We recently connected with Tim Brannon and have shared our conversation below.
Tim, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Have you ever seen (or implemented) a really awesome way to show a client you appreciate them
The Nightingale Advantage Program was created six years ago after a medical emergency landed me in the hospital. As I was being rolled into surgery I made a deal with myself. If I came out of this OK I was going to figure out a way to give back to the folks in healthcare. I obviously made it and I started working on fulfilling my promise three days later.
Mortgages became the obvious answer as I had already been in the mortgage business for twenty years. It took about 4 months for us to figure out a way forward and get the attorneys to sign off. Our deal is this: we give back 1% of the loan amount at closing to cover most if not all costs. So a 500K mortgage loan gets the buyer 5K at closing. Everything is very transparent and the client sees the credit on their CD. No smoke and mirrors. No jacking up the rate. The money is a true give back from those of us working on the loan. To my knowledge this is the most aggressive mortgage program out there.
Those in healthcare usually see folks at their worst. They are sick and in pain. Thanking the nurse is usually not top of mind. When we started this program we made sure our clients knew that this program was created for them. We very much appreciate what they do and we want to make sure they know it. We also put our money where our mouth is.
Tim, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
Like so many other things, I got into the mortgage industry by accident. I’d been in the stock market for eighteen years and was looking for a change. I talked to a guy that knew a guy and next thing I was selling mortgages instead of stocks. I rode the mortgage horse for twenty years selling the same products as everyone else. It really was just a job. Then in January of 2017 I had my medical incident which changed my life. I became obsessed with creating a program that gives back to those folks who give so much to us. Besides healthcare, our program helps all military, present and past, along with first responders. All creativity that I could possibly summon was called into play just to get this program launched. And our collective creativity is needed every day in the quest of letting nurses and others know about us. We can add the Nightingale Advantage to almost all standard mortgage products. What sets us apart is the size of the give back. We strive to cover most if not all closing costs. This saves the average buyer thousands. I am proud of the fact that we have been accepted on to the employee benefits websites of Centura Health, UCHealth, Denver Health, Children’s Hospital Colorado and the Mayo Clinic. And I am happy and thankful that our Nightingale Loan Officers, along with our participating Realtors, genuinely admire our client base and will go to extra great lengths to make sure things work out well for them. This is no longer just a job.
Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?
A few years ago we had a compliance attorney from our previous parent company that got a wild hair about us giving too much back. She was adamant that instead of giving back thousands, we limit it to five hundred dollars. This would have gutted Nightingale and blown us out of the water. There are competitors that give five hundred back and we would have been no different. However, her premise was based on a falsehood. I think it’s imperative that you have a good grasp of the enviroment you operate in. I found a compliance officer at a local major bank that was willing to help. She did the research and provided the ammo we needed to get the lawyer to back off. Had we just rolled over and died, Nightingale would be gone.
I think this type of unnecessary road block is probably more common than we would like to think. In all lines of business. You have to believe in yourself and what you’re doing. And friends. Friends make everything easier.
What’s been the best source of new clients for you?
I think for us the absolute best source is a happy staff nurse at a large hospital. More so than other types of business, these folks work 12 hour shifts shoulder to shoulder with their fellow nurses. They form a bond that often times does not exist on a car lot or in a restaurant. If we have done a good job for a practicing nurse, she or he is going to tell all their co-workers. By the same token, if we were to mess a deal up, it would be known instantly. We go to great lengths to make sure that does not happen.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.nightingaleadvantage.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nightingaleadvantage/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/NightingaleAdvantage
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/nightingaleadvantage/