Looking at the Root Causes of Challenges-Part 2

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By Jeff Mandel and Steve Hamner

RISMEDIA, April 12, 2007-Last month, we began our discussion on the root causes of challenges by addressing personnel. This month, we will tackle accountability and objectives.

It amazes us to see how many real estate companies have not fostered a true sense of accountability between their real estate sales and mortgage operations. Most will have a system in place to identify the capture rate on buyer-controlled transactions and to track income and expenses. Many have some form of customer satisfaction survey tool and the ability to track cycle times and items such as "met closing date." The irony is that few firms actually take the time to interpret this information to identify challenges and opportunities.

It is important to take the time to identify what the lost opportunity was for those transactions that did not get to the mortgage partner. We have found that the best partners work together to analyze, on a monthly basis, where the business is actually going and why it went outside the partnership.

When discussing core services with many broker/owners, they profess to understand the importance of their integration into the overall operation. After an analysis of the operation, it often becomes evident that most core services are loosely aligned at best. The sense of integration needs to flow down from the top.

The broker/owner needs to be the ultimate advocate for the core services and continually striving for commitment from the office managers and agents. The leader of the mortgage operation, at a minimum, needs to be seen as a peer to the real estate office managers. The loan officers need to have a sense of accountability to their real estate office manager and the real estate office manager needs to have some influence over the activities of the loan officer.

This is fostered by the age-old challenge of agents thinking solely as independent contractors and wanting to do the opposite of what the broker/owner requests. In order to maintain their feeling of independence, the agent will often consciously direct their clients to external providers.

In the budget of any successful business, you will find a well-thought-out marketing plan with an appropriate expense allocation for marketing and promoting the business. This does not seem to be the prevailing mindset when it comes to core services. These business owners seem to feel that a loan officer sitting in the sales office is enough to create awareness and attract customers.

One very important additional step these firms take is to monitor the impact of each aspect of their marketing plan to ensure that they are achieving the anticipated return on investment. This step is critical for without financial discipline it is very easy to expend valuable resources on campaigns that have no economic return.

Diagnose how your mortgage company has been operating and then develop a systematic plan to make the prioritized changes based on numerous best practices that will have a lasting impact on your results. If you need help, don't wait until it's too late to seek an expert opinion from an independent third party.

Jeff Mandel is the founder and president of Prism Professional Solutions (Prism). Steve Hamner is the company's senior vice president. For more information, please e-mail jmandel@prismprosolutions.com  (www.prismprosolutions.com).

RISMedia welcomes your questions and comments. Send your e-mail to: realestatemagazinefeedback@rismedia.com.