the

Joel Schaub 17:25
right now this should be this next week, right? Yes, you know, this is where the market is. And that inherently is the reason that it works because you are actually providing value, you’re doing something that they’re not expecting. And even if they don’t do anything, you’ve solidified yourself as not just a salesperson, you reach out to them and help them so rates are down, I’ll just give a little recap. So people are hurt the market is so on a conventional mortgage for a 30 year fixed. Those rates today are at 4.375. clients that are on an arm guaranteed rate today had arms that were five and seven years that were down at 375. Wow. Okay, so those are the types of things that you can say you don’t need to know all the details, just enough to be dangerous.

D.J. Paris 18:12
I mean, all you need to know at this point is call up all your clients and say, Hey, rates have dropped? I think it might be a good idea to revisit whether it’s a good time to refinance. Do you have can I provide you this lender that does a great job,

Joel Schaub 18:26
that even the last loan officer, this is not a pitch for us? Oh, sure, you know, that they closed and they had a great experience. Now, oftentimes they say, Well, I don’t want to have the cost associated with doing a refinance. Right? So and clients have known this about me for years that I’ll do any refinance for a flat $350. That includes appraisal, underwriting, processing, everything for $350, just during the business. So that is almost $2,000 less than just walking back into the bank.

D.J. Paris 18:59
Yeah, that’s, that’s, that’s great. I have a quick tip. And this is I apologize a bit out of order. So for those people listening, we talked earlier Joel was talking about the difference between pre approval pre qualification. I have a quick tip. This just came to me and for those who are listening who are working internet leads specifically, we’re going to specifically talk about live transfer leads from places like Zillow, Trulia, there’s realtor.com. I think one I don’t think they have them but but there’s a number of services you can be purchasing leads from and a lot of brokers purchase leads. So here is one thing that blew my mind. So Zillow brought me out to New York, which is very, very nice of them. And it was nice for me to get out there. And I was talking to them and I said, you know, there are a lot of brokers purchasing leads, what’s the one thing that brokers don’t realize, and the mistake they made about working internet leads and I you and I are talking about referrals? And so I’m gonna go two different directions just for a quick second because I think this could help somebody listening. So one of the big mistakes so we all know backup just a second when we talk to a prospect, one of the first things a buyer we say is, hey, do you have do you have your pre approval letter have you? You know, that’s really important because we want to gauge how serious they are then that they’ve taken that step. However, and that is a great rule of thumb, except when you’re dealing with live transfer leads. So for example, Zillow, a lot of times what happens is the consumer calls Zillow and says, hey, I’m interested in XYZ property, the way that Zillow passes these leads the person the the say, the phone rep goes, Hey, nope, great. Um, let me pass you through to one of our they qualify them for quick moment to make sure that they’re serious, not working with a broker, and then they go, Hey, let me pass you over. And then people who are purchasing these leads, get this phone call. And whoever answers it gets it in. Anyway, the big mistake that Zillow said that brokers make is they the person starts qualifying once they get connected, they start qualifying this, this potential buyer on the phone, and I said, You cannot do that what you have to do is go great, you want to go see that property? When are you free? And I’ll call you right back to confirm that that’s, you know, that that’s confirmed, and we’ll meet tomorrow or whatever. And I said, Well, you don’t you don’t want to qualify them. And they go, no, no, because realize this person already knows more about the property than you they’ve already done all their research, they just want to go see it. So if you’re purchasing leads, they said your phone call should not take more than 60 seconds. Now you do of course want to qualify them at some point. But they said, look, it’s the equivalent of getting into an Uber, you already know where you want to go. And the person going, hey, you know, so what’s going on? What are you up to? It’s like, just drive me to where I want to go. So if you are purchasing leads, yes, you have to qualify, but do not do it until you get to the meeting. And that is counterintuitive. And it goes against a lot of traditional, you know, thought and again, if you’re not working internet leads, this does not apply, but it’s something to consider as you can always find out. And the other thing too is the Zillow rep said to me, would you talk about your finances with a perfect stranger? You didn’t know this is? You know, I don’t know, I probably wouldn’t. So anyway, just but definitely find out if they’re approved at some point, just maybe not on that first phone call if you’re working internet leads.

Joel Schaub 22:10
That’s why this podcast is so helpful. Like that is a complete 180 from the way we work. It adds value because it’s really true, especially with today’s consumer, they don’t they think they already know more than the person they’re talking to anyway.

D.J. Paris 22:24
And they might they might actually no more.

Joel Schaub 22:27
Okay, that’s bad. I hope that helps some of the agents out there.

D.J. Paris 22:29
Well, you know, Joel is so gracious with his time we I’ve taken up too much of his time already. So we are going to, to conclude this. This episode we’re going to come on, but I want to say to the listeners and we Joe wants to answer your question. So please send your questions in. There’s a number of ways you can do that. Obviously, first of all, if you need a lender or lending partner, and you want to reach out to Joel joel@rate.com. Joel, what’s your phone? Do you mind sharing your phone number as well?

Joel Schaub 22:59
No, it’s not a problem. You guys in 2019. If you guys actually are looking to get a mortgage professional that would answer these calls on Saturday nights and Sunday, and go that extra mile to help the borrowers. You just dial me set up a time to talk, make sure I’m a good fit for you. You’re a good fit for me. And the phone number for my office direct. I love giving it out. It’s on every billboard by the way. That’s true. 773-654-2049

D.J. Paris 23:29
And again, the email is joel@rate.com. And please can see oh one more quick thing for listeners. We are now on Alexa. So if you have an Alexa device, all you have to do is say Alexa please I’m probably going to be setting off people’s Alexis with this. But Alexa, please, please play keeping it real podcast and it will pull up the most recent episode. It’s kind of a key word. I’m a nerd. So I like that stuff. I love it. But anyway, we have lots of new listeners we have just as of yesterday, I saw our stats we just didn’t last week I added another 100 new listeners which is so we’re so grateful. So if you’re listening and you have other brokers, you know that could benefit from listening to someone like Joel and the other wonderful guests we have on the show, please pass this podcast along. Also, you can find us on Facebook keeping it real pod. Our website is also keeping it real pod.com. We’re on iTunes Google Play, hopefully Spotify soon we’re waiting to be approved there. But anyway, this has just been a lot of fun. And it’s our it’s our way of giving back as well. So we hopefully this has been helpful for everyone. And on behalf of Joel and myself. We will see you in a month. Send us your questions for Joel. And remember if you need a lender, just call Joel that’s that’s his slogan and it’s a good one because he actually picks up Thank you Joel and we’ll see everyone on the next episode.

Joel Schaub 24:49
It was my pleasure. Bye everyone.

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify

Welcome to the December episode of Learning With A Lender with Joel Schaub!

For our final Learning With A Lender episode of 2018 Joel Schaub, Vice President at Guaranteed Rate, talks about how real estate brokers are gearing up for 2019 and how to partner with lenders to help sponsor marketing efforts for the coming year. Whether you’re looking for help with printed materials, seminars, or digital marketing, now is the time to put your team in place for the new year!

Joel Schaub can be reached at joel@rate.com or 773.654.2049.

Transcript

D.J. Paris 0:16
Welcome to another episode of Keeping it real. The only podcast made by Chicago real estate brokers for Chicago real estate brokers. My name is DJ Parris. I am your host, and today is our monthly episode learning with a lender with Joel Schaub from guaranteed rate a little bit about Joel Joel is a vice president of lending at guaranteed rate. He’s been doing loans at a high level since 2003. He’s gotten to that level because of what he does directly for agents hint it’s giving back. He gives part of his commission back to the buyer on every transaction last year alone, Joe gave back over 244,000 in closing costs to buyers who worked with him and that put Joe’s volume in the top 1/10 of 1% of all lenders nationwide. This year alone, Joel has given back over 281,002 borrowers out of the 380,000 loan officers in the country Joel is ranked. And this is actually probably an old number, but probably spring higher now. But he was right 181 a year to date. He has closed 192 transactions for just under and this is an old number two is probably higher 61 million and closings, and he is here with us today. We’re so thrilled that he is on the podcast. Welcome, Joel.

Joel Schaub 1:30
DJ, thanks so much for having me. I can’t believe it’s already December now. Right? How long have we been doing this? It’s crazy.

D.J. Paris 1:36
I know it’s another another year gone? Or ending and a new year starting which so yeah, so tell us what’s going on in the in the lending market these days.

Joel Schaub 1:48
My thing is all about staying positive, right? And growing your business through gratitude, and helping agents grow their business. And I was telling you a story. Just before we got on right how agents that are doing a few transactions a month, I’d be really happy if they got to 234 transactions a month, right? They’re building their business. And that’s the bread and butter. Those are the people that I really like to help grow. And so if you’re doing, let’s say you’re doing five deals a month, people will some people would aspire to them. Some people in the past. Well, I built the business now where I’m doing about 20 transactions a month, and it’s all about giving back and helping those agents grow their own business by helping the buyers cover closing costs, and just helping them through the process.

D.J. Paris 2:37
Yeah, and you know, it’s funny to be Joel and I are really we’re simpatico on this idea of giving back and this whole podcast. And Joel’s involvement in it is a real symbol of how much he gives back. Joel is too busy to do this, but he makes the time. And we greatly appreciate it. And, you know, this podcast is also something that that I do as a way to hopefully help the broker community learn. We invited Joel on some time ago, he’s got an amazing response the audience loves, loves it when you’re on because he gives great information he lives eats and breathes, lending, and probably knows more about it than just about anyone. And his successes is obviously evident as a result. But Joe’s main message has always been giving back. And I think that’s a great focus for the talk today. And so tell us a little bit about you know, because so we at our firm, we’ve got 600 brokers and one of the biggest concerns, not complaints, I won’t say it’s not a complaint, one of the biggest questions is always how do I build my team? Meaning I’m a broker, you know, but I need to have a good lender, I need a good attorney, I need a title company, etc. You tell us a little bit about that. You know, do you have any thoughts about how someone should find a lender and a partner in that and what partners can do to help someone broker business?

