This is the transcript for my PLP interview with Tim Braheem in 2013 VIDEO | TIM BRAHEEM'S PERFECT LOAN PROCESS 2013 https://youtu.be/Nzg-E6e8yv8

1. TRANSCRIPT: The“PERFECT LOAN PROCESS 2013” with Tim
Braheem
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PRINCIPLES:
1. Your Perfect Loan Process is your unique valuable proposition and it’s your
biggest competitive advantage.
2. Consistency matters and you can’t have a PLP without consistent execution. You
might have a good loan process, but you can’t have a perfect loan process
without consistency
3. Leveraging technology has never been more important to a PLP. You must
you’re your CRM daily, you must use a modern POS platform to make applying
omni channel, every borrower must receive a TCA from Mortgage Coach so that’
you’re automating advice not just price, you must leverage video so you’re
emotionally connecting and as a local advice you should connect face to face
F2F as often as possible.
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CORE STRATEGIES:
#1 Be consistent in your scripting and your processes with every client and every referral
partner.
#2 Use a Total Cost Analysis with every customer, and hone the script you use to explain its
value to your customer and to manage their expectations.
#3 Maintain maximum efficiency and conversions by running only your leg of the relay, then
handing the client off to the next person on your team so you can get back to doing what you do
best: closing more deals.
#4 Resist the temptation to get re-involved when customers call you instead of the transaction
coordinator or the processor. Be sure to forward them to the right person so they get used to
calling that person.
#5 When you hand off the baton, be sure to extend the client’s trust to them too, by establishing
the credibility of your team members when you introduce them.
#6 Ask the client for an introduction to the buying agent right when the loan is approved—not at
the beginning of the process, and not at the end.

2. #7 Use the pre-approval as an opportunity to introduce yourself to the buying agent and start a
dialogue with them.
NOTE:Look below for scripts you can use in your business. Theyare prefaced by the
word SCRIPT in blue and bold.
If there are some of you on this call who would tell me if I was coaching you that you didn't have
time to get to all of your past clients during this refinance boom and you missed out on some
opportunities or you're currently still missing out on some opportunities, I'd hear that a lot. I just
was too busy. That is a byproduct of a lack of the system and it pains me and I'm not making
fun of anybody, believe me. It just hurts me in my body when people tell me that because I think
of all of the opportunities that there are to have two years and one, so to speak. I mean, literally,
maximize and leverage the opportunity and take advantage of it and be one year closer to being
finished with having to work. The other group of people that I sometimes talk to are those who
tell me that, “I have a big database of past customers but I haven't called them because I don't
really know that a lot of them would want to re-fi with me because their experience wasn't so
good the last time around.”
It just really hurts me when I hear that because I really, really wish there was something we
could do about that. There are scripts and things that I share with them, but that probably
resonates with a few of you at least. You're not alone and what we want to do is fix that now.
Getting from selling to closing a loan is a 3-person “relay race”:
First leg of the relay: You—the mortgage consultant
Second leg of the relay: The transaction coordinator
Third leg of the relay: The loan processor
You take the initial phone call and do the pre-qualification. Your job is to handle everything
involved in the process until that person says yes. “Yes, I want to move forward and do a loan
with you.”
Now you pass the baton to the transaction coordinator; then you go back to the starting
block and run and conduct another first leg.
Thinking about where you're going to send the loan, if you're a broker or how you're going to
structure the loan if you're sending it to an in-house investor—you're quoting them rates, you're
thinking through how the loan will be packaged, you are absolutely 100% of the time doing a
Total Cost Analysis in the Mortgage Coach software; I'll show you why in just a few minutes,
what powerful things you can be doing if you are presenting educational numbers and writing to
your clients as a part of your sales process.
You're following up on them as a lead until which time they say yes to you. When they
have said yes, your job is done.
When I say it's done, I mean, it is done. The only time you re-enter the race is if that first leg of
the relay needs to be run again on that person, meaning, that the loan needs to be restructured
because you didn't figure it out correctly the first time or it needs to be resold because maybe
the rates went up and your lock expired but that's it, you're done. Anybody who's a great loan

