0:10

Welcome everyone to , in your Best Interest

0:12

, an ALM First podcast , a

0:14

show that will explore common depository challenges

0:17

, give you an insider's view of the latest

0:19

market trends and share stories

0:21

and insights from industry leaders . I'm

0:24

your host , mike Ensweiler . The

0:27

US economy recovered well from the Great Recession

0:29

in the 2010s , with tighter

0:32

lending practices post the subprime

0:34

mortgage crisis aiding a comeback

0:37

in the mortgage and housing markets . Consumers

0:40

benefited from record low interest rates

0:42

during this period , with the average 30-year

0:44

mortgage rate dropping from around 5%

0:46

in early 2010 to approximately

0:49

3.5% by mid-2012

0:51

. Throughout the latter half of

0:53

the decade , rates remained within

0:55

the 3-5% range . However

0:58

, the COVID-19 outbreak in

1:00

early 2020 led to a widespread

1:02

economic crisis , causing unemployment

1:05

to surge and stock values to plummet

1:07

. Mortgage rates reached

1:09

historic lows in the aftermath of the pandemic

1:11

, hitting an astonishingly low 2.65%

1:15

in January of 2021 . Throughout

1:18

that year , rates remained relatively stable

1:20

in the upper 2% to low 3%

1:22

range . Inflation

1:25

started to rise in 2021 due to supply

1:27

chain issues in generous economic stimulus

1:29

packages . By mid-2022

1:32

, inflation was soaring , prompting

1:34

the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates in

1:36

an effort to curb inflation . Mortgage

1:39

rates followed suit , with the average 30-year

1:41

rate reaching 5.3% by mid-May

1:43

2022 , and surpassing

1:45

the 6% mark by the end of that year , in

1:49

October of 2023

1:51

, rates peaked at almost 7.8%

1:53

, the highest in two decades . As

1:55

of November of 2023 , the average 30-year

1:58

mortgage rate stood at about

2:00

7.25% . Looking

2:02

at the Fannie Mae economic and housing

2:05

outlook for January of 2024

2:07

, in terms of mortgage rates , they stated following

2:10

the Fed pivot in December in anticipation

2:13

of more dovish policy and the recent decline

2:15

in interest rates , our mortgage rate forecast

2:18

has been revised meaningful lower this

2:20

month . We expect the

2:22

30-year rate to average 6.1% in 2024

2:25

and 5.6% in 2025

2:27

. In terms of single-family

2:30

mortgage originations , they said they expect

2:32

single-family purchase regidation volumes

2:34

to be in the $1.5 trillion range in 2024

2:37

, an upgrade of about $49

2:39

billion , driven primarily by upgrades

2:42

to home sales and home price forecasts

2:44

. They also stated that they

2:46

expect single-family purchase

2:48

volumes to grow to $1.7

2:50

trillion in 2025 , an

2:53

upward revision of about $67

2:55

billion from the previous month . For

2:58

single-family refinance originations

3:00

, they said we project 2024

3:03

volumes will be $490 billion

3:05

, an upgrade of $39 billion driven

3:08

by the lower mortgage rate forecast

3:10

. The questions that

3:12

naturally come to mind are how can originators

3:15

get either profitable or remain

3:17

profitable in this environment ? There

3:20

has been a lot of scaling up and scaling down

3:22

in the last several years , as rates have gone

3:24

from being historically low to a quickly

3:26

increased environment . My

3:29

guest today is Jake Sylvie , the director

3:31

of mortgage pipeline hedging at Ailin First

3:33

, who is here to talk with us on getting

3:35

and remaining profitable in this current

3:37

environment . Jake is going to talk

3:39

to us about maximizing your processes

3:41

and execution while minimizing

3:44

your overhead , which should be the focus

3:46

of every lender right now . Welcome

3:49

to the podcast , jake . Thanks

3:51

, mike , thanks for having me . Well , let's dig

3:53

right in . It's been an interesting

3:55

year and I think

3:58

what our listeners would really like to know is how do you see

4:00

the impact of rising rates in historically

4:02

high housing values on mortgage lenders'

4:04

profitability ?