Joel Schaub 3:57
Exactly. When you’re trying to grow the business, it may seem daunting to be able to get from just a transaction or two a month up to five deals and you really want you want friends, this is really what the business is about is literally the more friends you have the connections, and how do you do this. It’s about giving back. It’s truly helping. If you really think that it’s just about a commission, you’re in the wrong business, you need to always approach it from the more people that I help, the more people will hear about me, the more people that hear about me, it’s that natural growth of the business and that’s how I’ve done it over 14 or 15 years at the same company. People come to me all the time and they think what, what’s this guy secret, he’s closing 20 transactions a month, he must buy a bunch of leads or he must you know, it’s it’s not that it’s slow and steady with people that know like and trust you. Okay, and so, I always bring back this point about partnering with a mortgage guy, whether it’s me or not, call your mortgage guy on a Saturday or Sunday and to see if it picks up. Right, right. It’s amazing to me how many of these mortgage guys say, Hey, I’m, send me all your deals, I’m really great. Well, we’re all great. But I’m gonna, we’re good. Okay, but what you need is an actual partner, somebody that will actually be there at 7pm on a Saturday that will actually take your phone call. And so that’s part of it is actually vetting your team and finding out these people that you work well with, so that you can, in good faith, refer clients to these people, as a trusted friend, not just somebody you don’t know, here. I know you’re talking to somebody, but just called Joel that’s kind of how that phrase all began years ago, was that I would always be available, whether it’s Saturday, Sunday, night at night. So agents work with somebody, whether it’s me just find somebody that will actually walk the walk and actually, not just talk the talk, be there and help them grow.

D.J. Paris 6:00
Agreed. And I think brokers to you know, as you’re starting to think about your 2019 business plan, and what goals you may have, and it may be, how many people you’re willing, you want to you want to help by the end of the year, is having this team is so critical. And I think to Joel’s point about call call a lender partner that you’re working with, and you know, see how available they are. Also bring them your marketing plan and say, Hey, here’s what I’m planning on doing in this see this upcoming year. You know, maybe here’s what I did last year, here are some of the marketing initiatives that I’m looking to do, for example, you can pass with a lender and attorney, lots of other ancillary people that are, you know, essential to a real estate transaction and say, hey, I want to do a mailer to everyone, you know, in this particular area, for this reason, bring that to your lending partner and say, Would you co sponsor that with me,

and we’ll write, of course, also, if

you’re somebody that works with first time homebuyers and you want to start doing first time homebuyer seminars or, you know, any type of seminar, it doesn’t have to be that could be change of life seminars or divorce seminars or whatever it may be. These are perfect examples to find somebody who’s willing to, to partner with you and share some, some of the cost help with some of the presentation. And a good partner, you know, does this but you know, waiting for those partners to come to the broker is probably not the best move is proactively reached out see who you know, who’s got the resources to help.

Joel Schaub 7:29
See who’s got money, okay, and honestly, realtors listening, find somebody, once you start getting deals that are coming in, mortgage guys are gonna flock to you, and they’re gonna say, Send me your deals, find somebody that’s willing to put up a few bucks, and actually help you grow the business every month, I spent 1000s of dollars with my realtor partners, and it’s all RESPA compliant, right? We are doing it by the books and splitting, marketing costs for mailers. For first time homebuyer seminars for client appreciation parties. For housewarming parties, how great is it to be at a housewarming party for a client you just closed, you’re sponsoring the bar, you’re spending 100 or $200 on food and drink. And then you get to meet all of the people that come into the house, you get to add them to your database, it’s a really great thing. You want to be focused on having such a great relationship with the client that you’re invited to the housewarming party, not just a transaction. Be friends with these people. Okay, and grow that business. I love the idea of going to the housewarming party as a sponsor. Just a few $100. But you literally are there and you’re helping. Wow, who did the bar? Oh, that was my realtor, did you meet him, he helped me. He or she helped me get through this process and got this great house. So all these small, real things that can help grow the business, that if you have a good partner, whether it’s on the mortgage side or somebody else to help you grow it, then you’re aligning your interests so that your business is tied to somebody else’s success, and you can grow it together.

D.J. Paris 9:08
Yeah, and here’s here’s a few examples of other types of partners aside from lending, obviously, attorney, you have financial advisor, insurance agent, and these are all people that you want to vet, find people that are willing to invest in your business and you know, you’re able to accumulate and grow this team that is all sharing client information to each other whenever needs come up. And boy having a team is so critical. i That’s I think maybe that could be one of the biggest differentiators between brokers that are successful and brokers that are struggling is having a supportive team that they can, you know, send a client to whenever there’s a particular you know, need.

Joel Schaub 9:51
You’re so right. You’re so right, these agents that are just barely scraping by getting one or two deals once they said okay, I’m actually going to partner with a mortgage guy that will actually Make me look better, that will actually help me close more deals, and more importantly, help me focus on the buyers that I shouldn’t put in my car. Okay? How often when you’re one of these newer agents, are you so eager to go show somebody a property, even before they have a pre approval letter, it happens still, okay. And some of the best conversations I’ve ever had with a realtor where I unfortunately could not get that person approved. What I did was I told him, day one, instead of three weeks into the process, and that’s saved so many relationships, where instead of a mortgage guy from some other bank saying, oh, we’ll try to figure it out. And then you go under contract, and it gets to underwriting and they decline it, be upfront with people educate them, there’s a lot of clients to go around. So why spend your time spinning wheels on somebody that may not be able to close now, let’s get them ready to close in 2019, put them back into the pipeline. And that’s what a good partner will do for you.

D.J. Paris 11:01
Yeah, so I guess our tech takeaway from today’s as we’ve brought up this, this point, throughout the episode was really, you know, build your team, find your team. And that probably means interviewing, you know, several different people, for each one of these positions, you know, you should have a list of partners. And you know, maybe the first attorney you contact is not the right fit, right. So, so contact me, and, you know, contact lenders contact, all sorts of different providers, financial advisors, all sorts of these are people that, you know, can actually help your, your clients. And when you find people in these positions, which again, these are oftentimes sales positions, but find people who aren’t sales oriented and are more helping oriented. Boy, it just makes the brokers life so much easier. Because just like you were saying that just called Joel, you know, I mean, I have set clients to you, and I just, I literally have just said, Oh, Joel, take good care of you. And there’s been times where, in fact, one of my friends ended up not working with Joel, for any other reason, then she had a close relationship with someone else. And she ended up going with someone else. And, and but she said, Man, that Joel guy was amazing. He gave me so much great information. Ultimately, I had to go with my friend who was but and I think he even had a lower rate too. But it just didn’t right that time as as sometimes it doesn’t. But it she only had really wonderful things to say about jewel, which again, makes will make me want to refer all of my anytime I have somebody that needs lending help. I’m just, I’m just sending them to Joel, it’s that simple. And I never have to think about it again. That’s the best part.

Joel Schaub 12:42
You’re so right. What most people find is that no matter what the bank is, most of these banks have about the same rate. Right? There’s not somebody that’s going to be drastically different. Okay, so what you’re really looking for is, will the person be able to win the client and educate them and help them in a way where that buyer refers more business back to the real estate agent, that’s my whole focus is when a client comes over. Right away, we’re calling and helping by saying, Oh, you came over from KL Realty. Right away, let let it be known that I’m going to give a $1,500 closing cost credit to you. Last year, I gave over $244,000 in commissions back. But my focus is helping you find what you’re comfortable with paying. And let’s go through some of the numbers. So once you go down that path, it’s such a different conversation when they just call their normal, paying like their PNC, your Chase, or one of those guys. There’s nothing wrong with any of them. But it’s a whole other conversation than somebody who actually is trying to help the agent grow their business. And so that’s the number one thing if you can give back,

D.J. Paris 13:48
and I want to focus that I want to I want to surprise Joe, and tell him tell him something I have not told him I was well, I was I mentioned the software. But I didn’t tell you the actual story. This this, I think this would be a great way to end the episode and hopefully not embarrass you too much. But we will add I was my mother had her 70th birthday. We threw a party for her down in Peoria, which is where my parents live. And one of Joel’s colleagues a guaranteed rate guy, his name’s Brad. And he’s been working there forever. And he’s known Joe for a long time. And I don’t think they you don’t work directly with Brad, but you know who he is. And, and so we were talking about you. I said, Oh, Joe’s on my podcast, and he knew that. But he was saying we were joking because Brad has a nine to five job which you do not have a nine to five job. And we were joking and I go, I go you know, Joel is like we were saying like Jozo really, really doing really well. And I was saying this to Brad he goes, I would keep Brad in the best possible way at complementing way he goes, I could never do that job. He goes, I love my nights and weekends. And he’s not he’s like on the operation side of it. But he goes, Yeah, he goes, I couldn’t do what Joel does. He goes I would I go crazy. He goes, That guy never is not working. And that’s actually I’m sure that’s not Technically through because you have you have a very balanced life, but that is how dedicated he was, like completely blown away. He’s like, I could never do it. Because he’s always he’s always available for his clients. And we were laughing about it. And I was like, I couldn’t do that either. But we admire. Yeah, it was like the best possible compliment you could have received. But we were sort of laughing going, we just don’t have it in us to do that. But Joel does, so anyway. Too much.

Joel Schaub 15:29
It doesn’t. And I’ll leave you with this on that note, DJ, when it comes to the mortgage side of things. Isn’t this funny? 80% of real estate happens at night. And on the weekend. Of course, it happens on Saturdays and Sundays. And yet, what do 90% of mortgage professionals do for a job? They are nine to five, right? Most of the brick and mortar banks. They literally are nine to five. Okay, so partner with somebody who’s not nine to five work with an actual private mortgage banker, somebody that will actually answer the phone calls and work to earn that business. So Saturday, Sundays, I mean, that’s when things are actually happening. You need somebody that will do it. So

D.J. Paris 16:09
well. On that note, we’ll wrap up 2018 If if there is anyone who is listening who wants was looking for a partner and thinks Joel might be Joel may be a good fit, which he will be a good fit. What’s the best way they should reach out to

Joel Schaub 16:24
you? Easy, guys joel@rate.com It’s j o el at ra t.com. And on Facebook, just cultural.

D.J. Paris 16:33
And yes, so do that. And then you can always you can Yeah, what’s the best phone number to reach out as well?

Joel Schaub 16:42
Phone? Let me think about it. Let’s just call Joel. I’m kidding. Of course. Just call Joel directly. And I always take phone calls. It’s true. 773-654-2049

D.J. Paris 16:59
And, and I just wanted to say thank you to Joel for doing this podcast. He you know, it’s not like we have we, we you know, we only allow one lender on the show. We chose Joel or Joel actually, actually that’s not true. Joel chose us. Joel came up to me at a at a party and said I need to be on your podcast. And I was like well, thank you. This is perfect. And so I know the audience loves it. And so we’re just wanted to say thank you for taking time out of your incredibly busy day job has already done 20 mortgages this month or close to 20 That is incredible. And obviously you know, well deserved. So anyway, if you’re not working with a lender and you’re a broker and you want to partner Joel is your guy. If you’re a buyer or seller Joel is also your guy. So definitely a buyer in particular. Definitely reach out to Joel and he he can assist so thank you. We will see you guys on our next learn with the lender episode which will be in January and happy holidays on behalf of Joel and myself to all the listeners and Thank you Joel for being on the show.

Joel Schaub 18:05
It’s my pleasure guys never stopped growing and remember givers gain

D.J. Paris 18:10
Thank you very much

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Welcome to the October episode of Learning With A Lender with Joel Schaub!

