How To Talk To Clients About Inventory & Lending Rates • Learning With A Lender • Joel Schaub

Welcome to the July episode of Learn With A Lender with Joel Schaub of Guaranteed Rate!

In this episode Joel discusses what’s going on in the market right now and shares advise to agents working during these touch times with low inventory while rates are going up. Joel also advises on how to take advantage of fluctuating rates right now. Once more, Joel emphasizes the importance of building relationships with lending officers in your area and building business together. Joel and D.J. discuss Joel’s weekly market update. Last, Joel reminds everyone that refinancing the mortgage is always a great opportunity for home-owners.

If you’d prefer to watch this interview, click here to view on YouTube!

Joel can be reached at joel@rate.com and 773.654.2049.

This episode is brought to you by Real Geeks, Quality Builders and FollowUpBoss.

---

Transcript

D.J. Paris 0:00
With the market shifting or already shifted to lower inventory and even higher interest rates, what should you be telling your clients? We’re going to discuss that today? Stay tuned. This episode is brought to you by real geeks. How many homes are you going to sell this year? Do you have the right tools? Is your website turning soft leads and interested buyers? Are you spending money on leads that aren’t converting? We’ll find out why agents across the country come to real geeks as their technology partner. Real geeks was created by an agent for agents. They pride themselves on delivering their clients a real estate sales and marketing solution to generate more business real geeks is easy to use. Their websites are fast and built for lead conversion with a smooth search experience for the end user. Real geeks is mobile friendly delivering an excellent user experience on the go. Real geeks includes an easy to use CRM. So once your leads sign up on your website, you can track their interest and have great follow up triggers. Real geeks is loaded with a ton of marketing tools to nurture your leads and increase your brand awareness visit real geeks.com forward slash keeping it real pod again, real geeks.com forward slash keeping it real pod and find out why Realtors come to real geeks to generate more business. This episode is also brought to you by quality builders are you are one of your clients real estate investors who can’t seem to find a trustworthy general contractor. Are you tired of poor communication, excessive change orders and extensive schedule delays. We’ll look no further because quality builders is a Chicago general contractor focused on helping you the real estate investor grow your portfolio. Each and every product decision is based on quality builders core values of transparency, courage, integrity, and uniqueness which produce sustainable and predictable results that successful real estate investors are looking for. Quality builders uses innovative project management technology to keep you up to date on your projects by providing a client portal to view daily logs schedules and contract and change order updates. Schedule a free one on one consultation by visiting quality builders.com. That’s quality builders.com to see how they can partner with you to build your real estate portfolio. And now on to our show.

Welcome to another episode of Keeping it real the largest podcast made by real estate agents and for real estate agents. My name is DJ Paris, I am your guide and host through the show. And today once again is our monthly series learn with a lender with Joel shop from guaranteed rate. Now Joel is the vice president of lending at guaranteed rate. He’s been doing loans at a high level since 2003. And he’s got to that level because of what he does specifically for agents, which is he gives that part of his commission to the buyer on every transaction making you the agent look like a hero. Now last year alone, Joel gave back almost $300,000 in closing costs to buyers who worked with him. And that puts Joel’s volume in the top 1/10 of 1% of all lenders nationwide. And just to kind of make that making maybe a little bit more sense. There’s 400,000 loan officers in the United States. And Joel is currently ranked number 137. Last year, he closed over 619 transactions, his highest amount ever for $249 million. And already this year with the market you know changing. He’s already closed 215 transactions now. Yes, 215 transactions for $87,000,000.95 and 95.2% of that were purchases. So if you’re looking for a loan officer, we cannot more highly recommend Julie’s the very best we’ve ever worked with. Joel can be reached at his email address which is joel@rates.com very easy J OEL at r a t e.com. Or you can shoot him a text message or call him at 773-654-2049 Let’s say hello to the biggest Cubs fan. I know Joel Schaub Welcome once again,

Joel Schaub 4:16
thanks, DJ, appreciate you having me on again. And I love hearing those numbers. But none of the accolades really matter. It’s like every time we get together, it’s one of my favorite times because we’re giving, we’re sharing, and we’re really educating agents out there about what’s happening right now.

D.J. Paris 4:33
Yeah, and I think now it’s such a great time to have these particular episodes because the market has changed. Rates of course have gone up. We knew they were going up, but here here we are. And I think it’s it’s agents. You know, our it’s a tough time right now to be an agent, you know, there’s not a lot of inventory rates are up so, you know, buyers are maybe more constricted. So any advice that that that you know you can help our audience understand about how to proceed. And is always going to be great in times like these. And I don’t think it’s such a terrible time. But I know for agents, you know, we had some really great years, the last few years, and it’s obviously just changing a bit. So we’d love to hear about what’s going on in the market.

