Welcome to the February episode of Learn With A Lender with Joel Schaub of Guaranteed Rate!
In this episode Joel mentions systems and processes are the key to your journey to top producer status. According to Joel, agents should be able to educate their clients about lending by taking about rates in terms of monthly payments. They should also explain how lower interest rates have increased purchasing power which allows for bigger home purchases. Last, Joel talks about gifts and showing appreciation for your clients.
If you’d prefer to watch this interview, click here to view on YouTube!
Joel can be reached at joel@rate.com and 773.654.2049.
Transcript
D.J. Paris 0:00
This episode of Keeping it real is brought to you by Joel Schaub at guaranteed rate. As a realtor it’s important to partner with only the most trusted name in mortgage lending. Joel has 1000s of satisfied clients and gives $1,500 of his commission. Back to your buyers on every closing. He is known for his ability to close even complex deals start to finish in only 14 days to learn what 1000s of others already know. Make a note to call Joel at 773-654-2049 or email joel@rate.com Guaranteed Rate is an equal housing lender licensed in all 50 States Consumer Access Number 2611. And now on with the show.
All right. Welcome to another episode of Keeping it real, the largest podcast made by real estate agents and also for real estate agents. My name is, as always is DJ Paris one of these days maybe I’ll change my name. But for now it’s DJ Paris. I am your guide and host through the show. And today once again is our monthly series. Learn with a lender with our favorite lender, 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 what he does specifically for agents, which is he gives back part of his commission to the buyer on every transaction. Now last year alone, Joel gave back over $291,000 in closing costs to buyers who worked with him and his team. Now this puts Joel’s volume in the top 1/10 of 1% of all lenders nationwide. In fact, out of 400,000 loan officers in the country Joel is currently ranked number 137. Last year, he did over he did 535 closed transactions, his highest amount ever, for one year. And that was for 195 million already this year in 2021. And it is it is February 11. So we’ve only had a month and 11 days in the year, Joel has already closed 76 transactions for $27 million. He is on pace to make this year his biggest year ever after already eclipsing his previous best last year. Now if you’re looking for a loan officer, we cannot more highly recommend Joel he’s the very best we’ve ever worked with Joel can be reached at joel@rate.com. Or you can shoot him a text message or call him at 773-654-2049. He’s actually doing my loan right now. So I’m as big a fan as anyone. I put my money where my mouth is. And let’s say hello to the biggest Cubs fan. We all know Joel shop.
Joel Schaub 2:48
Hey, DJ, thanks for having me on. This is the perfect time to describe the fact that you’re going to be delayed, it’s going to take months for you to close. Did I tell you on the show? No. You’re good. You know, your stuff called you’re getting a cool place. Man, we’re excited for you. You were talking earlier about getting up early and going to the gym. And that’s really one of the big things here is just consistency, right? You say all the numbers, but you’ve interviewed so many top level producers. And that one key theme in the common thread is they’re consistent. All right. And you see that. So the idea here is like if you’re doing social media posts, as a realtor, you can’t just do one, or do it every once in a while you need to stay consistent. Okay? If you’re making your phone calls, whether that’s prospecting or past client phone calls, what do you need to do is consistent, right? And following up on leads are never going to just work our warm sphere, you got to be able to find ways to get to that next level. And that is not just cold calling, but working people outside of your warm influence. So staying consistent, and doing follow ups. So like you said in the first 70 Some days of this year, we’re going to be at a new level as far as the number of closings, and it’s just consistency. And you see that at a high level.
D.J. Paris 4:15
I had this is this goes back a couple of years I interviewed one of the top Realtors in Chicago. And I asked her up very specifically what now and when I say top Realtors in like the top 10 out of 40 some 1000 Realtors here in the Chicagoland area. And I said oh, I couldn’t wait because I figured she was going to have this really important and unique skill that maybe other realtors didn’t have. And I said what is it that puts you at the top and so many other realtors are struggling? What is your differentiator? And she said, You know I’m a little embarrassed to admit this because it’s going to sound so so dumb. She goes I call every single one of my clients every single week and just let them know what how things are going and I said and it She goes, that’s pretty much it. I said, Really, and she goes DJ, you would be shocked at even to, it’s always the small things. And being consistent with the small things makes the big things happen.
