Today’s world is technology-based. We carry the world in our pocket, and while this can be distracting at times, it can also provide mortgage loan officers with a pocket full of mortgage marketing tools and productivity tools at their fingertips. App-based technology enables you to increase your mortgage business opportunities, work more efficiently, and improve your social reach on the go. Here we look at some of the top must-have apps for a mortgage loan officer.
Key Takeaways
- Using apps can help mortgage loan officers increase sales and performance by expanding their network, monitoring the real estate market, and staying better connected with borrowers and referral partners.
- Productivity apps such as Harvest Time Tracker, Buffer, and EverNote can help loan officers manage their time and stay organized by tracking time, scheduling social media posts, and keeping notes in one place.
- Other helpful apps for mortgage loan officers include DocuSign for collecting signatures on the go, Upwork for hiring freelancers, and Pocket for saving articles or videos to view later.
Apps to increase sales and performance
The key to being a successful mortgage loan officer is business growth. You spend much of your day working to generate leads and create networking and referral contacts. These apps help to increase your sales and performance by allowing you to expand your network and provide responses to clients no matter where you are.
1. Real estate apps: Realtor.com, Redfin, Zillow, and Trulia
As a mortgage loan officer, knowing and understanding your local real estate market is key. The Realtor.com app allows you to monitor your local real estate market, see who the top realtors are, and understand the average selling prices.
Closely monitoring this app allows you to target things like open houses and home sellers to generate leads. For example, you can target open houses with finance flyers or business cards and connect with top real estate agents for referrals. When you see new houses on the market, chances are, the sellers are also looking for a new home. Sending out targeted mailers to home sellers puts your name out in front of prospective clients.
2. Floify
This mortgage automation app allows loan officers to stay better connected with borrowers and referral partners. It easily allows sending and receiving documents, tracking milestones, updating loan statuses, and efficiently following up with clients.
3. MTA GO
This app is designed to help you locate potential referral partners. With MTA GO, you can track real estate agents’ productivity, allowing you to find the top agents based on offices and locations. Once you locate top agents, you can save them to a watch list.
4. Loanzify
Loanzify is a communication platform that helps keep you and your borrowers in the know throughout the loan process. This customizable app allows you to offer your borrowers a branded digital mortgage calculator. In addition, you can co-brand the program with your realtor partners. This program helps track, catalog, and archive all communication between you and your borrower. The app offers a free trial to start, and their programs range from $39-$69/per month.
5. Mortgage Coach Edge
While explaining the mortgage process to some clients is easy, others may need a more visual description. Mortgage Coach Edge allows you to create visually appealing charts, graphs, and videos in order to better explain difficult concepts to potential clients. Offering this service shows your potential clients that you are committed to their understanding. Also, this personalized experience can help close sales.
6. Easy Mortgages (mortgages calculator)
Mobile apps, such as Easy Mortgages, offer mortgage loan offers mobile mortgage calculators, and proposal generators. Imagine working with a real estate partner at an open house and a potential buyer comes in asking about possible mortgage rates and what payments they would expect to pay on the home. With this app, you could put together a mortgage proposal and email it before they even finish viewing the home.
7. LinkedIn
LinkedIn is a valuable tool for anyone professional. As a mortgage loan officer, it is beneficial to have an outstanding profile for yourself and your business. LinkedIn is a valuable tool when it comes to generating leads and referral partners. However, you need to be regularly engaged with your network to get the most out of LinkedIn. Posting topics, endorsing network connections, adding new potential connections, and leaving testimonials are great ways to stay engaged and grow your network, but this can also take time. Adding the LinkedIn app allows you to use LinkedIn on the go.
8. Rate Watch
During times of heavy market volatility, adding the Rate Watch app can be like having another team member constantly monitoring the market for you. By setting rate alerts, you receive notifications for market happenings, including increases or decreases. This helps ensure you lock in rates at the opportune time and do not miss out on a potential sale.
9. Nextdoor
Nextdoor is a social platform that connects neighbors based on their location and neighborhood and allows them to share information and ask questions. Being active in your local area will enable you to stay engaged with locals that may have questions about mortgages and home loans. This allows you to share your knowledge and increase business opportunities.
Apps to increase productivity
As a busy mortgage loan officer, you are always looking to increase your productivity and streamline your day. The good news is many different apps are available to help you do just that!
10. Harvest Time Tracker
If you have ever wondered where your day went, Harvest Time Tracker can help. This app allows you to track your time throughout the day, track project progress, enter hours in timesheets, and schedule teams. It integrates with other platforms, such as Google Calendar, Outlook, and Basecamp. There is a free version, but for a monthly charge of $12/person, you can access all the features and have unlimited project tracking.
11. Buffer
Do you want to stay active on your social media accounts but just don’t have the time? Apps like Buffer allow you to schedule content for your social media platforms, such as your recent blog posts. This allows you to make posts while you continue to work with current clients. You can schedule these posts for times when your target demographics are likely to be most engaged on social media.
12. Join.Me
If meeting a colleague or client in person isn’t an option, Join.Me allows you to host virtual meetings from anywhere. In addition, it offers features such as screen sharing and video recording. While it has a free app, it also has various paid levels offering more features and ranging from $10-$30/per month.
13. EverNote
Is your desk covered in sticky notes? Do you have a notebook full of notes from meetings or thoughts you wrote down randomly? Do you wish you could keep all these notes in one place and organized? EverNote offers that solution. Here you can create simple notes, meeting notes, links to web pages, to-do lists, and more. While the basic program is free, the premium ($7.99/month) and business ($14.99/month) plans offer additional tools, such as project management.
14. DocuSign
As a loan officer, getting a signature on documents is vital for your business. DocuSign allows you to automate and digitize your complete documents and signature process, allowing you to collect signatures on the go and in a timely manner. Plans with DocuSign start at $10/month.
15. Upwork
Sometimes you need an extra hand but hiring another employee isn’t your budget. Upwork is an online platform for freelancers looking to help when they need it. With Upwork, you can post a project and receive bids from freelancers for the job. Once you hire the right candidate, they complete the job, and you pay through Upwork. You can post projects for free or join their Plus Plan for $49.99/month to receive a dedicated account manager to recruit freelancers when you need help.
16. GSuite
Google offers a variety of productivity tools, and chances are you already use Google Drive to share files and collaborate with colleagues. GSuite brings this to your mobile device, as well as other tools such as a sharable calendar and the option to host video and audio meetings. While the free version is fully functional, you are limited to 15GB of storage. The Basic plan is $5/month, while the business subscription is $10/month.
17. LastPass
In today’s world, just about every site or app, you engage with requires a password. LastPass takes the worry out of forgetting your password and being locked out of a program you need. Once you save your password for a site, it auto-fills the login information when needed. In addition, if you have trouble coming up with secure passwords, it offers a random password generator that helps increase your security. This app is free. However, there is a premium option for $3/month.
18. Pocket
Have you even read an article or seen a video that you wanted to go back to later or share with a specific client? Or did you start reading something that caught your attention but needed to head into a meeting? The Pocket app is your answer. This app allows you to save articles or videos you find on other apps, such as Facebook, and save the content so you can view it later, whether online or not.
Apps can help you succeed
As a mortgage loan officer, you are always looking for ways to increase your lead generation, gain referrals, and better manage your time. The good news is that technology, such as these apps can help you do just that while giving you more time to focus on your clients.
Here at Good Vibe Squad, our knowledgeable team is also here to help you build and grow your business. Schedule a strategy call with us today to learn more.
