Welcome to the September episode of Learn With A Lender with Joel Schaub of Guaranteed Rate!
Top producers are not born, they’re made! In this episode Joel shares his own climb to becoming one of the most successful loan officers in the country. Joel attributes his success to daily business-building activities that anyone can replicate. Joel emphasizes the importance for agents to get into meaningful conversations with clients as often as possible. Last, Joel talks about the importance of having a mortgage partner for your business.
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
All right, welcome to another episode of Keeping it real, the largest podcast made by real estate agents and for real estate agents. My name, as always is DJ Paris. I’m gonna maybe I’ll change my name one of these days just to just to add some variety. But for now, I’m DJ Paris and I am your guide and host through the show and today once again is our monthly series learn with a lender with Joel Schaub 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. Is got to that level because of what he does specifically for agents, and which is what he wishes 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 back to the buyer who worked with him and that puts Joe’s volume at the top 10 Or sorry, 1/10 of 1% of all lenders nationwide. In fact, out of 400,000 loan officers in the United States, Joel is ranked number 137. This year to date, he has closed over 352 sales transactions, his highest amount ever for just under $126 million. Joel is on pace to close out the year with over 500 transactions. 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. Again, joel@rate.com. Or you can shoot him a text message or call him directly at 773-654-2049. Let’s say hello to the biggest Cubs fan. I know welcome Joel,
Joel Schaub 2:36
what should I change my name to that would be great too. Maybe we’ll come on in a month or two. We both have different names.
D.J. Paris 2:42
I have I have such a goofy name like you know, I go by DJ but my full name is Delphin. The D is dolphin the J is Joaquin and the Paris is unusual. And then I’m the third. So like if I even said my full name people be like well, he clearly made that up. So maybe I’ll just make him something something actually make something up because my whole name sounds made up. DJ Perez is made up. Delfin Joaquin Paris. The third is definitely sounds made up. But anyway, we’re glad to have you. So right now things are and I, before we get started, I want to say that that Joel is not just a wonderful guest on our show, he provides tremendous value he’s been on with us for years and years. He’s really the only lender we’ve ever had on the show. And we’re so excited that he’s part of it. And you know, we really walk the talk, Joel is not just a great speaker. He’s actually an amazing lender, I’m actually using him personally for a purchase right now. He was my only choice as well. So he’s doing a great job for me. And I know he’ll do a great job for all of our listeners. So if you’re an agent out there who’s looking for, you know, good representative on the lending side, Joel is your guy and I putting my faith in him. And he’s done a great job so far. And every one I’ve ever sent to him says the same thing. So
Joel Schaub 3:54
I appreciate that. And I like all the numbers up front, but none of it even matters. What really matters is like this give back right? Like it’s speaking of like names that sound made up. Sometimes when you hear these numbers like closing hundreds of transactions in a year, like wow, that’s how does he do it? The sheer fact is we just work hard. Like I don’t have this big sales group. I don’t have a bunch of people below me that are making all the phone calls. I’m just putting in the time and I’ve done it for a long time. So there’s just true business building activities that I do on a daily basis that get you to that level. And that’s what I’m seeing with agents right now. We were talking before we even got on about this feast or famine with agents right now. What are you seeing with the agents that you’re speaking to?