Joel Schaub 5:13
It’s exactly right. You know how these agents, whether you’re doing three transactions a month, or 30 transactions, you say, I’m busy. And we’re all busy, to find out what the things are, that can take you to that next level, and it’s staying consistent. And that’s what makes it happen. You can be busy doing three transactions a month, and you can be busy doing 30 transactions, it’s about what you put your time into, and finding those things that you’re good at. And then delegating everything else, I didn’t get to that level by doing every single thing, I found the things that I could pay somebody for that work directly for me at that 30 to $40 an hour, so that we can go out and make hundreds of dollars per hour. So if you’re an agent, and you’re saying, Well, I don’t want to make those follow up phone calls, you need to, and then you need to be able to delegate for sure.
D.J. Paris 6:05
Yeah, it’s one of those things, too, that we’re so lucky in in 2021, in the last, you know, handful of years to now we have access through, you know, through just different global connections, to be able to even hire people from all over the world who are dying to have these kinds of jobs. So I encourage all everyone listening to as Joel said, think about tasks that you don’t really enjoy doing, or that are really time intensive, but need to get done. Such as you know, making sure that your CRM has everyone’s birthday in it, and that you have everyone’s birthday on your calendar. So you can call people up and say, Hey, happy birthday, or, you know, happy a home anniversary, or, or whatever. And if you say I really shouldn’t be doing that you can pay people to do that. It’s not as expensive as you might think. And it’s going to skyrocket your business, it’s worth the investment.
Joel Schaub 6:57
That’s exactly key agents from this podcast, do call and I encourage you to I do pick up the phone, I will make follow up and I will spend time with you to see what we can do to help improve your business. And they say how could you possibly do 50 transactions a month? I mean, that’s, there’s not even 25 business days in a month, right? So that means every single day, you have at least two clients physically closing? What’s the secret, and it’s just years of doing it. So it’s consistency. So what you need to do if you’re an agent that wants to grow to the next level is have an intake system, right? So that you can follow up. And you need to educate and provide value. Okay? Otherwise, it’s just a race to the bottom and who’s the cheapest. And that’s not what anybody’s working for. You’re working in you are a professional, you want to share your knowledge. And you want to make sure that people that are just looking for the most cheap option. Go somewhere else,
D.J. Paris 7:53
honestly, yeah, right. And we can really let let the the tech companies fight it out for for those options for the cheap options, and that’s okay, and they have their place. But that’s not the place the space that you’re that you’re playing in the listeners of our podcast, you’re not really in competition with some of these tech disruptors, you’re a different level of service.
Joel Schaub 8:15
And that’s what you want you so you’re going to provide education, and you’re going to give insight and value. And then people that really want that. It’s kind of like the same. Do you want the cheapest surgery, right? It always blows my mind when somebody’s buying a $900,000 home. And they’re looking for the cheapest mortgage, which I understand and I can appreciate. We want the lowest rates. We want the lowest cost, but there’s a difference between finding the cheapest, and finding somebody that can competently do it correctly for you. I’m never looking for that discount laser eye surgery right when you go for LASIK.