4:07

Yeah . So I think the

4:10

impact of that let's just paint the backstory

4:12

for a second Four years ago right pandemic starts

4:14

and that's when we start to see

4:18

rates coming down to

4:21

the floor . The cost of

4:23

borrow is virtually nothing . Get a 30-year

4:26

mortgage rate under 3% and

4:28

then you start to see the demand , right

4:31

, people trying to move out of cities get a second home

4:33

. What have you but that , coupled

4:35

with even investment real

4:37

estate is

4:39

really turned on lately

4:42

. So all of

4:44

these different factors

4:46

inflation has started to kick off all these different factors

4:48

are playing into what

4:50

we saw in 2020 and 2021

4:54

of just record high mortgage originations

4:57

for those two years . So we've got

4:59

Q4 of 21

5:01

. I think we originated 1.35

5:04

trillion and

5:06

then obviously fast forward to Q1

5:09

of 23 . We originated

5:11

$333 billion , so literally

5:13

a quarter of what we were doing . So

5:15

if we look at that moment in

5:17

time there , all of these

5:19

lenders , everyone's got

5:21

a nice big margin , everyone's

5:23

happy , everyone's eating and

5:26

now everyone's staffed up for that . And

5:29

then what we've seen lately here we're

5:31

seeing rates literally

5:33

climb five points in two years

5:35

and You've

5:37

seen those housing values skyrocket

5:39

through all that demand through those first two years

5:42

. Now what

5:44

you're seeing is as

5:46

fast as those rates climbed , mixed with that

5:48

combination of outside you know inflationary

5:51

pressures , but also that the

5:53

record high housing values You're

5:56

seeing that mortifying drop off quicker

5:58

than than anybody's able to adjust to

6:00

it right . So what's

6:03

the first thing that happens when you start to see , you know , volumes

6:06

drop by a quarter percent industry-wide

6:08

.

6:09

The first thing you see is margin compression right

6:11

.

6:11

You're gonna see lenders competing for , for the volume

6:13

that is out there , trying to to

6:16

, you know , keep

6:18

that volume that they were staffed for , and and

6:21

then ultimately , is that that volume

6:23

is low long enough , you're

6:25

gonna start to see around one of layoffs

6:27

, round two , round three , and

6:30

ultimately , what we have already seen Is

6:33

people closing the doors right and even some

6:35

of the bigger , bigger lenders . You've seen

6:37

mergers on acquisition , so that's

6:40

that's been the

6:42

unfortunate . You know results of

6:44

what's happened , specifically

6:46

, as that speaks to profitability . Like I said , you got a

6:48

much thinner margin now and it is

6:51

a rake war . Everybody's Going

6:53

after what's out there , and

6:56

so what you really need to start as a lender

6:58

is an Institute . You know , lending institution

7:00

. You start looking under every nook , every cranny and

7:02

really seeing where you can cut back , whether

7:05

it be overhead or how you execute

7:07

. You know how you , how you buy and sell loans

7:09

. It's time to start auditing every single

7:11

thing . You need to count every single basis point . And now

7:13

?

7:15

So basis points matter right , oh yeah

7:17

, when times are good , you can be fat and happy , but

7:19

this is a time to certainly do some belt tightening in

7:21

. We've seen that . So

7:23

you know , as we've seen these things , these

7:26

events of 2023 , just

7:28

kind of prognosticating a little bit what was

7:30

your outlook , I'm going forward

7:32

.

