How Daniel Sa Is Closing 370+ Loans This Year and Has Become #1 In Central Ohio Market

1.6—that’s the industry average for closed loans per loan officer per month. Rocket Mortgage’s average is more than double that at 2.86 (MMI). But Daniel Sa, Division President at NFM Lending in Columbus, Ohio, is blowing both stats out of the water. He and his team are averaging 6.4 loans per loan officer per month! And his personal team is on track to close 370+ loans this year. 

This interview with Daniel Sa is part of TrustEngine’s 10X Strategy series. In our 10X series, we interview industry leaders who are winning in this market; they are gaining market share and doing it in a way that reduces price exceptions and improves conversions. These goals are achieved by being a data-driven Mortgage Coach using a Total Cost Analysis with every borrower and optimizing your database with TrustEngine .

Daniel Sa knows how to be successful at scale in the most challenging markets we’ve ever seen. His region has 35 loan officers, closing 225 loans per month. He oversees sales, marketing, processing, underwriting, and closing. He also runs a highly effective internal coaching program to get his loan officers to average six closings or more per month. His coaching program is pivotal to his division’s success.

“We’re number one in market share in central Ohio for the first time,” he says. “Huntington Bank in Columbus has owned the number-one spot for the past decade. Nobody has ever beaten them. This is the first time we’re beating Huntington, Chase, Rocket Mortgage, and all the other local competitors with a 9% market share in central Ohio, which is quite substantial. And that gap is now starting to widen.”

Every loan officer and branch manager should use Daniel's current strategies to win in this market. Here, Daniel and I unpack the strategies driving his team’s success.

#1. Be strategy and process-driven.

“We run a high-performance team,” Daniel says. “We believe in proven tactics and much effort. I only like to work with people who want to win, have an appetite to do better, and want to make a name for themselves but are also fun. I think those people match well in our program because I’m ‘all in’ on everything I do, so I also have to work with people who are ‘all in’.”

#2. Take a comprehensive approach.

This market right now is tough. It’s shrinking, so it’s more competitive. Volume is coming down, so there isn’t one answer to everything. It's a comprehensive approach. 

#3. Educate every client using a Mortgage Coach Total Cost Analysis.

“This will make a big impact on whether you win or lose,” Daniel says. Further down in this article, we offer some of Daniel’s examples. 

#4: Have a proactive strategy for gaining new Realtor relationships.

“How you retain those relationships, how you help Realtors win by converting more offers, setting clients up to make strong offers, that’s going to help customers and Realtors win,” says Daniel.

#5: Be your team’s coach.

Develop coachable, teachable processes, then teach them to your team. “Being a coach is the most important thing you can do, because you can have really good marketing, operational processes and strategy, but if you don’t coach people on how to properly execute and then create some accountability around it with metrics, you won’t win,’ Daniel says. “This is one reason why we’re gaining market share so fast—because we’re doing coaching and training really well.”

(This is also Rocket’s secret sauce. They train. There’s a Rocket way of doing things and they have a tremendous infrastructure in training and managing people to execute on best practices.)

Best practices are the foundation of any lending organization. Daniel focuses on comprehensive reinforcement of best practices nonstop all the time. “We’re in relentless pursuit of that,” Daniel says. “Your best practices are how you gain new Realtor relationships, retain them, execute at Realtor meetings and execute on loan consultations, with the last two being the most important. Then also, how you maximize your week. There are a lot of different practices that are important to reinforce, but if you have a solid foundation, then you can scale.”

#6. Use these best practices in loan consultations:

>>Have face-to-face meetings. “When the client picks you, that is when the client becomes confident about you being the person who is going to handle the financing for them,” Daniel says. “My belief is that they have to be in-person or via Zoom. There has to be a way for you to do screen sharing and to go deeper with them rather than just a conversation over the phone.” 

A lot of loan officers miss the mark on this because they take a 10-03, then they’ll talk about payment scenarios over the phone and they’ll send the weird looking fee sheets and the GFEs or whatever other people do.

“Don’t worry about price at the preapproval stage, because they’re not locking anything in at that moment,” Daniel says. “Take that opportunity to educate the client.” He suggests starting by explaining your goals—honor, referral source, etc. 

Ask good questions. The key to any good presentation is asking good questions, such as:

• What are your goals?
• What is your ideal payment?
• What do you have in mind for down payment?
• How long do you plan on being in your home? 

If they’re saying, ‘This is my first house, I just want to get into a home; chances are I will have another house.’ Listening to those things, calculating breakeven points, creating the strategy on the options that allow you to explain using a visual aid—that is going to be important to them. “Compared to the credit union sending a G F E sheet, we’re always going to win against those types of strategies,” says Daniel.

>>Educate clients on the current housing market.

Proactively bring up the elephants in the room—high mortgage rates and increasing home prices. Educate clients on where rates are right now; then forecast where rates are going so people can understand that this is temporary. 

Educate the customer on:

• What rates are right now
• Where they’re going
• How rates are arrived at
• How rates can change from company to company 

“When we address rates, we just Google it, so it feels more authentic and not like a canned presentation. It also gets us out in front of it and makes us look like an expert on it,” Daniel says. “People say, ‘Wow, this guy really knows what he’s doing. I really appreciate how he articulates and shows us everything, and I just want to work with him right now.’ Price goes out the window at that point.”

