Welcome to the November episode of Learn With A Lender with Joel Schaub of Guaranteed Rate!
In this episode Joel gives advice on how to stay relevant and in front of potential clients in 2021. Joel shares how he spends 20% of his annual income on different forms of advertising and how you can create your own ad budget. He points out that being genuinely involved in people’s lives will ultimately bring future business. Last, Joel talks about lending rates and how he does not expect any major changes in the following 12 to 18 months.
If you’d prefer to watch this interview, click here to view on YouTube!
Joel can be reached at joel@rate.com and 773.654.2049.
Transcript
D.J. Paris 0:00
On this episode of Keeping it real is brought to you by Joel Schaub at guaranteed rate. As a realtor it’s important to partner with only the most trusted name in mortgage lending. Joel has 1000s of satisfied clients and gives $1,500 of his commission. Back to your buyers on every closing. He is known for his ability to close even complex deals start to finish in only 14 days to learn what 1000s of others already know. Make a note to call Joel at 773-654-2049 or email joel@rate.com Guaranteed Rate is an equal housing lender licensed in all 50 States Consumer Access Number 2611 And now on with the show.
Welcome to another episode of Keeping it real the largest podcast made by real estate agents and for real estate agents. My name is DJ Paris, I am your guide. And host through the show and today once again is our monthly series learn with a lender with Joel shop from guaranteed rate. Now Joel is the vice president of lending at guaranteed rate. He’s been doing loans at a high level since 2003. And it’s gotten to that level because of what he does specifically for agents, which is he gives back part of his commission to the buyer on every sales transaction. Last year alone, Joe gave back over $291,000 in closing costs to buyers who worked with him that puts drawls volume at in the top 1/10 of 1% of all lenders nationwide, out of 400,000 loan officers in the country. Joel is ranked number 137. This year to date he has closed over 400 He’s close 408 sales transactions, his highest amount ever, for just under $146 million. Now Joel is on pace to close out the year with over 500 sales transactions. It making this his greatest year in his career. If you’re looking for a loan officer, we could not more highly recommend Joel, he is the very best we’ve ever worked with Joel can be reached at rates.com. Again, joel@rate.com. Or you can shoot him a text message or call him directly at 773-654-2049. And for all of our listeners, we are located here in Chicago, but Joel is able to serve his clients nationwide. So even if you’re not here in the local Chicago area, and you’re looking for a great loan officer reach out to him he or somebody on his team can assist. Well, let’s say hello to the biggest Cubs fan. I know Joel, welcome once again to the show.
Joel Schaub 2:50
Hey, thanks so much for having me on, DJ, and thank you for the warm introduction. But the numbers, none of that really means anything to me, I really I say it all the time. It’s fun to actually be here, give back and share some of the things that I’ve been doing and really help people on the show growth and help with their business.
D.J. Paris 3:10
Yeah, I feel the same way. I was having a conversation yesterday. So I recruit real estate agents, as you know, I was having a conversation with somebody who was interested in possibly joining our firm. And she says, How long have you been at the firm? And I said, Oh, I’ve been here 10 years. And I said, you know, 10 years ago, it’s really funny. We only had three Realtors 10 years ago. And today we have over 700. And she goes, Wow, that’s really impressive. And I go, I guess so I don’t really think about it. And she goes, I can’t believe you’re this excited to talk to me being that you have so many agents and I said, Well, this is what I do. Like I don’t think about just like you, I don’t think about the numbers, I just get excited to talk to people, You are the exact same way. And we just put our head down and do the work. So I appreciate a lot of the discipline that that you have, you have imparted to our listeners and sort of best practices for just how to how to stay focused and committed. While you know anything could be happening in the market, there are certain things you can still be doing. So what would you like to discuss today?
Joel Schaub 4:09
We’ve been doing this for years now. I mean, literally when we come on. And it is one of the best times of the month for me literally to be able to come back and just share some things. And it’s literally what I’ve been seeing because I do speak with real estate agents in all these different states at every different income level. And the one thing that I see that’s really right now setting them apart is that you got to spend money to make money. Yeah, okay. You really have to double down right now and figure out the ways that you’re going to stay relevant in your market and how that you’re going to stay in 2021 in front of the people you want to be in front of.
