Interview With a Winner: David Kuiper First Place Bank, Holland, MI |
2007 origination volume: $24,000,000 In Touch Today: How did you get started in the mortgage business? David Kuiper: I got started in the mortgage business is 1990. I was hired by a bank to work in the documentation and legal review department for mortgages and commercial loans. Then I moved on to collections. After that I moved into lending, doing mortgages, small business commercial loans, and a little bit of consumer lending all at once. And then eventually, probably about 1993 I believe it was, I moved into just doing mortgages and working on commission rather than in a salary position. I think that my background in the entire process – from documentation, shipping, funding, compliance and then collecting payments – helps me make better loans today. In Touch Today: Were you an immediate success? David: I was very blessed to do a lot of business fast. There was a refinance boom in the early 90’s when I got into the business. In our part of the world, banks have probably about 80% of the market share. And I worked for the most prominent player in our market. Business was just flowing in to the bank. Immediately out of the gates, I was probably a $15 million a year producer. I then hit $30 million and got stuck there for about six years. I moved up into the $50 million, $60 million, and $80 million range pretty consistently. During the refinance boom, I was doing as much as $110 million. In years past, I've kind of coasted and focused more on the speaking and training that I do. I took four months off last year and just really enjoyed my family. I think my initial success was a combination of working for a well respected company and being in a great rate environment. I had to jump in with both feet and swim or sink. I learned the business quickly because I had to. There was so much crossing my desk. In those early days, I missed the big picture of seeing each transaction as a client and a valued relationship. I didn't even start databasing until about five years later. That was my big miss. But I have since gone back and reconnected with those clients, working hard at reestablishing those relationships and bringing them into my fold. In Touch Today: What mistakes do you see rookie loan officers making? David: First of all, they don’t understand that it takes time to become truly successful. It probably took me six or eight years to get anywhere close to the level of business success that I'm at today. Rookies get into the business without seeing that part. They don't see those 60 hour work weeks and all the time spent cold calling the referral partners I’ve since built relationships with. Another mistake would be over promising and under delivering. I did this myself in the early years. I'm a people pleaser. That's why I like my job so much. I like to make people happy and solve their problems. But if you try to do that without knowing what you’re doing, you’re just asking for trouble. Investing in yourself is key. This is really hard for a newer person to do – to spend that money on education when business is not coming in very fast. But I think that's a key to success. It’s also easy (for both rookies and veteran agents) to take advantage of the freedom that we have in this business. There's no time clock to punch. It's really easy to fall out of making it a full-time commitment and letting golf, hobbies, sleeping in and eating out all break down your day. You truly need to be able to realize the value of an hour of your time. In Touch Today: What mistakes do you see veteran loan officers making? David: I still see some veteran loan officers who don't want to invest in themselves. Especially in a year like this when the dollars aren't flowing like they did in years past, and the business isn't out there like it was. It makes it harder to spend money, but I think these are the kind of years where it's key to invest in yourself so that when the market recovers you can differentiate yourself from the competition. I want to be the last man standing, okay? I want to do everything I can to differentiate myself from my competition, whether that's educational or time management skills or some type of new product or software that's going to assist me. But you have to be willing to invest to see a future return. Another mistake veteran loan officers make, and one I have made myself, is being afraid to delegate. I think top sales people tend to be overachieving, control freak personalities. It's hard to let go because “nobody can do it as good as I do”. Once I started realizing the value of an hour of my time, and that my unique ability is really meeting face to face with clients and solving their problems, I could let go of chasing down conditions, returning phone calls and those other things that are easy to do. Of course, having a good team to rely on helps. Every loan officer makes mistakes coming out of big refinance boom years. I’ll be the first to tell you, I've become complacent, fat, dumb and happy. I haven't had to prospect like I used to. I know that's a weak point, and I'm working hard at getting back into the groove of prospecting. It's easy to sit at the desk and think, “Know what? If I never leave my office again I know I'm going to do a couple hundred units this year because my clients all love me.” But that's not the right attitude. When I'm out there, belly to belly with the Realtors, the financial advisors and the builders, I’m