There are specific articles he seeks and his team knows how to search for them. “We’ll show the Freddie Mac or NBA forecast, or articles from industry experts. Barbara Corcoran (from Shark Tank), for example, was on the news recently talking about how, when rates go down, home values are going to explode,” Daniel notes. “She’s saying that home values could potentially go up 15% or higher when rates come down because demand is going to go through the roof. So explaining that to home buyers gets them energized to do something now rather than wait, because if they wait, they may be completely priced out even when rates are lower because they won’t be able to get in unless they’re willing to overcome a large appraisal gap. Do this before you start the process of reviewing terms and options.”

If a client calls one of Daniel’s loan officers and says, ‘We have a 7.25% interest rate,’ their response is, “we have a 7.125. If somebody calls and says, ‘We have a 6.875,’ we have a 6.7. Everyone is always going to have a lower rate. It’s about building winning strategies to get them into the house. It’s not easy to find a house or to win an offer. So educating them through the process is critical.”

When rates come down, it’s going to increase the affordability factor for people who can’t buy right now because rates are high. People who are on the sidelines will come into the market and home values will go up. So explaining that to them now helps build trust. And Daniel always includes a link to his “Buy Now or Buy Later TCA.  

CLICK Here to see Daniel’s Buy Now or Buy Later TCA.

>>Present options using a Total Cost Analysis. One hundred percent of Daniel’s clients get a TCA. “We’re showing them a Total Cost Analysis in real time and articulating every detail during screen share. This is where you explain in a simple way, with visual aids and side-by-side comparisons on a TCA, how to structure the loan to maximize savings. We believe this is a huge benefit because we can see their body language and their reactions, which can be helpful in guiding you along.”

To reduce or eliminate concessions, put your competition in one column for comparison, and focus on dollars, not basis points. Most lenders negotiate based on interest rates such as, ‘I can lower your rate by an eighth.’ Basis points and rates are expensive. According to Optimal Blue, the average concession is 80 basis points. But if you negotiate based on dollars, ‘What if I lowered your payment by $500?’  It’s a lot less expensive to keep that business if you negotiate based on dollars versus basis points. 

Daniel’s ‘right-hand-man’ Alex Thomas walks us through a TCA where the options are in tiers:

>>Beware of these common mistakes:

• Don’t over-explain the details. To keep it simple, only show two options at a time. “We love the detail on a Mortgage Coach TCA, but we can simplify the explanation by focusing on payment and cash to close rather than trying to over-explain every line item.”

• Don’t talk more than you listen. When people talk too much and don’t listen enough, they don’t ask good questions or do good order-taking. “If a client comes in and says, I want to do a 20% down payment and you only show 20% options, you miss the opportunity of doing a 5% down payment and showing them how they can reinvest that money,” Daniel says.

• Be constantly engaged. If you’re talking and not listening, you become repetitive. ‘Here’s your rate. Here’s your payment. Here’s your cash to close.’ They’re buying their dream home. Get them excited and passionate by painting a picture of how you’re going to be there for them and manage their lending needs their entire lives—when their kids are born, when they need college funding, want to remodel or expand their house, outgrow their house and want to move up, buy an investment property, and possibly even downsize as empty nesters. And then there are all the refis in between when rates drop. “Let them know that you’re committed to being constantly engaged—that you’re going to be there for them every time they need you,” Daniel says. 

During the 90-day transaction process, Daniel’s team constantly engages the customer. And every time a new property scenario is added, or something changes, the TCA is updated. “Our TCAs get about three to four views each, on average. We’ve produced 3,900 TCAs. That equals 14,000 touches, so we have a high engagement ratio with each customer TCA.”

>>Build metrics around the results you want. Figure out how to garner at least two to three pre-approvals every week. Figure out how to get in front of three Realtors every week. Leverage Mortgage Coach TCAs to address things in people’s minds—where rates are and where house prices are going. Be consistent with your actions and measure results to ensure you’re hitting your goals, and if not, then recalculate and rework. 

#7. Use the same best practices in Realtor presentations. One of the easiest ways to get Realtors excited about sending you leads is to walk through your TCA presentation with them. “Do a 15-minute Zoom call with the Realtor and show them how you will address the elephants in the room. When the Realtor sees that immediately in their head, they’ll think, ‘I need all my clients to see this’.

In many cases we ask them, ‘Can you think of any clients you currently have pre-approved right now with other lenders that could benefit from this kind of information?’

And then they’re thinking, ‘I have five clients that have decided not to buy anymore because they're waiting for the housing market to crash or for the rates to come down.’ In many cases, we get leads from Realtors the first time we meet with them by simply showing this information to them. So leveraging this, and explaining to them how you address the elephant in the room is ultimately what is going to help gain trust to get that first lead. 

“Once you get that first lead, then just deliver on it. Ensure the client provides great feedback and the Realtor sees its value. But leveraging the Mortgage Coach consultation to get that first lead is something we do all the time.”

>>Summing it all up. “It’s not that hard to scale,” Daniel says, “but you’ve got to build that initial foundation.” Follow his 10X strategies and you could start generating one new loan a month, one new Realtor partner referral a month, and reduce price exceptions while improving conversions. The market is not going to improve in the near future, but you can. The time to start is now. 

These are the top 8 skill sets you need to scale. If you do these eight things, you’re going to show up differently from a confidence level and as a really unique and valuable person to work with:

• How you gain new Realtor relationships
• How you execute at Realtor meetings
• How you follow up after a Realtor meeting
• How you execute on communication policies
• How you execute at loan consultations (both at preapproval and in contract)
• How you generate leads that are different than Realtor referred leads
• How you increase your pillars of business within the organization
• How you structure your week to maximize your results

WATCH the full interview with Daniel Sa to hear how he's closing over 370 loans this year