What do you write in a holiday card to past borrowers?
Nothing about rates. “It was good to work with you this year” or simply a thank you and the year — that's the whole card. The temptation is to add a line about refinancing, and that line is what turns a greeting into an ad and gets it thrown out. Trust the card to do its job, which is to keep your name in the house until the day they need it.
Should the card come from the loan officer or the institution?
The person, with the institution behind it. Borrowers remember a name and a voice, not a logo — and if they can't remember the name, the card has done half a job. We imprint up to four lines, so the branch or company name, the officer's name and a short greeting all fit comfortably. Banks and credit unions with multiple branches usually run one design and vary the imprint by location.
Is a holiday card considered advertising?
We print cards, we are not your compliance officer — that call belongs to whoever handles it for you. The general principle lenders work from: keep rates, payment amounts, terms and any offer off the card entirely, and what's left is a greeting rather than an advertisement. Whether to carry an NMLS ID is a question for your compliance officer too. Many loan officers include it out of habit and it costs you nothing to imprint.
How many should a loan officer order?
Borrowers from the last five years, plus every referral partner, plus your current pipeline. For most individual loan officers that's 200 to 500. For a branch it runs into the thousands, and that's where the per-card price starts working for you — $1.85 a card with envelopes at 1,000, before the early-order discount.