Lending rates are up! Should you be worried? Short answer = no! Joel Schaub, Vice President at Guaranteed Rate, discusses how to interpret recent rate increases and how little that actually affects monthly payments. We also tackle low-down payment loans that have recently been covered by the news and what you need to know – specifically how these products are different from 7-8 years ago. Finally, Joel discusses an opportunity for buyers to purchase real estate at a significant discount on the day of the year with the lowest offers.

You’re invited to a Halloween party Joel is throwing on 10/25 from 2-4pm. Click here to RSVP.

Joel Schaub can be reached at joel@rate.com or 773.654.2049.

Transcript

D.J. Paris 0:14
Hello and welcome to another episode of Keeping it real the only podcast made by Chicago real estate brokers for Chicago real estate brokers. My name is DJ Parris. I am your host of the show. And today we have our regular segment a regular episode learning with a lender with guaranteed rate superstar lender. Joel Schaub, let me tell you a little bit about Joel, if you are not familiar, although you should be familiar, but if you aren’t, you will be here in just a moment. Joel is vice president of lending at guaranteed rate, and he’s been doing loans at a high level since 2003. He’s gotten to that level because what he what he does directly for Agents Brokers, he gives back his commission, part of his commission to the buyer on every transaction. Last year alone, Joe gave back over 244,000, enclosing class to buyers who worked with him. And that put Joe’s volume in the top 1/10 of 1% of lenders nationwide. Now, that was last year this year. Joel has already surpassed what he gave back in commissions last year, which was 244,000. This year, he’s already done 270,000 in commissions back to the borrowers and the year is not over. So he’s probably going to give even much more back out of 380,000 loan officers in the country, Joel was is ranked number 181 and production year to date, he’s done over 176 transactions for just around 61 million and closings, and he is here with us today. Let’s say hello to the biggest Cub fan. I know Joel,

Joel Schaub 1:45
thank you IBJ. Thank you so much for having me those kind words are great. But as you know, it’s all about giving back. So we’ll jump right in and just do some things that I think will be actually really helpful. Great for the realtors. And I can take it away if

D.J. Paris 2:02
you’re ready. I know you have a full agenda. So take it away. Well, we’re going to do three

Joel Schaub 2:06
things today, the first thing I want to talk about will be going into where rates are at. I think it’s important for agents to really have an understanding when they know that the market is up what that actually means where rates are at. So we’re going to go through that. The second thing that we’ll cover will be all of the proliferation of the low to no downpayment scenarios, okay, that we’re seeing in the news, and we’re gonna go through some of those. And then last, I want to end with an opportunity. I want to end with ways that agents can actually close out the year with several more deals than they thought. The years not over just because it’s cold out there. Let’s hit the fall season running and close some more deals.

D.J. Paris 2:48
Great job before you get started with those three, three items. I want to promote a event that you are hosting just in case we have listeners. That’s right make it to the end of this podcast, which I don’t know how they couldn’t but let’s just share just to be safe. Let’s talk about this event. Joel is hosting on this Thursday. It’s called booze brews and bingo and you can come join Joel and and I will be there as well along with a lot of great people. I’ve been to Joe’s events in the past they are awesome. For this particular one. He is giving away some pretty amazing prizes like he always does. This is no exception. There’s a 55 inch television $1,000 Nordstrom shopping spree a 12 person boat cruise, yeah, air pods, front row, cubs tickets, all sorts of I mean, these are real amazing prizes. I have been to I went to Joe’s last event, and I did not win any of these prizes, which I’m not super happy about but the event was really great. And anyway, any more Oh, if you would like to attend. If you’re interested in attending, it’s a few ways you can you can RSVP and you have to RSVP. First you can email Joel directly, which is joel@rate.com. Also, in the notes of this episode, you will see a Facebook link directly to the the event page for booze brews. And bingo. So you can obviously RSVP there anything else you want to say about the event. Joel, before we get started. It’s a

Joel Schaub 4:13
Thursday and it’s a two hour event. And it’s really about having fun. Okay, so it’s real estate bingo. And it really is as simple as it sounds. I’m the sponsor of an event where we’re just giving away 1000s of dollars of prizes. And so you could literally bring a guest so you can RSVP and plus one and you just go and it’s at Montrose harbor. So it’s easy parking, and it’s at the Yacht Club. So two hours on a thursday from two to four. Come have fun, win some prizes, and then go back to work and say

D.J. Paris 4:48
hi to Joel and if you see me say hello to me and I have a new silly beard. And you can make fun of my beard because it’s probably it probably needs to go but

Joel Schaub 4:57
good. It’s not silly. We like it.

D.J. Paris 5:00
All right, Jill, take it away. Let’s, let’s go through our your three, three points today.

Joel Schaub 5:05
Well, I just want to start with market rates. Okay, so we’ve seen these rates move up, we saw earlier in the year, a standard 30 year mortgage around four and a quarter percent right. From there, we’ve literally seen this market push almost up to 5%. On a 30. Year today at guaranteed rate, the best rate in the market would be 4.75%. And so what I wanted to do is put that in perspective. Okay, I wanted to give three quick scenarios so that we know what that actually means as far as dollars on a mortgage. Okay, wouldn’t that be helpful? Yes. So I did three scenarios, I did a borrower borrowing 200, grand, 500, grand, and 1,000,002. Okay, so three segments of the market that I see all the time. It’s the first time homebuyer and they’re buying a condo at 200 grand. So what I wanted to do is put this in perspective so that people knew this rate increase isn’t the end of the world right rates pushing up to almost 5%. On that scenario, most people would guess that the payments are going up hundreds of dollars. And they’re certainly not. So scenario number one, a $200,000. Mortgage, it goes up $61. Right. Okay. All right. That’s not bad, not the five. No, it really isn’t. Okay, on a $500,000 transaction, you’re borrowing 500 grand, the payment is $149 more per month than it was in the spring. Okay. And if you’re borrowing 1,000,002, the payment goes up $356. But guess what? My clients that are borrowing a million plus $300 is not the end of the world. Right? It really is not. And so the takeaway here, when I did the math on it, is if you’re borrowing $100,000, the payment right now versus the spring is about $31. Higher per $100,000.

D.J. Paris 6:58
Yeah, I think that’s really important because we get sucked into the news headlines that rates are at a high, and that’s going to dramatically affect people’s ability to borrow. And we’re not talking about a ton of ton of increase here. Even though it might appear that way. If you look at the percentages,

Joel Schaub 7:14
we’re not and we’re here at guaranteed rate, what I focus on is educating the borrower where so many times you’ll have loan officers telling your buyers Oh, you better hurry up and buy because the rates are going up, sir. Right. They’re scaring the buyers, right. And we just don’t do that. You just got to educate people and understand where the market is today versus where it was and where it could be going. So likewise, from now, if rates moved up another half a percent, right, that $200,000 borrower is going to pay another $61. So these aren’t things that should be used as scare tactics, or sales pressure techniques, although so many people do. If you can just educate the buyer, they’re going to be much more happy with your service, they’ll refer more people. And it’s common sense, they’re going to find out you don’t really need to pressure people into doing things. So putting this into perspective, that $100,000 is $31 more, I think was a really helpful way to start the

D.J. Paris 8:18
podcast, Agree. Agree grid.

Joel Schaub 8:21
The second thing, let’s dig right into it. You and I were talking over the weekend, and we’re seeing all the all the news talking about the return of low downpayment, right? Yes. What are you seeing? Tell me some of the scenarios that you’re hearing about I

D.J. Paris 8:37
just saw prominent bank is investing $2 billion into subprime low downpayment or no downpayment products. And that’s an i What I know is people have to now also take a some sort of seminar to qualify, but I don’t that’s literally all I saw, and I didn’t know what to make of

Joel Schaub 8:59
it. And so people are seeing the exact same thing you are and what the headlines read are no downpayment money is back, right? Right, no doubt. And really, it’s a really small segment, right? So what is back, however, is the return of low downpayment, okay? And what I call the new low downpayment scenarios, okay? Meaning FHA has always been there, right? You could put three and a half percent down, but the conventional players got into the game. And this scared a lot of people, conventional is your loans that are non jumbo, that are under 453 100, here in Illinois, that are backed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, right. Okay. So they got into the market, and they have their 97% financing program. Okay, so, do the math. Yeah. What’s the downpayment? There? 3%. Okay, so now it’s less than FHA and people are getting up in arms about it. They’re saying, Oh my god. All this bad mortgage practices are back. And I’m here to tell you that the low down payment scenarios of today are so drastically different from what we saw 10 years ago. And I’d like to go through a couple of reasons why. Sure, yeah. So it is true. We can do loans right now at 3%. Down, and they’re actually really good. Fundamentally back mortgages. Okay. They require full income documentation. Go figure. Right, right. Makes sense. Whereas in years past, we did not have that. But more importantly, after Dodd Frank, the rule was, there is ability to repay. Okay, right ATR rule. So the ability to repay, can we can we talk about this for a second? Yes, we actually dig into what this meant. So, I’m gonna take you back to literally just seven or eight years ago, after the market crashed. Borrowers sued the banks, they said, you let me for $100,000. I had no way in hell to pay that back. Sure. It’s your fault. It’s your fault. Okay. So let’s think about this. The banks literally were sued by class action lawsuits against borrowers that stated, you should have never given me the money. Okay, and to some small degree, they were right. Yeah. What happened was after Dodd Frank, the banks had to produce the borrower’s ability to repay, which just simply means a borrower’s income typically has to be double the amount of the mortgage or, inversely, the maximum debt ratio on most borrowers is between 43 to 50%. It just means, if you’re taking out the mortgage, we don’t care how much money you have in the bank. We don’t care how big of a downpayment you have, what we really care about is that monthly, sure you have enough money coming in to pay the mortgage payment, okay, ability to repay Sure, and it always made sense. Okay. However, we got away from that, and there was a good reason to get away from it in certain scenarios, and a bad reason. So let me just tell you one of the quick ways that years ago, maybe somebody who didn’t have enough money to make a mortgage probably should have still gotten the perfect scenario where you’re buying a $200,000 house, and you are putting $100,000 down, right, the bank should give you that mortgage, even if you don’t really have steady income or the monthly income to make the payment. Because if you are unable to make the payment, the bank will just take the property back. Right. Okay. All that’s changed, the banks are no longer in the business of having any properties and they never were originally, they want the monthly payments to come in on time. And they don’t want to ever take over a property. Sure. Okay. So there used to be no common sense. And now there’s kind of no common sense, right? People that should get mortgages don’t and before people that got mortgages shouldn’t have, right. So it all boils back down to right now, some of the low downpayment scenarios that are out there are great for your buyers, so realtors, if you’re looking at buyers that are paying a certain dollar amount in rent, we always want to encourage that conversation. Maybe we should look at buying, right? Wouldn’t we rather have a buyer buying a $200,000 place or $400,000 place and get that commission versus just a rental commission?

