Some Good Questions

Sent in from a Loan Officer in GA.

I appreciate this opportunity. I hope I can remember the questions I have but never seem to quite understand.

Some of my questions are as follows:

1. Since the amortization schedule is drawn out to age 85, what happens with the loan anyway if/when the borrower lives past that age?
A. Some of the software we use shows to age 100 and some does not, either way the interest keeps accumulating until the loan is paid off at the time the borrower moves, sells or dies.

2. What is the average time a loan package is in-house before it gets to the lender? Who are the key individuals in the process?
A. WSB processes the loan until it is ready to go to the underwriter at the lender of choice, that normally takes around 2 to 3 weeks at which time we send it to the lender and they determine if there is anything else needed (conditions) if not then we are clear to close in a few days (except MetLife) and the closing takes place.

3. How soon is the loan officer commission paid after the close?
A. WSB pays all payroll each week, our cutoff for receiving checks is Wednesday at Noon Pacific, so if we get the check from the Escrow by Noon Wednesday then we cut your check that day and if you are set up to receive them electronically you will receive it by Friday if you want a paper check we send them UPS on Thursday so it could take up to five days for the East Coast delivery.

4. Why are leads so expensive from WSB? It seems like sales resources are a major income bucket for WSB. Wouldn't it be more lucrative to see as many qualified people as possible, at the lowest cost to the agent? Commercial standard mail is relatively cheap. Recycled documentation is low overhead, etc. How are your rates justified?
A.Postage rates are 44 cents per piece mailed and our leads are $500.00 per 1,000 so I am not sure why you think that is expensive? If you have a vendor that can get a good response for less we want to know about them. WSB is not a mail house or lead company, we search out companies that promise to deliver, we try it ourselves first and then if we get a good result we offer it to our Loan Officers. We just completed a test that cost us $1,600 and we wrote 1 Reverse Mortgage out of that, we will not be recommending that one to you. We have offered lists of prospects for 15 cents per name and have had good results with those and the reply card mailer is working very good, in fact if you get just 30 leads back then each lead cost you $16.00 which is the real number you should pay attention too. The Robert Wagner Leads cost $150.00 each when they were available.
If you know of a lower cost lead generation then we would like to know about it as well, and if you know of one that works prove it with production.

These are just a few of the pressing questions I've had. If I have more, I'll send them.

I hope that answers your questions and to all of our Loan Officers I welcome them, keep them coming.

Jeffrey Bangerter