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April 16, 2010 - "News You Can Use" Having trouble reading this document? Download on-line at http://quick-start.net/mortgageprofessional.htm |
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State Certification of Prior Education may Eliminate Need to "Re-Take" 20 hour NMLS Course Save hundreds of dollars and many hours of time by dusting off your old education and test certificates
One of the bitter pills for loan originators subject to the SAFE Act was the realization that they would have to take yet another pre-licensing or continuing education course. The new requirement was good for training companies that feasted upon the jubilee. In a development which hasn't been very well publicized, the NMLS has begun to implement a certification process which will allow a state to attest to the fact that a licensee has already taken an equivalent course. This means a licensee who has not yet taken an NMLS approved 20 hour course may be able to avoid the redundant training by applying through his or her states to have previous pre-licensing or continuing education certified as meeting NMLS requirements.
On addition to education, many states had previously administered licensing exams. Those states may also certify the exam results, allowing those originators to avoid re-taking a state exam. Originators who have previously taken and passed a state exam should also check with each of these states to inquire about certification of tests.
Once certified, the licensees NMLS record will be updated to reflect the education requirement and testing, if applicable, is satisfied.
If you consider the cost of the training, which runs between $250 and $400, and the fact that it consumes 20 hours of valuable marketing time, we highly recommend that loan originators who have completed at least 20 hours of state mandated continuing or pre-licensing education over the past 5 years contact their state licensing authority and inquire about the certification process in their state. If you took a test in any state, you should also check to see whether that state is certifying those results.
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Are You Pushing Your Customers Away? - The Rules of Engagement
Despite the amount of money mortgage companies, banks and credit unions spend on the development of web sites, many of these firms seem oblivious to any measure of effectiveness. If a customer fills out the "please contact me later" form on the company's site, that is considered a measure of effectiveness. But the reality is that only 7.3% of all applicants actually complete their mortgage application online. Which is too bad. Based on a 2007 survey by Deloitte, 61% of customers who had a positive web application experience highly recommended their lender. Compare that to only 41% of telephone customers.
The key is engagement. In the same way that the live loan originator wins a customer by developing rapport, the longer a customer stays with a web loan officer, the more likely he or she is to apply. In this context, if you were shopping for mortgage information, what would you do if the only information the site yielded was a set of interest rates, and a static form requesting personal information to be "pre-qualified"? In a survey of 910 mortgage or banking sites, following the "get more information" link resulted in a static application form (or a simple contact form) 903 times.
We know this about Web customers:
Web customers don't want to fill out a form and have someone get back to them. Web customers resent being given rate information, and then being told that the information doesn't apply to them Web customers would rather NOT talk to a loan originator. Unfortunately, this is their only alternative 99.4% of the time. UNLESS you have a tool for engagement.
Engaging a customer means answering the 5 questions every borrower asks:
What's the payment? How much can I afford? What are the closing costs? What types of loans are best for me? Giving a borrower this information, without creating an obligation to apply, creates a web borrower who completes the application online within 24 hours (16% of visits), or returns at least 6 times and completes an application (61% of visits).
For a demonstration of a product that will do this for you, visit www.onlinelo.com and see the virtual loan originator.
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QuickStart Quality Control Systems and Mortgage Training Programs 1 Research Court, Suite 450 Rockville, MD 20850 301-738-7031 - Office 877-91-TRAIN - Toll Free 877-729-4033 - Fax
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