Maximize your efforts with minimum time

With only so many hours in the day, originators have to figure out the best way to maximize the impact that they have while using as little time as possible to do so. Originators—especially independent mortgage brokers—are stretched in many different directions, balancing the time spent on actually doing loans with improving and expanding business.

 “The most important thing is to have a plan,” said David Jaffe of On Q Financial. “If you’re always reactive, you’re never going to get things done, so have a plan in place.”

Following Jaffe’s advice, it’s great to start the day with a plan of what you’re going to accomplish by the end of the day. Setting goals puts you in charge of your workload, and prevents you from getting distracted when situations arise that do not go toward accomplishing those goals.

We tend to think of success in terms of closed loans and volume, but many originators don’t build on the success that they have on a day-to-day basis. For Waleed Delawari, president of Delaware Pacific,

It’s a simple process.

“Every day, you’re just focused on providing and being as efficient with your time as you can, and not worrying about the next day. Really focus on today, and then restart with that same energy, that same passion and focus the next day,” Delawari said. “Reassess your previous day and just build on it. It always comes down to consistency. To do it over time is very challenging, and I think that’s where sometimes people lose track.”

Technology is an obvious answer to the time crunch. Going digital can save time when it comes to things like data entry and certain systems can save time when they speak to each other, eliminating the need to go back and forth between them all. But technology isn’t the golden ticket to efficiency, and has its drawbacks.

Delawari says that having technology is great, but it’s useless without understanding how to use it to leverage your time.

“Technology is great; but if you don’t know how to unlock your iPhone, you’re never going to be able to call someone,” he said. “Having technology but not understanding how to use it is sometimes the downfall.”

There are often fits and starts when it comes to implementing technology into your business; both with figuring out which systems speak to and blend seamlessly with your current systems, and finding success in implementing the systems. Training is crucial to ensure that you and your team know how to use the technology in the manner that is most efficient for your business model. The process of adoption can be a difficult one, and it can be hard to swallow if you don’t immediately see an improvement in your workflow and time vs. effort ratio. But the breaking-in period is only a period, and you have to give a particular system a chance to work before deciding whether to keep it or to choose another.

Joshua Jablonski is with the builder division of Wells Fargo and chooses to use technology not just because of the efficiencies, but because those efficiencies are responsible for getting originators back to originating.

“There’s a ton of efficiencies in there and really being able to focus now on less and less of that process, and on the actual, what we get paid to do, which is to go originate and build relationships and find the deals put people in homes,” he said. “Technology’s been a good thing from the perspective of being a support to allow us to be able to go and focus on the priority aspects of the business.”