Happy New Year to all my loyal credit union mortgage lending followers! I hope you each had a great holiday and are back with your core power cells fully charged, ready to help more of your members with homeownership.
Did any of you do something new or different this New Year? I ask because for the first time since my residence here on Earth, I was compelled to pull myself away from the annual Twilight Zone marathon and fixated my eye stalks on the amazing, beautiful and entertaining floats featured in the Rose Parade. Just fathoming the idea of creating mobile structures – some of which were larger than my spacecraft – completely with flowers and other organic vegetation baffled my cranium.
The process for creating just one of these floats is without a doubt intricate and time-consuming. But, just like anything else in the universe, if you want something done right and with true value, it takes time and attention to detail, much like the home loan process for your members.
Over the course of one of your Earth years, my goal is to deliver information, tips and inspiration to credit union mortgage lenders to help them through this intricate and time-consuming process. To help me determine specifics around each of my posts, I often ask my readers for their hot industry topics. I also like to dive into the statistics and website analytics to discover which posts you find most appealing.
To kick off the New Year, I pulled together a list of the Top 11 posts from 2023 based on the open rate of our readers. I know the “norm” is to do a Top 10 list, but I’m anything but normal, so you get a bonus post. If you’re looking for helpful reminders to start your new year of service, or if you missed any of these, I highly recommend you give them a read, as the content of these posts contains information that will assist you in helping more of your members with homeownership in 2024. And I encourage you to share these with colleagues, Realtors and other mortgage industry partners so that together, we can help even more members with homeownership.
- How to Build Strong Realtor Partnerships That Will Drive Success in 2023: With higher interest rates dampening demand for home loans in today’s competitive purchase market, now more than ever, credit union mortgage originators should strive to establish (or reestablish) partnerships with Realtors to keep their mortgage pipelines producing. Blaine Rada from Arch MI looks at how to accomplish this.
- Be On the Lookout for…: Want to learn what credit union mortgage lending is all about and how to do it right? Check out Ana Petre, winner of this year’s Tim Mislansky Belief Award, as she demonstrates her core beliefs at work, at home and in her community.
- Teamwork & Cornhole: The real estate industry is providing credit union mortgage lenders with plenty of obstacles in less than ideal circumstances. While it would be easy to pack up our cornhole boards and beanbags and call it a day, that’s not how we’re wired.
- Navigating Economic Downturns: Credit Unions Must Prioritize Member Life Events: Inflation isn’t deflating (yet), rates aren’t declining (yet), and consumers aren’t as determined to borrow for major financial decisions (for now). Discover how credit unions can keep their members financially healthy in this guest post from Total Expert’s James White.
- Press 1 to Speak with Me: The “credit union way” of doing business is unique, as I witnessed first-hand, and it’s quite a balancing act when you bring the heavy use of technology into the picture. How do we offer tech solutions with a personal credit union touch?
- What an Opportunity! Part 1: As credit union mortgage lenders, the last thing we want our members to experience is fear as it concerns homeownership; however, that fear presents us with some great opportunities!
- The myCUmortgage Highlight Reel: As we all reacclimate ourselves to a purchase market, here are the Top 10 ways that our Credit Union Service Organization (CUSO) can help you become a great mortgage lender.
- The Saga of My Lawn: What does last year’s drought in the spring and my withering lawn have to do with credit union mortgage lending? Read more and discover how persistence with both pays off!
- What an Opportunity! Part 2: In Part 1 listed above, we looked at opportunities that include dispelling common mortgage myths and ARMs. In Part 2, discover how variety is the spice of life, why class is back in session and how technology needs to be member friendly.
- Making Mortgage Miracles in the New Year: Miracles really do happen, as the myCUmortgage experts demonstrated last Christmas. Read this story that will serve as your inspiration to keep doing what you do, building relationships, thinking outside of the box, getting more members into homes and helping them stay in their homes.
- Get Amped Up This Fall: This is your Bonus Post! While it discusses what last year’s Partner Conference was all about, it’s also a sneak preview of education and events you can expect at this year’s Partner Conference, scheduled for Oct. 15-17 in Dayton, Ohio.
Which post was your favorite from the last year? What topics would you like to see addressed this year? Please share in the comments below – your feedback is treasured by me and most valuable in determining timely and informative topics to cover.
As we soar through the mortgage galaxy together this year, let’s remember to help and support each other because in the end, it’s all about delivering members a float that’s worthy of an award at the Rose Parade.