How Fairway Loan Officer Kelly Rogers Grew Her Business by 400% (5 Tips for 2024)

The life of a Loan Officer today is full of uncertainty.

In 2021, 30-year mortgage rates were the lowest they’ve been in over 50 years. 

Just ten months later, rates drastically spiked, increasing by nearly 400 basis points. 

The pandemic-fueled refi boom was long over, inventory slowed, and generating new business became that much more difficult

And as we sit here today, rates are at their lowest level since September 2022.

The only true constant in this industry is change. Loan officers like Kelly Rogers, who embrace that concept can navigate any economic storm. 

That’s why we’re going to share exactly how you can grow your mortgage business this year, with five tips from Kelly Rogers at Fairway Mortgage.

Who is Kelly Rogers?

Kelly Rogers became the #1 producing loan officer in Houston and she grew from a team of just herself and one LOA closing about 120 loans per year, to closing 600 loans per year with a team of seven, in just under 3 years. 

That’s an astonishing 400% growth!

So when it comes to growing your mortgage business in a challenging market, Kelly is one of the best to take advice from. 

Short on time? Listen to Kelly break down her tips in this video:

1)  Set Your Vision

Maybe you were closing 15 loans per month, and now you're only closing five loans per month. 

Or, maybe you’re just unsure about how to approach this new market.

Kelly’s advice:

‍“You have to set a vision of what it is that you want to be doing in your business a year from now.”

Think of your vision as a clear or defined path for where you want to go. It sets your course and provides a purpose for your goal-setting activities. 

Without vision and without the end goal in mind, it can be easy to get lost and off track, especially in a difficult market. 

How do you set your vision?

Well, it all starts with a vision statement. 

A vision statement is simply an aspirational statement that outlines your long-term goals and helps to steer your efforts.

Here’s an example of a vision statement from Island Home Loans:

‍“Our vision is to be the best mortgage broker in our community by being the #1 trustworthy financing source for our clients and referral partners, becoming the top-of-mind choice for all their mortgage financing needs.”

A vision statement keeps you on track. It gives you a meaningful goal to work towards.

When it comes to creating your vision, Kelly recommends looking at what you've done over the last twelve months, 24 months, and 36 months so you can rely on real-world experience to help project into the future to identify where you want to be.  

You need to get really clear on the following questions:

• What are your goals for the next XX months?
• How are you going to position yourself in this market as an LO?
• What channels, tactics, and tools are you going to embrace to drive new purchase business and to set yourself up to land more refi business when interest rates drop?

Think of this as your opportunity to map out exactly how you’re going to grow your business in 2024 and beyond.

2)  Know Your Numbers

Kelly understands just how important a vision is, and she also knows her numbers. 

Kelly explains: 

“Knowing what your vision is for your business and then knowing what the data is and setting your goals based on what that historical data is, is huge.”

So, what data should you be looking at as a loan officer? 

Here’s what Kelly suggests:

• Number of leads that you are getting a month 
• Number of credit pulls 
• Number of actual applications 
• Number of closings 

You can picture it as a funnel that might look like this:

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In addition to Kelly’s recommendations, it also helps to pay close attention to the metrics that are a bit higher up in your marketing funnel.

For example, if you’re a Homebot customer, then you may want to also factor in the following:

• The number of clients that you’ve uploaded to Homebot. This can include your current database of homeowners and new homebuyer leads that you want to stay in front of. 
• The open rate of your monthly Homebot digest emails.
• The engagement rate of your digest emails, since this is telling you exactly who in your database might be interested in making a move.

In addition to Kelly’s recommendations, it also helps to pay close attention to the metrics that are a bit higher up in your marketing funnel.

For example, if you’re a Homebot customer, then you may want to also factor in the following:

• The number of clients that you’ve uploaded to Homebot. This can include your current database of homeowners and new homebuyer leads that you want to stay in front of. 
• The open rate of your monthly Homebot digest emails.
• The engagement rate of your digest emails, since this is telling you exactly who in your database might be interested in making a move. 

High engagement indicates that your clients are interested in how their homes and markets are doing, which could influence the number of leads that you get each month.

After you have identified what data points matter most to you, Kelly recommends taking the data and using it to set your goals for the next twelve months and beyond.

3) You Have to Market Yourself

After you have set your vision and know your goals, the next step is to start marketing yourself, which is more important than ever right now, as Kelly points out below.