7:33

Yeah , all right

7:36

. The outlet question I I'm

7:38

not necessarily . I'm

7:40

a hedger , you know , that's how I make my money . So

7:42

I don't necessarily like the , the crystal ball you

7:45

know prediction , if you will , and

7:47

in every talking header or agency prediction

7:49

I've ever heard . For you know , I've been doing this almost

7:51

, you know , 14 years now . Every

7:54

prediction I've ever heard , typically gets it right about

7:56

50% of the time . But

7:59

educated guess-wise if I had

8:01

to say you

8:04

know , I do think the borrowers . I do

8:06

think the borrowers are

8:08

out there . The demand is still out there . They're

8:10

just sidelined because they can't afford

8:12

a mortgage right now . Right . So

8:14

they're out there . They're waiting for something

8:17

to break here on the markets , whether it be values , whether be

8:19

interest rates . I

8:21

don't think values are gonna be the one to do it . I think interest

8:23

rates are gonna come down slowly here in 24 , maybe

8:26

quicker than I'm saying , but I think they're gonna come down here

8:29

to what would be considered a respectable range . I

8:31

think five to six percent it's probably we're gonna see

8:33

rates plateau for a little bit . But that happening , I see , when the rates get

8:37

to that range , demand

8:41

comes into the market again and

8:44

forces that those values even back up . I think values peaked in the end of 22

8:46

. Average housing , average house price was 550 . You know

8:49

, I think it's come off of that a little bit here in 23

8:51

. I think it's down

8:53

to like 500 . But so I see , once the rates get

8:55

to that that range a respectable range

8:57

that they're looking for , I

9:00

think the demands are just gonna drive the value back up . So

9:04

I actually see this low volume environment going

9:07

longer than we're actually thinking .

9:11

Excellent and so maybe shifting gears on you a little bit . I mean , you talked about

9:13

, you know , staffing

9:17

and those kinds of things . So , in the context of mortgage lock desks , why

9:22

is it important to have policies and procedures

9:25

that ensure consistency and pricing and

9:27

compliance ?

9:30

Oh yeah . So , as it relates to

9:32

pricing , you

9:34

know policies and procedures , and

9:36

let me take this from a lot of these views . So when I

9:38

first got into the industry

9:41

I cut my teeth at a wholesale

9:43

shop , pretty

9:46

sizable one . When I started they had like a $50

9:48

million running pipeline and about

9:50

12 months into my tenure there it was up

9:53

to $500 million pipeline .

9:55

So it grew pretty radically pretty quick .

9:57

And I was doing a lock desk and

10:00

also you know second hedging

10:02

and best execution and all that

10:05

stuff . So from

10:07

what I've learned over this , these

10:09

years in this career , is

10:12

your policies and procedures are

10:15

the guardrails to

10:17

the profitability . The

10:20

lock desk is the guardian of profitability . Right

10:22

, make sure they're adhered to as

10:24

policies and procedures . So what I would

10:26

do if it was

10:28

my lending operation I

10:30

would make sure that the policies and procedures are

10:33

as conservative , as strict as possible

10:35

to protect the house and

10:38

always

10:40

end the

10:43

PMP with a clause with

10:45

a case by case consideration clause , right

10:47

. So what I mean by that is

10:49

let's take into consideration

10:52

, like a rate renegotiation , right

10:54

, rates are dropping a little bit . The

10:56

bar is like , well , hey , I can get a little rate out there . What can you

10:58

do for me ? Well

11:01

, according to the policies and procedures , you're

11:05

locked in at the rate that you locked in with .

11:07

But now you don't want to lose that loan , right .

11:10

So now that case by case consideration , you can

11:12

have the lock desk . Actually look at the . What's

11:17

my con if ? What did I buy it for ? What can

11:19

I sell it for right now ? What could

11:21

I stand to profit ? And then

11:23

I don't want to lose this loan because I'm

11:25

going to lose more . That way . I'll

11:28

be paying for the hedge and I'll just lose all the value that the loan

11:30

could have gained , right ? So

11:33

in this case , all right

11:35

, how much can I give without losing ? So you

11:37

have to have those case by case considerations to make

11:39

sure that you end in a win-win situation

11:41

Barbers happy , institutions happy

11:43

and yeah , I mean so . Pmp

11:45

is critical . And then obviously lock

11:47

desk making sure that it's adhered to .