D.J. Paris 4:48
Yeah, I couldn’t agree more. I think it’s easy when business is slow. To not think about how do I invest in my business or how do I What do I do to take my business to the next level or even, maybe I need to loosen the pocket strings even when money might not be necessarily flowing in. I know it’s the same idea of in the, you know, if you’re buying equities in the market, you know, you want to buy low and sell high. And those are two very tight, oftentimes difficult things to do. If you don’t have a disciplined approach to, to do things because your emotions get in the way. So for everyone listening who, who whether you’re slammed with the business, because you know, gosh, rates are so low and lots of buyers and fewer sellers and lots of multiple offer situations, and you’re just so incredibly busy. Or if you’re somebody who’s not as busy as you’d like to be, we’re gonna give you a Joe’s gonna give you some ideas of how you can invest in your business right now.
Joel Schaub 5:39
Well, this is just hearing from other agents that I’ve been speaking to. So I’m doing somewhere between 50 to 60 transactions every single month and the agents that I’m talking to they’re busy, they’ve made good money. But we’re the ones that are going to be busy next year are the ones that aren’t just sitting back on their laurels and expecting business to come. They’re taking their dollars that they’re earning. And they’re reinvesting and coming up with real solid ways, and smart ways right now to do it. Because there’s a lot of ways that you can do it, where you’re just going to be lost in the mix. So let’s come up with a few things that I’m seeing right now that I’ve done when it comes to like the holiday dimes, of where you can spend money that actually works, and where you’re going to be lost in the shuffle. So talking about spending money to make money, we have to have a database of people that know like and trust us, right. And so we want to stay in front of them. So that when the time comes, those people will be the first one to pick up the phone and call you. So I like to do gifts. I’m a giver, right? This whole givers gain model, but don’t send out Christmas Hanukkah, it gets lost in the shuffle every why? Like, yeah, everyone does it. It doesn’t mean that it’s wrong, but try to change it up. So what we’re doing for the last three years, I do a Thanksgiving gift, when it was less than we’ve ever gotten a Thanksgiving gift never only for me probably. So it’s something really cute. It’s Happy Thanksgiving, we’re so thankful for clients like you. Okay, it can be anything years ago, we would just do a small candle and something cute. To the last couple of years, we’ve really built it up into big boxes where we send them out with nice, fluffy blankets. We did Joel special coffee blend, and we did a stay at home, stay safe and stay warm. Thank you for being a client of ours. And these are people that have already closed business with us, they already got a gift at the time of closing. And we’re doing something extra. And we’re spending literally 10s of 1000s of dollars. This isn’t a small operation, we’re doing hundreds of boxes, and each box costs quite a bit. Okay, you don’t have to spend that much but you have to be doing something. So I like doing the off holidays. So Happy Thanksgiving we’re happy for we’re thankful for clients like you can have the play on words. Or Happy Valentine’s Day. We love clients like you gotta be careful though, I’ve shown up a lot of men when I send out these gifts. I send out a nicer gift than he got for his own wife. be in trouble for that? You know, some of those types of things for sure.