“If you're the loan officer or you're the realtor that's talked about most in your market, chances are you're going to be closing the most business. And how do you do that? You have to market yourself.”

The bottom line is that marketing yourself will not only drive purchase business now, but it will also set you up for the next refi boom. 

Here’s Kelly’s strategy:

“We're utilizing different sources of marketing. We're hosting lots of events whether they be in person or via webinar and we're collaborating with a lot more people. So we are building that brand.”

Even as a top producer, Kelly hasn’t slowed down on her marketing efforts. 

Using social media to your advantage 

Kelly has established a strong presence on social media, especially across Facebook and Instagram. You want to be where your target audience is hanging out online. Your target audience is millennials in their prime buying years. And they’re active on social media, so you should be too. 

In fact, according to the National Association of REALTORS® Research Group, millennials now make up 43% of home buyers – the most of any generation – an increase from 37% last year.

Kelly knows that her audience of first-time home buyers is on social media and she’s building her social media following to generate more awareness among this audience. 

When it comes to Instagram, Kelly has positioned herself as a trusted advisor for homeowners.

But, she’s not stopping with just static images on social. 

She’s also producing short-form videos using Instagram Reels.

For example, this post alone has over 2,000 views within just a few days of being posted.  

If you’re looking to dominate in 2024, then you should consider making social media and video content part of your strategy. 

Bringing Value to Your Clients

When it comes to marketing yourself, it’s important to keep in mind that social media is just one channel of many. 

This is exactly why Kelly recommends repurposing your content into weekly emails for your database.

“Take those videos that you're posting on social media and do a weekly email to your database with those videos in it. Because I know we like to think everyone's on social media, but they're not. And they may be on social media, but they may not be seeing your videos.”

As you can see, Kelly is a huge advocate of using video in her marketing. But she also brings value to her database in other ways, too.

For example, another way that Kelly brings value to her database is by engaging her clients with a monthly Homebot Digest. 

With Homebot, Kelly engages her database at least once per month with an automated home valuation report that helps educate her clients on their home equity. This empowers Kelly’s clients to make more informed decisions, while also positioning Kelly as the expert that her clients can turn to when they are ready to take the next step in their homeownership journey.

4)  Be a Coach to Your Agent Partners 

Loan officers know that real estate agents are often a goldmine for client referrals.

However, it typically isn’t easy to get a steady flow of realtor-generated referrals coming your way. And according to a recent study from Maxwell, agents field calls from loan officers as often as 35 times per week! 

That’s why Kelly shares this extremely valuable piece of advice for how loan officers should approach their relationship with their agent partners:

“As a loan officer, I believe that you're a coach to your clients, but you're also a coach to your realtors. And when you embrace that and understand that you're in charge of that, you're educating yourself so that you can bring value to your realtors, to your builders, to the financial planners that send you business as well as to your clients.”

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One of the ways that you can bring value to agents is by partnering with your agents on Homebot, so your agents can bring more value to their clients while positioning you, the loan officer, as the go-to home finance expert on every Homebot Digest.

This is exactly what Kelly Rogers is doing to provide value to agents and drive more referral business her way. 

5)  Adopt a Business Owner Mindset 

In addition to setting your vision, knowing your numbers, and marketing yourself, there’s one more thing that Kelly suggests to set you up for success in 2024 and beyond.

It’s having a ‘business owner mindset’.

As Kelly notes: 

“This is a time that requires discipline and it's a time that also requires that business owner mindset where you understand that you're running a business.” 

Kelly goes on to make the point that whether you’re an individual loan officer or you're running a huge area, you're a business owner.

Thinking of yourself as a business owner means that you’re taking ownership of your future. It means that you'll have the strength and resilience to get through the tough times while embracing challenges like high-interest rates in an uncertain market.

Final Thoughts About Growing Your Mortgage Business in 2024 and Beyond

There’s no denying that the market has changed, but as Kelly Rogers has shown us, if you’re willing to set a vision, market yourself, be a coach, and have the right mindset, then nothing will hold you back from growing your mortgage business in 2024 and beyond. 

As a quick recap, Kelly’s tips are:

1) Set Your Vision

2) Know Your Numbers

3) Market Yourself 

4) Be a Coach to Your Agent Partners 

5) Adopt a Business Owner Mindset 

Want more content to help you grow your mortgage business? Check out how Homebot helped Andy Zemon generate $350K in commissions simply by engaging his database. Or schedule a demo to see Homebot in action.