Joel Schaub 5:20
I’m excited about this time, if I’m an agent, I work with buyers, it’s actually easier right now that rates are up for buyers to go under contract to a property DJ, period, cut and dry. So remember, we’re always thinking of the bright side of things right now, if you’re an agent, and you’re working with buyers, they don’t have to compete against 15 other offers, where you went in full asking price, or even 20 or 50 grand over and still lost, okay? It wasn’t that many months ago, where that was what was going on. And so now, we’re sitting here saying, Oh, my gosh, this market is so hard. The last two years have been hard. Okay, they just been hard in a different way. Okay. So I have a lot of excitement right now. And things that are going to be happening this summer and fall for buyers are that just rates being up, gives me an opportunity to go in and actually buy the home at the right price, instead of these inflated prices that buyers were paying sight unseen for homes. EJ, yeah, and

D.J. Paris 6:17
I think your experience is really relevant here too, because you started in 2003, you’ve already seen a pretty dramatic couple of cycles of the market, with rates, of course, and just the economy. And you have zero control, like the rest of us listening over what happens to rates. So you’ve had to roll with the the good, and the bad, the peaks and the valleys. And I really appreciate you talking about the bright side of it. Because there is always a way to take advantage in a healthy way of a current situation. But it’s also easy to get discouraged. And I love the fact that you’re always looking for the positives and you’re not Pollyanna about it. It’s not like oh, there’s no weeds in my garden. There’s no weeds in my garden. I know there’s weeds, I’ll pick them out. But then I have a beautiful garden again. And so I think it’s maybe now more than ever, I think it’s really important for the agents to stay positive. So we’d love to hear about anything that I know you guys have a new product or new process, I guess I should say about how agents can lock in or sorry, how buyers can lock in rates. So can we talk about that? Yeah, right

Joel Schaub 7:23
now, it’s really important that we have seen a dip in rates, right? It wasn’t that long ago, where the headlines were rates of top 6% always backed way off from them. Okay. So when rates go up like that it was a knee jerk reaction to what the Federal Reserve was gonna have to do to combat inflation. And so it was the anticipation of what they did or will do is what drove rates up. And once they actually did it, rates came down. Okay, so now we’re sitting at rates anywhere in that five and a half above or below, when it wasn’t even three weeks ago, where we saw rates considerably higher. So how do we take advantage of that if we’re agents? And how do we take advantage of these lower rates of our buyers, if we still only have a house? Okay, a lot of banks right now, including ours are offering the lock and roll type of programs DJ where you could actually secure a rate lock for 60 or 90 days, even without a home. And so if you’re out there right now, as an agent, and you’re working with a mortgage broker, call them call now and ask about any of the lock and roll type of programs. Okay, they come in different names, of course. But the concept here is, could I lock a rate? Could my clients lock a rate with you, even if we have not identified a property, find out how long they can lock for and take advantage right now because when rates are lower, these banks will either allow you to float the rate down when rates go down if they’re under contract, or if rates go up to the clients been protected because they locked in a rate before they even found the home to great opportunity right now if I’m an agent, to partner with a mortgage person in your local area that can really help you work with buyers.

D.J. Paris 9:04
Yeah, and I think this is a great thing for agents to start getting more familiar with is as we know agents study the MLS and are constantly looking especially now with with lower inventory over the last several many years. Now we’ve had inventory shortages across the across the country. And of course, it’s more important now than ever to know when things come out in the market. It’s also more important now maybe then, in recent times, to know where rates are not that you have to be an expert because of course that’s Joel what Joel and his team and other lending loan officers will do for you. But it’s good for the agents No, because I think it creates an action step for agents you know, if they do see a dip or an increase I think like like Joe like you were saying great opportunity to reach out and say, Hey, I’ve noticed rates have come down a little bit. It might be a great time just to lock in a rate well, we don’t have a property, you usually not a problem. We can still get it locked in through you know through this particular process. So, because I haven’t calculated what the percentage changes from 6% are, I know it was even well over 6%. Now down to like, you were saying five and a half, you know, and a little bit, either on either direction of that. But that’s like a 30% shift or not a 30% shift, but like a 20% change. So that’s like significant, right. So I was thinking, that would be a good thing for agents not to obsess about and not to let ruin or make your day but just to know what’s going on. So that it might, I know that if I was a buyer, I would love to get a call. Or rather, if I was thinking about buying, and I was like, oh, rates are where they are, I would love to get a call from my agent going, Hey, did you know rates dipped a little bit, it might be a good time to lock something in. And I suspect most agents will never think to make that call.