D.J. Paris 8:17
Yeah, I’ll tell you, Joel, in one of his previous years had sent blankets out as the gift and this was such an interesting thing because a lot of agents I feel and I’m a marketer, so I have a ton of opinions about this. But my opinions are not always the right opinions for everyone. But I prefer subtle gifts and a lot of times agents want to plaster their name and face and all over their gifts and that’s okay if that’s who you are. And you feel that’s that’s your brand, by all means. But Joel just sent a really nice blanket and his name wasn’t on it anywhere because there was no need and it is sits on my bed. It’s on top of my comforter. I use it every single day. I never forget who gave me that blanket because it’s so useful. And I see it every day. So if you’re thinking well, if I give somebody something and my name isn’t engraved in it or stitched in, I don’t think that’s as important. You know, the gift is is the gesture is what’s important. And especially if you give somebody something that’s really useful, you know, I’m like somebody once gave me a really nice Cutco knife, a really beautiful Cutco knife, and they were going to engrave their name into it and they didn’t. And I said you don’t have to do that because I will never forget the knife where who gave it to me that will never be nothing. But But I love that idea of the off holiday gifts I have a suggestion to for anyone who’s thinking of another idea for off holiday, you know people’s birthdays. Right now people do receive things on their birthdays, they receive phone calls, they receive texts, they receive gifts, they receive things in the mail, but what if you send something two weeks before their birthday, say hey, I want to be the first person to give you a birthday gift this year. You can make it kind of cute. That’s a good idea. You know you can be cute and fun with us and it doesn’t matter how much you spend just the thought that can Doing anything like that is, is so, so important. So what a greatest suggestion, and you
Joel Schaub 10:05
got to delegate, okay? So you got to figure out what you want to earn, okay as an agent and come up with your number like, I know where I’m at per hour, okay, I’m pretty high dollar amount per hour, and anything less than that I want to delegate out. So these are the types of things where you need to not be doing all of the work, okay? It’ll let you take it to the next level. And so it’s coming into these things where you know that if you want to make $200 an hour, anything less than $200 per hour, you need to have somebody doing that work, it makes you more money to pay somebody than it is for you to actually physically do the work. So, coming up with these ideas coming up with the implementation, you have all the clients, you have the relationships, you just need to put somebody in the right direction. Okay, make sure that those tasks are done, and you’re gonna spend the money. Okay, you’re not going to be remembered? What is the stat? Like 70% of people that are getting ready to relist the home can’t even remember the agent, if it’s been more than five years? Yep, something? Absolutely. It’s higher than you would ever expect. And we know this. And you don’t need to sleep in deejays bed every night. Like I guess I gotta get a gift in the house. Something that you can do. And I really like your idea of the birthday gifts early. That’s a really one thing as well.
D.J. Paris 11:31
Yeah, there’s lots of ideas. And again, I want to go back to your idea of delegating. Because this is something that agents might get overwhelmed, like, oh, my gosh, I’m running my entire real estate business. I’m servicing clients, I’m trying to prospect. And now all of a sudden, I have to box up 100 gifts and shoot those out to my database. And that, of course, is an overwhelming feeling. The bad news is yes, someone’s got to do that. The good news is you can find people to help you, you know, if this is a digital gift, if this is something that doesn’t require physical stuff, you can find people online that will do it from all over the world, possibly, if it’s something that is physically being mailed out, that has to be worked on locally, where you are going to you know, go to Craigslist, go to there, go to Facebook, say Does anyone have somebody that can help me with this, people are going to have kids that are in high school that need a little bit extra work, this, these are things you can do or reach out to your local school and say, Hey, I’d like to find an intern. And it’ll be an unpaid internship, they’re not just gonna box up gives me they’re gonna, I’m going to show them exactly how I run my business, they’re gonna get a great education, maybe even some college credits, you know, that you can be resourceful here, reach out to those local schools, in your area, high schools, colleges, say, Hey, does anyone need some extra work or is in when needed internship, I can do that if you’re really strapped for cash. But again, use if it can be a global sort of thing where somebody can do it from anywhere, you know, people have virtual assistants from all over the world. Now, the clients don’t necessarily know where these people sit. But if if you need somebody to take inbound phone calls for you can find people for a lot less money than you think. So use that when you’re dealing with these client gifts, find people either local or, or worldwide that can help you, you’re not going to break the bank to do it. But boy, you’re going to free up your time. So as Joel said, hey, if your time is worth X an hour, you know, you’ve got to spend a little money so that you can get back to earning that x per hour.