3. officer out there that's doing big numbers runs their system this way. They do not continue
to participate in the loan process after the person says yes.
SCRIPT:
Baton pass number one looks like this:
“Great, Dave. I'm really looking forward to working with you and I know my team is as well. Let
me share with you how my system and my process works. I realized a long time ago that being
a loan originator really required me to exercise certain skills that were not my natural talent. And
I kind of figured out at some point in the process that I needed to assemble a team of experts,
people who are absolutely phenomenal at what they do and what I do really well, Dave, is what
you've experienced with me so far over the last couple of weeks. I know the financial markets. I
know how to educate people in a very clear and articulate way, know how to explain loan
programs, I know what loans are out there, and I help the clients make a sound and important
financial decision. What happens next really requires a lot of attention to detail. It's not
necessarily something that I'm best at but I have somebody on my team whom is phenomenal
at it. She is my partner and my transaction coordinator. Her name is Alisa.”
“Now, what I need to do is set a specific time for you to do the application with Alisa. She's also
going to evaluate all of the documentation that she thinks the underwriter will want to see to get
your loan approved in a very clean and expedient way. So when would be a convenient time for
me to set up an appointment for you to call Alisa or for her to call you? She will be prompt. It'll
take about 20 minutes and she will get the ball rolling for you.”
Now, what I've just done is I have established credibility for Alisa. I've called her my
partner which is veryimportant. I feel it's really critical that you call all your team
members partners, not your assistant, not anything else because nobody wants to talk to
an assistant. They want to talk to people who are of importance.
Now, Alisa, who was my transaction coordinator, was, in a disc profile perspective, a High C
and this is really important for everyone to understand this. She was a High C and her
secondary high was her S which means she was phenomenal naturally at attention to detail,
very analytical by nature and also patient. The exact person you would want pre-underwriting a
loan, strategizing and figuring out through the 1003 that was completed accurately and
completely, what documentation was asked for to ensure that when that loan gets put into
processing, it is clean and has a very high probability of closing because any processor will tell
you, the number one thing that screws everything up is loans that are opened that aren't going
to go anywhere, aren't well-thought through, and/or are not packaged cleanly and correctly and
it creates a lot of work for them. Most loan originators, because they're salespeople, don't
possess that natural attention to detail to open up a clean well-thought through pre-underwritten
file and that's where one of the major breakdowns occurs in the system.
The last thing I would say is, “Dave, if you have any questions going forward about the
application or any of the paperwork that we're asking you for, please contact Alisa. She will be
proactively providing you with her contact information to make sure you know how to reach her.”
What I've just said to Dave in a verypolite way is don't call me anymore. I'm done. The
reason I don't want to be bothered anymore is:
#1 It's not what I do. I need to go back and get more loans. That's what I do well and that's the
highest payoff activity I could ever be doing.

4. #2 I don't want to muddy the waters.
How many times does this happen to you?
A client calls you up on a loan in process. Example: “Hey, Tim, you, guys, are asking me for K1s
and I talked to my CPA and, you know what, the K1s, they don't prepare those. I don't get them
from the hedge fund until September, so I'm not going to get them for a few months. I don't
know what to do.” I end up telling the client, “Don't worry about it. Get me a letter from the CPA
explaining this and I think that would be fine.” And then I hang up the phone as the loan
originator, and then my phone rings or I get an email that distracts me, and I forget to tell the
processor. And then the processor calls two days later and says, “Dave, I was wondering when
we're going to be getting your K1s.”
Not a great experience.
How many times does that happen every week, and how much inefficiencies are created, and
how many less loans can your team process because this type of stuff is happening all the
time? You see, that's the equivalent—getting back to the relay race—of me passing the baton
to Alisa and then I keep running down the backstretch for some odd reason. She's running, she
got the baton in her hand and I say, “Hey, give that back to me real quick.” She passes it back
to me and I take it. And then I pass it back to her and sooner or later, we're going to drop it. I
can promise you. It'll happen and it goes on for 40 days.
SCRIPT:
How to resist the temptation to get re-involved:
When the realtor calls you or the client calls you and asks you to get re-involved, here's your
script.
“You know what, I don't know, but I know who does. I'll transfer you to Alisa in just a moment
and she will give you the answer.”
That was a tough one for me to deliver for the first few weeks, and then they just stopped calling
me. So you want that person to be a High C, because her responsibility is to take the app, get it
signed, get all the disclosure signed, work up the good faith, review it with the client, ask for all
of the pre-qual information, gather it all up, make sure it's input in the right stacking order, and
then turn it into processing. If the transaction coordinator does that well, the processor’s job gets
a lot easier and now the processor can do what he really should be doing which is focusing on
dynamic customer service.
SCRIPT:
Here's the script for the next baton pass:
“Dave, thanks so much for getting all your paperwork in. It's almost 100% complete. We're
missing one pay stub and I'm going to document that in the conversation log in our processing
software for my teammate, Mary, who you're going to be working with from now until we
complete this process, until we cross the finish line, if you will. I'll let her know that you're
working on that pay stub and you're going to send it in on Friday when you get paid and then
we'll be complete. Mary will be reaching out proactively and introducing herself to you. She'll be
sharing with you what the remainder of the process looks like. I really enjoyed working with you.
From this point forward, Mary is the person you want to be speaking with.”
So then Mary’s function as the processor is to be a proactive communicator to both real estate
agents, really blowing them away, to the client and to everybody else involved in the