Joel Schaub 10:46
Another great talking point, if I’m an agent right now, and you hear it from buyers that they’re really on the fence about buying because of rates being up high. But to put it into perspective, we’re just back to where rates have been. For years, these are still at lows, it just took a pandemic and it took two full years where the Federal Reserve had to cut rates to near zero to get mortgage rates down below 3%. And we knew it wasn’t sustainable. We can go back to many episodes where I was on this program talking about how this won’t last. So let’s get in well, the times are good. And now the times are still good. Okay, we can still go out and obtain properties. And we don’t have to overbid. So if I’m an agent, I’m reaching back out and saying, I know the headlines recently said that rates are above 6%. There are a lot of options to get rates in the fours and fives right now. Okay, so make sure that you’re making those types of phone calls and partnering with somebody, how many times have I been on the show DJ, where I’m explaining to agents the value of partnering with a mortgage professional,

D.J. Paris 11:49
all the time constantly.

Joel Schaub 11:51
What you want to do as mortgage professionals now more than ever should be willing to put their money where their mouth is and partner with you. So right now, when you’re getting these phone calls, from great mortgage professionals, ask them what they’re willing to contribute on marketing dollars. And I love saying this because I get so much hate mail from other lenders around the country saying why are you telling people that I will spend money on them? Because good loan officers will. So partner with these people that are really in your community that you know, like and trust and ask them not just for you to send them business, but what could they partner with you on? Okay, so I partner with my agents on so many different RESPA compliant marketing initiatives, spending 1000s and 1000s of dollars a month to help agents grow their business and mortgage professionals that are good. We’ll be more than willing to do this with you if you’re an agent. Okay? So lean on them make a friend now’s the time. Lenders aren’t as busy as they were the last two years. So make sure that you’re partnering with people that are really committed to helping you grow.

D.J. Paris 12:53
I have a question, Joe, do you happen to know you? And I don’t know the answer to this. And if not, we could just estimate how many low how many loan officers do you think are in the Chicagoland area, including the suburbs, just the you know, the entire Chicagoland, it’s got to be at least a few 1000 I’m guessing maybe not that many I don’t know.

Joel Schaub 13:12
In our state right now we have just north of 17,000 in the state of Illinois, and a big minority of them are in the metro market areas. So there are 1000s in what we consider the Greater Chicago area for sure.

D.J. Paris 13:24
So that’s what I figured I was thinking 5000 Or so I don’t know what the what we obviously don’t know what the full number is. But the reason I’m bringing this up, I was thinking because you were just talking about partnering with agents and I get an email from your team. From Maria on your team every single week. That’s it, I don’t practice real estate. So this sticks out a little bit to me. So I see it. And I always think oh, I don’t I I won’t participate. I can’t participate with this. But I love the fact that it said is every week I think on Wednesday or Thursday, she sends me an email saying hey, do you have any open houses this weekend? Because we want to help you with that. If you do, we can provide all sorts of you know, marketing material, etc. And every single week without fail, you send that and so and then I’m thinking okay, so I we have about 700 Plus agents in our company. Do you know how many other loan officers send me that email saying, hey, we want to work with you? Zero? literally zero,

Joel Schaub 14:21
not even one. Isn’t that?

D.J. Paris 14:23
I mean, isn’t that shocking that another? I mean, there’s there’s lots of great loan officers. And I don’t mean to belittle anyone else. And I’m just saying this is a I guess the takeaway is the road less traveled is not that busy. So if you’re willing to go the extra mile as an agent and call your your, your, your prospective buyers and say, hey, you know rates have come down. I really want to help you lock in a good rate. You’re probably not getting that call from somebody else, just like I’m not getting those emails from other loan officers saying hey, we want to work with your agents. So I think I think the The specific sort of ideas that you’re giving our audience are just absolutely gold, because I don’t really see a lot of other givers get mentality out there in the lending space or the ello space. And I love the fact that that is that has been the cornerstone of your businesses, give, give, give. And then of course, things just happen for you as well. I want to pause for a moment to talk about our episode sponsor are one of my favorite companies out there follow up boss. Now after interviewing hundreds of top Realtors in the country for this podcast, do you know which CRM is used by more than any other by our guests. Of course, it is a follow up boss. And let’s face it, following up is the key to taking your business to the next level follow up boss will help you drive more leads in less time and with less effort. Do not take my word for it. Robert slack, who runs the number one team in the US uses follow up boss and he has built a one and a half billion dollar business in just six years. Follow up boss integrates with over 250 systems, so you can keep your current tools and lead sources. Also, the best part they have seven day a week support. So you’ll get the help that you need when you need it and get this follow up boss is so sure that you’re going to love their CRM that for a limited time, they’re offering keeping it real listeners a 30 day free trial, which is twice as much time as they give everyone else. And oh yeah, no credit card required. So you can try it risk free. But only if you use this special link visit follow up boss.com forward slash real, that’s follow up boss.com forward slash real for your free 30 day trial. Follow up like a boss with follow up boss. And now back to our episode.

