May 2018 Newsletter

NW REGIONAL NEWSLETTER HIGHLIGHTS FOR THE MONTH OF MAY April showers did bring May flowers. Leads, applications, credit pull, locks were all up as well has funded loans that climbed from 47M in April to 55M in May. I would like to give a SHOUT OUT to Dave and Jason’s Meridian Legacy branch that had record closing in May for $20,480,494! June is lining up to be another solid month, if you are not busy then it’s time to change your soap, and then ask one of our top 10 produc- ers how they get their business. Whittney Curran, Dave Perry, and Leon McKean represented the NW Region at the first Chairman’s Advisory Council at our home office in Draper. Please read more about what this group is doing in the newsletter. I also want to thank Jason Oswald and Tak Imanishi for representing us in Ecuador on the Academy service trip. Look for more on this wonderful experience in the newsletter. I want to thank our NW Operations team for their hard work in May, the group pro- cessed, underwrote, closed, and funded 275 loans. Moving into the summer we will start hitting our stride and 300+ loans which means we need to put on our time man- agement hats and make sure we keep up with the flow and keep the conveyer belt of loans speeding along. I was happy to be at Kriss Bates retirement party at home office two weeks ago. Kriss and I came to Academy about the same time in 2008, we both have seen volume reach 10 billion, traveled all over the world, and witnessed the growth of our Academy fami- ly. It was bitter sweet to see Kriss ride off into the sunset, he will be missed. Usually I am comfortable in my own skin but writing that I have been in the mortgage business for 33 years feels like an eternity, and I guess it is since many of you were not even born when I was trying to figure out how to spell FHA. In all my years this is one of the oddest times for mortgage bankers, business is up 20% but revenue is being crushed by compressed margins. Some of our competition are writing loans at a breakeven or losing money to keep their boats afloat. Recruiters trying to steal our people will say that Academy is up for sale, or that we are going under, or that we are having to close branches. Bottom line is we are not up for sale, we are extremely well capitalized, and yes, if branches aren’t performing and have no chance of being sus- tainable we will close them. Like golf we need to focus on our ball and try and get as few of strokes to the hole as possible and block out the peripheral noise. “Positive anything is better than negative nothing.” – Elbert Hubbard -Dave Schile

EVELYN COX Did you Know? That only the actual employer should be entered on the 1003 as the borrower’s current employer. Do not enter “retired or homemaker” because DU will then think they are really employed and ask for documentation. That on conventional loans all military pay can be combined and listed as “base” pay. That on FHA loans prior employment must be verified by either a W-2, written VOE; electronic verification acceptable to FHA, evidence supporting enrollment in school or military during the most recent two full years. (Only verbal VOE’s are NOT acceptable). That when you are calculating an hourly employee’s income, it must be averaged for qualification. Quotes of the Month “Life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you react to it.” Charles R. Swindoll “You can’t expect to hit the jackpot if you don’t put a few nickels in the machine.” Flip Wilson “Perseverance is not a long race; it is many short races one after the other.” Walter Elliot “Beginning today, treat everyone you meet as if they were going to be dead by midnight. Extend to them all the care, kindness and understanding you can muster, and do it with no thought of any reward. Your life will never be the same again.” Og Mandino “The people who influence you are the people who believe in you.” Henry Drummond

SUSAN HOLMES Deciding what to write for this month’s newsletter seemed particularly difficult. Then I came across this: Whether you think you can, or you think you can’t – you’re right. Henry Ford So I just started writing. I wanted to say that I continue to be grateful to work with each of you. And I am enjoying getting to know each of you. That takes time. I’ve learned about the poetry and the wisdom and the grace that can be found in the words of people all around us when we simply take the time to listen. Dave Isay I think that is a great reminder to each of us. Take time to listen. Imagine what you could learn! We are so used to packing as much as possible into each minute. But sometimes multi-tasking is overrated. No, Mr. Schile, I’m not telling them to slack off! Just to take a breath. When we truly listen to someone else’s position, it is easier to look at things from their perspective. When we truly listen to someone’s request (or read the entire email), it is easier to understand their request. Speaking of email, it is great for sharing information. But to work through a question, to resolve an issue - pick up the phone. A conversation is the best way to come to a solution. Work hard, be kind, and amazing things will happen. Conan O’Brien

CHOOSE YOUR ATTITUDE: Laugh a little!!

