One loan originator is leading the way…
Mortgage brokers should focus on advertising amid a more barren landscape dotted with fewer loan originators. Such advice from an industry veteran of more than 25 years should be heeded.
That guidance from loan originator Kristen Eklund (pictured), of Florida-based Coast2Coast Mortgage, comes as an increasing number of loan originators leave the industry amid a more challenging marketplace. Those left along more sparse grounds will be able to gain market share - provided their branding is on point.
“[It’s] huge for us brokers,” Eklund told Mortgage Professional America during a recent interview. “When times are slow, everyone advertises. Look at UWM – brokers are better, brokers are better,” she said of the advertising mantra of wholesale lending giant United Wholesale Mortgage. The more marketing the better, she said.
Mortgage Professional America interviewed Eklund while she attended the recent FUSE conference in Las Vegas organized by the Association of Independent Mortgage Experts.
Industry stalwart is no stranger to market ups and downs
After 26 years in the industry, Eklund has seen her share of cycles. The advice she would give to those just entering the profession would largely be to stay active. “Well, you just have to stay busy,” she said. “You can’t focus on the rates. I seldom look at the rates anymore. I don’t even want to acknowledge it.”
She used herself as an example: “I just keep moving forward and try to stay positive,” she said. “I try to stay involved as much as I can with community and find something to keep me busy. When people get bored, or slow, or have to get another job, they get out of the game. And when you get out of the game, it’s harder to get back in it.”
Facebook, TikTok essential social media tools
One key advertising path is through Facebook. Eklund is also a prolific user of TikTok. “It’s a virtual referral – it’s free,” she said of Facebook. “People are engaging in your life if you allow by posting videos and sharing whatever you can. I do all my own content, my own memes, videos. If I hired someone to do that, I would just lose the originality, I think.”
One person she would consider hiring would be someone to edit and delete negative comments on conversation threads, she noted. “I don’t spend much time with the negativity because there are a lot of negative ninnies out there on Facebook. I skip over that. If I hired someone, it would be to do that part,” she said of monitoring for appropriate dialogue.
Some of her videos showcase her work as she’s doing it. “I do a lot of realtor open houses,” she said. “I’ll add more stuff like driving to an open house, what that looks like.”
Working from the bucolic Key West portion of Florida, she will sometimes show a waterfront scene as she drives to an event. “And I’ll put a TikTok together with music and they’ll share it,” she said of those following her on the social media platform.
“I have some that have a million views on them because people want that lifestyle, they want to live in a house on the water. So TikTok is the easier format for me to do that. It’s growing now. If it gets really slow, I’ll be an Amazon influencer – who knows?” she said with a laugh.
Shoutout to Ishbia, AIME
Eklund reserved special praise for AIME, labeling the first FUSE conference she attended as nothing short of life changing. “The first one I went to was in 2018 in Fort Lauderdale,” she recalled. “They had just kicked off and got going. Mat Ishbia [UWM’s CEO] spoke. This was at a time right after a hurricane and I had been in this business 20 years and I thought ‘maybe I’ll just hang it up’. But after listening to Mat speak, it changed my whole way of thinking, my life [changed]. I went back to the Keys and said: ‘OK, world. Here I come. We’re going to hit this’.”
She gave AIME a shoutout for helping in structuring deals. “I’ve reached out several times. They’ve saved a lot of my deals when I’ve needed them. I try to finish my deals and try to get them fixed myself, but sometimes you’re better off to use your resources than to lose your cool. So I’ve used AIME several times. And then just what they do for all of us. Like I said, this is my 26th year and I’ve never had this kind of mentoring – everything AIME provides, I believe in it.”
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