Joel Schaub 13:21
One thing that you cannot delegate right now is you need to take your A, B and C list, okay, and you need to be the one that looks through it right now. Because there’s nothing worse than spending money on a five or 10 people that you know, won’t get you the rate of return. And maybe last year, these were great referral clients and you know that they have moved or change jobs. So that’s the type of thing that you’re in your business and you know it well. So I am my assistant going through and updating my A, B and C list. But when it comes out to sending the gifts, I’m the one that’s actually taking and removing the name so that we’re actually spending money in the right place. Okay, so just spending money to spend money doesn’t work, you need to really know. And it’s all about these friendly, fun touches. Because we’re not sending gifts, in hopes that they’re going to refer business. It just happens. It’s that givers gain mentality. And it’s all RESPA compliant. We’re not sending gifts to realtors and saying, here’s money and here’s a gift, you need to send me deal. It’s the opposite. You’re sending it to clients. It’s the people that know you and the people that have done business with you or may do business with you. So you’re doing it the correct way. And boy, your numbers grow once you actually get a good list and refine it year after year.
D.J. Paris 14:39
And if anyone is to say, if anyone sends you a referral, whether that results in a transaction or not. You my advice is to send that person first of all, call that person immediately and thank them, right so it’s usually going to come over via email maybe comes over via text. That’s all well and good and risk bond to those and then call that per se, I just wanted to personally call in thank you for introducing me to so and so really means a lot to me and also send that person a thank you gift that will again, you want to really reward the people that are your advocates and the people that are helping you grow your business, whether that transaction, that referral closes is irrelevant, because that person is out there talking about you to people. And boy, if we all could do that our our entire marketing spend would go down, because our clients would be so thrilled and happy with us. And all we have to do is reward the people, I mean, not just all that we have to do, but we really are just going to be rewarding people for helping us grow our business. So you know, definitely say thank you call them, but then send them a little something, it doesn’t have to be a big something, but just say I really, really appreciate that you just helped me grow my business. And if you want to really
Joel Schaub 15:46
grow it to the next level, what I do, and it’s probably more than most, but I spent almost 20% of my annual income in different forms of advertising, growing the business referral generation, things that will take me not just to where I’m at today, but I’m already planning for the end of 2021 into the next year to 2022. So I’m looking far ahead. It’s not about just closing now and we’re all busy. Okay, the market is good. But you got to plan for when times aren’t going to be good. And it’s staying out there. So we’ve talked about gifts, now it’s time to talk about advertising. Great. And what I really talked about is marketing. Okay, how can you be the man or woman in your market so that when somebody thinks about listing a property, or buying a property, you’re the one that they call? And so a lot of it right now is where is everybody at? They’re on their damn phones, right? They’re on social media. Yes, it’s still so inexpensive to do sponsored posts, it’s you’re gonna look back, that I used to do a lot of billboards, and it’s 1000s of dollars, right? And you’re driving down your car. And if you’re in the passenger seat, and most people if you look in the passenger seat, what are they doing? They’re staring at their phone. Yeah. You look at half the people in the driver’s seat, what are they doing? Okay, so do you think these billboards work? Not really, okay. But you’re working on branding, bus ads, those are another one, a lot of realtors will do bus ads, and it’s okay. But it’s also really easy to get graffiti all over those bus ads. Right. So I did billboards because they were so far up. Pretty hard to have, if somebody’s going to scale the wall to go up 30 feet Bravo. Luckily, over the last few years, nobody was able to graffiti any of the Chicago billboards that we did. But all joking aside, what you’re doing is you’re building a brand, okay. And the agents that I work with right now that are uber successful are taking the next steps to do the branding. It’s not so much just getting the next buyer, okay, so it’s not just the transactional, Zillow and realtor.com and the leads, leads are good. But you’re building a brand and you want to work with people want to work with somebody that they feel like they know. So half of my advertising and branding is about mortgages. But the other half is just my wonderful wife, and my dog, and just the things that we do, and people forget that you, you need to be real, okay, you need to be genuine. And then people want to work with those type of people that are actually out there sharing their entire life, okay? Not just their business life. Okay,
D.J. Paris 18:22
