Sunday, May 27, 2007

The Dark Side Part 2

So how do you avoid the “Dark Side?”

Let me first say that I believe that everyone should have the opportunity to make money. The Mortgage Industry is a great place to earn a living, provide for your family and help people make dreams come true. However, with every industry there are always people who are in it only for themselves. These people prey on others who are less educated, less intelligent and sometimes less qualified. When they do, they usually abuse the system, creating large incomes for themselves while staining the reputation of their entire industry. Not to mention that the people who are usually their prey are the people who need to have a lender who will treat them fairly as opposed to taking advantage of them.

Once a “B” always a “B”. When the sub prime lending market was in its beginning, there were borrowers who would not qualify for the “A” paper loans. On more that one occasion I would hear an account rep say that “B” borrowers don’t change their habits and they don’t learn their lesson. That may be true about some people, but I believe that people can learn to manage their credit and they can learn to manage their finances. All they have to do is have an honest chance!

So what is an honest chance? Well it is putting someone into a loan program so that they can develop a budget off of. It is creating a mortgage solution that will not penalize the client in a short period of time. It is not gouging them in fees when they do come back to you eating all of their equity up with refinance fees. It is treating people the way that you would want to be treated.

As we see mortgage delinquencies rise and foreclosures happening at an alarming rate, there is a change that must take place. But it is going to have to be consumer driven. Legislation is not the key. Education of both the consumer and of the mortgage sales people will be the basis of this revolution. The consumer must learn not to fall into the trap of working with people who spend tremendous amounts of money on advertising. Mortgage originators need to learn that if you are going to stay in this business for a career, relationships are a necessity. To nurture those relationships you must take care of people so that they want to come back and refer other clients to you.

Thank you to Tracy Nolan for referring Andy Revelle.

Thank you to Andy Revelle for referring Joshua McDowell.

Thank you to Klaus Bank for the referral of Sarah Stroup and Pete Wilkens.

Thank you to Libby Emmer for referring Rob Steinkuehler.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Dear Dark Side Borrower,

As an LO I hate it when a conversation with you starts out, "I used to have good credit" or "my fico used to be 750," That is like a thief saying, "I used to be a law abiding citizen" or like a dancer at Larry Flint's saying, "I used to not contribute to the degradation of women." All we are is who we are today..for better or for worse...

Get over it people...you aren't worth the risk of carrying my lunch money if your fico is below 600. The sad part is all the renters who are trying to establish credit or the truly unlucky who have had hard times are suffering from your careless and self indulgent spending and lack of concern for implementing much less acknowledging any habits of effective people...FHA will give you a chance and you had better buck up and make good on them...In the meantime, teach your kids there is more to life than a 55 inch HDTV and the latest designer handbag!

Dream Weaver (Lifetime 700+ Fico)