Tomorrow is Sunday and I have made it a practice to stop by two to three Open Houses on my way home from Church. This practice has been a great marketing tool for me, and one that I enjoy doing. Many of the business relationships that I have formed with the Realtors that I work with have been a result of stopping by Open Houses on Sundays.
Here in upper Middlesex County most of the Open Houses are done on Sunday between the hours of 1:00 – 3:00 in the afternoon. This time works great for me because I am usually leaving Church around 12:30, and it takes me about 20 to 30 minutes to get into the territory that I cover. I live about 30 minutes from Church, so my wife and family are getting home about the same time that I am stopping by the first Open House. Our main meal on Sunday is the afternoon meal, so I am usually arriving home by the time my wife has finished preparing it.
I started this practice shortly after I became a Loan Officer, and have continued it ever since. When I stop by an Open House I do not come empty handed. No I do not bring coffee and donuts, though I am sure most Realtors would appreciate that to. What I bring are Loan Scenario Flyers that I put together on the Saturday before. They look like the one on the left, which by the way I did as a demo for this blog. This is a Listing that one of our AR members, Linda Davis has for sale. I figured since I was going to show a sample of a Flyer, I might as well give some exposure to one of our own members.
I have created two different sets of Flyers for all the Realtors in my territory. The first set consists of loan scenarios for two fixed loan options, and two ARM options. The second set consists of one fixed loan options, one ARM option, and a Connecticut Housing Finance Authority (CHFA) loan with a Downpayment and Closing Cost option with it. The Flyers are customized with each Realty Companies logo and colors, and the price of the house determines which one of the Flyers I use. For example in Gales Ferry the CHFA property limits are $331,700 so I choose a Flyer with a CHFA scenario, since this house falls under that limit.
I do the Flyers on an Excel Spread Sheet and have programmed it to automatically calculate all the figures, once I have entered the initial information at the top, selling price, taxes, and insurance. The only thing other than this that I have to do is to attach a picture of the house, which I get from Realtor.com, type in the address, and change the interest rate for that day. The cells are programmed to automatically figure the downpayment, loan amount, monthly payment with P&I, monthly taxes, monthly home owners insurance, and PMI. I can put a Flyer together in about ten minutes, the picture and taxes are what take me the longest to get. I print ten copies for each house on 48 lb. high quality glossy paper, which gives them a professional look.
These Flyers have been very well received at just about all the Open Houses that I have stopped at. I believe the reason why the have been so well received is, because Realtors generally do not have anything to give prospective buyers an idea of what the monthly payment might be. I would say that about 95% of all the Open Houses that I stop at the Realtor puts them right next to there literature. This is great for me, because everyone that stops by and picks up information on the house also picks up one of my Flyers with my information on it. What has even started to happen, is if I stop at an Open House for a Realtor that I have already done this for. The first thing that they say when I walk in the door is “Do You Have Flyers”. Some of them even call me the week of the Open House and ask me to put some together so they can have them ahead of time.
These Flyers have also provided a great way for me to sort of break the ice with a new Realtors, it gives us something to talk about. Most of the time when I stop by an Open House there isn’t anyone there, so this gives me time to talk to the Realtor and they appreciate the company. In fact the main reason why I developed these Flyers was not to try to get business form the prospective buyers that stop by the Open House, though I have gotten business from them. The main reason for the Flyers is to help me develop a relationship with the Realtors at these Open Houses. Realtor referrals are where the bulk of my business comes from, and I am always looking for new ways to expand upon those relationships. These Flyers have been one of my best tools in accomplishing this.
These Flyers are one of the simplest and least expensive marketing tools that I have established, and they have been very successful for me. I hope that this information proves useful for you. If you are a Loan Officer and you are not doing this, you might want to consider adding this to the ways you market yourself. If you are a Realtor, and the Loan Officer that you refer your business to is not doing this for you, you might consider requesting this from him/her. I think that you would find it a very useful tool for yourself, and the Loan Officer would appreciate the exposure. If anyone would like a sample Flyer, I would be happy to e-mail you one, so that you can see what a full size one looks like.
