Unprecedented times call for active leadership and an all-hands-on approach to business, which is exactly how APM has responded to the current challenges facing our industry and the communities that we serve.

With our core values of Respect, Transparency and Scrappy at the heart of everything we do at APM, we’ve doubled down on our efforts to provide clear, consistent and transparent communication, as well as offer tools, resources and support for our loan originators and team members during this time. 

Our leadership team has rapidly adjusted our business model to support an at-home work force. This has allowed us to protect the safety of all of our team members, branches and customers. We’ve also adopted new business practices to combat the challenges the entire industry is facing.

That sounds like a lot to do in eight weeks, right? That’s our scrappy side shining through. The same scrappiness that propelled us through the 2008 housing crisis will get us through 2020 and beyond. So, how is APM supporting our loan officers during this time?

Making Workforce Adjustments to Max Out Our Capacity

Days before the stay-at-home orders were announced, our leadership team had already begun transitioning a high percentage of our workforce to a remote, work-from-home model in anticipation of the need to make changes to how we do business. This allowed us to have very little interruption to our business during a time of record-breaking loan volume. We’re thankful to our team members for adapting so quickly and so well to this new way of working together. Working from home has gone even better than we could have hoped for.

Along with moving to a remote work model to protect the safety of all of our team members, we’ve redeployed departments within our organization to help support our operations teams as they work to meet the demands of the current loan volume. At APM, when we say that all hands are on deck, we mean it.

Prioritizing Loan Purchase Business

You’ve work hard at cultivating strong relationships with realtor partners, and we don’t take that lightly. Purchase business has been and always will be our top priority at APM. Getting loans in and out of underwriting with quick turn times is very important to our company. We always want to meet our commitments to those who have trusted us to get the job done on time.

We’ve also adapted our appraisal guidelines to provide flexibility for some of the unique challenges facing the industry right now.

Offering Transparency and Respect for our Loan Officers

As we mentioned before, our core values have been at the forefront over the last few months. We made a decision long ago that communication with our loan officers would always be timely, consistent and transparent, in both good times and in bad times. We’ve always taken the stance that if you’re going to hear it or you need to hear it, we want you to hear it from us.

APM Chairman Kurt Reisig and CEO Bill Lowman have lived up to this commitment of full transparency throughout this time by providing frequent videos (sometimes daily) with company and industry updates. With how fast things have changed over the past few months, this has been an important part of doing business. Why have we provided such frequent updates? Because we respect our loan officers and the entire APM family and believe that they have the right to know what’s happening with their company at all times.

Savvy Technology and Mobile Business for our Loan Officers

Now more than ever, we are leaning into our comprehensive technology stack and tools to limit the interruptions to business for our loan officers and their customers.

APM Mobile App

The APM Mobile app creates a unique experience for borrowers, realtors and loan officers to stay connected with a co-branded platform that ensures no one misses a beat throughout the loan process. Through the mobile app, customers can easily apply for a loan, upload and securely send supporting loan documentation and stay in the know on loan status updates and the next steps in the loan process. With the app, this can all be done from the comfort and safety of their homes and ours.

AP Connect

AP Connect, our advanced lead-nurturing platform, has continued to support our APM loan officers and their realtor partners throughout this time with top-notch lead generation services. Our team of virtual sales assistants continues to nurture new and existing purchase leads for a warm handoff with no interruption to business. This advanced nurturing system allows our loan officers to focus on their active pipelines while cultivating a pipeline of future buyers for them. And did we mention that our realtor partners love it?

Customer Retention

With aggressive marketing tactics and news media trying to educate consumers, it’s more important than ever to have systems that protect and retain your book of business. We have several tools and platforms designed to educate, correspond with and simply monitor your customer base in order to maximize your exposure and opportunities with your customers. These systems have been invaluable and have aided our exponential growth these past few months.

Caring for Our Communities with Donations

The APMCares Foundation is designed to serve the needs of families in the communities where our employees live and work. This is more important now than ever before, and our people are rising to the challenge! They’ve been providing generous financial donations to APMCares, and that money goes to the organizations in their communities that desperately need help to meet increased demand (many of these organizations are food pantries that are working around the clock to help those who are badly in need).

Over the last several weeks, APMCares has donated to over 30 organizations in the communities across our company’s footprint. We’re so grateful for the efforts of our branches and employees and for these organizations that are doing so much to help when the need is so very great.

To all of our loan officers, leadership team and staff, we are so grateful to you for coming together to do everything we can to meet the needs of our clients and each other during this difficult time. Times like these show us what we’re capable of as a team, and we couldn’t be prouder to have you as a part of our family. Thank you for all you’re doing for our company, your customers and your communities!