D.J. Paris 4:42
Yeah, this is coming up a lot. And it’s it’s it’s all it’s very exciting and also sad at the same time, because there are some agents that you know, with the activity that’s going on in the market place really nationwide. There’s so much activity and there are agents that are just loving it. and are busier than ever. A lot of the top 1% producers, for example, that we hire that that we have on our show are people who are just so busy that we’ve had more cancellations to be on our show in the last couple of months than we’ve ever had. And it’s not because they don’t want to be on the show. They’re just simply too busy. And then there’s other agents who and you know, even night we gosh, we have 700 agents at our firm, and we get calls to from agents going, how are all these top agents doing it? What’s going what are they? What do they know that I don’t you know, why am I not busy right now. So it seems to really be that feast or famine famine mentality. So we want to talk about that and figure out how to get you into the feast category if you’re if you’re struggling. So here’s
Joel Schaub 5:37
what I would do right now. Okay, if I was a real estate agent, and I was trying to get additional buyer transactions, right, the media is talking about what rates being really low. Yeah, rates don’t really matter to a buyer, the rate isn’t what they write on their check every month, right? What they write on the check every month or more nowadays, I kind of dating myself writing checks, but the idea is, you need to make a mortgage payment, it’s the payment, okay, it’s not the rate, the rates are really low. And that means we have lower payments. So what I would be doing is having the conversation with either a building of renters sending out a flyer to a building of renters and getting their attention. Because if you’re spending especially in our market, it’s not far fetched to spend two grand and rent, right, even on a one bedroom in Chicago, easy to spend two grand. And there’s so many places that you could literally buy that or it’s a two bedroom, and your total mortgage out the door is 17, or $1,800. And so as an agent, if you can get into these types of conversations that are actually meaningful, speaking to buyers, or potential buyers, or renters one category, and talking to them about what it actually means, why are people right now making the move from renting to owning, because they’re actually able to lock in rates that we haven’t seen in 50 years? 30 year fixed rate loans below 3%. Okay, it’s like this mind blowing thing where I could get a rate at two point something on a mortgage, and then lock that for life. We’re going to be looking back at this time period, DJ, and remembering, wow, there was an opportunity and a lot of people jumped in, and a lot of people are gonna miss it.
D.J. Paris 7:20
I think too. Yeah, I couldn’t agree more. And I also think, too, for sellers, what a great opportunity to have a conversation with everyone you’ve sold a home to in St. Louis, you know, I don’t know what your family’s plan is for staying in this property. I’d love to get updated on what your thoughts are is how many years you guys anticipate staying in this location. But if you’re all thinking of moving, now’s a great time to list because number one, most places in the country inventory is down. So there’s a lot more increased competition from buyers, and buyers have so much more purchasing power because of rates being being lower. So it’s a great conversation to also have with the seller and say, you know, I can’t say for sure this is the absolute best time to sell your home. But gosh, it seems like a pretty good opportunity to get some multiple offer situations going. So I think it just benefits it benefits the renter benefits the buyer and the seller. There’s so much opportunity right now.
Joel Schaub 8:13
DJ, I’m glad you said that. Because as agents, we are seeing this feast or famine, the ones that are really busy, aren’t just the best agents. They’re just good at connecting with people. Yeah. All right. I was telling you off air I was like, by any leaps or bounds, right? I’m not the best number here. But we’re really good at actually finding solutions and actually touching people’s lives and actually teaching them and not selling them. So the agents that are really doing something well are taking the time, even when they’re busy to slow down. Help people, ones that are really struggling are the ones that are trying to use the sales tactics, techniques, and saying, Well, you better hurry up and buy because rates are going to go up. That doesn’t work. So being from the heart and actually helping families and helping buyers and helping sellers, you’ll start to get that reputation. And that’s what I had was, he’s going to be honest, he’s going to shoot you straight. And he’s going to actually tell you certain times I’ve talked to buyers and said, That’s not the building you’re going to buy in Whoa, do I know about that one? And the buyers? Seems like you’re the only one in this whole transaction that seems like you care. The sellers are trying to convince me my agent wants a commission. You’re giving me real advice. And so that’s what I would advise as an agent, the the person truly giving advice, your sphere is going to grow. And it doesn’t matter if you’re just new to the business or you’ve been in the business for 25 years. You know it. The people that around you that are really successful, are helping people so figure out how you can help the people around you and your business is going to grow right now.
