Founder shares tips on how to turn daunting homebuying experience into something enjoyable
Buying your first home is an experience that should be enjoyed instead of a process that will give you several sleepless nights. But for people who are focused on the destination and find it hard to enjoy the journey, Kirk Tatom (pictured) has a simple strategy proven to ease their tension.
“Educating borrowers, explaining to them, ‘Hey, this is coming next. And this is why we have to do this’ – It makes the process a lot smoother,” the Tatom Lending president revealed in an MPA Talk edition. “You know the old saying, fear is not knowing you don’t know. So, you just start fear and everything, right?
“I always drill down in with my loan officers as well. Our job is to educate these people and give them the knowledge of what’s happening so that we can empower them, get them the best deal, and set them up for success. Because the more winners we have, the more successful we’re going to be. All you have to do is educate and empower. Give them the knowledge, so they know, lift the curtain up in the back, show them what’s going on.”
Tatom encourages loan officers to not be afraid if a client asks how much money they will make on the transaction or where the money will come from. “Explain to them exactly how it works,” he said. “When you do, they get real relaxed, and they get real comfortable, and it makes the process fun for them and us, and it makes it easy for them and us. Then that experience is what sells our company.”
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“So that’s why that’s so important to me that we educate our consumers,” Tatom stressed. “Because if we don’t, they’re going to be fearful going through the process, and I don’t want that. I want them happy. I want them excited. I want them going out, and you know, figuring out what kind of cash you’re gonna get and what are we going to do with that back office now that we have one.
“Let’s have fun doing this because you’re buying a new house. That’s a big deal. That’s exciting, and it kind of eases the tension. People tend to relax pretty quickly.”
Listen to the full MPA Talk podcast episode here: From pop riffs to mortgage loans