happy. That's what built my success in the first place. Just forcing myself to get out there, putting it on my calendar, and making myself do it have been my goals this year, and they're certainly starting to pay off again. In Touch Today: What do you think separates you from the average loan officer? David: I'm about six inches taller than most of them. But seriously, I think the key differentiator – and I've heard this from both my clients and my referral sources – is that I've become a trusted advisor to the client, and a trusted partner to my referral partners. I’m not just viewing them as a transaction. I’m not looking for the next commission check, or getting the next file in the door. Instead, I’m really making sure that I'm adding value to the client and to the referral partner. I have a very strong referral relationship with one financial advisor in particular. He and I actually built a building together. It houses our offices as well as a CPA office and an estate planning attorney’s office. We call it a wealth management center. We’re trying to provide a one-stop shop, but we each want to do one thing and do it well. The financial advisor knows that his clients need debt advice. I know that my clients need tax advice. And so by having those ancillary financial services surrounding our clients, we've really differentiated ourselves in our market. In Touch Today: If you had a son or daughter entering this business, what advice would you give them? David: I have five kids, so I have to think about this question carefully. I would love my kids to be in this business. I cannot think of a better business to be in. They've certainly benefited from the rewards, both financially and from a lifestyle perspective. I don't think they have any clue how hard it was to get here though. I don't think they remember years ago, when they were young, how much dad had to work. I would advise my kids to start from the ground up, to learn the business inside out. I think they could get the most bang for their buck if they started out as a processor and then maybe moved into an assistant position rather than going right to the front lines and originating. I think when an originator has the fundamentals down, knows their guidelines and their regulations, their paperwork requirements, and what products exist, they have a much easier task of providing value to the client. I would let them know that it's all about people. It's not necessarily how many loans can I write, how much of a commission can I make but that you've got to really love people because buying a house, managing someone's money is a very emotional business. If someone doesn’t like to interact with people, and doesn't want to play part-time therapist, counselor and social worker, they are probably not the right fit for this job. In Touch Today: What was your most successful marketing campaign? David: That is a tough question, because I don't do a lot of traditional marketing. However, we host a monthly event to pull in new business and add value for our current clients. We may talk about mortgage planning or financial success at the event. My wealth management partners and I invite the people in our databases and ask them to bring someone else along. So our clients kind of do our marketing for us. We usually have 30 to 60 people attend each month. The events help to set us apart as the experts in our areas. It’s very soft sell. It’s more of a just “Hey, we appreciate you. We want to provide this educational opportunity for you.” But it builds goodwill and attracts people to say, “I have got to call these guys and go talk to them.” In Touch Today: What is your best turnkey sales or marketing idea? David: We have a form that was kind of amalgamated from several different sources. It's traditionally been referred to as page five of the loan application, things like that. We've termed ours our “Client Concierge Form.” On it, we try to collect as much additional information about our clients as we can – information that we couldn't get off their 1003. We want to get the names and birthdates of their kids, their pets, where they grew up, what their hobbies are, where they like to go out for dinner, what they like to read…. all those things. We can track this information in Goldmine. When we reconnect with clients, we can pick up exactly where we left off or we can add value to them in an area that matters to them. For example, if we come across something interesting, say a local happening or something that's relating to dog breeding, we don't want to blast 2500 clients with information that they don't care about. But if I have 14 people in my database that care about dog breeding, I can touch them specifically. They'll know that Dave's thinking about them, caring for them and just relating on that personal level. On the second page of our concierge form we get more into financial goals. Do they think they're on track? I have the ability to impact my client in how their debt is structured. But do they realize how important it is to have their will or a trust in place? Do they know that financial advisors don't just work with rich and famous people, they work with everybody? At the same time, if a client really loves another financial services provider, like a financial advisor or an insurance agent, I'm going to ask them to introduce me to that provider. I'm always looking at extending my network of partners as well. If you’re thinking that your clients might not want