D.J. Paris 9:56
I remember when I this is a Gosh long time before I met Joel, I own a condo here in Chicago, and I was talking to a friend. And he, we were somehow talking about income. And you know, he was saying, I heard you know, I, it sounds like you had this promotion. So your income, and this was back when I was in the technology world said your income probably jumped I’m assuming as a result of this promotion? And I said, Yeah, I did. And he goes, You know, one thing that, you know, this is somebody outside of the industry, another tech guy, and he said, you know, you have a mortgage, right? I said, Yeah, and this at the time we had, I can’t remember what type of mortgage it was, I guess it was a 30 year. And he said, you know, you may want to consider migrating that to a 15 year and I said, Oh, I don’t even understand like, why would I do that? Is there is there a benefit for that he goes, Oh, my gosh, he goes, call your call your lender. And again, I ended up making that shift. Now, this is 15 years ago. So that of course, may or may not make sense for people today. But if I hadn’t met that person, who a friend of mine, if I hadn’t had that conversation, I would have never known. And at the time, that was the right decision for me to make, I was able to pay off part of the home a lot faster, and apply more to principal. So it made sense for me, but I truly didn’t know anything about it. I suspect 99% of the population isn’t that knowledgeable about about loans to do that. So as Joel was saying, what a great opportunity to reach out. And you don’t have to know as much as the lender, that’s their job. But just to be able to introduce the concept or the idea, Boy, I wish somebody would have called me with that. It’ll mean, the only reason I knew is because you know, buddy of mine told me, and so this a great opportunity.
Joel Schaub 11:33
And if you’re a realtor right now in your market, and you’re somewhere and you have these mortgage professionals, make a friend literally go find some of the top people in your area, and then build a relationship, because that’s how you’re gonna get deals closed right now, we can lead a horse to water, but unless they have a suitcase full of cash, they need to rely on the mortgage people. And there’s a big dichotomy between people that are actually knowing what they’re doing, and pretending. So find the people that you can actually connect with and become friends with these people. Okay, you need to get a lender that I’ll actually take your calls on Friday nights, and Saturdays and Sundays, because right now, the buyers can close at rates that are really great, but if only if you have a mortgage professional, and I’ll get them to the closing table, so you got to partner with these people, okay, finding somebody that will be willing to take the calls on the weekends, split marketing dollars with you. So I work with agents and I give back. And you can find somebody in your community or your neighborhood, city, town, etc, that is in the mortgage business, and wants to help you. I mean, most of the time us mortgage guys are knocking down your door, now’s the time to actually, you know, knock down their door and find a partner because they’re the ones that are going to make sure that you get your deals closed.
D.J. Paris 12:57
Yeah, and some of these marketing initiatives that Joel was mentioning of great opportunity, for example, sending a flyer to everyone who’s a renter in a particular, you know, luxury apartment building, you can, you know, you can talk to lenders and get them to help with some of those costs and help offset some of those fees. And if you consistently do it, I was telling Joel offline, if I was, if I was a realtor, a Producing Realtor, what I would do is partner with a lender, I would say, I want to send out a postcard every week. That’s me, I not everyone would do that, that sort of consistent sort of attack. But I would send a postcard maybe not every week, maybe it’s every two weeks. But I would send it often to the same person reminding them to this is a great time to consider converting over to becoming a buyer. And especially if people are going to luxury apartment buildings, they’re going to be buying anyway, these are people that are going to purchase. So why not be the person that you know, knocks on their door as hard as you can as often as you can in a polite and respectful way. But in a way that actually I mean, it’s funny, I read every single postcard I get I don’t always open every piece of mail. But I always look at a postcard. So anyone listening, consider a postcard. You know, I always do the front back, and I might toss it away after that, but I saw it first.
Joel Schaub 14:09
Okay, you hit on something that’s really good there. So I want to talk about this. You said something that most agents won’t do. They’ll send out a postcard and they go, Oh, it didn’t work. Right. Yeah, right to send out two postcards. You got to be consistent, because what do you do? If you’re me, when I get the mail, I flipped through it. I see it, I throw it away. And I get it. A few weeks later. I’m like, Oh, I start to recognize it. By the third time. I’m like, wow, DJ is an actual pro. He’s actually consistent. And then it might not be today but down the line, you will start getting those deals. And so there are mortgage people that very compliant. Okay, we’ll spend 50% of the dollars that it takes to market. It’s all regulated. So you speak with a mortgage professional. They should be able to give a sizable amount that stays RESPA compliant, so that they’re contributing tomorrow. Getting dollars and not paying you as a realtor to send them leads. Can’t do that. But you can partner with them to help them promote their business. And there’s a certain dollar amount spent. So talk to somebody about that for sure. Yeah. And consistency. You got to stay consistent.
