Closing 20+ Loans a Month in This Market
Paul Parsons breaks down exactly how he's closing 20-33 loans a month in a down market by specializing in first-time buyers (70% of his volume), building a selective agent partnership model, and running TikTok-powered virtual home buyer seminars. Essential listening for LOs who feel stuck waiting for the market to turn around.
Specialize your entire business toward the buyers who actually need to buy right now — first-time buyers don't have a rate to protect, so they're your real market.
Takeaways you can run this week
- Shift 70%+ of your marketing and social content to first-time buyers immediately — audit your last 10 Instagram posts and rewrite any that aren't explicitly speaking to FTBs.
- Research your state's down payment assistance bond program this week; Paul does 50% of his FTB loans with a $10,000 zero-interest DPA — if you don't know your state's program cold, learn it before your next agent meeting.
- When onboarding a new agent partner, require a 30-minute weekly strategy call every week for the first 90 days as a condition of the partnership — open each call with: 'Are we missing any pre-approvals? What do we need to do together to get the next buyer under contract?'
- Find a local agent with 10,000+ TikTok or Instagram followers and pitch a monthly co-hosted virtual first-time buyer seminar on Teams: use ChatGPT to build 5 slides each (10 slides total), end with a soft-pull credit link and a follow-up call offer — Paul's last event produced 11 apps and 6 pendings from 25 attendees in one hour.
- Set a weekly contract threshold: if you don't have 3 new purchase contracts pending by Wednesday, double your outbound call count for the rest of that week — track this on a physical daily checklist with three columns: realtor contacts, customer contacts, past client follow-ups.
- Require exclusivity before fully committing to a new agent partner — tell them directly: 'I give 100% to my partners, and I need that in return. If you have a backup lender, I'm not the right fit for you personally, but I'd love to introduce you to someone on my team.'
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GET FREE ACCESSThe playbook
- Step 1 — Target selection: Identify agents doing a minimum of 1 buyer-side deal per month. Research them on all social platforms before any outreach; follow, engage, and find mutual contacts first.
- Step 2 — First meeting (informal): Coffee or Top Golf — no product pitch. Ask about family, business pain points, what their current lender is NOT doing. End by saying: 'I'd like to put together a plan to earn your business. Can we meet again?'
- Step 3 — Second meeting: Present a written plan based on what you learned. Name-drop 1-2 of your existing top-agent partners and offer them as references. Use the word 'we' throughout — frame everything as a joint growth strategy.
- Step 4 — Onboarding: Schedule a recurring 30-minute weekly call for 90 days. Cover: pending pipeline, missing pre-approvals, buyer follow-up, and what joint marketing activity (open house flyers, Instagram ads, door knocking) you'll do together that week.
- Step 5 — Ongoing growth: Bring one new idea per quarter to help the agent grow their business (e.g., co-hosted buyer seminar, TikTok live Q&A). Track the agent's annual unit count — if their numbers aren't growing, revisit the strategy together.
Worth quoting
“The cream always rises to the top when things get tough. I feel like we're kicking butt because we're dialed in.”
“I never say 'send me a deal.' I say 'what do we got to do to get a deal? What can I help you with?'”
Best for
LOs who are grinding but plateaued under 10 units/month and haven't yet built a structured agent partnership system or tapped first-time buyer programs as a deliberate niche.