If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

So Instant Boss was one tool that I love–covered it in the last post. 

The other tool?  My personal Cheap-o laminator. 

I’m trying to run a predictable, repeatable business, right?  Creating from whole cloth the ability for people to get loans done in ten days, 100% of the time.  To do it, I have to keep religious track of my daily schedules.  Seeing something visually, physically, and in front of me is way better than seeing it on a Google Doc or Excel Sheet.  You can touch it–it’s more real.

But paper seems chintzy.  It wears out, it gets coffee spilled on it if it’s at or near my desk.  I need a quick way to track my work across several places each week and month, so I made:

http://genuinechris.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/03/blogging-schedule.xls

Then I laminated it, and got some Expo Vis a Vis Markers.

I can see–instantly–where I need to blog, and what happens next.

All of my ‘deal’ folders have a laminated (and reusable) checklist so I can PHYSICALLY see what’s going on with them.  (Need title, oh, not all docs are in!)

Last week, I promised a review of Instant Boss, but I was in the normal “month end triage” that those of us in the RE profession find ourselves in.  Basically, the idea is that we can’t sustain focus forever.

Not even powerful minds can always concentrate on stuff.  So, we use crutches and tricks and shortcuts to help us along the way.  Enter Instant Boss.  Instant boss.   It’s running now as I post this in Windows Live Writer:

You set it, I’m working on two work sessions, and then I’m done.  I’ll probably work more because I’m in a zone.  It will pop up, telling me when to take a break, and then another sound will signal when the break is over.

You can crack down on yourself and say: OK, I’m doing taxes for X amount of time, and getting X amount of breaks.  You can ’snooze,’ and work a little more, or not if you want to, depending on hat your plans are.

Where do you get instant boss?

http://www.appsapps.info/instantboss.php

So Monday, I talked about starting EACH day at zero-zero.  But what I didn’t get into is keeping score.  BEFORE you check email/take down your Reader/do the normal things that you do, it’s important to get some stuff done to move your business forward.  For me, it’s prospecting. 

You can see it tracked at GenuineChris.Com–the sidebar has a little bit of it.

The gist though, is the MINIMUM I need to do to get my business going.  And it’s REALLY not that much:

• get to the gym
• Make 35 Contacts.
• Find and Add 2 people to linked in.
• Put a post up on craigslist.

That’s it for me–I know if I hit 35 contacts in a kind and focused manner, I’ll get an application each day.  I get THAT Stuff done, and I know that–no matter what–my business is healthy. 

The goal is a little higher than those standards, but if I did those things each day…I’d hit my goal of a 6 figure income on not a lot of hours per week.

On Thursday…it’ll be time for Instant Boss.

I’m hoping for a Guest Poster to talk about keeping loneliness from standing in your way.

Last week, I kicked ass on Tuesday.  I had a cranking workout, I took some applications,  got some files ready to close, got some good blog posts up, figured out more about PHP/MySQL/CSS, and had springs on my feet all day.  We’ve all had days like that, right?

Well..then Wednesday hit.

I woke up late.

I missed the gym (till later)

I felt like crap.

I frittered and procrastinated.

I didn’t write my goals down.

It sucked, I was getting frustrated with my wife.  It was all no good….but throughout the day, I was patting myself on the back for the good day that I had on Tuesday.  I was deluding myself that one good day can make it ok.  I would have been better off Wednesday going the zoo wit my kid.   I woulda been better off reading a book (Liar’s Poker, written 19 years ago eerilie forshadows the current Mortgage Fiasco).

But what I’ve learned lately is that numbers matter.

And what I suspect many self employed people do is to follow up a fabulous day with a bad one.  I’ve noticed that pattern–I’ve been guilty of it, and I’ve talked to some great people, and THEY are guilty of it.  So the gist is to LET GO of a day each night.  To let that day just be, and to relax.  I also know that one BAD day can just as easily beget another because you’re distracted with what went wrong yesterday. 

I’ve heard it before–I’m not claiming it as original thought, but every day is contained.   It starts at Zero-Zero.

So check it out–it’s an easy form that I made a few months ago when I was in a Mastermind Group.  Never took off, but it was the idea that we’d be able to work with this.

http://genuinechris.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/10/daily-recap.doc

Real dirt simple page.  Throw a date on it.  Write down what went right/wrong.  Dump out your brain.  Then have a ‘momentum building’ checklist on this thing.  You’ve essentially purged this day,   And so then you move on. 

Major Changes @ Tendayteam.com

For a long time, I was unclear truly who this blog was for.  Was it for Real Estate agents?  Consumers?  Both?  Neither?  I’m a big proponent of Al and Laura–the more you differentiate, the better that you are able to survive (must read: The Origin of Brands).

There are no shortage of blogs out there on Real Estate, or Mortgage.  High quality people are blogging different stuff on a regular basis.  You can get news, commentary, information, pissing contests and more from the web.  You can also get a ton of worthless ‘me too’ content about how ‘now is the right time to buy or sell a house.’ 