D.J. Paris 15:15
Yeah, I was I was just had on on the show, although the episode isn’t out yet we had on the largest brokerage, or the most successful brokerage in all of Arizona, they have 2800 agents. And I was and they have the top teams in Arizona, all work for the most top teams actually worked for this brokerage. And so I was asking the owner because I was like, Okay, tell me what I don’t know about top producers. What are your top agents doing that other agents aren’t he goes, you know, said I’d love to give you a great like secret tactic. He goes, but the reality of it is over the last six months. And he goes, he goes, we did this as a company to our agents, they’re gonna they’re doing this to their clients, he goes back to him, he said, what we did is as soon as the stay at home order happened, we called every single one of our agents all 2800, individually. And we said, how are you doing? Do you need anything? Can I help you? Is there anything we can do to make this more comfortable for you, you’re our agent, we care about you. And then as things started to get a little better, and people were allowed outside, they stayed in touch and said, Okay, now that things are a little better, we still want to make sure you’re okay. You know, and just checking in and he said, our agents were doing the same thing with their clients. And he said, Honestly, he’s like, that is reap so much reward he goes, I’d love to tell you it was more complicated than that. But it really isn’t. Checking in. Now, if you’re not that busy right now, what a great opportunity to call everyone and just update your your contact list and find out when everyone’s birthday is and wedding anniversary, and their home anniversary when they bought or sold. And when their kids birthdays are and just putting it in your database so that when a kid’s birthday pops up, you call and say, Hey, I saw your son just turned 10. Today happy. Tell them happy birthday for me. Little things like that. win the game and very few agents, you know, can do it. And if you’re not busy, what a golden opportunity to do what most busy agents can’t even do right now. So great opportunity I
Joel Schaub 17:06
hired a few years ago and administrator just somebody to put all the database together for birthdays. And so each day I get a list. And I’ll do something a little bit goofy, I just send a quick little video and I say yeah, Kevin, it’s your birthday. I can’t believe you’re getting this old. It’s your mortgage guy. It’s Joel Schaub, just a quick 15 second video to say I hope you have a good birthday. And that’s it. And I send these via text, and the number of replies I get. So now, you know, you get texts, and you’re lucky to get a phone call if it’s your birthday. So the videos go a long way. And I don’t do it for every single client. But on a daily basis, I’m sending out birthday videos, and I’m making sure that these people feel touched. And you’d be surprised the number of replies DJ where they go, Joel that’s so cool. I hope you’re well. Hey, do you handle files in Indiana? My sister’s getting ready to buy a place and I want to refer. And that’s what you’re hoping for, okay, is this real connection? And it doesn’t have to be you calling and saying, Do you know anybody looking to buy or sell? Right? We’ve talked about this before. It’s it doesn’t have to be Kenny and cheesy. You’re just building real relationships with people. And the most successful agents that I see are the ones that know how to really be likable. They make friends, they want people to know that they’re working with them. And that’s what I want you guys to do that are on this is figure out ways that you can take that likeness level up, really connect with people and add value, you’ll be successful when you continue to do that.