D.J. Paris 13:39
And I want to interject for a second because this is like hot off off the press, so to speak. So Zillow, just did their a little plug for Zillow in 2018 consumer trends report just came out a few weeks ago, and I was poring through it this morning, I was looking at some renter data and to Joe’s point, and this is a really interesting statistic. I think brokers could find interesting 78% of renters move, experience a rental increase. So that’s we’ll just call that eight out of 10. Eight out of every 10 renters. So hey, how about a great opportunity to have the you should be buying conversation.

Joel Schaub 14:14
And a lot of times when I asked this to agents over the years, I’ve always said when you ask a renter, why are we renting and not buying? Over 80% Say it’s down payment.

D.J. Paris 14:24
Right, exactly. You’re exactly right. Yes, it is right.

Joel Schaub 14:28
And it’s still a fallacy that they think that you need to have the days that they think you need 20% are gone, but they still think you need a sizable downpayment. Otherwise the rates are going to be through the roof and it’s simply not the case. These 3% down programs are within 1% of what somebody’s putting 20% down on a mortgage would

D.J. Paris 14:50
be that’s shocking to me and also very encouraging.

Joel Schaub 14:53
It is it just means that if the best rate in the market is 475 You’re going to be somewhere in the mid and fives with 3% down, it’s not a major increase. And so it’s it opens the doors for a lot of folks that are out there that have a good income out of college or they have a good income and they simply are paying cheese 2500 bucks in rent, let’s find them a place that they can buy with 3% down. And we do it all the time a $300,000 transaction, show me nine grand. And let’s work with one of your great agents that can help the buyers negotiate a closing cost credit from the seller to cover the closing costs Sure, they’re in for just the 3% I teach this time and time again, when buyers are short on cash, we can literally have them come to the table with just the downpayment money. And we could ask for a seller credit. Okay, so some great opportunities for agents out there to close more

D.J. Paris 15:54
deals huge. And also, you know, as just as I’m thinking even people who have the ability to put down the conventional 20% may opt not to if if they fail, that they could get a better return investing elsewhere, and maybe even go with the lower downpayment product just might be a good fit in that sense as well. I don’t know if you ever see that, how common that is. But see it

Joel Schaub 16:17
a lot right now where you’re buying a property or sell right? Do you do what you find is, if they have the ability, what they typically have is they’re buying a house, and they may want to do some renovations or they don’t want to be cash poor afterwards, right? They don’t want to have all of their cash in the house, they don’t want to be house poor, I should say. And let’s do something with a lower down payment. And they typically aren’t educated, or the mortgage professional doesn’t do a good enough job of explaining that, it’s not going to change the payment by all that much. And if you have a good credit score, we can also do a lot of no private mortgage insurance options where the lender pays the PMI for the borrower. Okay. So there’s a lot of scenarios, you just talk to a professional. Okay. And that’s why I’m here. Awesome.

D.J. Paris 17:04
So let’s does that. Does that get us through the opportunities as well?

Joel Schaub 17:11
No, I want to end with some really good opportunities for agents know that

D.J. Paris 17:15
opportunity, you are over delivering my friend. I thought this was the end of all the great stuff. And there’s more, so keep going?

Joel Schaub 17:22
Well, it’s Don’t give me too much credit yet. I don’t know how great it is. I just know that I’ve seen I have years of anecdotal evidence here of an opportunity. I see a lot of agents right now. And the market rates have come up and the markets really slowed in certain areas, right. And I’m here, I’m going to end 2018 Really strong. And so I want to make sure that the agents can think of a way to close, strong as well. Close with me. So I want to present the story of this opportunity that with properties. Finally now we’ve seen in the last 60 days, a switch? Do you kind of feel it in the air a little bit of a change from it being such a strongly dominated seller’s market to not that way at all right. Okay. Okay, so I don’t know about you, but I like buying things on sale. Okay. I like buying my shoes on sale. And I’d love it when a sport coat that I like goes on sale. Yes. Okay. So why not buy real estate on sale? Right, right. And so, right now, I believe that there’s an opportunity in December in January specifically for buyers to go out there and buy a property that is literally 1020 Even 30 grand lower than it was in May or June. Okay. Yeah, that’s so let’s talk about why Oh, of course, you know, it’s the winter. But there’s a perfect storm here. So we have all the inventory that’s coming on the market in the fall, right, we see new inventory being added. We couple that with all the inventory that sat on the market that didn’t sell so we have the spring and summer inventory that now is starting to get 200 days, 120 days you’re seeing price reduction or they’re not moving. Okay, so now we have probably more inventory than we’ve seen in a while. And Realtors you know this. Now we also have the opposite. We have less buyers, right? We truly have less buyers and here’s what I’m seeing because I talked to so many buyers, all the buyers that had to buy. They bought right okay, who had to buy deejay people that had a job relocation right they had to buy they were the ones doing multiple offers right winning people that had to buy for a certain school district etc. All these people that absolutely had to buy bought, and what are we left with? Lesson buyers that are just going to look and write how many times in agents, you’ll hear this. I just not sure I, I’m waiting. And that’s what people are saying right now. And it’s a combination of rates going up, and then not being informed that there’s a real opportunity. So let’s inform them, okay? Let’s go and find properties that have been on the market for over 120 days, let’s go present really strong offers not on price. But because the buyer is really strong. Here’s the buyer, he can close in two weeks, he’s got a guaranteed rate pre approval. By the way, a little side note, most of my closings from start to finish are under 14 days, start to finish, give me a contract. I had one this morning, that was clear to close in 11 days. And that’s not the exception. That’s the rule. We want to have your files done. Approved. And I don’t care when the close date is. But we’re done with financing in the first two weeks, appraisal, everything good. So we present a good strong pre approval letter, and we’ll say I know Mr. Seller, you wanted 440. But my client is very strong, he can close very quickly. And we’re going to offer X guy, it’s gonna be a lot less than the offer. And we’re gonna see a lot of people winning. Okay, so mark this date down December 20. That one of the lowest days of the year for offers, okay, right before the holidays, you start making sure that buyers that are in your queue could actually go out and put some sticks in the fire. I think there’s a real opportunity that or what do you think? Yeah, no,

D.J. Paris 21:36
it makes it makes sense. Because it’s, it’s just enough before the holiday to to maybe get the seller to agree. Right? They may want to just close it out before the holidays and the end of the year? And also who’s looking on the 20th? Nobody, right? So huge opportunity for discounted pricing. Makes perfect sense. So

Joel Schaub 21:53
let’s do that and turn these into some some actual closing. So a little takeaway here, just something that we can do get those buyers in that mindset that if the offer is accepted, that’s unbelievable, we really got a great deal. And these are the buyers that don’t necessarily need to move. And they said, Well, I’m thinking about, you know, buying, and I’m waiting, what are they waiting for, they just need somebody to educate them that this is how you win when you buy real estate, you could buy this literally for 20 3040 grand less than what somebody in the same building bought for in May or June. Okay. So let’s get some deals

D.J. Paris 22:33
I love it makes all the sense in the world and hopefully invigorates the brokers who maybe feel like they’re going into a slower time, and that maybe things are not ideal conditions, there’s always opportunity. And if you’re always willing to do just a little bit more than everyone else, you’ll you’ll probably always be successful. So I couldn’t agree more. And I want to make one final plug for Joe’s event, which is time sensitive is this Thursday, it is from two to four at the munch and Montrose harbor at the Chicago Corinthian Yacht Club. But you don’t need to remember any of that you just need to remember to email Joel to RSVP, which you can do actually one of two ways you can email Joel, Joel array.com. Or you can follow the link in the notes to this Facebook page and RSVP that way as well. I will tell you with these prizes being so significant, people get very excited and very emotional when they win and when they lose. So it’s a lot of fun. I went to the last one, I’ll be there again. And and whether I win or not, it is it is a tremendous amount of fun. And Joel has the most fun of anyone there, and his beautiful wife and their assistant and everyone there is having a great time. So I couldn’t, I couldn’t encourage everyone to attend more.

Joel Schaub 23:46
We appreciate that so much. It’s all about giving back and doing some of those things that others are just not doing. And so it’s the same way that any of the buyers that come over just a reminder that they’ll get a $1,500 closing cost credit, we always waive guaranteed rates, fees and pay the appraisal for your buyers. So on all those transactions. If you don’t have a mortgage guy, you can always connect with me at Joel rate.com. And we’re always willing and able to give back to your buyer

D.J. Paris 24:12
and Joe works around the clock. He’s always available. I know he’s incredibly easy to find. And maybe that’s maybe even the most important thing to look for in a lender, somebody that’s easy to find. And in addition for being incredibly knowledgeable and busy, I don’t want people to think he’s so busy. He can’t, he won’t have time for you. He has time. In fact, he’s closed loans for friends of mine. And you know, they all say the same thing that he’s incredible. So anyway, on behalf of Joel that will that will do it for this this episode. Joe will be back in a month. So and we appreciate it because Joel does not have time to do this and he makes time for it. And then we’re so grateful and really his only intention is to give back and that’s important to us. And obviously we’re grateful to have him on the show. So on behalf of Joel and myself, we will see you next A month learning with a lender and thank you for listening. Please share these episodes with friends. If you have questions for Joel, please shoot them to us. You can visit our website keeping it real pod.com Visit us on Facebook keeping it real pod. Send us your questions and we will tackle them on the next episode. So thanks, Joel.

Joel Schaub 25:18
Absolutely, it’s genuinely My pleasure. I’ll see you next time.

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Due to housing prices having risen over the past two years, homeowners are now sitting on an addition six trillion in tappable equity. So, what should they do (if anything) with it? Joel Schaub, Vice President at Guaranteed Rate, discusses several ideas such as contacting clients currently paying PMI to re-appraise their home to see if they are now eligible to remove PMI. There are also cash-out refinancing options for owners looking to pay down other debt at higher rates. The bottom line is this now gives real estate brokers the opportunity to reach out and communicate with their clients and provide a value added touch.

Joel Schaub can be reached at joel@rate.com or 773.654.2049.

