Rapport Building with Home Improvement Clients

Over the past couple of years, equity has been extremely accessible to our clients. Times in our industry are changing with regard to guidelines and lending ability. However, that shouldn’t distract you from creating a relationship with your refinance clientele. I have touched on the refinance with debt consolidation clients in my previous post, and I would like to touch on the refinance with Home Improvements clientele as well for this post.

These clients are just like any other refinance client where they are looking for the loan program that fits their needs and overall goals. They might superficially want the best rates and fees, but it all comes down to relationships and rapport. I stress again, that finding out these goals and true needs in the first contact will help establish a better relationship and better rapport with your clients, and most likely make or break them from financing with you!

So, how will you be different from the mortgage broker down the street, and create that lasting relationship? You know…the one you get referrals out of? Simple, right?

Right! We ask the right open-ended questions that will trigger emotionally driven responses!

Put yourself in their shoes and get involved with what are their primary reasons of why they need/want to do the home improvements. Here are some key questions that might help emit poignant answers:

• Tell me about the project you’re looking to do
• What led you and your family to want to do this project?
• How will these improvement benefit you and your family (besides most likely adding value to the home)
• Tell me about the steps you’ve already taken for this (estimates, etc)
• What do you think are the next steps prior to the improvements? (more estimates, or are they just waiting to close…hint, if you phrase it right, there could be a potential buying sign here)
• So, if we take those steps, how long will it take before the project is completed? (This is a closed-ended question that will help you re-capture control of the conversation)

Once you start getting into how long the project is going to take and you know overall idea behind the improvements, you can keep a conversation going about pictures they can take with their family in their new living room, or maybe by the new in-ground pool. You can go into how good the barbeque chicken is going to taste and how nice it will be to use a grill on that new deck off the back door. There are a plethora of things that you can bring up in discussion that will help them paint a picture of what is to come after they finance with you!

They, most likely, didn’t get this feeling from the other guy down the street which puts you ahead of the game even before you’ve presented figures or programs, and even before you’ve taken a look at their credit situation.

It’s really that simple; to make a conversation out of this first contact instead a straight up, no-conversation, closed-ended 1003. And guess what? If your rate and fees are off a little bit, the client will most likely come back to you anyway because you truly know the value of their refinance. You’ve also shown that you care about their home, and you care about their unique financial and living situation.

Be different from the average Loan Officer, and create those relationships! I wish you all the best!

-Andy Scherer (Connecticut Mortgage Trainer)

Building a Relationship With a Debt Consolidation Client

If you haven’t read “Phase 1: Your First Contact With A Client” then please feel free to do so prior to reading this post which is an extension of the first contact.

I briefly mentioned that the first contact with your client should be a relationship building experience. You should be getting to know your client, and your client should be getting to understand that you care about him/her.

With that being said, we have to remember that relationships aren’t built on standardized questions from a blank paper (or Calyx Point 1003). Relationships and trust between two individuals are built with the sharing of emotion. Dictionary.com defines a relationship as, “an emotional or other connection between people”.

So, how can you stand apart from Joe LoanOfficer who is looking to make a quick buck on these “borrowers”? Simple…ask the right emotionally attached questions in order to establish a caring relationship, and always build toward closing questions.

For a refinance for debt consolidation, instead of asking how much they are looking to pay off and be done with that part, dive into the subject a little deeper. Try asking:

• About each individual debt that they want to consolidate (what school was the student loan used at, what was the credit card used for – vacation, etc)
• What kind of credit cards are they? (if applicable…Visa, MasterCard, etc)
• How high is the interest on each of those debts?
• How much money are you paying out per month?
• How much of that money that you are paying is actually going towards the balance?
• If you didn’t pay these off with the refinance, when do you think you could be free of these debts?

All of these questions build to an emotionally-tied closing question prior to filling out the entire application. And, guess what…you just got the liabilities section of the 1003 filled out.

Here’s an example of how you can close this topic: “I definitely understand where you are coming from, Mr. Smith. I can see how consolidating that high interest credit card debt is going to relieve quite a bit of stress from your life, and make your life a lot easier with regard to your monthly financials. Along with that, paying off your car loan to make that an added tax deduction is going to be a nice benefit as well. I’m sure you are looking forward to the day of not making those payments anymore and having that extra tax deduction, right”?

Simple questions can lead into some of the most emotionally driven conversations for these clients. The bottom line is to keep driving home benefit and try your best to tie emotion to every question that you ask. Lastly, make sure that your questions are building toward an overall buying sign….a “YES” at the end of a simple closed-ended question.

I will come back to this example in later posts when I will touch on the sales aspect of the process. Each of those questions plays a key role in the proposals, so they definitely hold a huge role in a debt consolidation refinance.