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Info about the author:
George Souto is a Loan Officer who can assist you with all your FHA, CHFA, and Conventional mortgage needs in Connecticut. George resides in Middlesex County which includes Middletown, Middlefield, Durham, Cromwell, Portland, Higganum, Haddam, East Haddam, Chester, Deep River, and Essex. George can be contacted at (860) 573-1308 or gsouto@mccuemortgage.com
Wow! Thank you George. What a great idea. The real estate agents in your area must absolutely love you! (As we do here!)
P.S. I'm sitting here watching a movie. I do a quick blog search and voila up pops my listing on your blog. Very cool!
George.... very good post. But I don't do these as often as I use to..... every area is different and so many realtors are different. In my area, they aren't as appreciative as one would think they should be. And in my area, not as many are as loyal. My best asset.... my knowledge, being available, and...well, so many other things.
Maybe I am just jealous of your area and the realtors mind set up there. I even went out of my way to be very creative with open house sheets tied to balloons in a box... long story... a lot of work. Should have been a hit...but nothing, out of 5 realtors. Again..different area, different realtors.
But nice post presented well.... they look like easy to read open house sheets also. I have seen some sloppy ones and yours look nice and neat.
Michael, I am glad the the Loan Officers where you are, are motivated as I am. I makes for a great partnership.
Tony, getting them sold is the goal, everyone benifits when that happens.
George,
Very good idea and thankyou for sharing with us all. Glad it works for you.
Hi George,
You have an excellent approach and I love your idea! I'm going to talk to my mortgage broker about something similar.
Your right, btw, about us REALTORS® usually not having enough financial info on hand at an open to discuss.
Thanks for the pleasant reminder and great help,
Ryan
Ryan, I am glad that you found the idea usefull. Good luck with your Broker.
Monika, glad to see someone else doing Open Houses besides me. I rarely run into another Loan Officer over here.
Chris, then you would have a house full of nosy neighbors all the time if that happened.
George, very good post, However I agree with Jeff Belonger...different areas - different market - different realtors approach. Sometimes it looks like that the realtors (at least in Orlando and vicinity), are not interested in such...I've offered free beautiful flyers with mortgage samples, for so many open house events...and I can count on 2 hands how many realtors allowed me to bring them in...
Eli www.AbsoluteFloridaMortgage.com
We ALWAYS have a lender/LO at our open houses. They provide different loan scenarios for the home, and more times than not, they get more clients than we do!! Why? Well, potential buyers that come through with their Realtor may still need a lender!
... and they sure do keep us company when it is slow!
George, I've posted other methods that I'm using in order to assist realtors, free of charge. (I mean those that are interested) :
Listings Rate Plug - another good way to assist realtors & buyers .
Real Estate Listings - newspaper free advertisement!! .
George,
You should run to the patent office with this idea. If you marketed the software to create custom "finance" option brochures for Realtors, I think you could retire. Great Idea!
George you definitely have the right idea, and I can attest to us Realtors in our area being very loyal to our mortgage people. My mortgage lady does print these for me, except she is not as always as timely as she could be, nonetheless You impress me more and more every post and I like your philosophy on getting business from the right sources. I do believe I will put you in my book as an extra loan person who is not under the "Rock of Gibraltar"! Great post and keep up the good work!
www.CentralCTProperties.com
Stefan, thanks for the idea, and I never thought of that, but the mortage business keeps me busy enough.
Carl, if I can ever be of help, I am only a few minutes away. I hope to meet you some time.
Stefan.... these have been around since I have been in the business. 1992 George...Sorry to rain on the parade.... like I said... yours is nice... nice layout, easy to read.....
Hey George.... I'll send you one of mine. I actually start off at the top with a description of the house.. some specialties that the house or area offers... and still get the financing on there. Basically an information sheet with an open house sheet....
George,
Nice idea and well done job, it does not matter what other opinions are, I like this :) Keep the good work my friend
Ray Saenz
I am in a market where the Mortgage Brokers works well with the realtors; providing lots of financial data as well as food for an open house.
I also appreciate the Mortgage Broker who prints up for example; Just Sold flyers with a co-advertising.