I can’t compete with the stuff that exists, not effectively.  How could I be Lani and April?  How Could I even be Todd or anyone else?

There is so much ground covered there in the ‘news and comment’ space.  I couldn’t ever compete there.  I don’t care to give you daily rates (because Rhonda does a way better job of that than me).  What I do care about is giving something of value to the Realtors and people that follow me.

What WILL I focus on?

Good question.  Realtors, other mortgage lenders, and other independent professionals are offices unto themselves.   They are the marketing department, they are the operations department, management, payroll. 

They are people that said “screw cubicles,” and are trying to build a business.

We’re going to talk about:

• Time Management (because speed matters)
• Marketing (Because differentiation matters)
• GTD (because operations mater)
• Networking (because your SOI matters)
• Accounting (because I know, from intimate experience, that taxes matter)
• Mindset and Motivation (because your meat exists only to power your brain)

All of it’s going to exist to break up the loneliness.  If you’re reading RE blogs, chances are you’re succeeding in some ar of your business, and chances are you need something more than the he said/she said drivel.  For those of you that are a company unto yourself, I’m here for you.

I’ve got a lot of planned content, and it’s all coming this week.

For now, the gym beckons.

One of the things that can delay deals is not getting an appraiser in on time. I confirm all orders via phone (because the appraisers don’t always respond to faxes–they have the same stresses as the rest of us). What I started doing–and what my seem obvious–is taking over the scheduling process.

After an application, I inform the client what happens next: an appraiser will have to come out, and no–you don’t have to clean your house up.

Then?

I ask what time the appraiser should come–and ask for three times in the next 2-3 days (on a refinance) that will work. Then I CALL the appraiser I use in order…and ask them if they can see a property on __________ date, and get a report in by ______________ date.

Appraisers like it because it relieves them of the burden of scheduling. I like it because it eliminates follow up.

It’s one of those BFOTO moments (blinding flash of the obvious) that has gone in my ops manual as an easy way to speed up times that stuff happens and close loops more quickly.

I can’t believe it took five years to come up with it.

(The Genesis of this idea came from Tim’s blog…so Credit Where Credit is due).

I had a great opportunity to help out Ruschele with one of the buyer’s classes that Harris Real Estate University puts on. Was a good class…had good

I promised my service standards report, and it’s a service agreement that I have signed between the Realtor and Buyer:

1. Revenue Neutral: I promise to make my buyers loans on what’s best for them, and not me. I will give them unbiased advice.
2. Daily Contact: We promise to send an email EVERY DAY to both the Listing and Selling Agent
3. Loan Number: We promise to give you the loan number and generate a clear to close.
4. Fee Refund: If it’s our fault that the loan doesn’t close, we promise a fee refund of appraisal and credit.
5. Fully Approved Loans: we don’t issue a pre approval till we have seen the assets needed to close. We will never pre approve someone that is not 100% ready to close.
6. Fast Service: Once you find a house, we will be ready to close in 10 calendar days.
7. No Fraud: We will end the transaction immediately if anyone attempts to commit fraud of any kind.

There’s more: for agents I want to make sure that the referal door swings both ways, and that they don’t commit fraud…

More on this later–I’ll print my word doc when I’m on the list…

One of the things that I really enjoy doing is updating Realtors on deals in process.  This was a key part of me learning to offer closings in 10 days.  I don’t have to eal with that many interruptions.  Every Listing–and Selling agent gets an email

Every morning.

An example:

“Dear Realtor-

Today is the 2nd day the file is in underwriting, and we are still experiencing 3-5 day turnaround times on FHA files.  This was a full and complete file without a lot of issues. I will contact you if anything bad happens, but no news is good news still,   The appraisal is already up to underwriting, and the value came back.  As always, call my cell for emergencies at 614-839-4850  As of this letter I expect to be clear to close in 4 days, and I’m not ready to schedule yet.

Best

Chris and Mike

And we send one the NEXT DAY that says the same thing.  “Still going, we’ve got a day to wait, and this is typical;”.

That is an example; it takes less than a minute to write, and if I’m having a good month, I have 10 deals going, so let’s say 15 minutes of a workday.  What’s not gonna happen because of that:  interruptions, stress, reassurance calls.  I don’t have to pretend that a deal is better than it is because my Realtor knows what’s going on.  The Listing agent KNOWS.

And if there are problems?  Even with strangers this extra step builds credibility.  I didn’t always do it this way; communization was undervalued by me when I got into the business (and I worked in a mom and pop broker shop that–at the time–had a chip on its shoulder regarding realtors).  It’s not because I like typing emails–it’s because I want to get deals done and closed. 

“You tell me–” the hallmark of a badly handled transaction

I got calls like this: 

“Hi Chris, this is Joe Realtor from Keller Williams,”

“Hi Joe, how are you/”

“Well..You tell me.”