11:50

Yeah , okay , yeah , and maybe jump

11:52

the gun a little bit . But

11:54

again getting back to that staffing idea , what are the

11:56

potential benefits and maybe challenges

11:59

of outsourcing lock desk

12:01

responsibilities and how can

12:03

it contribute to maintaining profitability during

12:06

market fluctuations ?

12:07

Yeah , okay . So outsourcing

12:10

benefits and potential challenges

12:12

, Saving

12:15

lock desk I got to tell you I'll start off with this . I

12:17

actually don't see any challenge to it . The

12:20

benefits speak for themselves

12:22

, and I'm going to speak specifically to

12:25

ALM first right

12:27

and our lock desk product and

12:29

the way we're structured . So

12:31

, number one , what are you getting with an outsourced

12:34

lock desk ? Well , obviously you're getting a proven product

12:36

, right ?

12:37

They've been there . They've done that .

12:39

This is something they offer and

12:42

you know you're going to get that expertise

12:44

immediately . Number

12:46

two you're

12:48

getting that business continuity right . So

12:50

there's no vacation days , there's no sick

12:52

leave , there's no paternity leave . Someone's

12:54

always going to be there to make sure that that job

12:57

is handled .

13:00

Number three specific to

13:03

ALM first , you know we offer a month to

13:05

month contract , right ?

13:06

So what does that mean

13:09

? What does that tell me ? If I'm an

13:11

institution looking at a vendor

13:13

that's offering this service at a month to

13:15

month contract , that tells me that they're

13:17

more invested in the success of this than

13:19

maybe I am as a lender , right ? So

13:23

you know the benefits , I

13:26

think , speak for themselves . And

13:28

then obviously , other

13:31

benefits to outsourcing

13:33

is they're able to share those

13:35

best practices right industry-wide so

13:38

the benefits go on and

13:40

challenge-wise , I don't see

13:42

any , honestly . I mean we work very closely

13:44

with the institution's processors

13:47

and underwriters and closers . We're

13:49

making sure we're running validations on all the pipelines

13:52

. We're making sure that that data is clean start

13:54

and finish and that loan gets delivered

13:56

successfully .

13:59

So in what scenarios

14:02

do you believe a product and pricing

14:04

engine is essential for mortgage institutions

14:07

, and how does it contribute to

14:09

streamlining processes and ensuring adherence

14:12

to the policy and procedures you were

14:14

talking about earlier ?

