How to Get Your Loan Approved Fast | Tips from a Mortgage Pro

James McKibban (00:00)
I have a story where I did a deal for a client probably back in 2014 It was in the city of Victorville just kind of like the high desert, you know And it was a long where it was like it was a elderly person very nice lady

And she said she tried like three places and nobody would call her back. It was a very small loan, like roughly 60, 70,000. And I said, I’ll help you. I’ll help you. And I worked with her on it. She said she’d gone to her bank, but she couldn’t get a call back. She just needed to get it done. And so I said, let me work with you on it. I’ll work nights, whatever you need. had kind of you know, peculiar schedule. So worked with her, closed it. She was so happy. And then she said, my son wants to buy an helmet. said, okay. And I’m thinking like, you know,

a lugum, you know, but he was a little different animal. He was a doctor in Newport Beach, buying a home for, think it was like seven million, but it was the time. And so he was like, you helped my mom, like what do need? So you just, you know, every client’s very important and every client has a story. And so, you know, some of my best loans were doing, you know, or like referring out a reverse mortgage where they had no other options to get money to live.

Kristen Knapp (00:49)
wow.

Mm-hmm.

James McKibban (01:07)
We literally changed their lives. So yeah, we want to help everybody.

Kristen Knapp (01:10)
Yeah, that’s amazing. That must be a really gratifying part of the job. Yeah, I was expecting the son to be like 19 years old with no money.

James McKibban (01:14)
Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

No, you she was older.

was roughly 70 years young and he was probably 44 or something. This is years ago. This is like 11 years ago. I was younger too, but it was a great story. And that story keeps going though. Like from that one contact, I can probably, it’s just not going to be exact, but have like 30 to 40 million clothes from that one contact.

Kristen Knapp (01:25)
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

the end.

Welcome back to the Real Estate Pros podcast. I’m Kristen and I’m here with James McKibban, who’s a mortgage lender at Movement Mortgage. Thank you for being here.

James McKibban (03:16)
Hey, thanks for having me, Kristen. Looking forward to this.

Kristen Knapp (03:19)
Yes, we’re going to get all into mortgage lending and kind of just how you got into this business. How did you get into real estate to begin with?

James McKibban (03:25)
Yeah, so when I was about 22, I finished college and had my first job and second job, which weren’t my forever jobs. My mom was actually a realtor at the time and she was showing the owner of a mortgage company houses. And I was kind of between jobs and just wasn’t doing much. Didn’t have a ton of motivation, you know, at that time I’d finished college and did it in four years. And she said, they’re hiring a mortgage company. I said, ⁓ I’ll go try it. And I thought it was just my next job, not my career job.

So I started as a junior processor at the lowest low, the mortgage industry, but got started there. in that company, they have these loan officer meetings, because I was doing processing per se. And they were like, if you want to come over and check it out. And everybody seemed very intimidating to me. And they dressed nicer, they had nicer cars, because I was a junior processor. And I was like, I was about 24 at the time. So I went in and.

started taking those next steps to becoming a loan officer. So that’s how I started.

Kristen Knapp (04:24)
Amazing and at what point did you kind of figure out that this could actually be something you were gonna do long term?

James McKibban (04:30)
Yeah, you know, I had a good mentor back then at that company who was when I got to being a junior loan officer in that company. But he was kind of at the end of his career. And, you know, I was was younger, so I wasn’t extremely motivated and still looking forward to what I was doing on a weekend or going to see friends that lived out of town or something.

And so I actually got let go from that company when I first started, I just wasn’t doing enough volume. I wasn’t as consistent. I wasn’t doing what they wanted. But when I was there, they asked me to go.

to like an industry event for first time home buyers. And I met all these different lenders from Countrywide Home Loans, Chase Bank, Citibank or whatever. And I really had kind of connected with this group from Countrywide Home Loans. And so they, you they were young. They were a couple of years older than me, but they really knew what they were doing. They seemed like they had it all figured out. And so when I didn’t work out at my first company, I reached out to them and somehow I got into that company. And so it still wasn’t what I knew.

knew that I was going to be doing this forever, but it kind of made me feel like, you know, if I could get a little bit better, this could be a career. And after graduating college, I just, I don’t know, I was in the mindset that I wanted to wear a suit every day. And like, that’s what it means that I was a professional and I was a grownup per se. And so my first, I guess, two full years in the first company and second, I really, I really struggled. You know, I just didn’t, I my first client. was kind of just, you know, didn’t really know what I was doing. I wasn’t real confident.