D.J. Paris 18:44
Yeah, the what I’ve always found is demonstrating that you care about somebody is this the fastest way to go up that like light meter. Because if you demonstrate that you care and that you’re paying attention, I know even in my own primary relationship with my girlfriend, it is in my best interest to be very liked to her, I better be very likeable. And I have to earn that that is not an automatic thing. And that means when she’s talking, I better pay attention. And when important events are coming up like she’s got a 30th birthday coming up soon I need to be I need to be very considerate and thoughtful about how she might want to celebrate that. But the truth is I need all of that data so that I can actually be a good partner. Same thing with with with your clients, you need that data, and all you have to do it’s not that much work really to stay in touch and demonstrate that you care but boy, it just seems to usually win the game. It’s not as much skill as it is as in carrying a skill certainly helps but skill can be developed and soaking caring. So if you feel like you’ve lost touch with people in your database now what a great opportunity to reach out and say I’m sorry, I’ve lost touch. I want to reconnect and I want to you know, just see how you’re doing And that goes a long way.
Joel Schaub 20:02
Right now this is the guy. So if you feel like you’re at the either either the feast or the famine, okay, so if you’re feasting, let’s continue to feast and you’re doing it, probably because you don’t have great tips and tricks and things that you’re doing. You’re just being genuine and you’re helping. And that’s what I see, I talked to a lot of top producing real estate agents that call me to have me handle buyer transactions. And the common theme on almost everybody is that they’re likable. They really are, they are truly trying to help their clients. This old phrase is really key. It’s, you don’t care how much I know until you know how much I care. Yeah, and that’s it, these people really take the time. And those are the ones that are really doing it. So keep giving right, we wouldn’t be a keepin it real podcast, if I didn’t talk about this givers gain, if you can give back, you’ll definitely grow. That’s how I will achieve north of 500 transactions in a year is and again, because I’m some great mortgage guy. I’m an okay mortgage guy. But I’ve connected with people and I truly care. asked my wife at eight o’clock at night, I do reply to messages, much to her chagrin, but she knows that it comes from a place of actually just trying to help people. So it goes a long way.
D.J. Paris 21:23
What a great place to wrap up. I want everyone who’s listening to know that Joel, he happens to be located physically here in Chicago, however, he and his company can process loans nationwide. So even if you’re in a alternate market, even if you’re outside of the country, definitely if you’re looking for another lending partner, or to replace the current partnership you have, please give Joel a call, he would really he’s he’s a great, great resource, we use them in our company exclusively. We recommend him to everybody. And we do the same here on the podcast. So please consider reaching out to Joel and see just how great a job he does. The best way to reach him, there’s a couple of ways you can email him directly joel@rates.com It’s an Easy email to remember joel@rate.com or call or text him directly at 773-654-2049 Whether you’re a buyer or a seller and investor or renter thinking about, you know making the transition to buying or you’re an agent and just want to find a good, you know, relationship with a lender who can help you. Joel is the guy he’s devoted his entire career to helping and in he’s excellent at his job. So we were big fans. But Joel, thank you again for being on the show. After all these years, you continue to bring great, great content to our listeners and our viewers. On behalf of the listeners. We thank Joel for his time and his energy. Joel does this for free. By the way guys, we are so grateful to have him this is a big, big get for us. And on behalf of Joel and myself, we wouldn’t be able to do this without you guys. So everyone listening and watching. Please consider supporting Joel as well. But also just keep listening. Best way to to support us in the show is tell a friend think of one other agent that you could benefit from having watched this this you know 30 minutes with Joel this inspirational chat with real actionable strategies to take you to the next level or to get you out of maybe a valley where you want to be at a peak. You know, this is this are the kind of tips that Joel provides. And tell a friend yes way shoot us over, shoot your friend over to our website. I’m keeping it real pod.com Or just tell them to open up their phone, pull up a podcast app, look for keeping it real and subscribe and then find us on Facebook guys facebook.com forward slash keeping it real pod. We post all of our episodes there along with an article every single day that we find online that’s written to help you grow your business. And that’s all we post so it’s no no fat and all meat. Joel thanks again. We will see you next month.
Joel Schaub 23:56
Thanks so much for having me on. I really feel good. We got a lot today. We really had some actionable steps that you can take if you’re an agent. You can go out there, continue to grow it and it really feels good to give back. So I’m glad that I was on and I’ll definitely be seeing you soon.
D.J. Paris 24:12
See you next time. All right. Thanks, guys. Thanks, Joe.
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