LLL recently had the pleasure of sitting down with Roy George, Managing Partner at MOR Lending. Roy was eager to share some recent changes and what he’s learned along the way.

Many Changes

Roy recently took a job with MOR Lending. When Roy started there, MOR Lending was a broker. They’ve since become a correspondent lender. Over the last 7 months, MOR has allowed Roy to work collaboratively and build a team. It’s been a tiring but awesome transition.

Working as a director is very different from just being an employee. There’s certainly more responsibility. As Jim joked, “When it’s yours you sleep like a baby… You wake up crying every three hours.” Roy, ever the wit, was quick to respond, “I don’t wake up crying, but I do wake up with quite a few ideas to jot down.”

The Buyer Experience

The focus needs to be on the customer’s experience, on getting the buyer from point A to point B smoothly. Recently, Jim posted a poll asking his LinkedIn contacts to describe first-time homebuyers in a word. The descriptions were largely negative, which unfortunately seems all too true of the buyer experience.

Roy prefers the word: coachable. First-time homebuyers have a lot to learn, which is why customer experience is so important. You want to maintain the excitement homebuyers feel on Zillow and elsewhere. Too often the long, intimidating closing process kills that excitement.

A Volatile Market Can Be an Advantage

Everyone asks Roy the same question: why did you make this job change when the market is so unstable? But this market volatility can be an advantage if you look at it the right way. Interest rates are going up. The fed expects more increase. Refis are dried up. Regardless, market consolidation is an opportunity to teach MLOs to grow their purchase business and find new business. You can maintain income levels if you adapt. The ones who built their business on crunching refis might close, sure, but now is the time to be versatile and train for volatility.

Building Partnerships with Realtors

Roy is a firm believer in connections, connections, connections. He’s relished cultivating a teaching role to help raise awareness for products. Mutual referrals build business on both ends. You want to get a little bit from a lot.

Using tech to help smaller lenders compete with the likes of Rocket Mortgage

Roy used to work in tech, so we’d be remiss not to ask about that. His tech stack these days is different than it used to be. It’s important to be open to considering a POS or LOS you’ve never heard of, one that isn’t the industry norm. Get to know smaller companies with excellent products (Companies like LodeStar, says Roy. His words.) Five years ago, people would go with the big name. Now the little guys, even if they can’t match their competitors for market share, have names just as big. New players in the tech space are revolutionizing the space.

Small companies want to deal with real people who they know will give them incredible service. Roy is a huge fan of new LOS platforms like LendingPad. A huge part of making these new vendors work is not executively deciding that you’re going with a certain solution. Let your LOs and users in on the decision process. Let them test. Let them give input. It’s vital to collaborate.

Leveraging Social Media

Social media is an imperative part of doing business now. Roy has an LO who has just done his 3rd or 4th purchase deal with a lead acquired through his presence on TikTok. You have to establish a presence. Authenticity is important. Maybe posting on social media isn’t going to net big deals, but it does garner engagement, and it endears people to the humans behind your brand and content. Everyone has to find the medium that works for them, then learn how to use it.