Here’s why you should be talking to your operations team this time of year
It’s a new year! New Mindset. New business goals. The beginning of the year is the perfect time to reflect on your business, what areas can be improved upon, and what direction you’d like to go in your business. I’m not sure what your company culture is like however, you may want to reach out to your manager as well as your operations team to discuss what areas of the process needs to be improved. Ask your team members what you need to do on your end to get your loans closed faster.
The upfront process
Do you send documentation through piece mail? Perhaps that’s something you need to work on in terms of communicating what you need from your customers upfront. For those of you who don’t have assistants, you may want to create email templates with a list of items needed from the borrower. You may want to include in your email template that “the file will not be submitted to underwriting until all of the documentation on the list is provided.” This puts the ball back into the court of the customer and hopefully instills a sense of urgency in them. The more time you spend waiting and collecting documents the longer it takes for your file to move to the next phase of the loan process.
Brush up on your guidelines
Read up on your underwriting guidelines to keep abreast with any changes. Familiarize yourself with how the underwriter reviews the file. It will help you recognize any “red flags” you may see as you review any loan documentation. Notate anything that stands out to you for your records in case you come across it while review loan documentation.
Get your team on board
If you have an assigned loan processor or loan officer assistant, schedule a meeting with them to discuss your business goals. Let them know that you appreciate their hard work in 2016 and what your plans are for 2017. Discuss how you can work as a team to get more done efficiently. Ask them for honest feedback regarding your loan files, your work style and communication. The idea is to look for areas of improvement, not turn the meeting into the “blame game”. Remember it’s a new year, new mind set and new goals. Even if you got off on the wrong foot with your team apologize, make up and move on. You all need each other to succeed! No one is more important than the other!
