Mortgage Connects an MGIC Podcast

A sneak peek at insights from MGIC's latest Loan Originators Survey Report

• MGIC MI

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We take a look at the findings from MGIC's soon-to-be-released 2022 Loan Originators Survey Report with MGIC Senior Business Partner Stephanie Budnik.

We surveyed loan originators to learn:

  • Where LOs focus their outreach efforts
  • The top marketing mediums for originators
  • How LOs overcome the challenges facing borrowers over the past year
  • How LOs generate referrals

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 Concepcion Guerrero: (00:03)
Welcome to Mortgage Connect by MGC, bringing you the latest industry insights from top mortgage professionals around the industry. I'm your host, Concepcion Guerrero, and joining me today is my colleague Stephanie Budnick, senior business partner for national accounts here at MGIC. Welcome Stephanie. Glad to have you join us today.

Stephanie Budnik: (00:21)
Thank you so much. I'm really excited to be here so that I can provide you a sneak peek into the results from a recent survey that we conducted with originators around the nation where we learned lots of cool different things.

Concepcion Guerrero: (00:32)
Now let's start this conversation by having you tell us more about the survey in general, the findings and who participated in it.

Stephanie Budnik: (00:40)
Sure. Like I said, this was our third time conducting this survey, but we casted a wider net. So the survey was conducted in June of 2022. After six months of a lot of change in the industry with our rising interest rates and a lot of other things that were occurring, we had 1600 originators respond to the survey. And of those respondents, 51% had at least 21 plus years of experience. 67% were 50 years of age or older, and the breakup for organization wise was 42% mortgage bankers, 21% worked at a bank, 13% community bank, 13% mortgage broker, and 8% credit unions.

Concepcion Guerrero: (01:18)
Now looking back at those results, can you tell us where the loan officers focused their outreach efforts on?

Stephanie Budnik: (01:25)
Sure. Now this will come to no surprise to many of you. The top focus was still purchase business for first time home buyers and move up buyers. But something that we looked a little bit deeper in was the newer originators. The newer originators tend to focus less on the move up market and they focused more on the first time home buyers.

Concepcion Guerrero: (01:45)
Now every originator has their unique marketing efforts, but what did the survey show as the top three marketing mediums originators utilize and how do they market most, whether it be word of mouth or social media? Sure.

Stephanie Budnik: (01:58)
I love this question and I love this question because marketing trends always seem to change. I know that they've changed a lot in my lifetime, but the most pride and true is still word of mouth being the most successful, which I really like seeing personally the way that we do business, you know, changes here and there, but that's just really a staple and be able to market yourself. Now, having said that, emails and social media where other two mediums that we're often utilized by consumers and they're looking at multiple different platforms and social platforms, Google searches for additional credibility.

Concepcion Guerrero: (02:29)
Now it's clear that various loan officers seem to go about their marketing efforts a little differently with having, uh, mixed feelings about social media. So based on the survey results, did originators find that social media, uh, be more of a successful marketing tool or not?

Stephanie Budnik: (02:46)
So I think that came kind of a little bit with the last question that you had asked, and it stems from word of mouth being the most successful. So amongst the survey, the results definitely varied. 31% of loan officers listed that social media was a really successful marketing medium for them, but on the flip side, 25% said they don't use it at all. So I thought that that was very eye opening and it really is telling of the people who filled out the survey. Right. We talked about the Asia and the makeup and the experience levels that varied. So looking deeper into that though, and the social platforms that were utilized, Facebook did still remain the most effective amongst a respondents. Um, majority agree that even if they weren't using it today though, that it was something that you would need to use in the future because it was becoming the way of the world. So I think that there's still a lot of value in sharpening your tools in that area, but not everybody is using it. Newer originators, though, they tend to find success, um, with Instagram, TikTok and YouTube cuz it allows 'em to be a little bit more creative and make themselves stand down amongst others when they're really looking for something to draw people in.

Concepcion Guerrero: (03:52)
Interesting. Yeah, it sounds like social media is starting, it's a mixed, mixed, uh, feelings there, but uh, some still appreciate that face to face contact for sure. Yeah. Now the down payment has always been a challenge for many borrowers. So I'm curious, how did originators overcome this challenge the borrowers face in the last 12 months?