D.J. Paris 8:53
I remember when I got my laser laser surgery, which was like 15 years ago, and I remember seeing those there were people that would do it. Well back then it was I think it was four or $5,000 with and that was a reasonable price at the time. Now I think it’s probably a lot cheaper. But there were people back then doing it for $500. And I and I went I think I’d even though I’d love to only spend $1,000 total. I don’t want to be blind in my life. So
Joel Schaub 9:20
So that’s it. All right. So now what we’re doing is going back to being consistent being the person that they go to so that they refer more business because it’s not all about rates. Okay? This would not be a keepin it real podcast without us talking about interest rates and the market and having some education about what’s going on and what we can expect and how we can use these low rates that you hear about in the news to get buyers off the fence. And for the last few months we haven’t needed any help getting buyers off the fence. The fence is like way in the background. They’re running right? The buyers are looking for properties. Okay? So if you’re an agent, and you want to convince and help and get somebody to understand the benefits of homeownership, in terms of being rates at all time lows, stop talking about the actual rate, and put it in terms of monthly payment. Okay, so I want to do a little breakdown here. I want to talk about what we saw two years ago. And what we’ll probably see two years from now. So if you’re an agent on the call, you remember 2019. Sure, if rates were good, on average for the entire year, they around four and a half to 475. Pretty good come down. For the years, that was really, really good. So that means a $400,000 loan was 2116 a month. Okay. That’s good. And that’s what the average was. And that’s just two years ago. Now rates are in the twos. That same $400,000 loan comes out to 1632. Amazing, it’s $483. less today than it was then for the exact same home. Incredibly. So now we can use that DJ and we can use that knowledge and not just say rates are low, why don’t you buy, the client never writes the rate on the check each month, they write a payment. And I just date myself a little bit by saying write on a check, because
D.J. Paris 11:22
you’re so you’re so right, though, because the last place I own where I ended up refinancing over 10 years, maybe three different times. And I never knew the rate I was I literally I knew that amount I was paying every month. But if you were to say what your rate is, I would go I’d have to look that up I so the rate you write the rate really doesn’t matter. It’s just a metric people use because they want the lowest just like we want the lowest price on everything. But at the end of the day, what’s most important is that is that number you’re cutting on the check every month,
Joel Schaub 11:51
$483 Less agents? How can we use this right now? How can we get one more deal or one more transaction based on listening to this today, which is you can literally help people understand that there’s an opportunity before rates do go up. Okay, we won’t see these rates for long. And it’s just like gas prices, when they go up, they shoot up. Okay. So that means this exact same mortgage, sometime in the near future is going to be hundreds of dollars more than you can get in now. And we need to be able to explain that calmly, and educate the borrowers that rates won’t be like this forever. Okay. The good news is that rates shouldn’t be this way for most of the entire year and into next year. But you just don’t know when they will go up. So $483 per month less on a $400,000 loan is big. Okay, huge. The second way, if you’re an agent, you’re listening this right now that you can get another transaction would be the exact same payment would be able to buy them somewhere in that 50 or $60,000 more per purchase price, right. So if you want to stay at the exact same payment, you can literally buy a home, that’s 50 or $60,000 More today, and have the same payment as you would have with the higher rates, it might help you get a buyer and a little bit higher of a price point. If they can’t find the homes that they want when they were looking before.
D.J. Paris 13:26
Yeah, that’s really smart. I mean, it really it’s an opportunity to call really everybody so even if it’s a seller, you know, or rather just a homeowner, you could call and say hey, are you looking to upsize this upsize this year? Are you looking to get bigger space right now, we’re going to be able to do that, you know with the numbers that you record that you just suggested. And also if you’re a renter. Boy, let’s look at that monthly rent. Let’s talk about making that first purchase. And if you’re already a buyer boy, now you can now you can buy more than you could before,
Joel Schaub 13:55
even if you don’t have a big down payment right now think of this. So on that $400,000 property, a lot of buyers right now or the bank will lend you 95% at a really good rate. Okay, so you don’t need to have $80,000 saved to get that $400,000 property, you could literally come in with $20,000 down, and because all of the mortgage insurance rates have just plummeted. Okay? It isn’t that big red flag that I don’t have 20% down. It’s literally it used to be a $400,000 home would have three or $400 a month of insurance if you didn’t have 20% down. Most of the insurance now could be under $100. So it’s not a big red flag and you need to be able to partner with a mortgage professional that’s local that cares about you as an agent that can educate the buyers on this because there’s such a stigma with low downpayment, right and you see that a lot.