I have a suggestion for anyone that’s really wanting to specialize with a particular type of individual. So I’ll give you an example. Let’s say you just worked with a physician or a nurse, you know, someone in the healthcare field, and you help them buy, sell, rent, whatever the transaction was, and you really enjoyed it. And you really felt well, I’d like to work with more people like that nurses, doctors, you know, whatever, healthcare workers, and what you can do on Facebook, which probably a lot of us know but need reminding is you could create an ad with a little static image that says, I help healthcare professionals with their real estate needs like that, that could be part of your brand, it doesn’t mean it’s the only thing you do. But here’s the best part is you can then target people who identify as healthcare professionals, you know, doctors, physicians, etc. hospital administrators, staff, you can have it so that it’s only showing it to those people in your geographic area. You can even put age ranges. if you’re like, Well, I really work best with people between the ages of 30 and 55. Great, put it in there. And then it’s only going to show those ads and you can target it and all you have to do is create a little content about why you and how you help healthcare professionals with their real estate transactions. And I would almost guarantee probably in your area, nobody’s doing that. It’s not that nobody isn’t specializing they’re not targeting their advertising. So that’s a great way and if you know, as a little plug for one of our other series, we have Facebook on our show every single month. They have Facebook corporate comes on to talk about how to do these things. But Joel is talking about branding. This is a great opportunity. Think about what your brand is, as Joel said, Be Real What are you into? Joel is really passionate about giving back He serves on boards at nonprofits. Joel doesn’t do that to get business. He is actually passionate about animal rescue and a number of other I mean, gosh, the number of organizations Joel supports is incredible. But he is really into it. And as a result, people know that he they know him as the giver. And guess what people want to work with people who give back?
Joel Schaub 20:21
It feels good, what you’re talking about is telling the story as well, right? Because you’re telling who you’ve worked with and who you’ve helped. Why is it that in real estate, we always show the picture of the client at the closing table with the keys and they say we’ve closed another one. The mechanic doesn’t post a picture of the next oil change that they’ve done, right? 300 oil changes this month, right? Or the dentist and another cavity filled, right? They’re not doing that, okay. But in real estate, why do we always do that we need to do some of that don’t get me wrong. But we need to tell the story of the people whose oil that we changed in the tooth that we filled, right. And that’s where people will start to relate that, oh, I have a sister that would be perfect for you. Let me introduce you. And those are the types of things that take you from just transactional, to being really sticky or being their friend advocate. You’re teaching and educating and not selling. And that’s what really I see is the agents that are really getting it. And the ones that are struggling, were the ones that were very transactional based. They were getting all of their leads, and they were working the lead, but then they didn’t do any of the follow up. They didn’t become friends and I get a lot of agents, they’ll say, I don’t want to be friends with these people. That’s not what I and that’s fine. But I do I like it. It’s fun to be in people’s lives, it seems to be a better way to do business. And I sleep well at night, I know I’m helping my people, I’m teaching them I’m helping them grow. And when it comes to the real estate agents, when I come on here, and I give some of these actual tips that can be actionable that you can do, whether it’s the gift for Thanksgiving, or Valentine’s Day, or running the ads and being in your market, the person that people want to go to, just feels good.
D.J. Paris 22:16
Yeah, I think so much as I’ve been in and around this industry for 10 years, but not practicing in the industry. So I get kind of a unique perspective. I’m a marketing guy. I think about branding, I think about a lot of marketing initiatives, and strategies. But as of all these interviews I’ve done and also on this podcast, along with episodes with with great, you know, ancillary partners like Joel, I’ve learned that being thoughtful, if if I had to break it down to one word, be an incredibly thoughtful person to your client. You know, if you’re just the most thoughtful realtor out there, you will probably be successful, in which Joel says, You’re calling people back, you’re providing great customer service, you’re thinking about them on their birthdays, or on the holidays, and you’re doing something nice for them. You’re congratulating them on their successes, you’re super excited. And you’re thinking, you know, hey, this person’s nearing their closing as their very first transaction, I better call them and make sure that they are comfortable with what’s happening, because they’re probably freaking out right now. Be thoughtful, think about what could they might appreciate, what could they go through. And if you’re just that, boy, you’re gonna have so much success.
