After spending 20+ years in the mortgage industry and conducting over 300 interviews with top producers for my Mortgage Marketing Radio podcast, I've identified clear patterns that separate elite loan officers from everyone else.

Real estate agents: still your best referral source

I've tested many lead sources throughout my career. According to my conversations with high-performing loan officers, 8 out of 10 top producers get 70% or more of their business from real estate agents.

Why? I tell my clients: "Real estate agents are like a money tree." They get paid to find buyers. When you become their trusted lender, you harvest what they plant.

I recently interviewed Jane Floyd from NFM Lending, who closed $100M in 2024 with 71% coming from agent referrals. Even after 30 years, she proves these relationships compound over time.

4 traits that separate top producers 

After hundreds of conversations with America's top mortgage professionals, I've identified these core differences:

1. Mindset 

Top producers build:

• Solid belief in their value. They know exactly what they bring to transactions
• High service standards. They excel at every client touchpoint
• Mental toughness. They don't blame market conditions

As loan officer coach Shayla Gifford says: "You're not as good as you think you are in boom years, or as bad as you feel in tough markets."

2. Skills 

The best mortgage pros:

• Learn constantly. They study their craft daily
• Master their products. They know solutions others don't 
• Adapt quickly. They shift to renovation loans, home equity conversion mortgages or VA when markets change 

3. Process 

To create the biggest gap between good and great, top producers focus on: 

• Continual prospecting. After 30 years, Jane Floyd still recruits agents through monthly lunch-and-learns
• Smooth client intake. They create clear, professional first experiences
• Documented workflows. They build systems that prevent errors
• Reliable updates. Floyd has not missed a Tuesday update to listing agents in 20+ years
• Post-closing systems. They nurture past clients systematically

4. Team building 

As they grow, top producers: 

• Release control. They trust team members with client contact 
• Focus on high-value work. They spend time where it counts most
• Define clear roles. They match tasks to talent
• Set high standards. They build excellence into their culture

The highest-impact growth activity

In my years helping mortgage pros grow, I've never found a strategy with a better return on investment than teaching agent classes.

When I analyzed various lead generation methods for impact versus effort, teaching classes won for 4 reasons: 

1. You reach many agents at once 
2. You prepare once, and benefit repeatedly
3. You position yourself as a resource, not a vendor
4. You build relationships that pay dividends for years

You don't need perfect expertise. One loan officer I coached, Janelle, taught a successful YouTube class for agents without even having her own YouTube channel. You just need to clearly present valuable information.

3 elements of successful agent classes

From running hundreds of these events myself, and coaching others to do the same, I can confirm these 3 critical elements:

1. Choose topics agents need 

Focus on helping agents: 

• Get more clients
• Close more deals
• Stay competitive in changing markets

Winning titles include:

• "You Are the Brand: 5-Step Blueprint to Get More Clients" 
• "Winning the Buyer Presentation: How to Showcase Your Value"
• "Leveraging Seller Concessions: Solutions for Today's Buyer Challenges"

2. Promote effectively

For maximum attendance:

• Start promoting 2-3 weeks before the event
• Partner with title companies, attorneys, and home warranty providers
• Use multiple channels: email, text, phone calls, etc.

3. Deliver actionable content

Give agents tools they can use tomorrow:

• Visual examples
• Ready-to-use templates
• Practical scripts
• Real financing scenarios with numbers
• Real results from real loan officers

These success stories come from loan officers I've personally coached:

• Ori: Landed a referral from a top agent he'd pursued unsuccessfully for 2 years after just one class
• Tiffany: Generated 3 applications within an hour through her "Learn with Tiff" series
• Brian: Added $15 million in production directly from classes during a market downturn
• Glenda: Walked out with 9 appointments after one class with 26 agents
• Kevin: Closed a $700,000 loan from his first class, eventually adding $20 million in annual volume

Your action plan

I've helped hundreds of loan officers implement this strategy. Start here:

• Calculate your current business sources by percentage
• Determine your monthly loan average
• Set clear production targets
• Implement agent classes as your high-impact growth lever

The bottom line 

After interviewing hundreds of top producers and coaching mortgage professionals across the country, I've seen firsthand that success isn't about finding secret tricks or shortcuts. It's about implementing proven strategies with consistency and excellence.

The mortgage landscape will continue to evolve, rates will fluctuate, and market conditions will change. But the fundamentals I've shared here remain constant. Top loan officers focus on mindset, skills, process and team – with real estate relationships at the core of their business.

Remember: Your competition is making cold calls while you could be teaching a room full of agents who view you as an expert. Your competition is chasing one agent at lunch while you could be influencing 20 in a class. Your competition is positioning themselves as a vendor while you could be positioning yourself as a partner.

Now is the time to stop chasing and start attracting. I've watched loan officers transform their businesses in as little as 90 days using these principles. You can, too.

For most mortgage professionals I work with, expanding real estate agent relationships through teaching remains the fastest path to increased production, especially in challenging markets.

Are you ready for more real estate agent referrals? Discover how your current strategy for attracting agent referrals stacks up and gain valuable insights to grow your referrals and increase your production. Take the Realtor Referral Scorecard at realtors.scoreapp.com.

For more strategies from top producers, subscribe to my Mortgage Marketing Radio podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or YouTube. 

The opinions and insights expressed in this blog are solely those of its author, Geoff Zimpfer, and do not necessarily represent the views of either Mortgage Guaranty Insurance Corporation or any of its parent, affiliates, or subsidiaries (collectively, “MGIC”). Neither MGIC nor any of its officers, directors, employees or agents makes any representations or warranties of any kind regarding the soundness, reliability, accuracy or completeness of any opinion, insight, recommendation, data, or other information contained in this blog, or its suitability for any intended purpose.