D.J. Paris 14:53
Yep, absolutely. I in my the first condo I purchased I didn’t have 20% I had this It goes back a long, long ways. But I had I had 10%. And so I did have PMI. And it was not under dollars a month at the time. And I remember being like, I wish I could eventually it got rid of it. But But now boy, I mean, I would you know, it’s just not a big deal right now, you know, you can put so little down. So huge opportunity there.
Joel Schaub 15:19
I want to reiterate to agents that the mortgage insurance rates have come down drastically on a lot of the mortgage products. So when somebody says, Oh, I know, I can do low down payment, but I know about the mortgage insurance, have them do a double check, right? actually get it quoted out, because sometimes the websites that are just doing these estimates are woefully higher than what you could actually get in the real world if you have good credit and income. Okay, it’s not uncommon at all, to borrow four or $500,000, and have the mortgage insurance be less than the homeowners insurance.
D.J. Paris 15:55
On that’s awesome. What a wonderful time. I mean, a very strange time, of course, for the whole globe, but at least with respect to where we are with with lending, boy, what a fortunate time we’re in right now.
Joel Schaub 16:08
So take this as an education moment and take this back to buyers that are sitting there thinking to buy in the spring market, and just use this piece of advice. If we buy now, even with a low downpayment, and rates that are under 3%, that you get to lock in and keep the mortgage insurance will eventually fall off. And if they wait to save to get to $80,000 of a down payment, and they take a rate that goes back up into the fours that is 100 or $200,000 of interest that they would pay more at the higher rate even with the lower loan amount. So it’s one of those things where you just need to be educating your people. And that will then turn into more deals for yourself.
D.J. Paris 16:51
Really well said now we are coming up on Valentine’s Day. And so we should be taught you know, I know we’re always thinking about gifts for our primary relationship partner, our our spouse or our partner, our significant other, but we don’t talk a lot about client gifts with respect to to this time of the year but I know you wanted to share some information about about giving.
Joel Schaub 17:13
No, I didn’t It’s not Valentine’s Day yet. Is it? I thought it was just a month away. Oh my gosh. Kill me. Valentine’s Day is coming up. But if you recall what I talked about in December, I made a very controversial statement right on your show. And I said this year, don’t send out Christmas gifts. Don’t send out New Year’s gifts. It gets you beat in the shuffle. Yeah, be unique. Pick the dates where there’s not other people fighting for your attention, right. So years ago, I made a major change. And I stopped doing Christmas gifts, Hanukkah gifts, New Year’s Eve, those types of things. And I picked off dates. Okay, so Valentine’s Day is coming up. And we’re doing gallon tines day, we’re taking all of our ladies, and our referral partners and Boss Babes and folks that are in the community that are women. And we’re giving them a gallon tines Day gift, okay, and you can pick five or 10 people that are really important to you and go out and do the exact same thing. Sometimes I get in trouble because my gifts are so good. The husbands are like, man, you overshadowed me again. So be careful on how good of a gift that you’re giving. But we’re doing some really cool things for Valentine’s Day this year. And I encourage you guys to do so it’s not too late. And even by the time that you listen to this, there’s other holidays coming up like St. Patrick’s Day, which is something that you can say, it’s a fun one, we’re lucky for clients like you, I’m so happy to have helped you in the past. And you know, don’t trust locked to any just agent use me. So there’s ways that you can provide fun, unique gifts on those off days. And you don’t need to spend 1000s of dollars, you can do something unique, fun and small. And just do the marketing pieces that people say wow, that was cool.