Ray, thanks for the support buddy.
Jennifer, I have not done those, but I have looked at doing cards to neighbors along with the Realtor that I did the deal with, announcing that the house has sold and introducing them to their new neighbor. I have not seen the Flyers, but would be interested in seeing a sample of one, and learning about how they are distributed.
Rich, thank you for the encouragement. I hope your wife is back with the family and that your daughter is doing better. This is already Sunday over here, so I hope you have a day at Worship.
Shari, he is a smart guy, I hope he gets a lot of business from you.
Good Morning George-
I'm glad this works for you! I tried it for a while in my area and I finally stopped after going into a home where the RE Agent took one look at me and said "Oh no! Not another one of you guys! You are all so fu$%^&g annoying!"
This area is so saturated by Mortgage Brokers, that that tactic dosen't work.
That's why I got into RE Sales - if you can't beat 'em, join 'em!
Good luck today...
"Mortgage George"
Okay. So I am late. But, hey at least I showed up.
You have no idea how time consuming the hijacks can be! :0)
This is a wonderful marketing thing you have happening here. I agree with Broker Bryant aka My Husband.
No wonder you are successful in your business. Brotha you think outside of that box. Who wants to be in the box anyway. It's pretty crowded in there! :0)
We would welcome you with this. Just be sure to bring some chocolate donuts too...:0)
TLW "The Lovely Wife"...I Hope Everyone Reads And Learns From This Post...ROAR!
Thanks for a very thorough and thoughtful post, George. One of the primary loan officers I work with came to a Broker Open House I was running a number of month ago. For me, the face-to-face meeting was so important, especially since I am new in the area and still getting to know people. Learning more about a loan officer can do and now we can partner together in our marketing is especially helpful.
Can't say open houses have been particularly helpful otherwise, certainly not in selling houses. A few buyers but so many are "just looking."
Kaushik, if he does not have something like this that he uses already, I would be happy to send him one already programed as an example for him to put together for you.
Marc, very rarely do I run into a Realtor is rude like that. I just smile and say thank you and wish that Realtor a lot of luck with the house. Also since I am already there I finish going through the house and leave.
Caron, I do that also for the Realtors that I already work with, but this approach is mainly for the ones that I don't know or that I do know but not working with them yet. Glad you liked the Flyers.
TLW, at my age I am already to close to the box, so I am trying to stay out of it for as long as possible....LOL. If I was closer to you I would be happy to bring you chocolate donuts along with the Flyers But I have to warn you there is no guarantee that would make it there without me taking a couple of bits out of them
Monika, lobster and steamers are worth taking the chance of violating RESPA....LOL. Plus it would not be a violation if we stole them from Ann's frig. We should do it!!! Don't forget lots and lots of butter.
Jeff D., that kind of relationship is what I try to achieve when I stop by with these. Thank you for giving an example of this.
If anyone would like a sample Flyer, I would be happy to e-mail you one, so that you can see what a full size one looks like.
Always interested in seeing the real deal - please forward one to me!
George - would it be possible for you to send me the template that you created? I would like to try my market again now that the market has changed. I could also see these flyers working well with FSBOs. They can keep them on the counter to hand out when people come by to look. Thanks...
George- You are so right !! Great Blog !! I think it's really important for Real Estate Agents to develop a good relationship with Loan Officers because Loan Officers can send the Agent business too.
When I was a Loan Officer I would pre-approve a prospect and then I had to find a Real Estate Agent to find my borrowers a house. I actually became a Real Estate Agent because I originally was going to send myself business...Soon realized it's not a good idea to do both at the same time.
Tony, I sent you an e-mail asking you for your e-mail address so that I can attach the file. I tried to do it through AR but I don't see a choice for attachments.
TLW, I knew that you would share with me....LOL
Jason, hope the Flyers work out for you.
Lauren, you are right about that relationship. I consider my Realtors and I partners. Also I agree with you that being a Realtor and a Loan Officer at the same time is not a good idea. I would think that it would be hard for a Realtor to refer her Buyers to a Loan Officer that is also a Realtor. I would think that they would have a hard time trusting that Loan Officer with their Buyers.