A shout out from Post Closing to Fran Larsh for nailing the details on Alaska Housing closing documents! ~Susan Holmes The Anchorage and Wasilla branches would like to do a LOUD shout out recognizing DAVE SCHILE, EVELYN COX and SUSAN HOLMES. They are always available when we need them no matter what day it is or time of the day. This is especially tricky with the time difference between Alaska and Idaho. We want to let them know how much we appreciate their industry knowledge and, mostly, their immense patience!!!!! ~Tuesday McKean My Shout Out is to Amy Hobbing! She takes on every little and big task that is asked of her and gives it 110% She has the biggest heart and is always available to help anyone at anytime! Amy Hobbing…. You’re Awesome ;-) ~Natalie Svaty I would like to give a shout out to Manesseh! It doesn’t matter how crazy the office or personal life gets, she always has a positive attitude and is willing to help. I have learned so much from her and couldn’t do what I do without her! She’s a rock star and makes everyone’s day better!! ~Danielle Costa Shout Out to Heidi Bateman for stepping in and helping our team out while Ami Browen is on maternity leave. Her is the newest and cutest member of the Academy Family! ~Heidi Williamson

I just want to thank Dave Perry, Darla Austin, and Ami Browen, the entire Dave Perry Team for a fabulous record setting production month. May was a big one for us. Thanks to all the support of the entire Academy team. ~Heidi Williamson I am very thankful for The Davis Team and Lynne for sending me flowers while I was in the hospital and being so supportive as I have been dealing with my health. I am so blessed to be part of such an awesome team of people. ~Jamie Nettles I would like to give a big shout out to Cherie Babneau, Kris Link and Marci Witt, they’ve been so amazing with helping me with my training. I’m beyond thankful for all of them and feel so blessed to have such wonderful people to work with. A huge THANK YOU ladies for everything!  ~Tanya Eagans I would like to thank the awesome people at Academy Headquarters for welcoming myself and the Freshman Academy Class 0503 with open arms. It was a real treat to be able to see the brain child of who we work for and another to feel the love from them. Sarah Schmidt and Matt Keys rocked it and made the experience amazing!! ~Heather McLean Shout Out to Fran Larsh and Christy Milliren for dealing with files that are not always easy to navigate. Thank you for your patience. ~Andy Tschida

CJ….my sweet Carol Martin. THANK YOU for being so amazing to work with. I love when I see you’ve grabbed a file of ours to underwrite. You truly embrace a “One team” attitude and work WITH us to get the loans done. We appreciate your availability and great attitude when it comes to walking us through a guideline or a condition when we hit a snag. You don’t rub our noses in our errors, but recognize we’re human and always learning and trying to grow. You have been a source of strength to me when I’ve needed it most. Don’t you ever try to break up with me!! Kristi Lacroix……Life has handed you some lemons lately and I see the determination you have to power through. You possess more strength than you realize and are sitting on acres of diamonds. Your time is coming to shine brighter than you ever thought possible. XoXo ~Manesseh Castro A HUGE shout out to Kelly Beebe for everything she does for me,. including my very first pedicure, my toes still look lovely. Thank you Kelly, I’m truly blessed. Another shout out to Angela Bowden, who is always there to help out with a big smile on her face. You do so many things for so many of us, I appreciate you very much! ~Fran Larsh (Thank you Fran — XO Ang) I would like to give a shout out to my new processor Tressa Anderson. Since taking over the processing for my branch, Tressa has done a great job processing my files and others. She also processed her first FHA 203K loan to a successful close. Nice Job Tressa! Thanks, ~Mike Julius

A HUGE shout out to everyone on our amazing operations team here at the Legacy Branch! May was a big month, and we were short staffed due to maternity leave (Congrats to Lacie Zachary, as well as Ami Browen on the new additions to their homes!) Everyone worked hard, long hours, and chipped in whenever/wherever was needed… Awesome stuff! A shout out to Ami Browen who worked like crazy almost through the end of May even though she was nearly full term with her pregnancy! She never complained, kept her head down, and made things happen! Wow! A huge thanks to Darla Austin for jumping in and taking overflow while Lacie is out with her new little one. 34 funded loans for May is awesome!!! Amazing job as well to Marcie Witt who also took overflow while Lacie was out… Thank you for being a team player! Lacie Zachary, even with a brand new baby at home still managed to jump back in the game and process a handful of files. May would not have been possible without you getting back in the game. Thanks! Congratulations to the following: David Moberly on another baby boy arriving! Lacie Zachary on the birth of her daughter, Madison! Ami Browen on the birth of her daughter, Addalyn. Carole Bateman on her 10 yr. anniversary with Academy! Wow! Nicci Thueson on her five year anniversary with Academy! Darla Austin on her three year anniversary with Academy! Angie Hine on her five year anniversary with Academy! Danielle Hurd on her one year anniversary with Academy! Chealee Carstensen on her one year anniversary with Academy! Congrats to each of you! ~Dave Perry