But I would say my third year is when I had kind of my breakout year per se, I got most improved in like Southern California. And there was like, kind of like 400 people or something. I had a little plaque, still have it. So that’s when I was like, okay, I can do this. Cause when you start, you know, having repeat clients and referrals from friends and family in your sphere, you know, and you kind of see what your other 24, 25, 26 year old peers are doing that you went to high school and college where you start to kind of, I don’t want to say competing.

But you start to ⁓ just envision where it can take you on those next steps, per se.

Kristen Knapp (07:14)
Yeah, take it a little bit more seriously. What was the mindset shift kind of from that first year to that third year when you were producing better or producing more?

James McKibban (07:21)
Yeah, you know, I think just, you know, it, feels good, right? When you’re on like, cause I mean, like with lending, there’s a lot of data in terms of like where you’re ranked in your office and your market and your region. And so every month it’s posted top 25, top 50, wherever it is. And so I think it was just feeling like, wow, I was number 12 last month. I was number four. was number one. And you start just kind of pushing yourself where you start competing with, you know, better, you know, know, loan officers than you. And it’s just the way it makes you feel. And then when you start doing well, you, you,

really recognize how many people you’re helping. You know, the customers mean everything. And that’s when you start to really establish those dynamic power partners like real estate agents, financial advisors, and CPAs, cetera. And so, and then I started to get, I don’t even want to say passionate, but more obsessed. know, I started to love the business. start to like, you know, I always say that I’m always working even when I’m not working.

Kristen Knapp (07:52)
Right.

Mm-hmm.

James McKibban (08:13)
Even

if I’m not working, I’m thinking about what I can do. I literally will pull up my phone and take notes. like, I have an idea. So you start to become the business. And going to seminars and watching real estate shows on the weekend, it just kind of becomes your whole life.

Kristen Knapp (08:22)
Right.

Yeah, absolutely. what, like, on the other end, someone who’s kind of looking for a mortgage lender, what separates the good ones from the not-so-good ones?

James McKibban (08:39)
Great question. You know, I think experience is really important. You know, I think right now, I mean, I look at the loans I’m closing and I couldn’t have closed some of these five years ago, three years ago. Last year, you get better with every loan. I learned one new thing every single day. But right now the loans are so complex. What with rates being a little higher, know, affordability has been, you know, hit a little bit with that. Values are still very high. So I think one thing is experience because you’re just better when you’ve done it before.

You’ve done more loans as well, they say volume is power. You also have better relationships internally with your underwriters, underwriting managers, and decision makers. So you just have that built in equity with your company. You can get things done quicker. Also when you’re doing more, think you have more team support. If someone’s doing one deal a quarter, you might not have two assistants or your own processor. So it’s also quicker to have that of assembly line, kind of continuous flow if you will. I think also,

you’re doing more your product knowledge is gonna be better. Like for instance I’m really a loan architect so if someone comes over and says hey I have a tough file for you I got someone that’s self-employed they want to sell it and they say you know I’ve talked to three lenders they say okay I can do it and they go what do mean I said I can give loan they’re like how you know someone working this for two weeks I’m like here’s what we can do like all I had to know was the following there’s three options it’s just you just kind of see it and know where to place it. So I think experience, product knowledge

Kristen Knapp (10:32)
Yeah.

James McKibban (10:35)
And also, I’m kind of also known for working a lot. So I always make myself very available, whether it’s, I literally have a really rigorous schedule. I get up between four 430 in the morning. And oftentimes I’ll get home at like nine o’clock at night. And that’s not because I’m like, you know, I have no time in my day that’s not working. And so it’s just, you know, being very quick, because real estate lending happens when, I what happens? It’s not like, hey, it’s five oh five, like call me tomorrow. It’s like, yes, I’m in my office. Like let’s, let’s talk. So.

Kristen Knapp (10:48)
Wow.

James McKibban (11:04)
I availability and consistency with availability is really important.

Kristen Knapp (11:05)
Yeah.

Yeah, completely. so you’re licensed in all 50 states. How does that seems complicated as well?

James McKibban (11:13)
Yeah.

It is. you know, during COVID, I had a lot of clients, like one client moved, another client moved, and another client moved. And I had like eight clients that literally of my own that were like moved to all kinds of the real popular states at the time, whether it was Texas, Tennessee, Oregon, kind of my footprint states as well with Nevada, Arizona, Oregon. And I was like, you know, I’m just going to get all these licenses because if you don’t have the license.