Stephanie Budnik: (04:11)
So 90% of the LO's, uh, that are originating did at least some sort of less than 20% down payment, um, loans in their book of business. On average, those LOs said that 53% of their closed loans had an 80 plus ltb. And so we dug a little bit deeper into that and they did 89% where conventional loans 58 did FHA loans, 34% utilized down payment assistance. So there's really a mix of different opportunities to help people overcome that down payment challenge. Several of the respondents also reference portfolio loans, especially arms, you know, talking about the industry and where it's been over the last 12 months being more, um, prevalent in their book of business and non QM products as solutions for those borrowers. Um, another few individuals said that a solution was dependent on their rate to risk factor and borrowers unique financial story. So it was nice to hear that the respondents were really looking into what was gonna work best for the borrower and where that fits best for them.

Concepcion Guerrero: (05:13)
Great, Great insight. I wanna switch gears now and focus on the referrals. We know that referrals are very important to one success in the, in, in this industry. So I'm curious who are those individuals the loan officers are working closely with to generate those referrals and how are they doing this?

Stephanie Budnik: (05:30)
So again, this isn't, uh, one of those eye-opening answers. The, the most popular was real estate agents was the top across the board for everybody. Fostering relationships across generations was also a key for those referrals and I, and I like that aspect. So you're a home buyer who's purchasing their next home, perhaps their children are going to need a home or their families or their friends, or there's generational home buying, or you're having to take a lot more things into consideration. And so those were ways that you had to start considering. So it's important to build trust and to gain those organic referrals in addition to the real estate agent relationship. Um, additionally a couple other partners perhaps came up, which financial advisors, builders and estate lawyers were mentioned at other great partners to help grow referrals. And you ask kind of on the how.

Stephanie Budnik: (06:18)
So originators stayed in touch by hosting educational events, especially new training, uh, uh, training events for new agents. They did happy hours and events, they post on social or they did some direct mailings to keep their name up and coming. Um, results showed that you need to be able to provide value to your partners by having service and availability, which was just of the utmost importance to the respondents. And so referrals are a large value and if you refer a buyer, then they can also potentially refer business back to you so that back and forth, that equal relationship strong referrals, uh, tend to grow the reputation of both parties. So the other item that was mentioned on different ways to build relationships was just to offer some exclusive guarantee. So some people reference like a 30 day guarantee. Others, um, reference just different ways that they could make the experience smoother for each.

Concepcion Guerrero: (07:18)
Now as you mentioned, this is the third year MGIC conducted the survey and it's no surprise that many loan officers have learned to navigate new norms on how they go about doing their job. So talk to me about the challenges the loan officers survey faced this past year.

Stephanie Budnik: (07:33)
Yeah, you know, there are a lot of obstacles that originators did go through over the past 12 months. And so anyone in the industry knows what's keeping loan officers up at night. And according to Freddie Mac, the average 30 year fixed rate jumped up 2.48% between January 2022 and June of 2022. So surprisingly lack of inventory edged out the rising interest rate does a trend that impacted the greatest number of survey respondents. But other notable things that impacted originators was bidding wars affordability, appraisal values in addition to investor purchases.

Concepcion Guerrero: (08:13)
Now as we wrap up this sneak peak of our survey, what were some common business goals originators have for the future and how do they continue to grow?

Stephanie Budnik: (08:22)
So this question was an open field, um, for our respondents, but a few trends did emerge. So many LO's are mission driven. They framed their goals in terms of helping clients. So providing their expertise and experience to stand out amongst the competition was something that they were going to continue to do or look to do in the coming year. Others really stressed wanting to find a work life balance. I know a lot of people struggle with that on a continual basis. So that being a common goal, um, amongst respondents and obviously a lot of them said they wanted to grow their business. Um, a sweet spot that seemed to come up that was mentioned when actual numbers were provided was 20 to 30 million. Um, and as for the how most people said that they learned best from one another, which was really nice to see. So surveys like this where you're able to hear what 1600 different people commonly responded was ways that they learned or just talking to their peers, industry news or even enrolling in some educational opportunities was ways that they were going to look to grow themselves professionally.

Concepcion Guerrero: (09:26)
Great. Thank you Stephanie. Thank you so much for your time today. I can't wait to read the full report and have others, uh, you know, learn a thing or two from the insights. Thank you so much.

Stephanie Budnik: (09:35)
Yes, I'm so excited for everybody to get a chance to see that. Thanks for having me

Concepcion Guerrero: (09:39)
Now. These surveys have provided great insights into what successful originators are doing. So for additional information and a copy of the survey, visit mortgageconnects.com. And thank you all again for listening. For all the latest industry insights, subscribe to Mortgage Connects on Apple, Stitcher, Google Podcast, Spotify, Amazon Music, or go to mortgageconnects.com.