14:16

Yeah , so PPE , that's a

14:19

good question . There

14:21

are certainly useful tools . I

14:24

think it's essential for lenders that sell servicing

14:26

released , right , so they're not retaining

14:28

that servicing in house , they're releasing that , and

14:31

typically when they sell released , you

14:33

might have maybe an independent mortgage

14:35

banker . Then they can work with

14:37

the agencies for sure , but they could probably

14:40

work with a handful of aggregators . I

14:42

think that's really where , especially when it comes to eligibility

14:44

, that's really where PPE can shine , because

14:46

it brings in all the different

14:48

overlays that these aggregators

14:51

have on top of what Fannie

14:53

Freddie might have in their guidelines

14:55

right , so they have their own risk that

14:59

they consider . So it

15:01

gets hard for an underwriter if you're selling

15:03

to 10 different aggregators , as well as

15:05

the agencies . It gets hard for an underwriter to

15:08

stay on top of

15:10

all that . And so obviously a PPE

15:13

. It would be very critical , I think

15:15

, to that type of independent mortgage

15:17

banker who has 10 to 15

15:20

investors . Where

15:23

I don't think a PPE is

15:25

absolutely necessary , especially

15:27

in this environment right now because they

15:29

are rather pricey , is

15:32

to maybe

15:34

a depository that just only retains and

15:37

they sell strictly to Fannie Freddie , or maybe Federal

15:39

Home Loan Bank . I don't think it's

15:41

necessary for them to have to use a

15:43

PPE Everything-wise

15:46

. That's what the automated underwriting systems

15:48

are for , right DUNLP ? Yes

15:51

, you're going to have to have an underwriter on hand , but

15:54

those AUSs really take

15:57

care of it , you know the bulk

15:59

of the underwriting , I would say . And

16:01

then from a pricing standpoint it's pretty easy

16:03

to build a profitability margin . Your

16:06

lock-dish should be able to build a profitability margin into

16:08

those prices that you get from Fannie and Freddie

16:10

and be able to

16:12

lock and revise a loan and

16:15

ultimately sell it with a lot

16:17

of profit in it . So it really depends

16:19

on the lending institution , right ? What

16:22

are they doing ? You know it's

16:24

a good way to save money , especially right now in this environment

16:26

.

16:27

It's a good way to save money . If you only have those one

16:29

or two investors in here , retain

16:31

that servicing you know you mentioned

16:34

early on that you've had

16:36

a long career in this space

16:38

, that you've done a lot on the hedging side

16:40

of the process

16:42

, and so you know , just thinking

16:44

about that , what considerations

16:46

should lenders take into account when transitioning

16:49

from a best efforts

16:51

commitment style to hedging interest rate

16:53

risk , with mortgage-backed security

16:55

to be announced forwards , yeah

16:58

, so .

16:59

I would consider you know the best efforts

17:02

that's going to be step one

17:04

for any lending . You know secondary , successful

17:06

secondary setup

17:10

. You know selling best efforts , making

17:12

sure that that's how you at

17:14

least protect that initial profitability margin that

17:16

you've aimed to price into

17:18

your tier H sheets in the morning . And

17:21

now , if you get to that point that you're ready

17:24

to take that next step , the more advanced delivery

17:26

execution style being that mandatory

17:28

sales strategy and

17:31

your hedging with those MBS TBAs

17:33

, then there really isn't

17:35

too much additional

17:38

resources needed

17:40

as long as you

17:42

know how to properly hedge that

17:44

interest rate risk right .

17:45

I mean that's going to be critical .

17:47

You're likely if you've never done it or seen it you're

17:50

likely going to need to outsource to

17:53

someone that's been knowledgeable in space and been

17:55

doing this for some time . So

17:58

it doesn't take anything

18:00

additional , any

18:03

additional resources other than that advisor

18:05

. You

18:08

know , underwriting nothing changes . Processing

18:10

nothing changes . The

18:12

only difference is obviously , instead of upfront

18:14

having that , you

18:17

know , that investor , that end

18:19

investor identified . We're

18:21

not gonna know that until you know , until

18:23

time to to sell , to

18:26

sell those loans . So I mean you're , instead of selling

18:28

loans on a flow basis , you will now be selling on

18:30

a bulk basis . So

18:33

, as opposed to every time a loan comes at the door , turning

18:35

around and locking that best-effort commitment

18:37

with an investor , now you're just gonna sell

18:40

that hedge to offset that pricing , change , risk

18:42

and then , ultimately

18:44

, you know , whenever you

18:46

collect your funds , you collect interest , carry , after

18:49

that you continue to hedge with the MBS , dba

18:51

and then ultimately , let's just say , you know

18:53

, five months down the road , hey

18:55

, we got a collection of four or five million

18:57

dollars ready to be sold . Now

19:00

you turn around and you , you best X

19:02

every single one of those loans . It could be you could have a 10

19:04

million dollar loan sale , full of 40

19:06

loans , but your pricing goes to every single

19:08

investor , right ? So 14

19:12

of those may go to Fannie , 16 may go

19:14

to Freddie and , obviously , the remaining

19:16

10 go to Federal Home Loan Bank or whomever , whomever

19:18

your pricing to . So

19:21

there's , there's nothing too

19:23

challenging about changing

19:25

, changing

19:27

your processes , but

19:29

finding the you know . Obviously the right advisor

19:32

to execute is most

19:36

critical portion .

19:39

Jake you talk about delivering the multiple

19:41

lenders . I've heard a number of institutions

19:44

that have only one investor Explain

19:46

to me , explain to us . You know more about

19:48

maximizing sale execution and why

19:50

you'd want to sell it more than just one .

