Meet the LO who can't stop reaching milestones
The formula for being a top mortgage broker sounds simple enough. Broadly speaking, it involves a combination of discipline, commitment, consistency, availability and fast closing.
But few, if any, brokers have been able to match Shant Banosian’s jaw-dropping records.
Last month, this quietly spoken Boston-based loan originator added to his impressive tally by becoming Guaranteed Rate’s first LO to fund $2 billion in total loan volume.
The milestone followed hot on the heels of his last record in June, when he reached the $1 billion-funding mark for the second consecutive year, only on this occasion he did it three months faster.
To date, Banosian, who for the last six years has been recognized as one of the top five loan originators in the US, has funded a career volume in excess of $7 billion.
Read more: Guaranteed Rate celebrates first originator to reach $2 billion milestone
“I really pride myself on becoming an expert in trying to gain knowledge and information on how to be an expert in my field,” he told MPA, trying to explain the reasons for his success.
Being available to clients and referral partners “all the time” was another crucial aspect, although he acknowledged that it was a big sacrifice to make.
“In order to be really successful, you’ve got to be able to deliver that - and that’s a big commitment to make,” he said. “Part of it is to actually work on all parts of the business, not just sales which is where most people focus on, but also operations, marketing and branding.”
This year both Banosian and his team went up a gear to keep up with what probably had been “the most intense purchase market in history”, with technology proving a vital ally.
He said: “We’ve embraced the change and ultimately utilized all the tools available to make the client experience better. We had our team really buying into things like income and asset validation, and in some cases appraisals, which can take days and weeks.”
With so much pent-up demand for housing, bidding wars reached record levels, leading to cash deals in one out of every five home purchases. This, in turn, forced brokers to work even harder to make sellers take note of borrowers.
“When a client is getting financing, you have to make them more appealing to the sellers, and you can do that by providing more certainty and a faster closing,” he said. “That technology allows us to shave days, weeks off the process and make the client experience better.”
Read more: Record-breaking loan officer Shant Banosian reveals formula for success
The last five months have seen quite a few developments in the financial markets with federal tapering, rates starting to pick up, the refinance market slowing down and, more recently, the threat of inflation hanging over everyone’s heads.
But it appears none of this has either phased Banosian or caused business to falter. “There’s been a massive demand in cash-out refinances, and we’ve seen the equity in homes in the US increase by about 29% within the last year.
“We’re seeing a lot more clients reach into their home equity to utilize it for debt consolidation and home improvement loans, or investing in other things, such as buying a second home.”
He shrugged off concerns about the shrinking refi market, while acknowledging that demand will drop next year. “There’s still millions upon millions of borrowers who are going to take advantage of the low rates,” he said. “As rates go up, it’ll be a little bit harder to do business on the refinance side than it’s been, but we certainly don’t plan on doing less business - we’re going to find a way to make up for it by grabbing more purchase market share.”
Another plus had been to increase his reach and market share in the last year by being licensed to originate in all 50 states.
It goes without saying that he expects more records to tumble next year. Asked what specific goals he had in mind for 2022, he said he would attempt to double purchase volume and achieve even faster closing.
“Our goal is to try to do $2 billion in purchase volume all across the country. The other thing we want is to shave another week off our turn time, going from application to closing,” he said. “We can pretty much close any single loan right now in about two to three weeks, but we want to be able to manufacture a loan from start to finish in 10 days.”
Watch out brokers, he means it.
