Florida's #1 originator shares groundbreaking concepts that have propelled him to the forefront of the industry
Welcome to Mortgage Mastermind, where we unlock the brilliance of industry leaders who are shaping the future of origination. In this installment, we have the honor of diving deep into the mind of Matt Weaver (pictured), the unrivaled #1 loan officer in Florida.
With an unwavering commitment to excellence and a track record of success, the CrossCountry Mortgage loan officer has consistently ranked as the state's top originator since 2020 and number one in purchase units in the nation for 2022. In this interview, we unravel Weaver's remarkable journey, uncovering the strategies and insights that have propelled him to unparalleled success.
The Power of Laser-Focused Purpose
Weaver's secret weapon?
"It is my singleness of purpose," he revealed. "In other words, I know exactly who my customer is, and it's the real estate agent, and it's that that gives me the understanding of how to serve them to the absolute highest level because I know who my customer is."
Weaver pointed out that the biggest challenge loan originators have is that they aren't sure who their customer is.
"So, what I say to agents or loan officers all the time is first to discover what type and who your customer is that you have a passion working with," Weaver told MPA. "For example, I know the industry is telling you right now that you should be working with realtors.
"And yeah, I'm here to tell you that if you don't like working with them, don't do it. Because if you like working on refinances or working with divorce attorneys, work with them and do it to the highest level. And when you identify who that customer is, then you can think about how you can continuously cure their pain and be of the highest quality of service to them, which is what I do for the real estate agent community."
The Art of Scripted Success
Consistency is the key to triumph in loan origination, and Weaver has cracked the code. By implementing a meticulously scripted process from start to finish, he ensures seamless transactions and unparalleled customer experiences.
"If we go back to understanding who our customer is, then we can understand that the customer deserves a scripted process," Weaver said. "My process from beginning to end, from a home buyer calling me saying, 'I'd like to get pre-approved through the funding,' is a scripted process. The real estate agent we work with is a scripted process. Every great business, every great industry has a scripted process, with the exception typically of the mortgage industry. Usually, a lot of loan officers are kind of winging it. And that's not what we do here.
Read more: Mortgage tech entrant fills gap in the mortgage process
"So [a scripted process] allows us to maintain our consistency, which is a big word if you're going to work with realtors. It allows us to understand what works and what doesn't work and tweak the scripted process throughout the years.
"What I would say to any of the readers out there or any loan officers, if you don't have a scripted process, I don't care whether you're closing five transactions a month, 1,015 or 30 or 100. If you don't have a scripted process, pull out a whiteboard and walk through what the best circumstance would look like from beginning to end and build it out that way because that's what I did back in 2010."
Mastering the Mindset Game
In an industry marked by constant fluctuations, Weaver has cultivated a winning mindset that sets him apart. He doesn't view 2020 and 2021 as mere anomalies but rather as benchmarks for growth.
"I'm honored to say I'm the number one loan officer in the state of Florida for the past three years and #1 in purchase units in the nation for 2022," Weaver said. "A lot of that comes back to understanding who our customer is and was, but if we look at 2022 and 2023, it's a mindset game 100%. No question about it. We knew that we were in for some interesting times.
"We just don't know when we knew that rates were going to pop up. We just didn't exactly know what time of the year it could have been that year. It could be 2023, but we said to ourselves collectively as a team, 'OK, regardless of what happens with overall originations in the industry, we're not going to accept it.'
“In other words, we committed to outpacing the decline in loan originations, and that's a mindset where I see a lot of loan officers. They look at 2020 and 2021 as freak years. There are anomaly years. They're not the good old times. Those times are benchmarks, and we're just gonna grow off of those times, and that's a mindset."
With a firm belief that success is a mindset, Weaver and his team have defied industry trends and achieved unprecedented results.
"Because at the peak of this real estate transition, my county was down about 35% in real estate transactions," he said. "So, if I want to grow 20%, what we collectively decided is that I have to increase my activities by 50% to, of course, counterbalance the headwinds that we have. So, suppose we're diligent in our activities and understand that we sometimes have to double down and triple down our activities. In that case, we're going to be able to manage any type of origination cycle that exists.
"I'm proud to say that in 2022, volume-wise, we actually closed up over 2021, but it was all because of a mindset that takes some time to develop through the thinking, growing, and learning process."
Building Super Teams
Forget the conventional approach to team management – Weaver's strategy is a game-changer. Rather than relying on a super team, he surrounds himself with superhumans, 41 to be exact.
"I don't have a super team. I have superhumans on my team," Weaver said. "What I mean by that is most originators at the level that were originating have 10-15 loan officers writing loans under their name. I don't have any of that. I'm the loner originator."
Each member of his handpicked team excels in their specific role, creating an environment of expertise and passion. Weaver has also built an infrastructure designed to support his personal production, allowing him to originate at the absolute highest level.
"The way that my team is structured is I have essentially an operational infrastructure to support my personal production, and every member of my team sits in a specific seat to facilitate their part of the process, and we developed it that way because each member loves what they do every day because they're in their own lane," Weaver shared.
"Our mantra is to remain forever giddy. The future for us is so bright because we're going to make it bright. And what we want to do is not only scale our great team across Florida but really across the nation. We know we have the winning formula. We know we have the structure that could allow those in the industry to come in and plug in and do what they want to do within the structure and stay in that lane, stay in that focus."
Want to get more insights and tips from successful mortgage professionals? Receive exclusive interviews, breaking news, and industry events in your inbox, and always be the first to know by subscribing to our FREE daily newsletter.