Joel Schaub 16:41
I’m happy to share those tidbits because it’s actually something that’s easy to read quickly and digestible for agents so that they can have good talking points on a weekly basis that’s timely, and something that they can share and some knowledgeable about something that they probably wouldn’t otherwise have a reason to talk to their buyers about. And so it’s our weekly update in the house, I’ve literally had hundreds of people from the keeping it real podcast, reach out and want to be involved in that just get on the list. And so they can, if you’re listening now you can absolutely just email joel@rate.com. And my team will put you right on the list. And so every single week, you’ll get in timely, fresh market update of just things that are going on that will help you. And that’s truly, that’s something that will actually make you sound smarter. And who doesn’t want that. I mean, I’m not the smartest guy in the room, I’ve just figured out ways that we can actually be educational and lead with value.

D.J. Paris 17:35
And by the way, to further my point about how going the extra mile is always the way to go. You know, market updates, you send this weekly market update, which is amazing, which you’re just referencing and everybody should get on this list because it gives agents specifically those exact talking points of here’s what’s gone on in the last week, here’s what you need to know. And again gives you a reason to pick up the phone and call call your clients. And I get zero other market updates from I’m realizing not only do I get zero open house, we want to help you with open houses I get zero market updates for and it’s not because I unsubscribe from everyone’s newsletters, literally nobody else sends them to me. And you know, I think there’s an opportunity there for agents to realize communication is the key and having a couple of talking points is all you need. And then when they ask a question about rates that you don’t quite know how to answer, great, let me connect you with my partner. And then you pass over Joel or whoever your your loan officers. But we weren’t we should mention that we’re in the Chicagoland area. But Joel, you and your team, and guaranteed rate is, you know, works in all 50 states. So even if you’re not here in the Chicagoland area, you know, please reach out to Joel and his team, they will they will guide you in the right direction. And what’s the so if they want to get on your list, they can email you joel@rate.com. And then what’s another way that that somebody should reach out to you if they want to partner with you or just ask questions or learn more about guaranteed rate?

Joel Schaub 18:57
I mean, we actually answer the phone. I mean, you can text me at 773-654-2049. And that number hasn’t changed in 17 years. And they’re always surprised that we actually answer the phone, I mean on two rings. And that’s what happens on Saturdays and Sundays that most banks are closed. So you need to have a mortgage partner that will actually pick up the phone and make sure that your buyers are taken care of. And in reference to the newsletter, I mean, it kind of started as like a private insider tip right? I was writing this on a weekly basis with my agents and I started hearing from other agents go, Hey, how do I get access to this? I just want to read this Can I Can I get in even I’m not sending you business. And so that’s what this list is you can literally just ask joel@rate.com and say add me to the list. And then you’ll get the market update on a weekly basis like an insider and have really great sharing and talking points for you to go back to buyers. And when you’re leading with education, these people will notice it because right now it’s going to make a difference between those that are selling and those that are held Buying, and sales people come and go. But if you’re actually there to provide value, listen to the needs, there’s an opportunity for buyers right now. And in the months ahead, as these rates stay inflated, buyers are gonna have an opportunity to finally come in and buy properties under market value, and under list price. And that’s what I’m really excited about. So if I’m an agent, keep the hope alive. All right, the sky isn’t falling. Most of the Federal Reserve increases that affect mortgage rates are pretty much baked in at this point. So yes, the feds will continue to raise rates DJ, but we from here, don’t anticipate seeing mortgage rates go to eight or 9%, there’s a really good likelihood that we see rates in the next couple of years, hit 4% before they hit 8%. Okay, so we’re in really good shape. And just know that as long as you’re out there helping buyers, the specific rate doesn’t matter, but know that they have come down and lead with value and call some of these people right now, and see if they need to get out of a renting situation and start buying.

