Fear Not: Credit Union-Realtor® Relationships Can be a Good Thing

By Mike Corn, CU Realty Services

When it comes to growing your mortgage volumes, is fear keeping you from engaging local Realtors®?

Admittedly, many credit unions are skeptical of partnering with real estate agents. They worry about losing control of member relationships or that Realtors will deliver subpar service and response levels to members. Some fear members will be redirected to other mortgage lenders or that leads will not come back to them as promised.

CU Realty Services recently surveyed its credit union partners to better understand their issues and concerns in working with Realtors. Our findings provide credit unions some sage advice: Fear not.

One of the most constructive ways credit unions can increase their mortgage business is to partner with real estate agents – and our research bears this out. Our survey, conducted in January, was sent to 196 CU Realty credit union employees that held a management position, with 39 sending in responses.

While CU Realty plans to soon release a white paper that examines the survey’s findings, the CUSO’s initial review found valuable insights, including:

• Realtors add value, help keep members’ loans at the credit union: 41.2 percent of respondents cited “a great value-added resource for members” as the most relevant benefit to their credit union working with Realtors; while another 41.2 percent cited the opportunity to “keep members’ purchase mortgage loans at the credit union” as theirs.

• Credit unions want to establish Realtor relationships: 84.6 percent of respondents replied that having “a network of Realtors dedicated to the credit union and ready to serve members” was the most important feature of partnering with a realty service provider like CU Realty.

• The majority of credit unions see Realtor relationships as very important: When asked to rate the importance of Realtor relationships to their credit union, 55.9 percent said the relationships were very important, with another 23.5 percent stating they were critical.

• Credit Unions welcome the opportunity to work with Realtors: Perhaps the most notable finding of the survey was that, as a whole, credit unions have confidence that the agents they work with live up to the quality standards set by our Realtor network.  They are not fearful of working with real estate agents – they welcome it. And many have the results to show for it.

The key take-away for credit unions?  Common fears related to working with Realtors appear to, well , disappear when credit unions work within an organized system.  Working with a Realtor network can be truly beneficial, especially when it’s a program that pre-screens its agents, trains them in the credit union philosophy and service standards, and holds them accountable.

Paraphrasing the words of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, when building relationships with Realtors, credit unions have nothing to fear but fear itself.  And when it comes to growing purchase mortgage volumes, you have everything to gain.