Final Newsletter for February 2018

NORTHWEST REGIONAL NEWSLETTER HIGHLIGHTS FOR THE MONTH OF FEBRUARY 2018 February was a quick month, 19 work days compared with March which will have 22. Every day counts in the mortgage business. We had an 11% increase over January in closings, applications held steady and locked pipeline has tipped over 50M. As we approach the beginning of Spring it is critical that we are intentional with our time spent during our work week. I am not asking our sales team or operation team to work harder or longer, but to work smarter. The company goal is for us to be able to close a loan in 10 days. This can’t happen unless everyone stays in their lanes and drives towards high end efficiency’s. Speed wins! Hopefully you saw the recent email showing how the company has followed through with reducing and simplifying how we do business. Much more access has been opened up in Encompass for each stride of the relay race, no more red tape. Adam and James have set a goal of 10 closed loans per mo. for our sales team. Last summer our region was averaging 7+ per LO, the goal is reachable but everyone needs to step up their activities. Those in the Torch Bearer Program are making 75 calls per week and having 4 face to face meetings. We have 5 LO’s in the class and all have dedicated themselves to lift their business. I appreciate their efforts! Nicole Abraham is back over operations for the company. Many of you know Nicole was our regions ROM a few years back. I am really excited to have her supporting Ev and all of our region again! I want to thank our operations team for keeping an upbeat attitude though the winter. I know the lack of overtime and smaller bonuses hit home. I am optimistic about 2018 and believe we will continue our upward trend despite an increasing rate environment. Last year we only closed 14% of our business in refinances which means we are positioned for another strong purchase year. St. Patrick’s Day is coming soon and it’s never too early to look for a little luck of the Irish, “May the Dreams you hold dearest be those which come true and the Kindness you spread keep returning to you!” Unknown Irishman. ~Dave Schile

UPDATE FROM EVELYN COX March brings us many things… March Madness (probably the most watched event – at least at our house) ….St. Patrick’s Day – luck of the Irish; Oscars, Combine- who will go in what round of the NFL draft ….. and of course snow. There is a saying we have here in Idaho –if you don’t like the weather, just wait 5 minutes and it will change; which is what we have been experiencing lately. I th know I am looking forward to Spring on the 20 of the month. th Don’t forget about the time change coming on the 11 of March, Spring forward 1 hour. Quotes of the Month “Good, better, best. Never let it rest. ‘Til your good is better and your better is best.” ~St. Jerome “The people who influence you are the people who believe in you.” ~Henry Drummond “Be Impeccable With Your Word. Speak with integrity. Say only what you mean. Avoid using the word to speak against yourself or to gossip about others. Use the power of your word in the direction of truth and love.” ~Don Miguel Ruiz “Respect is earned. Honesty is appreciated. Trust is gained. Loyalty is returned.”

UPDATE FROM SUSAN HOLMES All of us are looking forward to an increase in loan activity. As we work through this slower time, let’s stay on top of our game. We each need to do our part of the process timely and efficiently. We need to communicate well to all parties on the loan. Let’s use great teamwork to provide great customer service. And not forget that our customer is every person involved in the loan. Borrowers, coworkers, agents and business partners all deserve our best! Congratulations Leon Baker, Tera Davis, Leon McKean, Jason Oswald and Dave Perry for making the Mortgage Executive Magazine’s Top 1% Mortgage Originators in America 2017!! ALSO Congratulations To Jason Oswald Jason was the #1 purchase lender in the state of Idaho for 2017

