It’s not all that difficult for mortgage brokers to call up lawyers, accountants and other financial professionals to introduce themselves and begin to build a referral relationship. The real challenge is to develop and maintain this new business relationship as well as your existing relationships. It’s all about convincing these sources that you are a valuable asset. Here are some tips on how to do just that:

Communicate with your lending sources

Keep in touch with your lending sources, but don’t be overbearing. Give them a call or send them an email once or twice a month. If they contact you, return their call or email in a timely manner. Always ask your sources what they want and how you can help them. Be sure to set aside a portion of each day to contact sources in order to maintain these relationships.

Always be honest

Being truthful with your sources is crucial to maintaining good relationships. Being upfront and honest throughout the commercial lending process will make it easier to sell deals to your sources’ clients and will reaffirm your sources’ confidence and trust in you as a commercial mortgage broker.

Have a good attitude

As a mortgage broker, you need to be positive and proactive when dealing with sources. You must convince each source that doing business with you is a good idea. Make sure that they understand how working with a commercial mortgage broker will benefit them.

Know your lenders’ loan programs

Your lending sources and their clients are going to have questions throughout the loan process, and if you can’t answer those questions, they won’t trust you. Be sure that you know the ins and outs of each of your lenders’ programs before offering your services to any referral source.

Assume accountability

There are plenty of issues that can pop up during the lending process, and it’s up to you as the broker to make sure they are resolved quickly. Prove yourself as a problem-solver, and lending sources will be more likely to send business your way.

The most important thing to keep in mind when building relationships with referral sources is that you need to let each source know how you can benefit them. If a source does not see you as being helpful to their business, they aren’t going to be interested. The tips above will allow you to present yourself as a trustworthy asset to any referral source and will help you to close more commercial mortgages.

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