How to Leverage People Without Hiring Employees

(TheNicheReport) -- Why does it seem like the most successful people are the ones who have the most time on their hands? How is it that the top earners and producers have the time to be going on vacations that you couldn’t afford, even if you could get away for a week or two (which you can’t). At the risk of sounding even more like the cheesy infomercial, it’s because super successful people have figured out a way to leverage other peoples time, money, knowledge and experience.

You know those people who seem to do more than humanly possible in a day? I’ll let you in on a secret...they aren’t doing it all themselves. So quit beating yourself up about not doing as much as that superstar who came to mind a second ago. Now the best part… you don’t need to hire employees to leverage other people.  I actually have the perfect people who will be more than happy to work with you, take work off your plate, so you can achieve more than you thought.   Who am I referring to??  Well here’s a hint.

You have a current love-hate relationship with them now.  Mortgage Professionals!  It is a natural alliance.  You are selling the “what” but your mortgage partners are selling “the how to buy the what.”  Match made in heaven.  

You Kind Of HAVE To Do This If You Want To Stand Out The marriage of real estate and lending options separates the non-producers from the top producers.   For example: Hey Mister Buyer I have this perfect house for sell, it’s only $200,000.  What I quickly realized is there are three types of buyers:  
  • Type 1 Unrealistically Positive – this group would expect a monthly payment of about $500/month for everything with no down payment.
  • Type 2 Unrealistically Negative – this group expects this $200,000 house to have a down payment of 1 million dollars with a monthly payment of $3,000/month
  • Type 3 Realistic – And last but not least the smallest group of all, this group has a pretty good idea of the cost of houses they are currently shopping for.
  My point?  You are losing money.  You’re either driving Type 1’s around who should be renting or Type 2’s around to houses below their price range.  Yikes.  Make sure, make sure that buyers know, what costs what.  The other key to this, make sure they understand how minimal of an increase to their monthly payment when increasing the purchase price by $5,000, $10,000 or even $15,000.  They are always amazed “that’s it!?”  Lucky for us, getting into a house is still super easy BUT the public just doesn’t know this.  Never again sell the “what” without the “how much”.

Street Smarts > Book Smarts...Let’s Get Real If there is any part of those chemistry classes most of us struggled thru that you can remember, it’s the topic of synergy. It’s real and it works - two or more people or things working together will produce an effect that’s greater than the sum of the parts working alone. I get it; you get it - no big news there. No big news here either; you are going to benefit more financially from this alliance than anyone else involved.   Shared Cost + Shared Time Commitment + Shared Creativity = Everyone Wins  

Your Next Steps   Make a list of the best three mortgage people you can think of. Keep in mind that not every one of them has access to every program, so having two or three is not only okay, it’s necessary. Think about your clientele - you probably need one who’s excellent at FHA, or at Jumbos and one at VA loans. They work with multiple agents for the same reason. Be smart about what you need.   You have your crew and everyone is on board, now what?   Meet with your mortgage people one on one and find out about the latest hottest programs. Take advantage of video marketing with your mortgage person. Interview each other and find creative ways to spread the word about these programs to your clients.   Other ideas?  
  • Have them write articles/guest posts on your website, blog and other social media outlets.
  • Make sure they are ready to send you and your clients “what if” scenarios on different properties.
  • As a part of your listings service, offer a mortgage person to prequalify all buyers.
  • The key to landing an internet lead?? Have your mortgage person call the leads with you.  Much better to cross sell you than you sell yourself.
  • Split the cost of marketing campaigns or sponsorships
  • And remember you can rinse and repeat these steps across all your non-competing business partners e.g. inspectors, appraisers, title representatives, etc
WARNING! WARNING!   While I’m not necessarily advocating an “official” partnership, we all know how these kind of things can go....either really well, or horribly wrong. Here are a few things I’ve learned along the way to prevent misunderstandings and all of the garbage that falls into the “miserably wrong/what the h*ll was Jocelyn talking about” category:

Real Estate Agents - Stay away from quoting rates.  There is just too many parts that play into the interest rate an individual will receive.  It depends on how much the client is putting down, credit, loan program, debt to income ratios.  You will never guess right so don’t setup your mortgage partners for failure.  This is why you partnered with the people you trust.   Also - don’t throw them under the bus.  You selected this person and now you need to be a team. You may think it creates some distance from fault in your client’s minds. It doesn’t.  They will just go away thinking both of you dropped the ball somewhere along the line anyway, but they will also leave thinking you’re kind of a jerk too. The mortgage person may be a flake, but you are a jerky flake.  

Mortgage People – Real Estate Agents are working their as@#s off driving people around and trying to get a commitment. When you say someone is good for the money, THEY BETTER BE GOOD FOR THE MONEY.  You make sure you are assuming nothing when you provide a preapproval letter to your realtor® partners and clients. Remember they are out on nights and weekends selling houses on your word, while you are getting to spend time with your family or at the very least, eating ice cream and watching Modern Family.  You also need to stick to your dates and deadlines you commit to.  Now I know borrowers can be devilish in their ways of not getting things turned in on time.  If that happens, let your realtor® know “hey, Suzie won’t get her stuff to me.  If I don’t get this by next Tuesday, I will not be able to meet deadlines.”

Take Home Message: Don’t set each other up for failure.   This Isn’t a New Concept - It’s more about Getting Organized   Chances are, you are already somewhat “aligned” with certain mortgage people. If you are smart enough to have gotten thru this much of the article, you’re probably smart enough to try and do business with the mortgage people who you know will follow thru, work hard and who you can trust. So put together a meeting over coffee and start brainstorming.

Jocelyn Predovich is a progressive entrepreneur who has established herself as a leader in the real estate, mortgage & technology realms. As founder & CEO of Limetree Lending Group she has created a lending company that is consistently named #1 out of all of the 100+ mortgage bankers under the Universal Lending Corporation umbrella in Colorado.

If you would like more information on this program, join our weekly webinar. Contact me at
[email protected] for registration details.