Transcript

D.J. Paris 0:15
Hello and welcome to another episode of Keeping it real the only podcast made by Chicago real estate brokers for Chicago real estate brokers. My name is DJ Parris and welcome to the show and today is our monthly learning with a lender series with Joel Schaub from guaranteed rate. And let me tell you a little bit about Joel, if you are unfamiliar and have not heard any previous episodes, Joel is 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 as well as clients, he gives part of his commission back to the buyer on every transaction. Last year alone, Joe gave back over $244,000 in closing costs to buyers who worked with him, and that put his value in the top 1/10 of 1% of mortgage brokers nationwide. And out of 370,000 loan officers in the country, he was ranked number 181. Year to date, Joel has closed over actually 100 Exactly 159 transactions as of yesterday, for just under 51 million in closings, and he is here with us today. Let’s say hello to the biggest Cubs fan. I know Joel,

Joel Schaub 1:29
I thank you so much DJ, I appreciate the kind words. And like I always tell people, it’s not about me, I want to make this very useful and educational and help the agents on the call. So I appreciate all the numbers and telling them what I do. But it’s really a chance for me to give back and actually help grow business. And I’ve seen so many things over the years that if I can give a little bit of knowledge here. It’ll go a long way.

D.J. Paris 1:58
Well, I I will it I appreciate that. And that’s the intention and purpose behind the show is to just provide value to the industry. But I will say on a very specific level that Joelle just recently helped my friend Karen, buy a home in Wisconsin, and she could not have said nicer things about Joel and how professional and quick can you get you to get the deal done. So I can say from experience working with Joel is a good idea. So if you’re not currently working with a lender that you like, obviously give Joel, give Joel a shout, he’s great. I

Joel Schaub 2:30
appreciate that. And at the end of the segment, I’ll make sure that people have good contact information. And it really is vital that you’re working, whether it is with myself or another mortgage professional, just somebody that actually cares about you, I can’t work with every agent. Okay, I wish I could. And for me, it’s about partnering and finding people that really want to grow right now whether you’ve done five or 6 million, and you want to bring it to 10. Or whether you’re doing 10. And you want to bring that to 15 or 20. Using some of the tools. I never thought I could get to a point where I would close $7 million in a single month. But that’s what I did last month alone. And we can share some of these tips and secrets and just things that really may resonate with the agents out there so that they know that if they want to connect with me, they can absolutely have me as a partner.

D.J. Paris 3:24
Awesome. So what are we talking about today? What’s on the agenda?

Joel Schaub 3:27
Well, I want to make sure that right now we’re seeing a little bit of a lull in the market agents are telling me properties are staying on the market longer. Are you seeing that? Yes. And you’re seeing that the buyers that already wanted to buy have bought right, so there’s less buyers that are out there? Right. So what I want to do is give the agents some things that they can do to actually stay active and connecting with their old clients. Okay, so the number one thing that you can do is not be transactional, the way I’ve gotten to my level of business is it’s not about closing one transaction and moving on. Right. So as agents, how can we stay in front of the past clients that we have helped in a way where you’re not calling them up and saying, Hi, do you want to buy another house? Hi, are you are you looking to sell your house? Right, that doesn’t work. But if you could give them help, and you could call them and tell them a couple of things that are going on about the market right now. We’ve seen agents pick up new deals on it. And you were telling me some of these interesting stats about the amount of equity that are in properties right now. Right?

D.J. Paris 4:35
Yeah, I was just reading the article on CNBC that homeowners are sitting on 6 trillion in available cash as homes prices have risen kind of nationwide over the last two years. It’s essentially more cash. It took 21% more cash is sitting on the sidelines than in before the crash in 2006. So pre K ratash We’re still have more equity in our homes at this point today.

Joel Schaub 5:03
So what will that allow us to do? I’ll start with it being on the lender side, and then I’ll actually turn it into something that absolutely agents can do. And that would help them get additional transactions. So what does it mean, there’s a lot of equity in these properties. And it means if a client had bought a property in the last two or three years, and they did not put 20% down, what do they have, they have mortgage insurance, right. And so it’s one of those necessary evils. If you don’t have 20%, down, you still get a mortgage, but you’re going to be carrying an extra 100 200, even $300 a month of PMI, or private mortgage insurance. And once you get into the house, sometimes you forget that the value has gone up. So right now, what we’re helping clients do is go back in anybody who did not put 20% down, sending out an appraiser to their house at no cost and seeing if we can get a higher appraisal, so that they could literally save again 100 200 $300 a month. And if we ended up having enough equity, I do a 350 flat fee closing for that client. That means from underwriting processing, even that appraisal cost the buyer pays just $350. And if they’re saving 100 or $200 a month, would you pay me $350? If I turned around and sent you $100 Every month for the next nine years, yeah. And so we don’t make a lot on these, this is just a value add. So here’s one of the things that agents have been doing. I have one gentleman in particular, that took his entire database, and just call them and let them know that, hey, the house that I sold you, when you bought it for 310, it looks like right now, that value is up. And he doesn’t quote specific numbers, but it makes him look good. And he says, I know that it might be a good time for you to reach back out to your lender to see if you could drop mortgage insurance and huge call, right think about what they want.

D.J. Paris 7:12
I will tell you when I bought a condo to 2000s, five or six, right. And I had PMI and I ended up refinancing a number of times over the next 10 years just because it always made sense. The only reason I ever knew to do it was I saw a news story. No one ever my realtor never reached out to me and my lender never reached out to me. And I would always have to call going should I be refinancing and eventually I was able to get out of the PMI situation. But no one no one told me. So great opportunity for the agent.

Joel Schaub 7:44
It is this agent in particular was a Behrman order agent. And he called 22 people and out of it, he got two new listings. So let me There you go. Out of that we ended up doing one or two refinances for clients. But the number one thing that it allowed him to do was deliver good news. And that’s what I like to kind of set the tone when I’m having a relationship with a client is can I call them back and deliver something to them? That isn’t me asking for business. And that’s what I want these agents on the call to think about? Is this is a perfect opportunity. Do you think you’re slow this week? Were you slow last week? Are you trying to get new deals? We’ll call people that already like you. Right, exactly. So these are ways that you can go and get your list of past clients and say, Now would be a really good time to reach out to you know, Jim, your lender, or whoever it was that closed the transaction and see if you could eliminate that mortgage insurance, my numbers show that you paid 310,000 And right now, properties in your neighborhood are going for 370 What a good call.

D.J. Paris 8:56
Yeah, and even if they did put 20% down, it still might be a good refi opportunity. So it’s just a huge opportunity to stay in touch.

Joel Schaub 9:04
Right. So the second portion of that would be a cash out refinance. Even if the market rates are up right now we’ve seen rates go from 375 At about this time last year, to right now they’re hovering around four and a half, okay? Meaning on a 30 year fixed four and a half is probably still a lot lower than what they have on say a credit card or etc. So it’s not like 2005 and oh six where everyone was just taking out all this cash to pay off credit cards. This could be an actual smart move for somebody that is sitting on 20 or $30,000 of credit card debt and is paying four or $500 a month just to cover the minimum payments. If they took out $20,000 on their mortgage, it might increase their payment by 40 or $50. Right? What a change that would be for somebody and then all of that interest is taxed. deductible, whereas none of it on the credit card is tax deductible. So another opportunity right now for agents to call back clients and deliver good news about higher values, and then provide something of value.

D.J. Paris 10:16
Yeah, I think that’s such a such a smart opportunity. Where do you see rates? Or do you have a sense of where rates may be heading? We know they just increased? Do we? Do we feel that this guarantee read? Have you ever thought about where they see that going,

Joel Schaub 10:30
DJ, let me get out the crystal ball, right, then I would have a larger boat. This is my old joke, right? If I knew where rates really, truly were gonna go, I would have a much larger boat, I would know the market in a way where it’s more than just a prediction. But the All joking aside, we know that they’re just going to continue to grind slowly, higher. Sure, we’ve already seen a big jump. The market is not anticipating another spike. But we won’t see any opportunities for them to have a big drop, either. We don’t

D.J. Paris 11:08
know the economy’s doing well. And so there’d be no reason to.

Joel Schaub 11:11
Today, the 10 year Treasury just peeked over 3%. And that put us at the highest rates that we’ve seen since May of this year, right. And so there’s a lot of economic data that goes into these mortgage rates. And the underlying issue is simply there’s a lot more things that could have the market go up slightly than anything that could have these rates get back down into the threes that we saw in years past. So all is not lost. Right? If rates continue to go up, it’s going to get buyers that were on the fence off that fence. Right. Yeah.

D.J. Paris 11:47
Great, great, great algae. And let’s talk about and I just want to just want to talk very briefly back to the partnering that you do. You have brokers that you’ve worked with it because I think there’s a lot of brokers out there who this are starting to build their business and getting into those, those numbers that you were mentioning, they start to realize they need strategic partners to do some different initiatives. Can you talk a little bit about what what you’ve done with some, you know, some of your brokers.

Joel Schaub 12:17
So next week, I’m gonna be setting up coffees with folks that want to reach out to me, and it’s as simple as joel@rate.com say, I’d like to have coffee. Okay, so joel@rate.com. And what I’m doing for my realtor partners is something that’s way different, okay. And people know that I closed $7 million of mortgages last month alone. And it was one key factor that everybody gotten that was, I used part of my commission on every transaction I gave back to the buyers, so realtors that come over that don’t have somebody that’s truly in their corner. It’s like this, call my guy Joel at guaranteed rate, he’s been a VP of lending there for 14 years. And when you mentioned my name, he’s going to cover the closing costs. So I give a $1,500 credit that covers our $1,200 in fees, and on most transactions that will also even cover the appraisal cost. So we’re making a lot less than every transaction. I’m just doing more transactions.

D.J. Paris 13:20
Okay. Yeah, no, I mean, we have a similar model here, obviously, not the lending side. But we have a similar structure at our company, we make a lot less than every deal. And we hope that that keeps people pretty happy. And it seems to work for both of us.

Joel Schaub 13:35
So here’s some of the things that will help an agent if they’re new to the business, or they want to grow by actually partnering with somebody that puts their files first, what I’ve seen, in the last, say, 60 transactions that I’ve done is a rapid, clear to close turn time. So I take a file that comes over on the contract, and I order the appraisal right away. Since I’m paying the cost of the appraisal. That means I’m not waiting on inspection. And I’m not waiting on all these different issues to be cleared. I have an average term time start to finish of 12 to 14 days. And if you’re an agent on the phone, and you’re sitting here, wondering about a file right now, and you’re wondering, I wonder if that bank is gonna give me the clear to close they they promised it last week, and now there’s another delay. Think about what it would be like if you were actually partnering with somebody that did the exact opposite. They reached out to you and said things are done sooner, and the file could be clear to close weeks before the contingency date. And that’s what we’re doing. And we’re setting it up in a way where these agents can then go move on to their next transaction, get a signed contract, get it over to me and my team of eight literally from start to finish gets it through underwriting and has a true clear to close in about 14 days.