Eddy, I am glad that I have company out there with this. It can be a good tool if it is done right.
I can tell you that I get visited by a lot of loan officers I have never heard of from companies I never heard of at my open houses. I will probably never do business with them.
The agents I do regular business with, cement my loyalty by doing what you do.
Thanks Randy, there is a lot of competition out there. We all need to be able to set ourselves apart and try to show that we are willing to make the extra effort.
I have used your template for over one year now. The flyers are very well received and have led to business from new Realtors for me and mortgage applications. Thank you.
Leo, I have a Realtor sending me a Borrower this week, because I stopped by her Open House this weekend with these. The Loan Officer that she was using had just dropped the ball on a loan and the deal fell apart. So now she was looking for someone new and I happened to be there. It wasn't for doing the Open Houses on Sunday I would never have met her, because she is works out of house and is never in the office. She is also looking to refinance her own house.
Leo thanks for stopping by and commenting because talking about this deal that fell apart just gave me an idea for a blog. Consider this your good dead for the day....LOL
George, Since you linked back to this I'll give it some new life. For you from a marketing standpoint it is a great idea and certainly a good way to meet agents one-on-one, unless of course they are having a busy day.
Personally I never put out financial flyers, Does it help to point out how expensive it is to own the property?
Bravo George!
Great minds think alike! Before I became a licensed Real Estate Agent, I would tag along with my husband (a licensed Mortgage Broker) to open houses. He actually puts a photo of the sellers house on the flyer as well. He would drop off the fliers and a Realtor Open House Survival Bag. The bag contains snacks, bottled water and a small day planner with his logo on it. Realtors love the goodie bag and the fliers. Now he comes to my open houses with fliers and also works open houses with a couple of other realtors. He stays with his Realtors during the open house and has his loan application with him. He took one loan app at an open house and the client bought that house! When you have a Mortgage Broker as dedicated as you and my husband are, you get a win win wiin win situation! You're happy, the agent is happy, the seller is happy, and the buyer is happy!
Cheers!
Joy
Dan, if there are buyers at the Open House when I arrive or while I am there, I stay out of the way and I let the Realtor do his/her job. I do not engage them in conversation until they are done with the buyers that are their.
To your second point I would say yes I do think it is helpful. Do you want to spend time talking to a buyer who can not afford the house that you are showing him/her? Ability to purchase should be the first thing that gets addressed.
Joy, thank you for sharing that and I agree to me it is a win win for every one.
Thanks to this post I'm looking forward to this weekend more than most! I love the look of the flyer. Would be great if you could send me one.
Thanks for the great post!
kblasi@unifpinc.com
Hi George :)
Can you please email me the template that you use for your financing flyers?
Thanks
-Jay
jay2347@gmail.com
Hi George-
Thanks so much for the info. I have used flyers similar to this for quite a while now, but Wells Fargo just discontinued the program, so I can't make them anymore. I've been looking for something similar, but haven't come across the right thing. Would you mind emailing me your template? It would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks,
Chad
Chad@TreaseGroup.com
George,
I agree, open houses are a very good tool... I also try to stay out of the way and let the REALTOR do their thing...but I have had many occasions where a REALTOR will get a call from a customer and they say "I have a lender right here, why don't you talk to them and see what they can do for you" and they hand the phone to me...
Here is a copy of the open house flyer I do... I do admit... I have spent a god amount of time learning some basic Adobe Photoshop and Indesign stuff... but the REALTORS like the way they look...
Here is the second page... I duplex this on a nice color printer...so you have a front and back sided flyer...
Kevin, I have not had a Realtor get a call and hand me the phone to talk to the buyer yet, but I have had them point me out to a buyer that is viewing the Open House, give them my Flyer, and recomend that they talk to me.
Kevin you did a great job on your Flyers.
George,
This is great. I think you can get business because of the amount of effort you put forth. Better than donuts,.....well pretty much.
Good idea, but even better execution.
"Apple"
I offer these for all my realtors.
I like to show 3-4 different programs...
let's people know there are options depending on what their strategy is
Failure.