Huge shout out to Manessa, Angie and Danielle. I would like to send a shout out to Natalie Svaty, she is an amazing team member, she is always ready to jump in and help 11 purchase transactions closed. a fellow co-worker out., she communicates with borrowers in a kind and considerate manner and is always positive and helpful 4 closed on time to borrowers and fellow co-workers. Natalie recently took on the extra duty of helping with our phone issues when we moved 7 closed early---all 7 closed 5 days early, or sooner. to the new branch, she wasn’t asked, just did it, she is amazing and I am lucky to have her as my “Academy Sister”! And of course our ops team---couldn’t have done any of that without them ~Heidi Williamson Scott Petersen Shout out to Dave Schile for organizing our Region meeting yesterday. It was very valuable. ~Ela Conner SHOUT OUT- Ann Schnibbe is someone very special and A BIG THANK YOU to Laura Alexander for always be- always willing to go the extra mile to get the job done! I am so ing quick to help, answer questions and offer guidance. blessed to have her as my processor!!!! I appreciate all you do! ~Brenda Heller KUDOS to Kris Link and Jonathan Michalski! Both of you take time to teach me things and hold my hand while I Shout out to Carole Condon, learn. Thanks for your kindness, patience and humor along the Ann Schnibbe, and Ela Conner way! for all their help while Manessa was out. ~Monica Pilot Great team work---thank you ladies very much!!!!!!!!!!!!! ~Scott Petersen We would like to give a shout out to CJ for doing a great job, and going above and beyond to help us with our I would like to give a shout out to Jenna in the Walla Walla of- (sometimes crazy) Alaska loans! Thanks from Leon, Mary, fice. Jenna has taken on her new position as processor in our office and myself. and is really truly blowing it away. Her ownership in the files, willing- ness to learn to ways, and dedication to our clients adds a truly un- ~Ellie Traeger measurable value to the clients experience. I could not do what I do without her. ~Tera Davis

The information below was forwarded to me by our Manager, Lynn Hergenreder, as a 'Shout-Out' Loan Officer, Cheryl Lipp of our Colville, Washington Branch received the following note along with a thoughtful bottle of wine from some of her very happy clients. The e-mail from Cheryl is pasted below. Just got a bottle of Vino De Eyzaguirre (bottle of Cab) from the xxxxx’s. A VA loan we closed yesterday and first time home buyer. Their thank you card says, \"Thank you time a thousand, times infinity. Thank you all the way into the future, inside a black whole and back out again. Thank you to the molten center of the earth. Thank you for work- ing with us and MAKING OUR DREAMS COME TRUE. Truly appreciate all your hard work and time\". ~Linda Bloom Frantastic (Fran Larsh) is fantastic, and supports our efforts to get CDs and closing docs out on with sometimes incredibly short no- tice. Tak and Zoe have both worked collaboratively with us recent- ly on some challenging files. We appreciate their availability, flexi- bility and creativity. ~Leon McKean Meet the newest Employee for Academy Mortgage Tanya Eagins joined the Academy team in February 2018 after working in the finance industry for over 11 years. She decided it was time for a change and now is a Processor in our Eagle, Idaho office. She is very excited about this opportunity and can’t wait to see what she can achieve with Academy. Tanya and her husband have been married for 6 years, they have 1 child and 1 fur baby. Tanya loves traveling, cooking and trying new foods and spending time with her family. Send Tanya a welcome email. Tanya Eagins

Walla Walla Washington Wins Award At our local awards banquet with the Walla Walla Association of Realtors Tera Davis received the 2017 Affiliate of the Year award. st February 21 our office attended the Sweetheart Luncheon put on to support and raise money for the Children’s Home Society of Washington. Tera is on the board and was our table host. Not only did our entire office attend as her guests but also some affiliates- Realtor partners, insurance partners, and other financial partners. Pictured is Tera Davis, Janessa Goodson, Jenna Provost- Second Picture is Tera Davis and Jackie Hagerman all of the Walla Walla Branch. Helping Out Animals in Need Mary Sindorff dropping off brand new towels for the animals at Anchorage Animal Care and Control. Their washing machine went on the fritz last month, and they put out a plea to replace the towels ruined by the old machine. VALENTINE’S DAY Meridian, Idaho Office had a Valentine’s Day Potluck.