D.J. Paris 14:56
Yeah, it’s It’s remarkable and like I said, I’ve I’ve seen this for just had with Joel, with people that I know that have used him. And everyone has a very similar impression, which is, Joel is great. And obviously it’s reflected in his numbers and his success, and also his generosity. Being on the show is also indicative of his generosity, there’s nothing in it for him to be on the show other than to provide value to the audience. And we really could not appreciate it more on there’s a lot of lenders out there, Joel was the first one to sort of come saying I need to be on the show, I have to be doing this every month, and we couldn’t appreciate it more. So please give him an opportunity if your broker out there or even if you’re just a consumer out there looking for, you know, a lender, obviously, he’ll work with you, either way. So what Joe is one more time, what’s the best way people can reach out to you.

Joel Schaub 15:46
So next week, I’ll be setting up a coffee appointment for agents that are literally looking for a lending partner, right, somebody that will actually do things for them. And some of the things not just the clear to close and 12 to 14 days, and giving back part of my commission to the client, which is actually a really good one, when you think about, Hey, call my guy, he’s been there for 14 years, and he can get the bank fees waived. That’s a real good connection. But such as are things such as doing broker opens where we could deliver food and drink to a new open house or a broker open that you’re going to do. It’s all about giving back. I got to this level by truly giving. And it’s this model of givers gain. I don’t want people to know how much I you know, no, I want them to know how much I care is as simple as it sounds. That’s how, if you look on Yelp, or any of these review sites, every review that’s ever been written is a five, I don’t have fours threes or twos. In the mortgage business. It’s really easy for these agents and mortgage guys to have bad transactions and we stay ahead of it. We teach we educate and go ask your lender. Do you have 100%? Five Star rating like this every single client? Would they rave about you? Or was it just okay? Did they just do a good enough job, we want them referring more business back to the realtor. So when they get referred over, I say the realtors name no fewer than five times during the transaction, when they’re happy with something that I’ve done, such as your appraisals in the value is good. And we got it in four days. They go wow, that’s amazing. And I say it is amazing. But it’s the reason that you got me was because of Jim or Susie realtor. Can you make sure that anybody you know that’s getting ready to list connects with Jim or Susie? That kind of thing? That’s awesome. Yeah, so joel@rate.com And I’ll get my phone number. This is one of the things I have no problem taking phone calls at 678 at night. As you can tell, I love mortgages, kind of like almost in a dorky way. Sure, right? I never say Thank God, it’s Friday. I I lied. Today is Monday. And I still love getting in here because I work Saturdays and Sundays. You know, over 50% of the transactions happen on a weekend and you need somebody that I’ll actually give you an updated letter and is willing to help you share in a weekend, right? Of course. So the phone number is 773-654-2049. And then an email was Joel and rate.com. What we’re trying to do is work with agents that want to grow the business and I have some real, proven strategies to get additional deals. And if you’re just looking for something different, somebody that’s actually been at a company for 14 years go figure in the mortgage industry. That’s like 100 years.

D.J. Paris 18:42
It is and also I’d like to say that if you have as a broker, if you have questions for Joel on our next installment of learning with a lender, you can email those, you can email us at Jen. She’s our producer Jen at keeping it real pod.com Or you can actually submit it through Facebook keeping it real pod or our website keeping it real pod.com Send us rate quipment not so much questions necessarily about what we’re what’s going on with rates. But any questions on the lending side? Joel is the expert he will answer those two. So on behalf of Joel and myself, thank you for listening and we will see you again in a month for our next learning with a lender episode and we love this series. And thanks again to Joel for being on the show.

Joel Schaub 19:28
Guys. It’s genuine ly my pleasure to help and give back and we’ll see you again next week.

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify

Welcome to our new monthly series Learning With A Lender!

Each month Guaranteed Rate Vice President Joel Schaub discusses anything and everything related to lending. Joel is in the top 1/10th of 1% in loan production at his company, and his insights on what brokers and consumers need to know about mortgages is incredible. In this episode Joel discusses changes in Fannie Mae that allows for condo buildings with commercial space easier access to lending. Also, condos where the buyer is putting down more 25% are no longer subject to 50% rent caps. Last, Joel mentions that buildings under litigation are okay, as long as it not the association that is being sued.

Joel Schaub can be reached at joel@rate.com or 773.654.2049.

Transcript

D.J. Paris 0:13
Hello and welcome to another episode of Keeping it real the only podcast made by Chicago real estate brokers for Chicago real estate brokers. My name is DJ Parris. I am your host of the show, and today is our another episode of our monthly series learning with a lender. We have Joel shop from guaranteed rate on the call. Welcome, Joel.

Joel Schaub 0:33
Hi guys. Happy to be here

D.J. Paris 0:35
to tell you a little bit about Joel and we are also happy that Joel is here. Joel is 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, I give his part of the commission back to the buyer on every transaction last year alone, Joe gave back over $244,000 in closing costs to buyers who we worked with, and that put Joe’s value in the top 1/10 of 1%. Nationwide, out of 370,000 loan officers in the country, he was ranked 181, again out of 370,000. So that’s year to date through April 30. Joel has done 69 transactions for just under 25 million and closings, and we’re grateful to have him with us today. So and also a Joel is one of the biggest cub fans you’ll ever meet. And

Joel Schaub 1:26
welcome, John. Hey, guys, I’m really happy to be here again, and thanks for that introduction. But it’s not all about me, I really want to make this something that we can give back to the agents about and go over some things. So I had about three things here today that I think are really great news for agents that are in the city, and suburbs that have listings for condos. So let’s do it. So Fannie Mae recently made some major major changes. So for all these years, you see things getting tighter, right? All the restrictions were coming in. And now we’re starting to see some loosening up. Right. So this is some really good news. So I’m going to go through a couple of these, and then we’re going to explain some ways that I think that this can mean more closings for the agents. So I’m going to list what the rule changes were. And then more importantly, how does that actually affect the agents that have properties for sale or buyers going into certain condo buildings. So the first one ticket right off with the amount of commercial space that was allowed in a building before was 20 or 25%. And that would allow a lot of that would restrict a lot of buyers in buildings that had a greater amount of commercial space. And currently, they just changed that from the 20 to 25%. All the way up to 35%.

D.J. Paris 2:49
Gotcha. So more spaces allowed now for commercial use. Yeah. So

Joel Schaub 2:53
when you think about these buildings where there may be a storefront and a couple of units above, these are real common in the city of Chicago. Yes, banks hated it, they would always give problems. And we were doing at guaranteed rate. But a lot of the big banks, you know, my colleagues that Chase and Wells Fargo and US Bank, the guidelines were really restricted, they just didn’t want to touch them, they were always afraid that the commercial space if there wasn’t a tenant in it, or there was any kind of issue with paying the HOA dues, that the buildings in the units above could have a special assessment to keep up with the current amount of money needed for reserves. Okay. So they didn’t want buildings with large amount of commercial space. And so now they’ve updated the guidelines as of June 6, to allow a much greater amount of commercial space. That means if you have listings, that are in buildings where there currently was a restriction, where you knew that you couldn’t get the property sold, or the buyer was going to have a problem. We can do it.

D.J. Paris 3:57
That’s great. That’s awesome. So that’s

Joel Schaub 3:59
one commercial space. That applies to a handful of buildings in the city of Chicago. But the next one is going to be really big guys. The next one is about the amount of rentals that were allowed in a building for a buyer that was buying the property as an investment property. Okay, so agents, you’ll know exactly what I’m talking about here. You have a building and it’s in the city and the amount of renters in the building was over 50% Right. The bank said no, no, that’s a non warrantable condo, right. So for the longest time as long as the buyer that was buying the unit lived in it as a primary residence, it was no problem but if you were buying it as an investment property, it was a non warrantable condo and you literally were a cash buyer that was it. Right guy? So guess what they did? This is all brand brand new. So now if a buyer is putting down 25% It does not matter how many rentals are in the building.

D.J. Paris 5:02
Got it. So the buyer can’t take out, like can’t do two mortgages to get a 25%, they actually have to put down 25%.

Joel Schaub 5:09
Yep, on an investment property will allow on an investment property, I should say it will allow for a buyer to go in, even if the building has over 50% rentals. So agents that are listening to this right now, you know, buildings, you either have had a listing, or you know that you’ve had a problem in the past, this is a big, big change, this will now allow for you to take a unit that was listed for sale where you knew that the buyer had to be a primary residence and open up the doors to investors as well.

Big news. Yeah, that is huge. So let’s just

think about what this means in like common terms, right? You had a property listed. And we knew it was non war, we knew we had a rental issue, there was so many renters in the building. Why would that happen? DJ, because it’s probably a great rental building, right. And so who wants to buy in a rental building, when the rents are really good, and there’s a high render concentration, probably another investor, somebody that wants to rent out the building. And so that’s exactly what Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac did not want for years. So when you were over 50%, non owner, it made it a major problem. So now, as long as the buyer is putting down 25%, which is really common for an investor, they are allowed to buy in the buildings that as of last month, they could not buy in.

D.J. Paris 6:36
You know, that’s really huge, because we have, there’s so many brokers that work with investors. I mean, this is this is a big, big deal.

Joel Schaub 6:42
So now what it means is, I really want the agents that are on the listening to think about the buildings that you knew that were a non warrantable condo that ended high investor concentration, you can now literally go into those buildings with investor clients of yours. And buy, you can also get listings in there and open it up to not just owner occupied but to Investor Buyers. Big. So this literally should be should allow you to have several more transactions in the next couple of days, weeks and months. And that’s really what this is about is just kind of educating from the mortgage standpoint so that the agents know you don’t need to know everything, but some of these tips and tricks will be really good. Okay.

D.J. Paris 7:26
Yeah, that’s really good stuff. And I suspect like me, I did not know either of those things had happened. So

awesome for everyone. Listen.

Joel Schaub 7:35
So another great one. How often do you have a building in you hear about the property has litigation, right? Sure. Yeah. So you get these condo buildings and nine times out of 10. It was a deal breaker. Right. So Fannie Mae recently had some adjustments to this. And the big takeaway here, and I could go on about this for hours. Because I’ve done all the research, I’m kind of a mortgage nerd. Read this at night, this is what I like to do DJ, this is I read through all this stuff. So the basis here is if you have a building that’s in litigation, and it’s the association that’s actually suing not being sued, you can actually get the deals done. So I want you to think of some of the associations that you have, where instantly, you think that you can’t get the transactions complete, because of the word litigation pops up. They’ve really clarified this. The problem is when the association is being sued, it’s not when somebody from the association is the suing party. So some big things there and I can go into details you’ll give my information at the end. Yes. And, and anybody who has questions on this, I’m an open book, whether you use guaranteed rate or not, I want to be helpful to you guys. Okay, awesome. Here’s one more smaller buildings when you have a two to four unit building, and you’re listing a condo agents always have a hard time with these because they’re usually self managed. Right? Right. So it’s just somebody that lives in the building. That’s the condo board president. And it takes days to get the condo questionnaire complete because he’s just like a guy like you or me. It’s not his job. He doesn’t necessarily want to be completing all the paperwork. So now, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac has no project reviews on buildings that are up to four units. Oh, wow. Absolutely amazing. You know what we need now? We need a copy of the appraisal and just the master insurance, so no more questionnaires. No more getting Jim upstairs to complete a questionnaire right or Susie down the hall to comprise the questionnaire. So this is a big thing. So for properties that are 123 or four condo units in a building. That is what’s acceptable. No, very big news.