Whittney Curran giving presentation at Chairman Advisory Council Recently I attended the inaugural Chairman’s Council event. There were roughly 40 field sales professionals brought in from around the country. We had top producers and man- agers from throughout our company; ranging from Florida, Massachusetts, Texas, Illinois, California, Washington and YES Alaska to name just a few. As Chairman of Academy Mortgage, Adam met with us Tuesday morning to clarify what he needs from us to help guide the organization into the future. In advance of the meeting we were surveyed about critical areas we felt needed improvement. From those surveys, we had specific work ses- sions that we broke out into (groups of about 7-8 people). Our charter was to take the items they summarized from the survey’s and provide actionable recommendations to the Executive Team. Adam made every department of the organization available to us at Cor- porate. Each department was given specific instruction to be immediately available to provide us anything we asked, from financials, to technical experts on how processes work. That doesn’t seem like a big deal, but to have an entire 5 story building all standing by to provide us input on anything we needed was pretty impressive and demonstrated the executive teams commitment to this process! For me personally, I was assigned to work on the Decentralization task, which is chaired by our very own Presidents Club Award winner, Whittney Curran. We were questioned on current tasks and approval processes that exist, their benefit to the organization (or barri- ers), and what best practices could be applied. What currently is centralized at the region or corporate level, that could (should) be pressed down to the branch. One example is the “pricing exception process”. We identified a process that at various price points, is 100% approved every time. As such, why are we requiring the commitment of resources to com- plete this approval, and having regional manager, and sometimes even higher, reviewing pricing exceptions that will be automatically approved. We also recommended some tech- nology changes that would facilitate the exception process and alleviate the current manual process of emails and multiple human data input. That’s just one example. We didn’t solve a large quantity of problems in our one and a half days of meetings. But we did build a good base to work from and I anticipate seeing many of our recommendations coming to fruition in the next 2-10 months. Make it a Great Day – Leon

ACADEMY CORPORATION SERVICE TRIP Jason Oswald and family Oswald Family at building site Jason Oswald, Tak Imanishi (Underwriter for the Northwest region) and Jason’s boys Jason Oswald with his boys Otavalo Farmer’s Market overlooking Quito Tak Imanishi at village farewell program This was the inaugural Academy Corp service trip. There were 40+/- folks from Academy that spent their own money and time to join together on a service trip to a remote part of Ecuador. Our team joined with several other local folks working on building a technical college where many of the small, remote 50+ villages will be able to send their young people to get trained on different trades so they can try and elevate themselves from poverty. The work was four days of hot, sweaty, backbreaking work – but totally worth it. Our accommodations were with local hosts – they were not what we would call comfortable, but again, it added to the overall experience. Tak is one of our region’s underwriters. While many of us have talked or emailed with him over the last year or so…because he lives in CA this was the first time we were able to meet. He’s an awesome guy. We had a great time getting to know him.

MAY NUMBERS TOP FIVE BRANCHES IN THE NORTHWEST REGION LEGACY MERIDIAN 20,480,494 MERIDIAN 8,038,503 COEUR D’ ALENE 4,540,993 NAMPA 3,267,630 NAMPA IDAHO CENTER 3,136,853 TOP TEN IN VOLUME TOP TEN IN PURCHASE VOLUME Jason Oswald $7,266,559.00 Jason Oswald $7,021,910.00 David Perry $5,355,262.00 David Perry $4,799,262.00 Scott Petersen $3,196,337.00 Leon Baker $2,766,054.00 Leon Baker $3,136,853.00 John Spiker $2,425,517.00 John Spiker $2,425,517.00 Scott Petersen $2,230,965.00 Whittney Curran $2,089,092.00 Tera Davis $2,085,659.00 Whittney Curran $1,729,092.00 Tera Davis $2,085,659.00 Karen Wright $1,634,232.00 Ryan Shelby $1,950,137.00 Leon McKean $1,621,300.00 Cheryl Lipp $1,898,186.00 Cheryl Lipp $1,611,186.00 Karen Wright $1,634,232.00 “Success usually comes to those who are too busy to be looking for it” ~Henry David Thoreau “Successful people do what unsuccessful people are not willing to do. Don’t wish it were easier; wish you were better” ~ Jim Rohn