Joel Schaub 23:26
I’m glad you said that. Because here’s one of the things that I have found. This is true. And I might butcher the phrasing of this, but the concept is true. And it really it kind of boils down to this, you’re going to get a lot more business, friends, if you are interested in somebody else. Yeah, versus trying to get them to be interested in you. You can post all the things of all the restaurants that you’re at, and the dinners that you’re having, and trying to show your life and that’s fine. And to get people interested in you. But if you can actually take genuine interest in people, comment on their photos, genuinely care, follow up with people say I was just thinking of you. I was just talking to my wife about you. As soon as people know that you actually care. It’s a funny way that business starts to change. Oh, they like me. Once people know that you like them. And it’s not making it up, you actually better like these people and take interest in what they’re doing and their kids in their life. It’s a fun way to do business. And it’s this reciprocal nature where if you’re interested in somebody, they’re going to be interested in you. Okay, think of it as dating back in the day, right? It was one of those things where you wanted to hear that somebody liked to write oh, I want to send them business. So just genuine common sense stuff about being a good individual relates perfectly if you’re a realtor.
D.J. Paris 24:53
Yeah, it is. And it’s, it’s it’s about listening and you know if all you need if you’re Listening and going, Look, I just don’t have any money right now to invest in branding, I just don’t have money to Okay. So let’s just say that’s true. And I hope that’s not true for the most of the people listening. But if that’s your scenario, here’s a free way that Joel just mentioned to brand your business. And you’re not going to think of it as branding, but it is, go on, spend 20 minutes every day on Instagram and Facebook, and authentically comment on people’s pictures, authentically comment on their posts, it just gives some sort of fee doesn’t have to be, oh my god, this is the most amazing post, just say, Hey, that looks like you had a really great vacation or have fun on your dinner tonight. I hope it was great. Eat little things like that go a long, long, long way. And those are actually free. Now they take time, which means they aren’t actually free. But as far as physical dollars out of your pocket, they’re free. So if you’re one of those people that just doesn’t have a lot of big budget right now, you should. And even if you do have a big budget, you should be doing that every single day because we know how good it feels when some when we get that little notice on our Facebook, on our phone, a little notification that says someone commented on your on your picture on your post, it feels good. So show that you care. And that’s one of the ways you can do that.
Joel Schaub 26:11
One additional thing right now that’s actionable. If you’re a realtor and you’re listening, literally go to the couple of neighborhood association groups and Facebook, search them become a member. And then I’m going to blow DJs number out of the water if you don’t have any money to spend right now, if I was an agent, I’d be spending two hours a day. Oh, yeah. They’re answering questions being involved. And this is the long game. If you’re in real estate, I’m hoping that you’re not trying to just get rich this weekend. Or next month, we’re trying to build the business. And if you don’t have the money to spend, I would join several local groups, and then be that person that’s continually commenting and not about your business. It doesn’t have to always be an oh, by the way, if you have any referrals, try to cut that out. Yeah, genuinely to try to help people, the more that you’re touching people’s lives and actually being the go to source for answers, business is going to come. And that’s the long game. But that would be one of the things that you could do. actionable right now this weekend is going and getting in some of these groups and being the go to person, people will start to see that you’re answering questions, and not in a selfish way to get business business will come from it. I’ve seen it.