D.J. Paris 10:01
This shaves the least of possibly a few days if not longer off the process.

Joel Schaub 10:06
It does. And if you guys remember the last call where we’re having a big majority of properties now have appraisal waivers. Right? So think about this, I had one with the appraisal waiver and this new rule that in seven days from start to finish, was cleared to close on a three unit condo building, the contract came in, they were blown away that I told them that the new rules were in effect. And literally last week, I already had a clear to close on a file that was in process for just over a week seven business days. Right. Pretty great. That’s awesome. So those are some of the things that are extremely helpful that I just wanted to bring up as far as condos go.

D.J. Paris 10:54
Yeah, that that no, that’s all really, really helpful. And again, arms, the broker with more information that they can take to not only separate themselves from other brokers out there, but also just to provide good, good quality information to the clients. Quick question for you. With respect to the Fed, because there has been talk of the Fed continually going to continue to raise rates slightly over the next, you know, year or so do you have any, any thoughts about that, how that may affect lending?

Joel Schaub 11:23
Absolutely. Let’s just talk about the current interest rate environment so that we can be armed with knowing where the market is at the 30 year fixed rates are hovering around four and a half percent. And if we look, just a few months ago, we were doing 30 year fixed rates below 4%. So they have moved up quite a bit, the feds have increased rates twice. And they look to be doing so here in the future, what it means is, rates will go up a little bit, we don’t expect this to go A to a point where a 30 year fixed rate is going to be at five and a half or 6%. And we’re never doing this fear where a lot of mortgage guys out there, colleagues in the industry will say Well, you better hurry up and buy because rates are going to skyrocket, right? It’s better to just understand what’s actually happening. And if rates go up a quarter point or a half a percent, what that means to the payment, and just speak with a mortgage professional about what that would be on a $200,000 deal, a $400,000, deal, etc, to know what that could be if you don’t buy now, and you wait a couple of months.

D.J. Paris 12:31
Right. And I also think sometimes we lose sight of the fact that the feds raising rates, because everything is doing really well. It’s it’s supposed to compensate for people’s income and to to keep things you know, more level. And it’s not necessarily about punishment, or is it going to stop anyone from I mean, this is a mild increase.

Joel Schaub 12:53
Here’s what I’ve seen, you’re exactly right. What I’ve seen is it really has had buyers, get off the fence. And the last couple of months, I’ll take June, for example, we just closed out June. And I had over $6 million of purchase business in June, which was any other June in my history, we’ve never had that many. And it’s one of those situations where I think a lot of people are afraid that that rate is going to go up a lot more than it really wouldn’t. So if you’re an agent, that’s good news for you whether the buyer is correct or not. It does mean that buyers are under the impression that rates today are better than they’re going to be next year.

D.J. Paris 13:32
Very, very good point. And I know if I was looking to purchase knowing that the news stories are saying the Fed may continue to raise rates to some degree over the next year or even further, I would definitely consider that as well and want to make a purchase as quickly as I can. So you’re right. That’s awesome. Well, in speaking of rates, you know, Joel is a lender who has a guaranteed rate if there are brokers out there who have not found a lender that that that they just love working with, how should they get in touch with you? And also, if any buyers and sellers are out there, how can they get in touch?

Joel Schaub 14:07
Oh, we’re happy to help. It’s no problem at all. I’ve gotten to this level over 15 years, where now I’m closing to 20 to 30 transactions a month. And it’s about giving back. So any buyers that you have that come over, we’ll waive the fees, we give a $1,500 closing cost credit, that’ll waive the lender fees as well as the appraisal. So get in touch with me my phone number is 773-654-2049 and then I’m big on Facebook. All right. So Joel Schaub at guaranteed rate. We have just north of 18,000 followers to my page because I give out information, tips and tricks and just trying to really give back and educate and we’re always there for the people that need somebody to actually help them during a transaction. We’re here for

D.J. Paris 14:55
you. I myself have refinanced with guaranteed rate years ago and and it was definitely out of all of the refinances I’ve ever done. It was the smoothest one I’ve ever done so. So you know, they obviously know what they’re doing. And Joel obviously knows what he’s doing at guaranteed rate. So definitely give him a chance. And he also throws really great parties, which I was telling him off air I had to miss his last one, but I’m not missing another one. So anyway, I definitely you know, get to know Joel, he a lot of people already do. He’s obviously doing a great job over over gr but he is always looking for for new brokers and new clients as well. So give him a shot. And with Joe, we will see you in another month. And we’ll have more to talk about on the lending side.

Joel Schaub 15:38
That’s perfect. And thanks for the plug about the parties. It does. It does go a long way when you’re out there doing things and the next one that we have is coming up at the end of July. It is a yacht club party. It’s called boats and bingo so you’ll guys will see the announcement for that we’re giving away a 65 inch TV, a trip to Las Vegas and I watch etc is just so fun prizes. It’s going to be at the end of July. And it’s one of those things where if you’re out there actually having fun it’s good networking as well. So look for

D.J. Paris 16:12
a lot of the people that have been featured on this show have been worked with Joel so if that if that tells we only talked to top one percenters so that should tell you something. So anyway, Joel, thank you so much for your time. This is a he’s so he’s too busy to do this yet. He does it every month and he’s so great. We’re so grateful he does and we’ll see you in a month.

Joel Schaub 16:29
Thanks a lot. Have a good day.

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Welcome to our new monthly series Learning With A Lender!

Each month Guaranteed Rate Vice President Joel Schaub will be on the show to discuss anything and everything related to the lending process. Joel is in the top 1/10th of 1% in loan production at his company, and his insights on what brokers and consumers need to know about mortgages is incredible. In this first episode Joel discusses why property specific pre-approvals are critical (but most buyers and brokers aren’t aware they exist) and also how Fannie May and Freddie Mac are allowing (for some properties) a Property Inspection Waiver resulting in 8-9 day faster closings!

Joel Schaub can be reached at joel@rate.com or 773.654.2049.

Transcript

D.J. Paris 0:14
Hello and welcome to another episode of Keeping it real the only podcast made by Chicago real estate agents for Chicago real estate agents. My name is DJ Paris, I am your host through the show and today we are very excited to start a brand new monthly feature. We’re calling it learning with our lender and we have with us today. Joel Schaub from guaranteed rate and obviously guaranteed rate has an amazing reputation. They’re clearly if not the biggest lender, one of the biggest lenders in the country. And Joel is one of their top lenders. So let me tell you a little bit about Joel before he comes on. Joel is a vice president of lending at guaranteed rate. He has been doing loans at a high level since 2003. It’s gotten to that level because of what he does directly for agents. And he gives part of his commission back to the buyer on every single transaction. And last year alone. He gave back over $244,000 in closing costs to buyers who worked with him and that put his volume in the top 1/10 of 1% nationwide. So out of 370,000 loan officers in the country. Joel was ranked number 181 year to date through April 30. He has done 69 transactions again just in the last four months for just under 25 million in closing and he is here with us today before Joel comes on. I want to give you a couple of fun facts about Joel well first of all, great quote about Joe even if you know somebody at guaranteed rate you don’t know somebody who truly looks out for the client like Joel does, but some facts about Joel he currently has 13 billboards up right now in and around Wrigleyville. He’s the proud board member for real estate to the rescue which I am a big fan of as well. That’s a nonprofit for homeless cats and dogs in Chicago everyone should join real real estate to the rescue in you may have seen Joel on windy city poker and on NBC Sports Chicago. He’s also a proud sponsor with TV commercials during the celebrity charity poker show he is a Cubs season ticket holder went to 37 Games last season alone. i Let’s That’s enough. Let’s say hi to Joel so welcome Joel. I DJ, thanks so much for having me. We are We are so grateful to have you. And this was such a great idea to have have you on every single month. And so what would you so the purpose of this, by the way for all the listeners is to talk to our brokers we have 1000s of listeners and tell them what lenders wish they knew and more information so that they can better support their clients. So Joe, tell us a little bit about what you’d like to discuss today.

Joel Schaub 2:52
DJ write up from the beginning, you told the listener so much about me. And it’s really, it’s not about me, it’s about really giving back. And I really want to make this educational for everybody that’s on and making sure that there’s some great topics being discussed each week, and each time that we get together. So we’re really excited to be here today.

D.J. Paris 3:13
We’re really excited as well. And out of all the lenders that I’ve talked to you, we’re the obvious choice for the show. So thank you for your time, because I know you’re busy. So we appreciate it.

Joel Schaub 3:24
Well, let’s get right into it, I really had a couple of things that I wanted to discuss that’ll actually help agents that are out there. And it really comes down to talking about the pre approval letter. Okay, great. When agents get a pre approval letter, and they’re getting an offer, I always want to make sure that it has a property specific pre approval letter attached. Okay. So what this means is how often as an agent, do you get a letter from a bank as submitted with the offer, and it’s 30 days old, or 30 days old, you know, you always gotta call the lender and there’s 1000s of good lenders. It’s not just us. So this isn’t just a sales pitch for guaranteed rate. It’s literally there’s 1000s of great lenders that are out there. But there’s hundreds of bad ones, right? There just truly are right. And so what you really want to do is just pick up the phone and just get that lender that signed his name to the letter just to see, you’ll know the way the transactions going to play out in the first hour or two. Do they get back to you? Do they know the clients name? Can they pick up the phone and say, Oh, dismiss? Absolutely. I just got their pay stubs. I know exactly who they are. This one’s gonna go through no problem. And that’s kind of what you’re looking for, as an agent, somebody that will actually pick up the phone and answer that phone call. So that’s one of the best things. I could tell the listing agents don’t be afraid sometimes they say I don’t want to make, you know, I don’t want to make the phone call. And I say just make the phone call. Find out who that lender is, especially if you don’t know who it is. Okay.