5. transaction, including escrow title, and the underwriter, and anybody else, funders, stock
drawers, etc.
You may say, “that's a lot of work.” It's really not. It's not as much as you think because, with
each person before her doing their job, you'd be surprised as to how much easier her job
becomes. When they get a file, they're the second set of eyes on it and within 48 hours, they're
working up a 1008 because it's stacked properly already, it's well-thought through, Mary may
catch one document that should have been asked for that maybe Alisa missed.
If this person is skilled, and they're High C, and they're really detail-oriented, and they're
submitting loans quickly when they get them, and working files that have veryfew
conditions, and spending most of their time being proactive and communicating status
to people way before theycan ever even think to ask, that's how you wow a customer.
When the Realtor is done with the transaction and they're like, “Gosh, that was like painless. We
didn't even once have to call them and ask them for anything. They were so on top of it.”
And the client says, “It's way better than the last six loans that I've done.”
So your processor is a High S, very supportive and their secondary high is their C. They're a
slight reverse to the transaction coordinator. Transaction coordinator is a High C secondary
High S. Processor is a High S secondary High C: very patient, very nurturing, very supportive,
can handle anybody that's freaked out with our hair on fire in the 11th hour because that
happens sometimes. That's the process.
When does the loan officer re-enter?
#1 If we need to resell the deal or restructure the deal for some reason because it wasn't done
correctly the first time.
#2 When you ask for referrals and want to use the Total Cost Analysis to get an introduction to a
CPA
#3 To make sure you meet with the listing agent on every transaction
Every loan is an opportunity to develop new relationships, to wow
customers and generate inbound referrals. If you have a system
designed to create that, you'll be very pleased with the results.
SCRIPT:
How to have the referral conversation at the same time you’re introducing the TCA:
“I'm going to do a little bit of homework, a little bit of research on your behalf. I'm going to put
together a comprehensive spreadsheet of three or four different loan options that take into
consideration everything from principal repayment strategies to your existing tax deductibility
possibilities to how much your fees and points, all those things should be in what loan program
is the right program for you, but before I do that, I would like to get your permission to spend
about five minutes—and I promise it won't take longer than that—on the telephone with your
accountant. May I have permission to call your CPA, because I want to make sure that I'm
putting in the right data into this analysis so that I'm presenting the right numbers to you.”

6. You're very infrequently going to get any resistance from anybody when you ask them that
question because, if you present it that way, they’re going to perceive it as being necessary and
valuable. Now, you have an opportunity to call their CPA and introduce yourself to them.
SCRIPT:
To introduce yourself to the CPA:
“Hi, Dave. My name is Tim Braheem. We have a mutual client by the name of John Doe. John
asked me to give you a call. I'm going to be handling his mortgage financing for him. I want to
be able to make sure that I'm proactively working in conjunction with you to do a great job in
servicing our mutual client. Just want to check in with you real quick on the tax bracket that I
should be putting into this analysis and ask you if you need me to send a copy of my analysis to
you as well.”
Okay, now, you've established a relationship.
The time to ask for a referral from your client is when
reciprocity is happening in the process.
Meaning, when you have delivered value to them is the time to ask for something from them
and people will naturally want to give back to you in return in that moment. The time to do that is
when you contact them to inform them and congratulate them on loan approval. Now, you'll
notice in the process that the processor does that, the processor communicates to the client that
the loan has been approved, this is one of the times where you re-enter the process but not
as somebody who's actively involved in it. You're re-entering it as a sales individual
who's trying to generate more referral business.
SCRIPT:
Here’s how you would re-enter yourself to generate more referral business:
“I'm sure you’ve heard from Mary. Your loan's approved. I personally wanted to take the time to
give you a call and thank you for working with us. I know that we're not done yet. We're about
halfway done with this race. We've got more to do but this big hurdle was overcome and I'm
really pleased that we got loan approval for you. I wanted to just mention to you that I work off of
referrals. If you're happy with the service that we've provided to you thus far, I would really
appreciate if you could take a moment to think of anybody who might be in need of my services
or find my services to be valuable. If you have someone you could refer me to, I'd be greatly
appreciative.”
Now, doing it at that time not only is it a point of power when you're delivering value but also, on
a subconscious level, the borrower is thinking, “I kind of need to take care of them because
we're not done.”
Most of us, if we're asking for referrals at all, ask either at the beginning or when we're done.
Here’s why these don’t work:
At the beginning: We don't have any real quick street cred with them because we haven't done
anything of real significance for them.
At the end: They've got their mind on a million things like lining up moving vans and getting
new electricity accounts established.