D.J. Paris 27:28
Yeah, that’s such a great suggestion. And I want to just repeat that. So everyone listening knows what to do. So go on Facebook, looking look up your you know, just go to their search bar, type in your local neighborhood. Or if you live in a more rural town, maybe the town and look for these groups, these pages where people are getting together and chatting about different things. I interviewed a woman once on this podcast when I first started and and her name is escaping me. But she lives in a suburb out in the northwest suburbs here in Chicago. And she built her entire business because she was a new mom, and was looking for a group that had all of the events for new moms in her community and there wasn’t one so she goes I gotta create one because I need this in my life. She never once ever mentioned she was a realtor. Five years later, she has 3000 moms in this group. And they have these local meetups. Initially she was doing them at McDonald’s because she didn’t have any money. So she was literally meeting at McDonald’s with these moms. Now they have a little bit of nicer events. But but she just she goes I cannot tell you DJ how much business I’ve got. I have never mentioned I’m a realtor. I’ve never mentioned real estate, I just talked about mom’s stuff, and people contribute. And she goes, it’s just provided a lot of value to people. So even if it’s not necessarily real estate related, but go on Facebook and look up groups about stuff you’re into, you know, ideally, it would be maybe a neighborhood association, get involved with your chamber of commerce, get involved in these, but you can do a lot of this stuff online. And you can be one of the people that just responds to questions, answers questions, eventually people can be like, Hey, this guy is really helpful, or this this woman is really, really great. Helping me you know, with my questions, you will get business once you’ve
Joel Schaub 29:05
done it for a period of time. The pro tip here and this is what I’ve been doing with a lot of my agents is we literally ask the admins of these groups if we can host a one hour homebuyer seminar. And I can tell you, I’ve closed millions of dollars of transactions where I am pre qualifying buyers that watch it one hour seminar with me and the real estate agent. I’m doing the work to get them pre approved and I’m sending back pre approved buyers, to the agents that took time to do the seminars with me. And this is something that my wonderful wife has set up over the last two years. And we have infiltrated groups in a great way where we have set up continual first time homebuyer seminars. And now the nice thing is it’s all virtual. Yeah, we don’t need to go pack a room. Pay for refreshments, wine, cheese, none of that. We literally get between 20 to 30 people then as part of a group, they show up and we educate them. And we get three or four every single time that go through the pre approval process, get pre approved, and over 75% of the people that take the next step end up wanting to buy something.
D.J. Paris 30:15
Wow, what a great idea. Well, we did you are in the lending business. So we’d be remiss if we didn’t talk about before we finish up here. What’s going on with rates right now? What What’s the what is the lending market look like? Are there any things to mention about that, that agents and buyers sellers, renters, or sorry, buyers sellers should be aware of right now?
Joel Schaub 30:36
Well, we know market rates are low, unless we’ve been under a rock, right? Everybody’s listening knows that the interest rates are low. And it’s hard right now to get even a mortgage guy to answer the phone, right? Because they’re just so busy with everything that’s coming in. But the question I get asked a lot is where our rates going to go, are they gonna go lower? Are they going to spike up after the election or after the New Year, etc. And the pure fact of the matter is, we will see this low rate environment for the next 1218 months. You heard it here first. It’s kind of like an old saying, but it’s true, we could look back middle of next year, and at the end of 2021, I do not anticipate any major movement. By that I mean, even a half a percent change in the market, because the Federal Reserve has doubled down on their commitment to keep lending rates low. And for almost 85% of the loans in America, that is a conforming loan size that is being controlled by the Federal Reserve policies keeping interest rates low because of the COVID crisis. And it’s going to take time, even once we get out of that they’re not going to raise rates in the short term. So we are in business anticipating all the way through the end of 2021, these mortgage rates on 30 year fixed rates, they’re just below 3%. Now, they’re going to be there, maybe they’re slightly above 3%. But the point is, they’re so much lower than they were anytime in the last 50 years that even if it moves up a quarter or a half, we’re still in this all time Lok territory. So we’re going to have some time. And so you want to teach your buyers and the sellers that coming up, there’s an opportunity, there’s a lot of buyers, because the rates are low. And they’re not going to see a major impact. Because of the election or the new year. So don’t scare people, I get so many people saying You better hurry up and buy because rates are going up and then they insert whatever they want to say DJ because of the election. Sure. It’s not true. It really isn’t. For the most part, what we anticipate is that the Fed will keep mortgage rates low for at least 12 to 18 months.