D.J. Paris 4:59
So So what happens is, as a listing agent, they receive the offer, they see the letter, they reach out, what happens, what do you recommend someone should do, if they don’t hear back from that lender,

Joel Schaub 5:10
call me. That’s the whole point of this is you want to make sure that the letter is actually somebody that’s reputable, right? If it doesn’t have my property on, and I’m the listing agent, and if it doesn’t have my property address on it, it just says, Jim and Susie Q pre approved up to 300 grand, and it’s three to six weeks old, even if it’s a week old. So many different properties have different taxes and association dues, I want to make sure the lender knows this buyers submitting an offer on my place. And it’ll be helpful to get the lender on the phone, okay, and it doesn’t always happen. But the number one thing is you make two phone calls. And then you reach out to the person that submitted the offer and say I can’t even get the lender on the phone. Right? The number one thing you want to do is make sure that before you take the property off the market, for the sellers, that the financing is going to go through. So it’s just one of those tips that I like to have. Some agents do this all the time, when you know who you are out there, you really are good. You pick up the phone, and you ask the questions. And other ones are just kind of afraid to and I say don’t be afraid these lenders want your business. So you want to make sure that they’re actually doing some work for you.

D.J. Paris 6:25
That’s a really, really strong tip. And I’m so glad you mentioned it. And also the buyers broker should be doing the same for their clients, obviously. And you know, don’t as Joel said, don’t be afraid what no matter what side of the deal, you’re on to call that lender and say, Hey, is this still going to work for this particular property? And can I get a new letter? Yeah,

Joel Schaub 6:45
you got it right. You’re exactly right, especially now on the buyer side, you bring up a great point. If I have my buyer, and he’s got a great lender and the pre approval letter is set. Just make sure that before you’re submitting the offer, that the lender gives you an property specific pre approval letter, it’s going to make your offer go a lot smoother, right? So for example, yesterday at 530, it was a Sunday, I was able to get a pre approval letter turned around within an hour, they submitted an offer on a $1.5 million place. And at night, around nine o’clock, the listing agent just shot me an email saying, I got the letter, do you have any issues with this file going forward? And she was shocked that I actually picked up the phone and said No, I actually know the buyers, they’re perfectly fine. So this morning, contract was accepted. And my buyer beat out three other offers, because of my follow up to make sure that the listing agent knew the buyer was strong, the buyer can close in literally 18 days, they had a fast turnaround. And that’s the number one thing, you got to go out there and get a lender that works for you these. There’s tons of them that want your business. So find somebody that really works for you. And that will do these type of things on a Saturday or Sunday night.

D.J. Paris 8:04
Wow, that is such a great tip. What what percentage and this is an estimate, but you’ve you’ve been doing this for so long? What percentage of of letters that that, you know, are actually property specific pre approval letters? Oh, less

Joel Schaub 8:17
than 10%? Right? Yeah, no. It makes all the difference in the world. If I’m a listing agent, and I see three different offers, but this one has today’s date, it has my seller’s property address, and it’s got a lender that I’ve seen around town, don’t you think they took that right to their sellers last night and said, Okay, here’s the three offers, this one’s clearly the best. And she actually reached out and did her due diligence, which was great. And it made for my buyer, one happy buyer this morning, that’s for sure.

D.J. Paris 8:48
That is that’s a really great story. And so if you if you’re a listing agent, do not hesitate to reach out to the lender, which again, there are probably listing agents that have never thought to do that. So what a great idea.

Joel Schaub 9:01
Yeah, you just want to make sure that they you’re not looking for any real specific answers. What you really want to do is does the lender know the file? Are they confident that it can close? Nine times out of 10? You’ll get somebody that will say what, which file is this right? I don’t know. And really what you want is to go with an offer that you don’t want to go back to your seller three weeks down the line because the file couldn’t get complete with the lender. So you want to work with somebody you have some confidence

D.J. Paris 9:27
and well said, and I know you also wanted to talk about another topic.

Joel Schaub 9:33
So this is one that’s just an easy thing that a lot of agents have been calling me on lately. And it’s the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac property inspection waiver. All right, what is a property inspection waiver? Well, right now, over 15 to 20% of files that we have a guaranteed rate no longer require an appraisal on a purchase. Oh, interesting. And let me say it again. That’s huge. 15 to 20% of purchases don’t require an appraisal anymore. How could that be? DJ? How is that happening? Right? It’s not risky, okay. It’s one of those things where I’m literally holding a note right now. And it’s a letter to the committee on House finances. And it says, we want to raise concerns that the new appraisal program where you’re no longer requiring appraisals could cause problems. And it goes on and on. And guess who signed by all of the appraisers?

D.J. Paris 10:37
You know, I would imagine they would be concerned. Yes.

Joel Schaub 10:39
So here’s what happened. There’s so much data now. We have literally hundreds of 1000s of appraisals on file in Cook County alone, okay. Multiply that over all the counties, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have a wealth of knowledge about what property values are. And currently, if you have a single family residence, condo or a townhouse, and the buyer is a standard 20%, down, good, strong quality, they accept the value on the contract. And what does that mean? It means that your property could close eight to nine days sooner. Yeah, sure. It means that the lender isn’t coming back and telling you I’m sorry, the value came in low. Isn’t it the worst? Yeah, absolutely. It’s absolutely the worst, you know that it’s not low. You just had a buyer and seller agree to the price, right? And the lender says, No, it’s six grand low. Now you have to go back to your seller and tell them they must lower their price or the buyer is going to walk away. So it alleviates all that. Okay. Now, a majority DJ of these files will not get a Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac appraisal waiver. Okay, sure. Under 20%. But boy, it’s one of those great things when you find out that the lender, right when the contract comes through that no appraisal is needed. And this has been happening since November of 2017.

D.J. Paris 12:05
Okay, yeah, we think that trend will continue. There’s just so much data,

Joel Schaub 12:09
right? Yeah, sure. If you have a single family residence that’s in the heart of Linkin Park, there are 567 comps, right on the same street, within the last year that have sold around the block. Okay. Makes perfect sense more so on condos as well. So they have all of these touch points where they know what the values are. And it allows for a buyer to complete a transaction right now sometimes in as little as nine to 10 days from the date the contract comes through with no appraisal needed. So

D.J. Paris 12:41
wow, that’s a that’s amazing.

Joel Schaub 12:44
So property inspection waivers, it’s one of those things that it’s a nice surprise, we don’t go in hoping for it or we won’t be able to tell until the file gets to the automated underwriting system. But it’s one of those things when I’ve gotten several phone calls, and we send out the notification, the file is clear to close and the listing agent calls and they go I don’t remember even doing an appraisal there. And I know we didn’t need one and they go You are amazing.

D.J. Paris 13:10
Yeah, that’s pretty cool.

Joel Schaub 13:11
I say I wish I could take all the credit for it. It’s not me. It’s one of the systems that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have come out with. So it’s one of those things that you know, you are excited when it happens, and you love to share that news. So I wanted to share that with the people that are on the podcast here today because it’s important just to work with somebody who’s passionate about what they’re doing. Okay.

D.J. Paris 13:37
Well, let’s let’s end with a derby party that you specifically are hosting. And I want to let tell the listeners all about because this is a truly remarkable party and I’m also going to try to attend myself. Tell us about it. Well, it’s

Joel Schaub 13:51
a big Cubs fan. As some of you guys know the Cubs fan mortgage man is hosting a party coming up right at Wrigley Field this Saturday. It is May 5. It’s at the new Brickhouse tavern. So if you look at the park and if you’ve been out there and you see the large jumbotron that’s out there now. Yeah, there’s a brand new Budweiser Brickhouse tavern. So we have prizes. There’s over 125 real estate professionals that have already signed up. It’s an amazing networking, you can bring a client, you can bring another realtor, and currently there are I don’t even want to tell the dollar amount of prizes. But it is one of those things where the top prizes are a 65 inch television, a round trip tickets to Las Vegas cubs tickets to Rose off the field and Apple iWatch and tons of giveaways and it’s something that’s fun. If you ever go to a restaurant or a bar on Derby Day, it’s always packed. You can’t sit down. This will be an opportunity to actually network and it’s all complem mentary. So it’s one of those fun things from two to six coming up on Saturday.

D.J. Paris 15:04
And if someone’s interested in attending, how should they get in touch

Joel Schaub 15:08
derby@rate.com. So we already have the RSVP list, almost full, there’s 25 spots left, it should be a good event for anybody in the Chicago area. So

D.J. Paris 15:21
if you if you’ve never done, yeah, if you’ve never been to a guaranteed rate party, by the way, especially one that Joel is throwing, their parties are legendary, and no one even comes close. Your holiday party is legendary. I think I think even last year or the year before, they had to add an extra night, because it was such a big event. And so if you’ve if you’ve never seen a guaranteed rate party, they are truly, truly exceptional. And Joel is just a really good guy. So definitely, there’s a few spots left. So that’s derby@rate.com, if you’re interested in he’ll let you know if it’s all full or not.

Joel Schaub 15:58
Okay, before you go, I just want to tell you, you guys are doing a really great job with this. I’ve listened. I like to say I’m a longtime listener first time caller. So you’re really doing a great job with this.

D.J. Paris 16:07
Yeah, and I by the way, I would like to, I would like to see how this came about. So I went to an event that Joel was one of the sponsors to for top producer magazine, which I write for and, and that was a really nice event too. And Joel was was kind enough to be one of the sponsors for that. And he came up to me and he’s like, I need to be on your podcast. And, and I will tell you, I was like you do and because he’s so passionate, he’s he’s all about giving back. He serves on boards. He’s a great guy loves to educate, we’re really, really excited and grateful that he’s willing to do this. So. And it’s funny earlier, and I just want to say something else nice about drawl. Before the thing I said, I really want to promote you and make sure we get your free, she’s like, don’t worry about that. I’m just doing this to give back. So we really appreciate that as well. But I am going to force the issue because I do want people to contact you. So if somebody wants to, you know, talk to you about rates or products, what’s the best way for them to reach you?

Joel Schaub 17:01
773-654-2049 Or they can reach me at joel@rate.com.

D.J. Paris 17:10
And if you look up in the sky anywhere in Wrigleyville, you’ll you’ll probably see him on many, many streets because he’s got billboards all over the place. So anyway, no, we like it. I think it’s cool. It’s

Joel Schaub 17:23
me, I really want to make sure this was beneficial for the people on the call and always bring something of value giving backs what’s really important. So if you learned even one thing on the call today, tune in for the next podcast because you guys are really doing a great. Well,

D.J. Paris 17:37
thank you. And that brings me to my final point, which is what questions do you have for Joel so that we can tee up some topics for next time, send us your questions, you can find us on Facebook, just search for keeping it real podcast. Our website is keeping it real pod.com You can submit through our contact form there. And of course you can listen to all of our episodes there as well as iTunes, Google Play Anywhere podcasts are served. So until next month, we will have Joelle on again and we will be discussing a couple of other topics and so until then, we bid you adieu, and Joel, thank you so much and remember his Derby party is this Saturday, so please reach out to him if you have if you have interest in attending and hopefully you’ll get in before it closes. So Derby at KL real sorry. derby@great.com All right, Joel. Thanks again for being on the show.

Joel Schaub 18:29
It’s my pleasure, you guys.

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