I used to work with a leader in the mortgage business who often reminded us, to paraphrase: “There are enough people out there who will work with you the way you want to not have to chase those who won’t”
I’ve been reminded of that a couple of times over the course of the last few months and it’s really a lesson worth remembering.
First let me tell you about a client. He’s selling the longtime family home. Moving across state lines to get a fresh start. Has a full time job and a public service pension so he has great income. However, he’s also got a kid in college and has co-signed for the student loans and his wife is between jobs. The credit cards have higher balances than he might like. But they want to get this done now and move on.
I want clients that need my advice. All the moving pieces they have can be confusing. These folks are going to net a full 20% down and then some. He talked about putting the entire proceeds down on the new place, but also that he’s feeling “cash flow tight”. I advised him that he should use some of his sale proceeds to pay off a $10K credit card balance and not make any more than a 10% down payment.
The $10K on the credit card is $465 per month. The extra $10K on the mortgage is $65 per month. Same $10K. He asked me to confirm I will be with him for advice after the closing even though the loan is closed. That’s my kind of client!
Another way this shows up is where I work. You may be aware in the last year I changed companies…three times. Some people look at that as instability but for me it was about how I want to work.
A year ago I went to work at a bank. Great rates, but they were locked into how they do things. Even though the tech felt dated and when I complained they answered “this is how we do it”. Then I moved to a broker for “more control”. In reality problem was met with a “here’s how you go fix that” link. In theory I had all the control but no results.
Neither of those companies was wrong, technically. They were just wrong for me. So I came to a company with a more proactive help desk, operations and marketing on site, etc. It’s what works for me.
It took some doing for me to find the right company, for my client to find me as the right Loan Officer for them and as my old friend and mentor Ron Qunitero used to say.
Some will, some won’t, So what!
