How to Build Stronger, More Strategic Industry Partnerships
Nothing is simple when there are as many moving parts, as many individual parties, and as many personal interests as there are during the mortgage process.
Strong, strategic partnerships are what help ensure the process is being managed and monitored and—perhaps most important of all!—moving along smoothly. And the partnership between a loan officer and a real estate professional is one of the most essential.
Loan officers: Are you properly nurturing your relationships with your real estate partners? And realtors: Are you doing the same? Compiled here are the top reasons you should work on reinforcing the essential connections in your sphere of influence.
Shared expertise and experience
A loan officer and real estate professional are deeply familiar with how home financing works. The obvious difference is they are experts on different facets of the process.
Within a strong industry partnership, each party gains access to the other’s expertise and experience, which fills in the gaps in their own knowledge and skills. Together, they can also share information with the most important party of all: the borrower!
Completing a real estate transaction can be a worrying endeavor for buyers and sellers alike. Shared open lines of communication from the loan officer and the real estate professional ensures deadlines are clearer, required documentation is less likely to be overlooked, and—best of all—the process is more streamlined and less stressful.
Co-branded opportunities
Marketing is one of the biggest components of a successful loan officer-real estate professional partnership. And a valuable strategy parties can mutually undertake is to co-brand.
Co-branding is when two or more brands collaborate to promote or produce a product or service. Within the real estate industry, co-branding is naturally utilized to endorse the services of the parties involved in a mortgage transaction. Loan officers and real estate professionals generally focus their co-branding efforts on emails, newsletters, open house flyers, and social media posts.
If you are not co-branding with your most dependable partners, you are missing out on several key benefits, including:
- Boosting brand exposure. Co-branding introduces each party to the other’s contacts, putting their brands in front of more potential clients.
- Creating trust with new audiences. Essentially you are telling an audience they can trust you because a brand they have already engaged with trusts you.
- Celebrating shared milestones. Acknowledging mutual achievements demonstrates your deep commitment to completing a real transaction for clients.
A bigger partner network
Any loan officer and real estate professional worth their salt will have an extensive network of industry and community contacts. Within the strongest partnerships, each party provides information on the relationships they have forged with other industry professionals, such as attorneys, builders, and title agents. Having access to these important resources helps overcome some of the challenges associated with a typical real estate transaction.
Shared event planning
Planning an event is rarely a one-person job. Collaborating with a trusted partner for that next event allows you to combine expertise, resources, and ideas. This not only makes the planning process more seamless, but it also leads to a boost in brand recognition and increased networking opportunities.
For example, a loan officer could host a lunch during a real estate professional’s open house. Or, a realtor could do the same for an LO’s education workshop on the home financing process.
Loan officers and real estate professionals can also attend events together, whether it’s a local business gathering, a trade show, or a charity dinner. As anyone who has forged a strong industry partnership will tell you, the strength of two professionals is always better than one!
More referrals
At the end of the day, isn’t this what both loan officers and realtors want?
Here’s a common example of how a referral is created in the real estate industry: A homebuyer approaches a realtor as the first step in the purchase process. The realtor refers them to a loan officer to assist with their financing. The buyer is pre-approved for a loan, and the real estate professional then begins showing them properties within their budget. Finally, the realtor works with the LO to prepare an offer that includes the financing details.
If both parties collaborate well and successfully the close deal together, they are each more inclined to recommend clients to one another in the future. And just like, they have referrals!
Personalized client experiences
In today’s competitive real estate market, personalization is essential when creating lasting relationships with clients. By working together, loan officers and real estate professionals can create programs that address the specific needs of buyers and sellers.
For example, one way to ensure a smooth, personalized financing experience for a borrower is to invite them to a joint client consultation. This is when an LO and realtor meet with a client to gain a better understanding of their financial goals, concerns, and needs. This collaborative approach gives both the loan officer and the real estate professional the ability to provide more aligned services and support.
Partnerships: the cornerstones of success
Are your industry partnerships in need of a supercharge? If so, maybe it’s time to take advantage of Volly Marketing Suite’s newest component: Network Connections—a next-generation solution for today’s all-essential loan officer/real estate professional partnerships.
Network Connections delivers a multitude of benefits. LOs gain an immediate edge in a competitive market, engage with realtor partners more strategically and seamlessly, and track campaign activity, lead volume, and partner performance in real time.
As for real estate professionals, they gain access to a host of marketing resources—from single-property websites to open house flyers and more—connect with more qualified leads, and become the go-to brand in their markets.
Unleash the power of your partnerships with Volly Network Connections!
