Consistency of Standards Beats Burnout.

Consistency is a giant key in the lending business.  Every time you lose or underestimate it–or reduce your standards–you get behind on files, are playing catch up, and are forever without clear things to do–fighting ‘unprocessed loops.’  Having to reinvent the wheel with every deal is done at the loan officer’s peril, and it’s an all-too-common source of burnout for great LOs.  You have to be your own boss, and you have to have absolute consistency in a few areas.  For me, it’s prospecting, applications, and processing files.  Those are the three areas I count on or focus on.

You can avoid burnout pretty easily by incorporating the following ideas into your business:

• Have a plan for BASIC stuff:  I have a verbatim loan application.  When I use it, word-for-word, the clients get the process and understand it.  When I deviate, there are WAY more questions, WAY less certainty.
• Write down what went well, and what went poorly with each transaction. In order to get myself to close loans in ten days, I took 20 something transactions and did each detail.  This led me to get ahead of the curve, automatically nag title and insurance companies, and develop a processing standard that is perhaps the best in the business.
• Have IRON CLAD standards–(even a few).  Making standards that you always, always, always adhere to creates a foundation for your business.  Doesn’t matter what it is, but representing a high standard in some area is the way to build a great business.  For me, it’s calling 30 realtors by noon.  That’s a religion on the days that I work.   And it gets me forward progress EACH and every day.

If you are consistent–in the basics–you’ll be building a loan business on a much more solid foundation, and able to last much longer than you would under other circumstances.

Chris Johnson is a mortgage lender in the Columbus Ohio Market.