Meeting in person marks the first step toward gaining customers for life

Chik Quintans, certified mortgage planner, Atlas Mortgage

As published in Scotsman Guide's Residential Edition, April 2010.

Before you can provide leadership and lending solutions for first-time homebuyers as their mortgage broker, you must earn their trust. You can do this by meeting these and other prospects in person, fielding their concerns and managing their expectations.

Meeting face to face

If you work in the same town, city or metropolitan area as your prospects, you should attempt to meet potential clients in person. When you don't meet people in person, you jeopardize your ability to gain trust.

In-person meetings offer great opportunities to build rapport. You can't match this on the phone, through e-mail or online.

On the Web ___________________________ Internal Revenue Service Form No. 5405 (for claiming the first-time-homebuyer tax credit): sctsm.in/IRS5405 National Association of Home Builders' guide to homebuyer tax credits: federalhousingtaxcredit.com

This is especially true when meetings take place in your office, presuming your office is a place you'd like to show off to clients.

In-person meetings also give you an opportunity to answer prospects' questions and educate them about their purchasing decision. For example, homebuyers continue to have many questions about tax credits and their application in specific situations. Although these credits may seem like old news to brokers, buyers often don't comprehend them fully.

Face-to-face meetings also offer brokers a chance to make detailed presentations, either with the use of mortgage software or by hand, sketching out possible scenarios. When you can clearly demonstrate how multiple loan scenarios pencil out, you're more likely to earn business. Various options exist for mortgage-presentation software, and using one can help you show prospects clear and concise loan comparisons.

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