D.J. Paris 32:56
And if everyone listening is not talking to everybody they know that rents right now you are missing a huge, huge, huge opportunity. Because I know for me, at one point, I just went I should I was in my 20s. And I said I was late 20s I was one of the last people to buy a home if you’re still
Joel Schaub 33:13
in your late 20s. Look at you and I wish you haricot look good. Well, thank
D.J. Paris 33:18
you. I wish I was in my late 20s. But thank you. But I just one day said I should probably look to see how this whole thing works. And I was not in the real estate industry. I was a marketing guy. And I had no idea what to do. Nobody had reached out to me. And I figured it out on my own. And I ended up using my friend who is a realtor who you know that? You know, that’s how it works, of course. But why leave it up to chance. Right? If you know people that that are renting right now, rates have not been lower in a long, long, long, long time recorded history, as far as I can tell, at least since the 70s. Right? So the early 70s. So we have we have a huge opportunity here to talk to some of those renters and it’s not about converting them to buyers. It’s just about educating them, because they will figure it out. If you say hey, by the way, I don’t know if you really understand how lending works. And if you don’t, let’s talk about it or let me connect you with my guy who can go through this or my I shouldn’t say guy because it could be obviously men or women. But let me let me introduce you to my loan officer who can really have a good educational conversation about because it might actually even lower your monthly rent payment in respect to a mortgage or maybe just slightly more now you own something. Not you know, buyers have never had more purchasing power than they do right now. So don’t don’t miss out on an opportunity. Talk to everybody, you know, educate.
Joel Schaub 34:39
It’s about teaching and educating before we go it’s that whole process. We don’t know if they’re going to buy or sell. Our job isn’t to convince them either way, but right now there is opportunities and we know that so if we take the steps just to show them that last year a $300,000 loan would have been almost 300 dollars more per month. So why don’t we see what you can buy very close to what you’re paying and rent and stop the paying rent and start owning, it’s a good way to move forward. So you teach, you educate, and you’ll grow, you got to spend some money, though, there’s got to be ways that you can get out there and do that. That’s the overall theme here today is we gotta go and make sure that our name is staying in front of the people that will be making decisions soon.
D.J. Paris 35:26
And if anyone out there is looking to partner with a loan officer who cares who gives back and more, most importantly, will help your clients and return phone calls and actually work with them right now. Loan Officers are busy, busy, busy, and it is tough, sometimes to find one that can actually help the client during these super busy times. But if you’re looking if you feel like your your current loan officer isn’t maybe doing their job in the way that you would like them to do it, and you’re looking for someone else, or if you don’t have anyone else who would like to partner with somebody that will actually not just help your clients, but also help you grow your business, we encourage you to reach out to Joel and his team. So the best way to do that you can do two ways we can email and we can we can call and text. So to email emailed Joel directly, which is Joel J oel@rate.com. Again, joel@rate.com very easy to remember. And then you can also text or call him directly 773-654-2049. So reach out to Joel, if you are looking for a lending partner that not only cares about you and your clients, but will help you grow your business and take such good care of your clients that your clients will tell everyone about how great of experience they had with you, and they’ll help you grow your business too. So Joel, I think it’s a perfect place to wrap up. Remember branding, everyone spend time and money connecting with the people that know you the most. So they don’t forget about you when they need a real estate professional. Joel, thanks again. Yeah, I’d be happy today. Thank you. On behalf of the listeners, we say thank you once again to Joel, who’s been with us for years and years. And it continues to be a super valuable partner to this podcast. And on behalf of Joel and myself, we also of course want to extend our appreciation to every single person either watching or listening, you are the reason we continue to do this, please help us and tell a friend think of one other agent that could benefit from hearing this particular episode about branding and marketing and how to spend money as an agent to get more business and send them a link to the podcast. The best way to do that. Well, there’s a couple ways if they have a podcast app on their phone, just have them do a search for keeping it real, it should pop up if they don’t, or just send them an email or a text with our website keeping it real pod.com We have every episode we’ve ever done. We even have all of the different shows into various categories. So if you want to listen to all the Joel episodes, you can do that. You don’t have to search for each one individually, but everything is on our website, keeping it real pod.com And lastly, please follow us on Facebook. We post great content on there every single day. Articles we find online designed to help agents grow their business and of course comm forward slash keeping it real pod. Joel thank you once again. Great, great episode as always, and we’ll see you next month.
Joel Schaub 38:26
Thanks a lot. I’ll talk to you soon. Bye DJ
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