D.J. Paris 21:05
Well, and you know, you mentioned this at the beginning. And I think it’s important to even just reiterate, which is of course pricing, home prices have come down. And so now Yes, rates have gone up, they’re still I think reasonable and you know, not compared to the last two years, but in our historical averages. Like, boy, our parents would have loved to have a five or 6% mortgage, depending on when they bought. And the fact is that home prices are down. So this might actually be more beneficial, even though rates are are slightly higher than they were before. So because there people aren’t paying as much for the same properties. And you know, I almost wonder in a couple of years for people that really, really paid well above asking price almost wonder if there’s going to be a little bit of buyer’s remorse there. So if you have buyer’s not buyer’s remorse, but just maybe some not so great feelings. And and I think if you thought, oh, boy, it was hard working with buyers last couple years, I think it’s actually better now. You know, rates are higher. So that’s a little bit of a hurdle, but prices are way down. So I think it’s I think it’s ultimately a good thing.

Joel Schaub 22:12
That’s what’s great in the United States DJ is that you always can refinance that mortgage, right? But once you buy into a property, you’ve paid 50, grand more, there isn’t a program where you can just wipe out 50 grand worth of debt. Okay? So what you can do in the United States is always refinance the mortgage. So I love this phrase, right? I love the idea that you marry the home, but date the rate, I’ll say it again, right, we gotta find the home that we want, right? We love it. We’re gonna marry the home. We’re not gonna marry the rate, we’re gonna date the rate. Okay, yeah, one of my friends says marry the home and to force the rate. All right, let’s get rid of the rate when, when the rates no longer working for us and rates are lower, let’s kick that man to the curb or woman to the curb, right? Whatever the phrase may be. Sure, point is, there is an opportunity right now. So remember, not if rates go down. But if and when rates go down, you can refinance that mortgage. And so you definitely can get out there and buy a home right now and have got the pick of the litter coming up, because there won’t be 25 other offers on the same place. So I’m very excited, as I’ve told you, even off air, this is the time where good agents continue to grow. And just by staying positive, it really, it’s about mindset, and it’s about education. And right now, it’s not as bad as it could be. So get out there, and let’s win some business this summer, okay. And

D.J. Paris 23:31
there’s a lot of things we just can’t control. We can’t control inventory, we can’t control rates, we can’t control the economy, or the political climate, or even the social climate in a lot of ways. So a lot of things are outside of our control. But what we always can control is our activity, and our willingness to want to provide. And so Joey is a perfect example of somebody who just constantly lives that, you know, despite whatever’s going on in the market, I’ve known Joel for for many years now, and he is not his personality, his his his activity is no different. When the rates are lower, the rates are higher, because he knows that that that is largely that’s more secondary to providing amazing service, you provide amazing service rates and costs and things oftentimes take a backseat. What’s most important is the relationship. And so this is a great opportunity to reevaluate your relationship with your loan officer. And if you don’t have somebody who’s really out there pulling for you and helping you, Joel is and his team would love to chat with you. So reach out to him get on his email list. joel@rate.com asked to be on the list. I’m telling you guys that will give you a reason to pick up the phone and call your clients and say hey, just you probably seen some things about rates. Here’s what you need to know. That’s a huge thing. You you started doing that for all your clients, they’re gonna be like, Well, nobody’s ever done that. For me. The loan officer that we worked with probably didn’t do it. The agents they’ve worked with in the past probably didn’t do that either. So it’s not that hard. And Joel do all the work for you. He’ll actually send me the email and you just have to read from it. Which is better, because I go to Morgan It’s news daily, every so often, which is a great website for learning about mortgages. I can’t make heads or tails of any of the articles in there. Because they are so industry specific. They’re really challenging for me to read. So I read go through that. And my mind starts spinning. And I love the email you send once a week that says, here’s what you need to know. Because there’s News Daily is a great website. But boy, it’s a little it’s over my head. But anyway, so what a great, great episode, stay positive, everyone things are not. So they’re not trying to filter out the noise that you’re hearing in your office from other agents. You know, good agents are excited about this time, it’s a little, it’s a little different. That’s all that it is. It’s a little different. But great opportunity to build your business. And we’re probably going to see a number of Realtors exiting the business as a result of this, which will only help the ones that are dedicated. So anyway, stay positive. Joel, thank you so much for being on our show. Once again, guys reach out to Joel he’s really that good. He’s an amazing human being. And his team is amazing. And he wants to work with you guys. And of course, guys, men and women, of course. And also, as always, please tell a friend about our show. Just think of one other agent that could benefit from hearing this episode from Joel, maybe somebody who’s maybe feeling a little down or depressed right now about what’s going on in the market. Send them this episode. This will probably change their attitudes a little bit, Matt, that would be great. So anyway, send them a link to our episode and then we will see everybody on the next show. So Joel, thanks so much,

Joel Schaub 26:28
TJ are the best. Thanks for having me on. Have a great day. Thanks.