If you’re a mortgage banker, you have to basically give up the loan. Whether you just say, I can’t do it. You refer to someone in your company. You refer to someone outside your company. And you want to always be a connector. You want to be able to help everyone. And so there’s so many clients that we’re buying everywhere. And then you find out that a lot of them also come back to California. So they’re like, my god, we’re never coming back to California. We love Tennessee. We visited two years later. They’re like, you know what? We liked it, but we’re coming home.

So if you’re not staying with them when they go to that other state, you’re not going to be their first person they think of when they come back. So it just creates a lot of cross referrals. And also, fun fact about me, I love real estate mortgage. So I love seeing an appraisal that’s in another state that’s in Maine or New York. I look at it and the architecture is different. That’s one thing I think clients love about me is I really do have a lot of passion for what I do. It’s almost where some clients are like, oh, they just have no.

Kristen Knapp (12:04)
it.

James McKibban (12:28)
real get up in terms of like really believing in home ownership and what we do. So I love seeing things out of state, you I’d love to know what’s out there. And the thing with mortgage today is it’s so sophisticated that I can do a deal in Florida as fast as I can do one in, you know, where I live, you know, it’s the same thing. So it’s very quick. Yeah, I just, didn’t want to lose deals by not having licenses. It does take a long time because you literally have to do each

Kristen Knapp (12:50)
Yeah.

James McKibban (12:52)
continued education to start and then each one every single year. And it’s somewhat costly because every state has a cost. it’s a commitment, but now that I’ve done it, I won’t, I don’t see myself ever losing the licenses because I don’t want to have to go through it again. So.

Kristen Knapp (12:57)
Wow.

Thank

Yeah.

Well, it sounds like you really see the creativity in what you do. Like, it sounds like there’s a lot of opportunity for you to be creative and kind of fix problems when I think a lot of other people might see this as more, like, straightforward, like more by the book. Yeah.

James McKibban (13:21)
Yeah, yeah,

right. Yeah, absolutely. I I came from a bank. I worked at Countrywide, but then was bought by Bank of America. And it was, I was there for 12 years. So it’s a great experience. I worked with some great managers, great company, a lot of top producers. That’s really where like, that’s really where I cut my teeth. We had about five to seven people that were all twenties and thirties hungry, just go-getters, just grind. We’re going to fight to be number one in the office. And it kind of just made me really always.

want to compete, you know, and I think my clients and realtors win with that because you’re fighting for rates for them and fighting for faster timelines, hard files. I always say, you know, I’m the Larry H Parker of home loans. I tell an underwriter, we can do this the easy way or the hard way. can just approve the loan or I’m going to fight you so hard on it with data, with pulling guidelines, you’re going to prove it anyway. So what’s it going to be? And the kind of joke because I know I’m very nice, but like, I won’t stop on a file, you know, like within reason until we get it done for the client.

very important to me.

Kristen Knapp (14:59)
Wow, I mean you sound like you’re a good person to partner with and you’re a top 1 % producer in your area.

James McKibban (15:05)
Yeah, it’s probably more like half a percent per reserve, you know, which is better than one, but yeah, you know, I’ve been pretty consistent. I don’t take that for granted every year. It’s very hard. You know, I, um, it is every year you have to start from zero. That’s the thing with lending is a lot of people can’t do it every year. We’ve seen people come in in the 2020s and 21s and have these really great years, but you really have to be able to take like the punches as a lender. And I, that sounds kind of weird, our cliche, but it’s really not about.

Kristen Knapp (15:07)
Yeah.

James McKibban (15:33)
how hard you can get hit. I mean, it’s not about how hard you hit, it’s about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward. Every file has a little bit of hair on it. You’re have to win on every deal on rate. Someone’s gonna need you when you’re just off per se, where you’re just like, okay, I’ll call you right now. So you just kind of get used to living in that lifestyle. But yeah, I try to be creative. I call it niche non-QM living, there’s a lot of stuff that we do. It’s like forward thinking for…

Kristen Knapp (15:39)
Yeah.

James McKibban (15:59)
what’s coming and trying to add investors that other lenders don’t have and using exception-based lending with our current non-human dissecting platform. there’s a lot to it. Yeah, I really like that side of it.

Kristen Knapp (16:12)
Yeah, it sounds like you’re very passionate about what you do. And what are some common mistakes you see from people who are trying to secure funding for the first time?