IRON DOG RACE ALASKA “The Iron Dog course dis- tance is over 2,000 miles, starting in Big Lake with a halfway stop in Nome and finishing in Fairbanks, making it the World’s longest snowmobile race. Participants cover some of Alaska’s the most TEAM STARTING LINE remote and rugged terrain while confronting some the harshest winter conditions. Survival skills are essential, making it the World’s toughest snowmobile race. All 2032 MILES LATER AT teams in race classes are THE FINISH LINE a team of two persons and two snowmobiles for safety.” The race field this year began with 27 teams and ended with only 21 teams coming across the finish line 6 days later. Team 23, sponsored by Academy Mortgage, finished strong and proud with a lifetime of stories about traversing the Alaskan wilderness. After riding 2,000 miles in 6 days, Stan and Paul represented Academy well and were in good shape with the exception of Paul’s black eye compliments of a ptarmigan (medium-sized gamebird in the grouse family) hitting him in the face at 60 mph! Left to right: Leon McKean, Stan ?, Tuesday McKean and Mary Sindorf

TOP 5 LEGACY MERIDIAN $11,915,268 BRANCHES MERIDIAN $9,387,689 FOR THE NORTHWEST COEUR D’ ALENE $3,679,376 REGION FOR COLVILLE $2,435,327 FEBRUARY CEDAR RAPIDS $1,605,969 TOP 10 LOAN JASON OSWALD $ 4,950,124 OFFICERS FOR THE NORTHWEST SCOTT PETERSEN $ 3,439,796 REGION FOR DAVE PERRY $ 2,744,690 FEBRUARY CHERYL LIPP $ 2,435,327 TOTAL VOLUME JENNIFER BENDER $ 2,221,187 TERA DAVIS $ 1,605,436 WHITTNEY CURRAN $ 1,583,391 JOHN SPIKER $ 1,527,521 LEON BAKER $ 1,441,134 RYAN SHELBY $ 1,420,155

JASON OSWALD $ 4,392,524 TOP 10 LOAN OFFICERS FOR SCOTT PETERSEN $ 2,968,296 THE NORTHWEST REGION FOR DAVE PERRY $ 2,509,690 FEBRUARY CHERYL LIPP $ 2,267,827 PURCHASE JENNIFER BENDER $ 2,221,187 VOLUME JOHN SPIKER $ 1,527,521 LEON BAKER $ 1,441,134 TERA DAVIS $ 1,343,636 WHITTNEY CURRAN $ 996,181 RYAN SHELBY $ 939,505 1. Jason Oswald $11,870,536 2. David Perry $8,022,297 3. Scott Petersen $5,570,475 4 Jennifer Bender $4,221,416 5. Tera Davis $3,878,569 26. 6. Leon Baker $3,736,554 ALL LOAN Kristi Lacroix $688,592 7. Leon McKean $3,560,481 OFFICERS 27. Dean Gillmore $665,519 TOTAL 29. Andrew Tschida $611,920 8. John Spiker $3,012,678 28. Lisa Miles $628,000 9. Cheryl Lipp $2,854,854 VOLUME 30. Anne Erickson $542,206 10. John Spiker $2,559,098 31. Heidi Bateman $529,384 11. Whittney Curran $2,529,866 32. Stephanie Johnson $528,594 12. Karen Wright $2,486,112 33. Craig Ballhagen $520,286 13. Ryan Shelby $2,425,991 34. Tina Ellis $482,916 14. David Moberly $2,240,871 Carolyn 15. Vicki Leavitt $2,129,238 25. Summerton $476,500 16. Maureen Miller $2,081,954 36. Anissa Franklin $452,588 17. Mike Lipinski $1,717,544 37. Michael Louden $452,191 18. Teresa Metz $1,672,507 38. Alice Thomas $371,587 19. Terry Anderson $1,637,461 39. Dave Baldwin $333,400 20. Michael Julius $1,067,310 40. Brenda Heller $243,508 21. Dalton Clark $1,047,506 41. Kelly Beebe $229,500 22. Bob Beisly $978,621 42. Luke Turner $212,588 23. Lynn Hergenreder $902,850 43. Craig Soelberg $162,500 24. Adam Zachary $836,539 44. Eloisa Rawson $152,999 TOTAL $82,054,306 25. Mike McLean $728,200