19:54

Yeah , absolutely . Um . So

19:57

I can say , even in the 14

19:59

years I've been doing this , I've never sold to just

20:01

one I , if

20:05

you want to maximize return of value

20:07

on your sale of your mortgage pipeline , it makes sense to get

20:09

every and

20:13

I'm gonna use this , let's the specific

20:15

to a depository right . So we're taking that servicing where your options

20:18

are limited , you've got , like

20:20

I said , you know Fannie , freddie , if you securitize the

20:22

Jenny , you know fantastic but

20:24

also potentially federal home loan bank right . So

20:26

if you have only those Options

20:29

, you need to maximize those options to maximize

20:31

your return . I can tell you Fannie and Freddie

20:33

are competitive with each other . They're

20:35

within , you know , 10 max

20:38

20 basis points of price from each

20:40

other . But when you extract late 10 20 basis

20:42

points to

20:44

an annual , you know origination , that's gonna turn its substantial

20:47

, substantial numbers .

20:51

I can tell you that you know

20:53

we sell loans Appetites

20:56

come and go from a investor standpoint right

20:59

.

20:59

Appetites coming go and we sell loans . For you

21:01

know , for one of our clients , and they were strictly selling

21:04

the fray and we introduce them

21:06

that they they already had a federal

21:08

home loan bank Relationships set up

21:10

, they just weren't best exes .

21:11

And so , once we did the analytics for them , 80

21:13

basis points to 120 basis points , pick

21:15

up strictly on that Provincial

21:19

paper .

21:19

Wow is what they experienced . And so they're making substantially

21:21

you know

21:23

substantial amounts of money more than what

21:25

they were .

21:26

They didn't have to change much of anything

21:28

.

21:28

I mean All they

21:30

have to change is how long you know how long delivered . So

21:34

it can be substantial pickup and , like I said , Maximizing

21:37

the amount of money that's going to be spent on that and

21:41

maximizing the options that you have . Now

21:44

, if you're in the servicing release space

21:46

and you have aggregators . I would Try

21:49

and focus in On

21:53

a select few

21:55

, maybe five , six that maybe specialize

21:57

in different areas . But

22:00

certainly maximizing the amount of investors

22:02

you have is going to maximize return that

22:04

you get . Like I said , if it's 10 , 20 basis

22:07

points , that might not sound like a lot for a single

22:09

loan by loan scenario . Extrapolate

22:11

that to a year's worth of funding and and

22:13

watch , watch how big your eyes get .

22:16

So you know , the 80 to 120 basis

22:18

point certainly has my attention especially

22:20

in this environment with with volumes down , and

22:23

so now I want to explore multiple investors . You know

22:25

what criteria should mortgage lenders

22:28

consider when auditing current vendor relationships

22:30

and sourcing new ones ?

