(Mild language warning applies, but nothing you can’t say in prime time broadcast TV)
When I was twelve years old, my uncle Robert introduced me to the writings of John Masters. John Masters was an officer in the Indian part of the British Army in the waning days of the Raj, starting in 1934 and ending shortly after World War II. At the tender age of 24, he was named battalion adjutant of the second Battalion, Prince of Wales Own Fourth Gurkha Rifle Regiment. The adjutant’s job in the British Army at the time was different in many ways from modern counterparts in the US Army. A large part of the job was to look impressive. “Before the adjutant’s feet, pits were filled, obstacles became smooth paths, and order arose out of chaos.”
Did this happen on it’s own? No, he had a subadar assistant. There is no comparable rank to subadar in the modern US armed forces. They ranked below second lieutenants but were nonetheless full officers commissioned by the Viceroy of India instead of by the King. This subadar was typically an older soldier who had joined as a private and risen through the ranks to his current exalted status. His task was partly to see to it that the adjutant looked impressive, i.e. to fill the pits, knock down the obstacles, pave the paths, and cause order to arise out of chaos. In short, to make it seem as if the adjutant was magically gliding through life on the force of his personality.
I’m doing that subadar’s job.
That’s it in a nutshell. That is what a good loan officer does (or a good real estate agent). I metaphorically fill in the pits, knock down the walls, pave the paths so that my customer has a clear path to what they want.
A mortgage loan is not something people want. Mortgages suck. People don’t want a mortgage. They want the house, and they have to have this sucky thing called a mortgage in order to get it.
Is that a ringing endorsement of the greater half of my profession, or what? I get people something that sucks so they can have something they want. But that thing they want is their new home. A place for their family to be safe and secure and (we hope) happy for as long as they decide to keep it. Also, it happens to be historically the greatest source of personal wealth for large numbers of people ever devised. No trivial thing, when you put it like that.
Okay, you ask, so where is this going?
I’m not one for false modesty. I’m good at what I do and getting better at it. People come to me because I did a good deal for their friend on excellent terms, and I made it look easy. No loan officer can ever really guarantee a loan will go through – that is the exclusive province of the underwriter at whatever lender is being used. You (as a customer) will never talk or communicate directly with your underwriter – it’s a universal anti-fraud measure, everywhere in the industry. But I have a bet that I make with those who are dubious. I’ll write a check for $1000 and put it in the custody of a neutral party. Providing the client tells me everything, and does what I need them to do in a timely fashion, if the loan doesn’t go through, on time and exactly on terms quoted, they get that money.
What I’m really saying, of course, is “I’m this certain I can do the loan.”
Sad to say, the average loan officer out there is not up to this standard. Actually, a lot of them are out and out crooks. Oh, they’ll get a loan done, most of the time, if only because they don’t get paid if they don’t close a loan. But the resemblance borne to the originally quoted loan may be extremely vague, and it may be weeks after the date it was originally promised, and therefore useless to you because they guy who was going to sell you the home lost patience and cancelled escrow.
Much as I would like to, I cannot do every loan in the country. I’m only licensed for California as an individual, and I no longer work for firms that have widespread licenses. Furthermore, I can only do so many loans at once. Even with the best support staff, 100 loans a month seems to be about the limit, even if all I do is the submission and customer handholding. Finally, although it strains credibility :-), I have reliable reports of other loan officers here, locally even, earning a living at times when I am not saturated with business.
Your first home and your first loan is a exciting but nervous time for most folks. You obviously want the house, and you don’t want the loan to go wrong or you’ll lose the house. You have no idea of how to navigate this arcane labyrinth called real estate. You have no reliable guide to separate the wheat from the chaff of all the claims out there.
Some people never pay it any mind. They go through life and may buy and sell multiple properties and refinance each one several times, and not want any more knowledge than the fact that what they wanted is done. Unless they’re my clients, I can’t help them.
Some people, however, are like John Masters, who was wary of testing his newly appointed superpowers, and so looked out of the corner of his eyes first to make certain the pit was filled and the obstacle was gone and the path was smooth. They want some way to tell the subadar who’s filling the pit with quicksand from the one who fills it with good solid dirt, some method to tell the one who manages to pave the path solidly and perfectly from the one who can’t pave it at all, preferably before they trip and break something.
That’s what I’m trying to do here, give you a set of skills and strategies to increase your likelihood of having a nice smooth solid path with no obstacles to your real objective: That home.
Some people just want to be float oblivious through life, and if you’re only here for the political or other stuff, glad to have you and have fun and please let me know how I’m doing.
Others want to know how the nuts and bolts fit together, at least for the biggest stuff. Not just for mortgage, but also for real estate, insurance and financial planning, (and other fields if I can find co-contributors that will write to my standards) you are the audience I’m trying to help, and will do my darnedest to write informative articles from a real world practical perspective on how to put yourself in a better place than you’re in. I don’t have any kind of an exclusive Truth on all of it, and alternative viewpoints are both necessary and welcome. Some of what I say may be contrary to what others tell you, and their methods may work just as well. I do know that I am telling you how things work, and I do have a track record of getting the job done.
Why am I doing this? Well, partly in support of a commercial idea that I am working on. Mostly because I’m trying to improve the climate in which we all do business, and every person who reads anything here will raise the bar by just that little bit. I think that if those who aren’t the best, most competent, and most ethical have a choice of “improve and make more money or continue as you are and go out of business”, most of them will take the former course, and we’re all better off without the others. I happen to believe that most of them are victims of the system as much as any client who they’ve ever taken advantage of; they just don’t know that there’s a better way to do business. This is the way they were taught, and their trainers before them, and their trainers before that. It ticks me off every time I have to tell someone all of the things that every other loan officer and real estate agent has lied to them about, usually by omitting a nasty gotcha! (or several), and they get mad at me because I told them the truth when the appropriate target for their anger is elsewhere. Yes, sir, I can put you into that $800,000 house and get paid a whole slew of money. But I think you might like to know ahead of time if there’s likely to be a problem sometime down the road after I get my check and ride off into the sunset. If you’re fine with the problem, step right up and sign on the dotted line and here are the keys and thank you very much. Otherwise, maybe you might want to reconsider your course of action.
What I’m trying to create here is a reality check that you have available to you to warn you of problems when I can’t, before you’re locked on an irrevocable course for disaster. So pull up a chair, sit down, and enjoy the ride, just like John Masters, secure in the knowledge that you’ve checked out of the corner of your eyes and your superpowers are fully charged and working.
Caveat Emptor