SPOKANE STRENGTH GROUP FINDER STRENGTHS SEMINAR FINDERS AND THE 5 DYSFUNCTIONS OF A TEAM. TOP 5 HOME OFFICE INSTRUCTORS PETER OSBORN AND ERIN KEMP LEAD THE SEMINAR ALL 34

You Must Give to Receive Adding value for Realtor partners helps build relationships and referrals By Bubba Mills, CEO and owner, Corcoran Consulting & Coaching Inc. | bio Albert Einstein once offered the following advice: “Try not to become a person of success, but rather try to become a person of value.” Here is a funny and true story: A scientist who studied ants learned that when ants die, their fel- low ants carry them away and dump them because of the smell. The scientist tried an experi- ment and put that same smell on a live ant. The ant’s buddies didn’t hesitate. They carried that ant away and buried it — even though it was alive and kicking. The moral of this story is: “Pay attention!” The question for mortgage originators is this: If you’re not getting referrals from Realtors, why is that? If you’re reading this, no doubt, you’re alive. But are you alive to potential life-changing business — the kind of business that lands in your lap because of good relationships with Real- tors? If you’re not getting referrals, it is probably not because you have a certain smell. Most origina- tors will agree, however, that if they can get a few more referrals in 2017, their business will grow and their lives will be that much easier. How do you get more referrals from Realtors? Well, sometimes the answers are so blatantly obvious — like the smell that leads fellow ants to carry a live ant to its grave — that, frankly, it is ridiculous. Inman, the real estate news giant, recently surveyed Realtors specifically about what they want from mortgage originators — what the survey called “lending partners.” If you’re willing to pay attention to the survey results and do some work, you can essentially build a rock-solid founda- tion for future business through a flood of referrals from Realtors. Inman’s findings came at a perfect time as well. Realtors and mortgage originators need each other more than ever. Realtors are strapped with dwindling margins and originators need borrow- ers. Consider the following survey results: Realtors prefer to work with mortgage originators (47 per- cent) over banks (31 percent) and nonbank lenders (22 percent). Plus, Realtors want to work with partners who are a good cultural fit, have a variety of products and a proven track record (someone they can trust) and who can get loans to closing on time. More telling are the following two results: More than three-fourths of Realtors (77 percent) said they only have one lending partner they refer clients to. And, 79 percent of Realtors don’t cur- rently get leads from their lending partners, but 74 percent want leads from originators they know and trust. Page 1 of 2

Let these items percolate as you ponder the following tips that can add value to and increase your relationships with Realtors. 1. Get buyers approved. It was one of the smartest business people ever who said these words: “Give customers what they want.” To improve your relationships with Realtors and add value to those relationships, you must view Realtors as customers. And those customers want qualified buyers — it’s as simple as that. Make it your mission to stick with unqualified borrowers until they become qualified and then hand them off to your favorite Realtors. If that means creating your own credit-repair operations, by all means do exactly that. Realtors understand the work involved in getting buyers qualified and, more than that, they will appreciate your work and often return the favor. 2. Think speed, product variety, reputation and ease of commu- nication. What you need to focus on is no longer a secret. Inman found that Realtors want lending partners who are fast, have a va- riety of products and a good reputation and, finally, who are easy to reach. These are your talking points with all Realtors laid out for you on a silver platter. In addition, make sure when anyone calls your 800 number that a real person answers the phone. This can in- crease your conversion rate by 50 percent. That is a huge differ- ence that is worth the cost. You can’t throw money at lead genera- tion and then make borrowers wade through a frustrating robotic maze. 3. Give leads. Remember the final stat listed earlier from Inman: A whopping 79 percent of Realtors aren’t getting leads from their lending partners, but 74 percent would like them. There it is, straight from the horse’s mouth. That means you need to get seri- ous about your own leads, and even think about investing in lead- generation and lead-management services. Both HIBU, a digital ad- vertising company, and TigerLead, a provider of lead-generation products, can help you prioritize, nurture and cultivate leads, which could increase your website clicks five-fold or more. Page 2 of 2