22:33

Yeah , so you know

22:35

this really money really ties into Profitability

22:39

. You know how do I stay profitable

22:41

in this environment , right ? So I

22:44

Vendors

22:46

common in a

22:48

few different Departments

22:51

in the mortgage space . I mean they're vendors

22:53

for underwriting and post closing

22:55

, secondary

22:58

marketing , obviously so , if

23:00

I was a lender right now in this space

23:03

In to ensure I'm profitable

23:05

, I will look at every one of these relationships , look at every

23:07

one of these contracts today . Do they favor me

23:09

? Do they ? are the is the customer

23:11

service there Do they

23:13

have my best interest as a , as

23:15

a client , a partner they

23:18

have my best interest in mind . So

23:21

if I was looking at vendors

23:23

, I would definitely look at look at

23:25

the structure like . I said I think a month-to-month

23:28

contract is speaks to exactly

23:30

the approach that vendor wants to take to

23:32

that relationship . They're going for absolute

23:34

success . They want to know they don't know month in , a

23:37

month out that you as a lender want to be

23:39

with them Because of their job that they've

23:41

done for you . Other important

23:43

Things to consider with vendors

23:45

is you know variable cost structure

23:47

right . Volume volumes are horribly

23:51

low right now compared to where they were right

23:53

. So If

23:55

my volume is down , is

23:58

your cost going to come down with me , so make sure

24:00

I stay profitable , right . So that's something

24:02

I would consider too . My

24:04

final thought is

24:07

finding

24:10

a vendor that you know is

24:12

looking out for your best interest , right ? What's

24:14

coming down the pipe ? Is there any potential

24:16

pitfalls ? Are they giving me

24:18

the necessary information ? I need to make

24:21

the best decision

24:23

with my pipeline currently right , and

24:25

a good example of that is

24:30

what we , as Mortgage Pipeline Hedging

24:32

Group , what we did for our clients

24:34

when the LLPAs changed or the loan-level

24:36

price adjustments changed with the agencies this

24:39

past May , they

24:41

had announced a completely different structure of

24:43

risk adjustments , and so what

24:45

we did is we put together an AOLIX

24:47

package that housed every loan on

24:50

the pipeline for our clients and

24:52

we gave them a cost-benefit analysis

24:54

, loan by loan , if

24:56

it was best for them to sell the loan before the change

24:59

or retain it until after the

25:01

change to make sure they maximize the return

25:03

on those loans . So

25:05

, yeah , making sure you find a vendor that's

25:08

doing that analysis that truly has your best your

25:11

best intentions at heart there and

25:14

is truly helping you maximize your

25:16

return .

25:19

So let's just touch on maybe one more thing on the vendor

25:21

side . Can you provide some examples

25:23

of how effective communication and customer

25:26

service from your vendors contribute

25:28

to the success of your mortgage

25:30

operations , especially in

25:32

critical areas like lock desk , hedging

25:34

, underwriting and quality control ?

25:39

Yeah , so I really only

25:41

have one thing to contribute for

25:43

that . You know , I've

25:46

worked for a

25:49

couple of companies now

25:53

where we've had to send

25:56

in a request to the vendor

25:58

and we

26:00

get stuck in a queue . We get a response

26:02

email that says please give us 24 to 48

26:05

hours before we get a response to

26:07

you . And to me that's

26:10

just not going to work . If we need something as an institution

26:12

, we need that as soon as possible , and

26:15

so for me if it's my company

26:17

and I have a request

26:19

, I want to know that I can pick up a phone , call

26:22

my vendor , talk to them on the phone immediately , send

26:24

them an email , get responded to quickly

26:27

, and so we can address the issue

26:29

and move on .

26:31

And so that's what we do here at A1 versus

26:33

.

26:35

That's how we treat our clients , and

26:37

I think that's critical in

26:39

vendor selection .

26:42

You know , these things always go too quick . The

26:44

podcasts are shorter by nature to

26:46

, you know , certainly give an overview of what's going on

26:49

, and so , as we run out of you

26:51

know , butt up against the clock here . Do you have any closing

26:53

thoughts or anecdotes that you want to leave with the

26:55

audience ?

26:59

The only thing I want to leave is exactly what I've been kind

27:01

of talking about this whole time . Right

27:05

now , times are tough and you need

27:07

to look under

27:09

every rock , around every corner . Right

27:11

, how do I keep my head above

27:13

water and

27:15

how can I do it with the right

27:18

partner ? How can I make sure

27:20

I'm maximizing ? Our potential

27:22

, so

27:24

do that .

27:26

Well , thank you , Jake , for joining us today and sharing

27:28

your insight .

27:29

Thanks , Mike .

27:31

I appreciate it , man . At

27:33

the end of each episode , I'd like to take a moment and let

27:35

you know more about the resources we have

27:37

available . We have a robust

27:39

workshop , conference and webinar schedule , so

27:42

be sure to visit our website for more details on these

27:44

, as well as our Education Hub and Resource

27:46

Center for reporting webinars , articles

27:48

and more . As always , stay

27:50

safe , stay healthy and

27:52

thank you for listening to our best interest

27:54

in the first podcast

28:08

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