James McKibban (16:21)
Yeah, you I think you want to work with someone that’s going to be communicative up front. So many times people say, well, you know, I talked to someone, but I haven’t heard back from them. It’s been a day, it’s been two days. And I always say, well, if you’re not getting that type of response up front, you’re not going to get it the entire way through the process. So make sure someone’s going to be there for you because you want someone that can educate you, can answer questions. You know, if something comes in wrong on the file, if an underwriter has questions or sends you into like what’s called like a suspense where they’re not approving it.

Maybe a value comes in low on an appraisal. Maybe there’s a condo issue. Make sure you have someone that’s really going to be on your side throughout lending. It’s like they say, you know, if you’re not having problems today in real estate and lending, you’re not doing any business, you know? Like I said before, someone that really has a lot of experience, think, I mean, if somebody’s been a doctor for 30 years and someone comes in their first day, they’re both great, right? But someone that has that experience, probably going to say,

You know, I’ve done this procedure, you know, 1700 times, you know, it’s just, you know, here’s what I would do. I wrote a book on it or whatever. So that experience goes a long way, I think. Maybe also, you know, make sure that somebody has the right product for you. It’s like they say, it’s better to be locked and proceed on the right program with a higher rate than the wrong program at a lower rate. Make sure it’s really applicable to what your path is for your shortened and long-term goals.

Maybe someone’s a first time home buyer, somebody’s a great loan officer over here, but they don’t work with first time home buyers. Or maybe someone needs a construction loan, someone’s great, but they just don’t offer that product and they’re trying to do it for the first time. So do a little research on that person. But yeah, just getting to know, feeling like you trust them, feeling like you guys really.

Kristen Knapp (17:47)
Right.

Is there

a specific type of person that you work with more frequently?

James McKibban (18:05)
You know, it’s a great question. I really consider myself an A to Z lender. I believe in my three and a half years of movement mortgage, I believe I’ve done the three biggest loans in my company since it started in 2008. So, but that said, I just closed a really small loan last week. So I don’t discriminate. I always say, you know, I kick every football the same. There’s a chapter in one of the real estate agents for million dollar listing called, you know, kick it out.

think it’s all could get every football the same by Josh Altman and I I treat everyone the same whether it’s a line of credit that’s You know a smaller alone generally or it’s a ten million dollar loan. Everyone’s equal I feel like clients create clients

I have a story where I did a deal for a client probably back in 2014 It was in the city of Victorville just kind of like the high desert, you know And it was a long where it was like it was a elderly person very nice lady

And she said she tried like three places and nobody would call her back. It was a very small loan, like roughly 60, 70,000. And I said, I’ll help you. I’ll help you. And I worked with her on it. She said she’d gone to her bank, but she couldn’t get a call back. She just needed to get it done. And so I said, let me work with you on it. I’ll work nights, whatever you need. had kind of you know, peculiar schedule. So worked with her, closed it. She was so happy. And then she said, my son wants to buy an helmet. said, okay. And I’m thinking like, you know,

a lugum, you know, but he was a little different animal. He was a doctor in Newport Beach, buying a home for, think it was like seven million, but it was the time. And so he was like, you helped my mom, like what do need? So you just, you know, every client’s very important and every client has a story. And so, you know, some of my best loans were doing, you know, or like referring out a reverse mortgage where they had no other options to get money to live.

Kristen Knapp (19:33)
wow.

Mm-hmm.

James McKibban (19:51)
We literally changed their lives. So yeah, we want to help everybody.

Kristen Knapp (19:54)
Yeah, that’s amazing. That must be a really gratifying part of the job. Yeah, I was expecting the son to be like 19 years old with no money.

James McKibban (19:58)
Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

No, you she was older.

was roughly 70 years young and he was probably 44 or something. This is years ago. This is like 11 years ago. I was younger too, but it was a great story. And that story keeps going though. Like from that one contact, I can probably, it’s just not going to be exact, but have like 30 to 40 million clothes from that one contact.

Kristen Knapp (20:10)
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

the end.

James McKibban (20:22)
So don’t ever underestimate how important that person right in front of you is, no matter what they need.

Kristen Knapp (20:26)
Absolutely,

absolutely I can totally see that. And then when people are, I assume there’s so many scams in your industry, just people trying to like take people’s money and present falsely. What are some red flags that you’ve seen from kind of like scam lenders?