NORTHWEST LOAN OFFICERS 1. Jason Oswald $7,266,559.00 20. Carolyn Summerton $1,254,988.00 2. David Perry $5,355,262.00 21. Teresa Metz $1,020,614.00 3. Scott Petersen $3,196,337.00 22. Lisa Steinke $883,820.00 4. Leon Baker $3,136,853.00 23. Terry Anderson $882,606.00 5. John Spiker $2,425,517.00 24. Anne Erickson $831,250.00 6. Whittney Curran $2,089,092.00 25. Bob Beisly $765,780.00 7. Tera Davis $2,085,659.00 26. Stephanie Johnson $699,720.00 8. Ryan Shelby $1,950,137.00 27. Eloisa Rawson $668,404.00 9. Cheryl Lipp $1,898,186.00 28. Brenda Heller $586,482.00 10. Karen Wright $1,634,232.00 29. Dean Gillmore $583,080.00 11. Leon McKean $1,621,300.00 30. Tina Ellis $569,615.00 12. David Moberly $1,511,634.00 31. Angie Prendergast $513,406.00 13. Georgea Lipinski $1,443,027.00 32. Heidi Bateman $459,170.00 14. Maureen Miller $1,416,720.00 33. Lynn Hergenreder $386,250.00 15. Mike McLean $1,409,835.00 34. Vicki Leavitt $345,355.00 16. Michael Julius $1,404,490.00 35. Mary Sindorf $154,400.00 17. Jennifer Bender $1,354,593.00 36. Dave Baldwin $147,508.00 18. Michael Louden $1,322,556.00 37. Kristi Lacroix $142,373.00 19. Anissa Franklin $1,286,737.00 TOTAL VOLUME $54,703,547.00

Creating social media content in real estate, mortgage: Focus on the details Here are some great examples of what NOT to do April 26, 2018 Jason Frazier Details matter. This is a subject that I talk about all the time with my loan officers, real estate agents, and coaching clients. Everyone is so focused on just “getting things posted” that they forget about the details of their content. The details are what makes your content stand out in a noisy space. Some days I will be on social media, media stalking my competition and others, and I will see some great examples of what NOT to do. Today was on one of those days. Details matter people. That is one of the reasons why Apple products stand out and why Steve Jobs (according to those who worked with him), was so intent on per- fecting the \"little things.\" He knew that tapping into the emotions and experience of a consumer, by his products’ de- tails, would be what set Apple above the competition. That premise is also true for the real estate and mortgage industries. It is starting to get noisy and more difficult to make your content stand out. With so many options for consumers, it is important that you are doing everything to put your best foot forward in your marketing. Below are some examples of lack of detail in social media content posting that have easy fixes. Vertical video - In a mobile-first world, doing vertical video is key to the various \"story\" platforms (Snapchat, Instagram). But if have plans to publish your video to mainstream channels like, YouTube, Vimeo, your website, etc. do not do it in vertical mode. The vertical format does not translate well to \"landscape\" channels. You get the \"black bar\" effect on the sides of the video which makes the video harder to watch. Make sure to go land- scape mode when planning on syndicate on other channels. Know your platform - This ties into what we just talked about with landscape vs. vertical. Each social media channel has their best practices for image and video posting. One size does not fit all. What looks great on Facebook, can look like crap on LinkedIn and Twitter. You should also be changing your content to meet the best engagement for that channel. The same goes for the type of content you are producing for each channel. Flyer content - 99% of the time those one-page flyers do not translate to social. By default, flyer content is not opti- mized for social media. A flyer traditionally is produced for a certain medium, like a PDF or printing a physical docu- ment. Taking a screenshot of that bad boy and posting it on Linkedin will make a crappy looking image, not to men- tion the negative view on your brand. If you are going to build a flyer for social, then build it in the best format for that specific channel. Sharing content - If you are doing \"blind shares\", you are missing an opportunity to \"piggyback\" your opinion/ thoughts onto a trending article. People who follow you will care about hearing your perspective. It is why they follow you to begin with. Also, make sure you read the article you are sharing. Form an opinion so that you can engage in a discussion. That should be your goal on every single post. Canned content - Again, don't sleep on the details. Look, I know it seems like a huge task to find your content for you to posts/blog. There are a ton of services out there where you can get content to share. The problem with that, howev- er, is that so can your competition. Instead of sharing canned content as is, take what they are providing you and edit it to add your perspective. It is important to make it sound like you, that it is your voice. People want content from ex- perts, people with the experience. You can't convey how awesome you are via canned content. All of the above are examples of when the details are not even thought about. Thankfully, these mistakes are easily fixed. Keep in mind that every time you are posting content on social, it is a direct reflection of your brand. Your brand is what your customers say it is (to other potential customers), so you need to make sure to focus on the details.