I didn't get the Open House list until this morning. I got into the office and set up the flyers (which were great by the way) and was set to go until the printer gave up. We fiddled with it and by the time we were printing I would have been fashionably late. I didn't think that would be a great first impression. So I bagged it until next week. Very disapointing.
If you're going to use this worksheet I suggest taking some time to personalize it. I changed the mortgage programs to ones that are most prevalent in my market. The most time consuming thing was getting my logo to look right at the bottom. Once I got one done, the rest were easy. Getting that one done did take quite a bit of time.
Getting the Realtor info was a piece of cake. I went to Realtor.com and searched for the property to see who was listing it. Then I'd go to their site and pull up a picture of that particular Realtor.
I'm excited about next week and peeved about what happened today. I feel like an opportunity missed is money down the drain. Well, I learned a valuable lesson in PREPARATION.
Thank you George for the great template. I look forward to using it!
Rebecca, I think that the formula is easy to do and change, but if you need help just call me on my cell phone.
Tom nothing beats food.....LOL
David, great idea, I also put different option depending on the price of the house and what programs are available.
Chris, two out of three sounds good to me. I am happy that the Flyers worked out for you.
Kevin, the local newspaper prints the Open Houses in my area on Saturday so I am able to put everything together the day before. Sorry that it did not go smooth the first time, but it sounds like you will be better prepared next week.
Chris, that is also the the reason why I do this. I want to meet the Realto and start to form a relationship, if I get a buyer out of it, it is great, but the main purpose for me is the Realtor.
Thank you for the positive input on this.
We had an open house for brokers and the loan officer provided a flyer like what you have showing here and he was available. AND he brought coffee and some little door prizes. We had already made coffee, soooo. But nice.
I had an open house to the public and he made up flyers I could have at the house. Those are over at the house so if other brokers bring their folks in to look at the house it can give them an idea of the cost.
Love it.
sue from maine
Once a lady who just got into mortgage business emailed me a nice flyer for my open house and said she could bring some to my open house.Her company was also offering a vacation to buyers who got mortgage through them.It was nice having someone with me at the open house and she managed to get some business from it.
I've got three or four templates I use for this....
I did one for a FSBO two weeks ago with a Spanish template
the other nice thing about these flyers is control - sometimes you can improve your own transactions with these flyers in that you can push your trusty loan guy/girl on the transaction to know things will go smoother.
Christy, I also get a good response from these, glad to hear that others are also doing this.
Gita, these flyers have also been good tools for me in opening the door for me to develop relationships with Realtors.
Steven, I agree completely.
David, you make a very good point about these flyers being a good tool for the Realtor to promote a Loan Officer that they prefer to work with. They do have advantages for both Realtors and Loan Officers.
George:
Great idea! How do you think a similar "drop in" would be rec'd if done by a Home Inspector?
andy frost
ADVANCED PROPERTY INSPECTIONS
madison, nh
603-344-2467
wakefield, ma
781-577-7855
a-inspect.com
andyfrost@a-inspect.com
George, great flyer, very professional.
Andy, I personally would not want a home inspector at my open house and would guess that the sellers would not agree to it either. It's fine for you to stop by once the contract is signed, but not before.
Andy, I would have to agree with Any who commented after you.
Amy, thank you for the compliment, I really appreciate it.
Great advice. It is a good way to build relationships and help the agent out.
Thanks for sharing!
Steven, you are right, this has been a good relationship builder for me.
WOW, this is the 99th comment on this blog, I didn't realize there had been that many made.
...And I hope that I can be the 100th commentor :)
Come on. You had to have seen that one coming. LOL.
TLW, I don't know how I possibly could have missed this comment. I am honored that you were the 100th comment on my first 100 comment blog.
I agree with you 100%!
There are many times I will have a loan officer that I have worked with come to my open house so they can be there for financial help if they really want to make an offer on the property. It is a great idea!
George: This is a good idea. I've just started doing these this year and find the realtors appreciate having someone help them with the financing side. I also am available to help them with their Open Houses and Brokers Opens if need be. Take care. Thanks for the post!
Paul I have received the same response, and it has really helped in creating and maintaining relationships with Realtors.