If you are a mortgage broker and you haven’t already figured this one out I will state it bluntly–no one trusts us! Sure there is an enormous amount of finger pointing going on. From Wall Street to Main Street everyone has an opinion on who got us here. Guess what? The customer thinks it was you.

Snapshot of the Florida Mortgage Market

For the purpose of clarity, I am going to focus in on one market–Florida. However, don’t absolve yourself because you are not a mortgage broker in Florida.

The Miami Herald launched an investigative series entitled “Borrowers Betrayed,” written by Jack Dolan, Rob Barry, and Matthew Haggman. These reporters dig in to the nasty underbelly of Florida mortgage originations during the housing and mortgage refinancing boom.

The Miami Herald investigation clearly comes in with an angle on consumer hot buttons: Loan officers with criminal records, identity theft, no background checks, and trails of victims.

The Miami Herald facts are terrifying to your prospective customers:

• From 2000 to 2007, regulators allowed at least 10,529 people with criminal records to work in the mortgage profession. Of those, 4,065 cleared background checks after committing crimes that state law specifically requires regulators to screen, including fraud, bank robbery, racketeering and extortion.
• More than half the people who wrote mortgages in Florida during that period were not subject to any criminal background check. Despite repeated pleas from industry leaders to screen them, Florida regulators have refused.
• Confronted with a growing epidemic of mortgage fraud — Florida now has the highest rate in the nation — the number of license revocations declined over the last five years, leaving borrowers at the mercy of predatory brokers.
• During the peak of the housing boom, the Office of Financial Regulation ignored a state law enacted in 2006 that compelled it to perform nationwide criminal background checks on applicants. That failure allowed people convicted in other states — and in federal court — to peddle loans in Florida without any scrutiny.
• Regulators allowed at least 20 brokers to keep their licenses even after committing the one crime that seemed sure to get them banned from the industry: mortgage fraud.

This is how the customer will increasingly come to know you.

Create a Trust Strategy

You could launch into a flawless debate on who else is responsible. However, I suggest a more productive effort–build a strategy. Create a Trust Strategy.

Put your customer at the center of your business. Steps into your client’s experience and emotions: distrust, fear, ignorance, vulnerable, uncertain. Then design a process that systematically wipes out each of those fears.

Building Your Personal Brand

One thing is for certain, criminals don’t go around building a personal and long-term brand. No, they maintain low profiles and bounce from one victim honeypot to the next.

Spend time on building your personal brand. This is easily done both on and off-line. Certainly have your own web page and blog, but also make sure that local businesses and civic groups know you too. Get involved in community activities. This branding building and community involvement will build a lot of good, verifiable context to your name.

Don’t be complacent about personal brand building. Even if you are backed by a big coorporate brand, people buy from people. Give your client complete confidence in your integrity, as well as your company’s.

Establish Authority

It is one thing to be a nice person, but are you competent. This is going to be the next big question in a mortgage customer’s mind. After all there were probably as many good as there were bad people that got folks into bad loans from simple incompetence.

Remember the earlier list of client fears? Education and knowledge sharing is a valuable way to build trust and remove feelings of ignorance and uncertainty for the mortgage transaction. Create a blog, newsletter, or even weekly column in the local newspaper to educate your borrower before and during their mortgage experience.

Get Endorsed

Renowned expert on influence and persuasion, Robert Cialdini highlights the powerful effect of social proofing in his books and presentations. The principle is simple: “The greater number of people who find any idea correct, the more the idea will be correct.” It is a simple due diligence short cut. If my friends and neighbors trust this person then so will I.

Make sure this principle is in your Trust Strategy. Get testimonials. Nurture public endorsements. Earn the respect of local personalities and influencers. Build referral marketing into your customer loyalty program.

“Climbing the Distrust Mountain”

This advice should have been first because of its power. However, I didn’t want you to miss it. Morgan Brown, of BlownMortgage.com described a process of “Climbing the Distrust Mountain” with mortgage customers. I have linked to it many times, but I will give you the simple technique here.

Trust, in any relationship, is built or destroyed with a series of simple promises. You either fulfill them or you don’t. Promises like:

• I will call you right back
• I will check on the status of your appraisal
• I will give you tips on how to improve your credit
• I will keep you updated throughout the process
• If you have any questions call me (and I will answer)

If you want a mortgage customer to trust you after this mortgage mess you have to make a lot of little promises and keep everyone.

What other things should be in your Trust Strategy?