The phrase galls me, but there is a reason the Realtors called.  They don’t think that they know what’s going on with their deal (i.e their paycheck.)  The deal is, they aren’t sure, and they have to call.  The fact that their day is made or broken by the minutiae of a transaction isn’t healthy, but it’s called reality.  I made a rule: a Realtor should never, ever have to wonder what’s going on with their deals.  They know, and my phone only rings with customers, and I’ve taken control of my day.

What things have y’all done to take control of your day?

In related news:  I can’t tell if this is a Splog or not–it doesn’t appear to be and the link is a great article that Alerts found for me.

Each morning I spend my time scouring the RE Net for good, actionable posts and commentary about how the market is doing, how we are doing and stuff you can change in your business.  This week’s highlights:

MUST READ NO MATTER WHAT:

If you read one thing:

Lenderama: Do you know where your clients come from

If you read 4 more things:

1. How the wholesale market developed: Smart Mortgage Advice
2. Agent Genius: Sell The Sizzle (and how stuff from YEARS ago is relevant)
3. Green Mortgage Group: A Hot Pot of FICO
4. Bawld Guy’s great post on how to sell…with numbers…assuming 0% appreciation (or neg. appreciation).

If you need a laugh or want to see me act as a poor man’s CNET:

1. Agent Genius:  Turbo Tax AND offer writing software
2. Agent Genuis (yet again) on the hazards of email forwarding
3. Today is that Day:  How to kill productivity with productivity.
4. Indymac eliminating VOD (ah, another way Broker Scuzzbuckets can’t commit fraud)

That’s my 8 + 1 for friday.  Watch this space over the weekend for a sorely needed redesign and general calming down of the blog.

There are more shady and scuzzy mortgage brokers than there are shady and scuzy Realtors.  This is a fact.  There are a lot of reasons why–while it’s easy to get your real estate license, it’s dead simple to get your license to originate loans.  And, the path to money is more quick because of Internet lead pusbuckets, trigger leads, and the fact that EVERY home is in play and it’s easier to refinance than it is to move.

But in most states, Realtors have a moral duty as clients/not customers.  The duty-to-customer presumes fair and honest, and fair and honest is a low standard.  The duty one has to a client implies some type of fiduciary responsibility.  That’s a hard standard to judge, but acting in the ‘clients stated best interest’ is generally the key.  When a realtor does it, it’s the worst thing.

That said, the standards in both industries are tediously low–and I’ve come to expect incompetence from the industry.

So…I’m shocked when the Realtor says…

“You’re not gonna tell the buyer, right?”

I’m still a little naive or pollyannaish.  I still think people are out to do good.  The situation was simple: a first time home buyer with no pot to piss in was buying a home.  The appraiser said the value was OK, but he had to mark the area as declining.  I trust my appraiser, and he’s not generally going to put the “declining” tag on a neighborhood unless it really is.  This guy was buying a home at 106,000, it was probably presently worth $115k, but it had formerly sold for $139,000.  It was in a new build subdivision where everyone had used 6pt financing + 2-1 buydowns a few years ago.  Most of the transfers were done at the courthouse steps.

So, while the value was fine, it was declining.

I called the Realtors to appraise them of the situation.  Nothing I can do about it, but the realtor Representing Soley the Best Interests of the Buyer…said, “What kind of appraiser did use–why did he have to tag it declining?”

“Because it is.”

“But he didn’t have to mention that.”

“Um…yeah, he did, he’s got some professional obligations.”

“Chris, tell you what, why not use my guy.”

“Because the buyer’s have to know.”

“You’re not going to tell them, are you?”

So I knew at this second, the instant that I hung up, he’d be calling the buyer to spin the Declining tag.  This was a few months ago, before lenders had switched to curbing declining markets at 5% lower LTVs, so the buyer wouldn’t be impacted.  He was also safe because this property was trading towards the absolute bottom of acceptable housing prices in Columbus.  Still, he had a right to know.  And I was so disgusted by the Realtor.

So with my cell phone, with the Bad Agent still on the phone, I called the client.  This particular client had been in contract with a new build, the deal fell through, and he found an agent on his own, rejecting my referrals.  I didn’t have a relationship with him.

I make the call, hang up with the Used House Salesman.

Briefly explain declining markets, say that it appraised OK, and that we’re going to have to take another 2 days to close because we have to switch MI companies, and this was reasonably routine.

The buyer was cool, had some knowledge of the market, and was unsurprised by what I’d said, and was fine with going on with the transaction.  The Realtor, however lied when he didn’t need to, impugned my character…assumed the buyer would walk away when armed with this information…and left frantic messages while we were talking.  This Realtor had only done 14 transactions, as per MLS records. 

Made the buyer uncomfortable with the presumption that the Buer would not closed if armed with knowledge. 

The deal closed, everything worked out, but it’s so depressing to see professionals still trying to screw their clients over.