James McKibban (20:42)
Well, I I think that lending today is so compliant. There’s so many disclosures. I mean, obviously work with a reputable company, do a little bit of research. mean, you should be able to find anyone online today if they don’t have like a whole profile. You know, that’s something that you want to look into. Most people I work with come from like referrals where I’ve met their realtor in like a meeting where I’ve spoken to their group or a client of mine refers me to a family member or a colleague or what have you.

I mean, I think just make sure that someone’s looking at their loan estimate and their CD, which is known for a closing disclosure. That’ll always show if there’s any changes with APR, the annual percentage rate. So you just want to be well informed. If you have questions, obviously you can always speak to manager or you could always get someone that maybe knows more about the process, like a friend or colleague of theirs when they’re going through it to kind of say, hey, this doesn’t look right on it. But I’m not sure. I haven’t seen too many scams. I think wire fraud is on the rise.

you with escrow companies, et cetera. So make sure you’re always, you know, be careful what you’re emailing out and stuff. There’s so much of that. I’ve always run such a compliant business coming from a bank for 12 years. You know, some brokers or other companies have less regulation, but I’ve always just been extremely compliant. Like we’ve had to, what we had to do at the bank was like say our, know, NMLS, every time we answered the phone, we just, I got so molded where we had to lock our computer to our desk. We just, it was.

Kristen Knapp (21:54)
Right.

James McKibban (22:05)
kind of the industry I grew up in. So for myself, I always just been on the very compliant customer service hospitality side.

Kristen Knapp (22:09)
Yeah.

Yeah, well, I mean, I can see why people really trust you too. It sounds, again, it sounds like you’re a great partner. I can see why you’re a top 0.5 % performer. And then kind of to wrap this up, what would be a piece of advice that you wish you learned earlier on?

James McKibban (22:21)
Haha, thanks for having me.

That’s a great question. I think it’s, I’m trying to think. I think maybe, just I’m trying to think of the best way to answer this. There’s so many things that come to mind. I think for me, I love originating, but originating is very hard and I love to sell and be on that side of it. But I think maybe it would have been inching into management center.

you know, because I’ve been originating so hard for nearly 20 years and now I have so much knowledge to give, but I’m still originating, which again is my passion. love it. I love being on the front, interfacing with clients and realtors, et cetera. It is a long day to be able to, you know, to be able to keep up that speed. And I only have one speed. I love it. I just get in there and go every day. I don’t look at a clock. Rarely do I leave the office unless I have a meeting or for business reasons.

But it might’ve been to go into management kind of mid-career because I had opportunities. I was a, I guess I am a branch manager, but you know, I love helping people and training. And I always say that the best, you know, trainers are, you know, producers, you know, cause they’ve done it. It’s like working, be like playing baseball for a coach, but they never played the game. You know, the essay might be brilliant. They might have read books, but so I look forward to that one day, not yet for any vision is out there, but the next maybe five years. So I got a long way to go, but.

Yeah, I think, you know, that’s something is being able to help more people that are loan officers give back to what’s been such a great industry to me. So that’s something I can’t wait for five years plus probably, but it’s coming someday.

Kristen Knapp (23:55)
I love that. So how can people find you?

James McKibban (23:57)
Um, cell phone or email is best. Um, I do have a pretty good Instagram following. I wasn’t big in social media until about two, three years ago. I just didn’t do it because I was at a bank for so long and they kind of frowned on it. Um, cell phone is best. Um, my cell phone number, don’t mind giving it out because you know, I I’m here to help. That’s what I do. You know, I love to help people. I always say my whole presentation is usually about what can I do for you? Not for me creates reciprocity and it’s just the right way to handle business in life.

So my cell phone number, Errico9493026620. Great on text calls, anything works. I’m very well versed. We have over 3,300 loan programs we can use. I know most of them. And I love being creative. If you have a deal that doesn’t work in your realtor, let me know. I will help you save it. I’m the original rescue loan expert. That’s what a lot of my realtors call me. My email is also great.

It’s my first name dot last name at movement.com and I’ll spell that first name is James J. A. M.E. S. Dot my last name. It was in Michael C. K. I. B. As a boy, B. As a boy is an apple and is in November at movement.com and Instagram is this my name James McKibban same spelling. So any works, but I think text is best.

Kristen Knapp (25:14)
Yeah, amazing. Well, thank you so much for doing this. I think people learned a lot.

James McKibban (25:18)
Thank you. It’s been really fun. You’re a great host and what a great show and what an honor and just maybe we can do it again sometime.

Kristen Knapp (25:24)
Amazing. Well, thank you everybody for listening and we will see you back next time. Bye

James McKibban (25:28)
All right.