18 Strategies In 18 Months
June 26th, 2008
Click to download the 18 Strategies Handout.pdf
I hoped you've enjoyed Prime Alliance's 18 Strategies in 18 Months, the daily e-mail we began sharing with you on June 2. We believe three things about the current market. First, the opportunity handed us as a result of the sub-prime crisis has an 18 month lifespan. Second, working together, our goal is positioning credit unions as our members' first choice for housing finance. Third, we must focus on these strategies as a starting point to accomplish this goal. And the goal? It's the Big Hairy Audacious Goal (BHAG) set by the CU Housing RoundTable in 2006. Ten percent market share by 2016, 'Two to Ten' as it's commonly known.
The 18 Strategies you've had the opportunity to read this past month have many origins, yet they share a common purpose: to help credit unions put more members in homes more affordably. Eighteen is quite a few, I admit, yet I believe in every one of them. The role of strategy is to move us from our present market position, that of refinance lender for some of our members, to that of purchase-money adviser and lender for all of our homebuying members. Didn't see all 18? Visit www.18strategies.com and spend thirty minutes. There you'll find a brief summary of each strategy, with the full strategy just a click away. Or visit www.primealliancesolutions.com to download the 18 Strategies in 18 Months document. Where the site will give you a synopsis, this document provides more. In it you'll see Prime Alliance has a follow-up plan for each strategy. Defining strategy is important. Executing on them is key.
Please use the 18 Strategies however you choose, but please, do use them. Download and distribute it, use it as a discussion item at an upcoming management team meeting, share it with your Board, choose those strategies that either fit your current model or the new housing finance model you've been contemplating. As I learned from Ross Shafer during the CUDL Conference this past week, the number is not important, the action you take is what matters.
Like you I am passionate about credit unions and I believe unabidingly that we must play a primary role in financing homes for our members. In many respects the opportunity we now have as mortgage lenders is the same opportunity we seized as automobile lenders more than fifty years ago. We were, and are, the affordable auto lender. We can and should be the affordable, sustainable mortgage lender. Car loans result in transportation, an initial linch-pin of financial security Home loans meet a more fundamental need, the need for shelter, the key to personal security and financial well-being. We must do both well for the well-being of our members .
And remember: while this may be the first you've seen our 18 Strategies, it won't be the last. The 'Want More?' sidebars in the 18 Strategies document gives you a brief idea on what we have planned. There's no need to wait, though. Additional information is already available for strategies one, two, four, five and fourteen, for instance. The CU Housing RoundTable, which will hold its Third Annual Meeting on October 16 - 17, 2008 in Seattle (you are invited, by the way, visit www.cuhousingroundtable.com for the details), is developing White Papers based on strategies three, four and seven. Prime Alliance is also offering webinars and classes on a number of them. SMS Univeristy is holding schools this Summer on FHA Lending. We're as serious about this as we are about helping credit unions finance homes for members.
Finally, I'd like to use the 18 Strategies to start a dialogue about the role credit unions play in housing finance. So, share your thoughts with me and your peers on the 18 Strategies Blog, which debuts today at www.18strategies.com. I'll bet we can refine and add to these strategies so that credit unions achieve their full potential as mortgage lenders.