7. When the loan is opened, when the application comes back in to the transaction coordinator,
this is your opportunity to meet both real estate agents. And it’s best if the “ask” comes directly
from you than from anyone else on your team. But if you usually have someone on your team
do it, here’s a script they could follow:
SCRIPT:
How your team member should try to secure an appointment for you to generate a
referral fromboth the listing and buying agent:
“I'm calling on behalf of Tim Braheem who's the executive loan originator handling this
transaction. I'm calling you to give you a couple of times for Tim to come by and meet with you
for 15 minutes at your office. He's available on Monday at 9:00 AM and then again on Tuesday
from 3:00 till 5:00. Please give me a time that he can come by. What he wants to do is sit with
you and share how this process is going to work to make sure we are working cohesively
together as a team to create the best possible experience for our mutual client and to ensure
that we generate future referrals as a result of this transaction.”
So we're giving them a reason why we're going to meet and it’s one they would be interested in.
It's a simple yes or no answer. You may get a few Realtors who say, “You know what, I just
don't have time,” and you're no worse for the wears, but I will tell you that you'll find more often
than not if handled that way they will yield the time for 15 minutes. You give them two specific
times. You don't ask, “Would you like to meet with Tim?” You simply say, “Here are two times
which one works best for you?”
SCRIPT:
For turning a Realtor into a referral partner:
“Bob, we're going to be working together over the next 30 days. One of the things that's really
important for me is to make sure that I understand how to sell you. I realized that you're
representing the buyer and I'm representing the buyer. There are things that you would like to
say about yourself to hopefully generate future referrals for your business that might not be able
to be said without you sounding as if you're arrogant, or patting yourself on the back, or it may
be uncomfortable for you. So, it's important for me because in every interaction that I have with
the borrower, I want to remind them of how lucky they are to be working with you. I want to be
able to make sure that I know your value proposition so I can articulate it in a very impactful way
to them so they're thinking about future business with you and sending other friends and family
members of theirs to you. So please share with me how to sell yourself.”
I promise you it will never be a difficult conversation if you say that. The Realtor will love you
and you will have a big-time foot in the door in establishing future business with them because
at that point in time you have an opportunity to share with them and you could just simply say:
“Do you mind if I ask that you do the same for me?" So when you're talking to our mutual client,
I'd like you to share the following things with them about me, and my services, and how I work
because I want to make sure that we're really working as a team here to think of our future in
this business.”
You want to always be thinking proactively. Here’s an example:
When a client calls me up for the first time, “Yes, I was referred to you by my real estate agent,
Dave Savage. He said that I should give you a call and get pre-approved.”

8. Great. Go through the process. As soon as I get off that call, the very first thing I'm doing is
generating a pre-approval letter and sending it over to Dave. Dave doesn't even know that I've
talked to the client yet and Dave's got a pre-approval letter sitting in his email saying:
SCRIPT:
For introducing yourself to the buying agent:
“Dave, thank you so much for referring Mr. and Mrs. Jones to me. I had a great conversation
with them. I understand their circumstances very clearly. Please find enclosed a pre-approval
letter on them for the maximum amount that they will want. I figured this would be helpful for you
to hold in your file so when you're out looking at property with them. If you decide to write an
offer and you don't want to have to try to track me down, you’ll have it handy.”
I can't tell you how many times over the year the Realtors I've worked with would say to me:
“That one little thing you do means so much to me because every time I have to work with a
loan officer other than you, and I'm going to try to write an offer on a Saturday, and I can't get a
hold of them, and I'm waiting for two hours, it drives me crazy, and I never have to worry about
that when I work with you.”
It's all these little things that create the experience that have them addicted to working with you
because every time they work with somebody else, they're reminded of you because nobody
else measures up.