Good word-of-mouth marketing is often immediately associated solely with clients. After all, if you have a long-standing success streak and a heap of positive reviews, you instantly have an advantage in terms of building trust with your prospect base, and possibly quality referrals coming your way.

However, when building your brand awareness in the industry, don’t forget that your (prospective) customers aren’t the only place referrals come from, or who you should hold a steady reputation with. The baseline of a great business is one that also has strong networking.

When looking at who to partner up with as a mortgage loan officer, there are many professionals across legal, financial, and housing sectors with whom having and nurturing a business relationship can increase your mortgage referrals: home builders, financial advisors, attorneys… But the one pool you should be exploring the most is real estate agents.

Here’s why mortgage loan officers should partner with real estate agents, and all the benefits that come along with it.

Sharing clients reduces workload

Two men in suits, one is holding a phone in his left hand. Both are pointing at something on the screen.

As emphasized in the introduction, the biggest benefit of having a strong partnership with a real estate agent or business is getting a steady inflow of new clients. Obviously, this comes with the reciprocated responsibility of returning the favor. Be cautious of the reputation of the real estate agent you want to share your contacts with, but also make sure that you’re in a good place to network and build trust with real estate agents.

However, when you do find that one agent that you can truly rely on and enjoy working with, the lead generation workload gets cut in half for both of you.

It’s a win-win situation: everyone who’s looking into getting a mortgage loan is surely looking at getting a property, and (almost) everyone who’s looking into buying a property is also looking at taking out a loan.

Once you have a few successful clients behind you who both found a property and secured a loan through you and your partner realtor, other potential buyers and borrowers will take note. After all, why bother dealing with two separate and unconnected businesses to get the keys to your house when you can get the full package elsewhere?

Thought leadership through shared knowledge

Woman in formalwear pointing at a property plan on both a laptop and phone screen, with other files and notes on the desk in front of her.

Today when anything and everything is searchable on the internet at one’s own fingertips, it’s crucial to produce content and educational materials for your prospect base in order to establish your credibility and your name as the most knowledgeable person in the field.

By partnering with a real estate agent, you can share your knowledge of the financial aspect of the housing market while your real estate partner focuses on the property hunting aspect. Make guest appearances on each other’s blogs, social media handles, podcasts, in newsletters, at events, and whatever other means you are using to share your expertise as a lead magnet or to take competitive advantage.

Additionally, when you get an inquiry over the phone on anything that’s specifically the area of expertise of a realtor, you can simply pass your client on to your partner and boost your customer service satisfaction simultaneously.

According to statistics, 93% of homebuyers stated they searched for information on the homebuying process online, while 56% stated that excellent customer service was one of the most important qualities for an agent to have.

Together, you can become the one-stop-shop for all things related to the homebuying process and provide your prospect base with a full-circle approach to home buying instead of just one side of the coin.

Extended connections bring more opportunities

Five people in formalwear having a discussion in a setting that seems like an after-hours office get-together. There are drinks on the table at the forefront.

Walk into a room full of business people and say that you need a referral for a job or service. There will always be that one person raising their hand who “knows someone who knows someone”…  When it comes to mortgage services, you want that “someone” to be you.

While mortgage loan officers may have a closer relationship with other professionals in the financial and legal industries – such as advisors, underwriters, and bankers – real estate agents, on the other hand, have more contact with (and easier access to) home builders, house flippers, remodeling agencies, and so on.

All of these professions are ripe with potential for getting new mortgage referrals. Your real estate buddy can even be your starting point for more networking opportunities in the future.

Cutting costs and saving time

A table with a clock, three rows of stacked coins with a plant sprout emerging out of each one, and a small wooden house model.

Taking all the points from above and putting them into one basket, you are not only building your name, and gaining more connections and clients – you are ultimately also cutting down on marketing costs, lead generation efforts, and saving time to focus more on the core aspect of your work – securing those loans.

In a 2017 survey, 87.9% of mortgage professionals claimed referrals were their most successful marketing tactic, while 47.4% of MLOs claimed they do not spend any money on referrals, at all.

Do you partner with real estate agents, or do you prefer to only network with other MLOs?