D.J. Paris 19:07
Yeah, I agree it also Valentine’s Day is a good opportunity. Because, you know, we think they’re, you know, a certain percentage of the people in our sphere of influence are single. And this is also an opportunity to make them feel a bit special. Now that of course, you know, you can that doesn’t have to be the motivation. But but there are jewels. So right you know, we think about you know, the holidays, and we do get a lot of cards gifts. You know, Joe’s right, so many different service providers are vying for our attention and things get lost. We have family responsibilities, and you know, and friend responsibilities and of course, all the service providers are sending all these notes. But how many of those are we getting on St. Patrick’s Day, as Joel suggested very little, probably none. And so what a great opportunity to do something and be really remote, you know, remembered by by your client so, so yeah, do gifts on off days. Off off Holidays and it’s boy, you’ll your clients, you’ll get a much better reception rate. People will be reaching out going, Wow, thanks so much they’re not expecting it, then they’re, they’re the likely to expect something around the holidays, but not, you know, not outside of that. So
Joel Schaub 20:16
it helps you stand out. And it makes you stay consistent. And that’s back to what you do so well is that this show is successful, because it is consistent, and you get so many great people on here. And even if you just went to the gym, you’re doing it, you’re never skipped. You’re always on it, man. I’m proud of you.
D.J. Paris 20:34
Well, well, thank you. I appreciate I’m proud, proud of you. For all the success you guys have had as well, you’ve got an amazing team, I’m working with them directly. And I wish this was a paid commercial because I’d love to get paid. But the truth is, I’m just telling the truth that this is absolutely the best lending experience I’ve ever had. And it is not my first lending experience. But it’s my first lending experience with Joel and his team. And boy, they have helped reduce my anxiety throughout this entire process. And that’s really what you want in a partner. So if you’re an agent out there that’s looking to partner with a great lender, or if you’re a buyer, or you know, somebody who’s looking to work with a lender directly. Joel, Joel is the right guy. What’s the best way, Joel that anyone out there who’s listening can reach out to you to learn more about partnership opportunities, or just what Guaranteed Rate offers
Joel Schaub 21:21
joel@rate.com It’s the easiest shortest email for that many years, we’re able to get it shortened down. So that’s the short version of Joel dot shop at Guaranteed Rate not calm. It’s very easy to remember, just shoot me an email and actually test me I will reply personally. And I can even set up a phone call if you want 10 minutes and you say, how did you get to this level? Or what did you do here? I’ve been doing a lot of those type of follow up phone calls. I actually have two scheduled from people that saw me on this after today’s show. So I’m just happy to give back. And it doesn’t mean that you’re sending me business at all. It’s this coaching and this mentoring and giving back and it really feels good. So joel@rate.com I’m happy to help clients that you have, we are licensed in all 50 states. And there’s a lot of opportunities just pick my brain if you want something on the mortgage side, and I’m happy to help for sure.
D.J. Paris 22:19
Fantastic. So everyone listening, reach out to Joel shoot him an email joel@rate.com Easy to remember or shoot him a text at his phone number that we mentioned earlier. Joel, thank you once again, for our Learn with a lender series. Joel has been with us almost since almost the very beginning of our show. And we’re so grateful that he he shows up every month and again, you know, provides amazing content to our listeners and our viewers. And we always want to say thank you. Thank you for that. On behalf of Joel and myself. We also of course want to thank the listeners and viewers. You’re the reason we do this. And if the if you ever think about how can I help our podcast grow, just tell a friend think of one other real estate professional that could benefit from hearing this great conversation we just had with Joel and send them a link to our podcast you can find you can send them a link right on our website, just send them to keeping it real pod.com They don’t even need to download a podcast app they can listen to right from our website, every episode we’ve ever done. And if you scroll all the way to the bottom, you’ll see all of our Learn with a lender, Joel episodes are in its own category. So you can actually if you just want to listen to all the Joel episodes, you can do that right there as well. So, Joel, thanks once again, and we will see everyone on the next episode. It was great.
Joel Schaub 23:30
Thank you again for having me and we’ll talk soon. Thank you
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