I keep in touch with my past clients, closed-loan database, affinity partners and real estate agents with a post card I have created and mail out six times per year.

It's called Who I've Helped This Week!

I personally write a story about either a purchase or refinance scenario and how I helped them improve their financial situation. Since I know that I need to create a story every other month, I have a file where I write down the clients? name and a short outline so I can pull the file when it comes time to write the short story.

Every time I send one of these stories, I end up with 5 to 7 loans because people have identified themselves as having the same problem.

Here's a sample of one of my stories:

Who I Helped This Week:

Problem:

Our clients were in their early 50s and had a good income but were having some cash flow issues due to unforeseen personal and medical expenses. In addition to their mortgage payment of $2,429, they had other monthly debts of $1,100 and very little cash reserves to fall back on.

Solution:

We refinanced the home paying off the 1st mortgage, the 2nd mortgage and all the debts. In addition to paying off the existing debt, we took an extra $200,000 cash out of the equity. $25,000 went straight into a bank account as an emergency fund and $175,000 went into a safe, liquid conservative, long-term investment account to jump-start their non-existent retirement plan. Not only were they able to add $175,000 to their retirement fund, their monthly cash flow IMPROVED by $1,471 per month. The strategy down the road is to start investing this additional cash-flow savings to accelerate the growth of the retirement plan. In 10 years, the new payment structure should increase their retirement savings by over $500,000.

Moral of the story:

Most people look at their mortgage as a way to buy their home and think it's independent of their overall financial picture. They tend to view the mortgage as a necessary evil to be eliminated as soon as possible instead of looking at it as a dynamic financial tool and using it as an integral part of their overall, long-term financial plan.

If I can be of any assistance to you, your family, friends or co-workers, please give me a call.

Make sure they are true stories of people who you have actually helped!

Other story ideas:

• Clients going thru a divorce
• Cash out for investments or pay income or property taxes
• Purchasing a home with a 2-1 buy down
• Buying a vacation home or investment property

One last note — the story should be generic enough to appeal to others in your database.

Costs: 250 Oversized Post Cards (Color) $120 Postage

www.VistaPrint.com

David Jaffe is one of the top originators with Chase Manhattan Mortgage with an average closed loan volume of $300M. As a mortgage superstar and one of the top 200 loan officers in the country, he attributes his success to his database management techniques and client follow-up strategies. David can be reached at David@DavidJaffeTeam.com. He is a member of Mortgage Speakers Bureau.