to share this type of information with you, you would be wrong. People love to talk about themselves and their families. It's a great icebreaker. They may wonder what their dog’s name has to do with getting a loan, but we just explain to them that our clients mean a lot more to us than just another loan file, and that we're looking at growing together the next 20 or 30 years. People don't have any concept of their financial goals. Most people never sit down and do it. It's just too overwhelming and too depressing to think about how they are going to save a nest egg for retirement, or pay for the kids to go to college. Helping people understand that we exist to help them with these worries is all part of the process. That's why we're in business. We're here to educate, lay the foundation, then grow with people over time. In Touch Today: Who or what has been the biggest contributor to your success? David: I think the biggest contributors to my success are other people who have been more successful than I have. I want to hang out with people who are going to pull me up. I want to surround myself with success. So in terms of my friends and mentors, and people who I want to be like, names such as Barry Habib, Tim Braheem, Dave Savage and Greg Frost spring to mind. These are some of the big industry superstars I befriended way back in the day when I was a nobody and wasn't a successful loan officer but just wanting to bask in their glory and pick their brains. I'm a huge fan of going to other people's offices, meeting their teams and seeing how they work in their environment. Today I count them among my friends. That has been very successful for me. Having my own great team here in the office has also contributed greatly to my success. I have two assistants; one of them has been with me for 15 years and one for just over two years. They know what they're doing, and they love what they do. They let me do what I do best, and they rein me in when I'm not. They give me the freedom and the flexibility to travel a lot and to do my own thing. Between being encouraged and pulled up by industry superstars, and at the same time nurturing and pulling other people along, I have the best of both worlds. In Touch Today: If you had a magic wand, what would you change about your current business? David: The thing that really frustrates me in today's market is the doom and gloom. I’m frustrated by the doldrums that the media is pushing and our consumers are feeling. I see opportunity in this market. As the market constricts again, and my competitors start to leave the business, that just leaves more for me. I like to see opportunity from a selfish loan officer perspective. I love these times. I've never been through anything quite this severe before, but have been through several smaller cycles and have always come out farther ahead after the lull. This is exciting because I know it is coming. Locally we have an all time record inventory of listings on the market right now. Builders are starting to go out of business or slash inventory. Michigan's not exactly the hotbed of economic activity in our country, so we have our own local economic challenges as well. Many people are saying, “The sky is falling! Things are terrible! Life stinks! What are we doing here?” But I just learned a statistic from our local board of Realtors that explained if we compare units closed in 2006 to units closed in 2007 in our MOS, it's only down 4%. That's not “The sky is falling!” That's just a little bit off. I share that number with everybody that I can because it is encouraging. I would much rather see the glass half full than half empty. I'm doing my best with my referral partners and with my clients to see what positive we can. In Touch Today: What are your current goals? David: I want to get my production back up. I slacked and traveled too much the last couple of years. We home school our kids, so it's a pretty flexible lifestyle of travel. But I want to get back over that $50 million that I was used to doing in years past. I also want to continue to be known as the go-to person in my community. I already have that reputation, but I want to maintain and broaden it. I want to continue to grow relationships with financial advisors and attorneys as more of a respected advisor, a trusted advisor, rather than just someone who pushes paperwork and helps people get mortgages. Working with real estate agents is my weak point. I haven't traditionally gone after that business, and I haven't traditionally enjoyed that business. The three very strong relationships that I have with real estate agents, I love – and I want more of them. So I need to personally get back out there, hit the road and identify who those people are. Then I need to get in front of them, differentiate myself and initiate relationships. In Touch Today: Is there anything else you'd like to say to other originators who aspire to the kind of success that you've created? David: I can't think of a better business to be in. I wake up excited every day. I don't know of any other job that gives us the flexibility, the freedom, the virtually limitless income opportunities, the impact that we have on our client’s long-term with the advice we give them. I think this is a tremendous business to be in. But I would encourage people to make sure that their business is all about serving their clients. If you're serving your clients with their best interest at heart, money's going to follow. It has to. |
