The Thirty Thousand Dollar Millionaire. Have you ever heard of this term? It is defined by the Urban Dictionary as “A kid who gets their first adult job making $30,000 a year and thinks they are a millionaire. They usually lease a Lexus because they can't afford the BMW or Mercedes and generally treats restaurant servers like crap.” The males are also characterized by Andrea Grimes of the Dallas Observer as “More intelligent than many experts give them credit for, they are highly social and can be easily identified by their plumage: wildly spiked, occasionally faux-hawked and usually frosted hair atop the head. About the torso, look for brand-name adornment in the form of shirts stamped with cheeky slogans or printed with a great deal of over-designed crap. There will be man-jewelry.” I’m sure there’s lots of fist pumping in there as well. Our industry was inundated with these low-lifes in 2005. They made the dedicated, honest, experienced LO’s job a nightmare and bequeathed our industry with the “used car salesman” title after the bubble burst, for which they then scattered to other areas of work such as being a used car salesman, a restaurant server perhaps (ahh, sweet, sweet poetic justice) or jumping into loan modifications. Just in case! If you happen to meet all the criteria mentioned above and possibly living in momma’s basement while skirting by on all the changes, please do us all a favor and follow the Exit signs (both literally and metaphorically). Oh, and don’t forget to take your old Scotsman Guides with you. This brings me to Martin Andleman’s Feature article this month titled They Once Were Lenders. It is a fantastic piece on how many of these trolls who helped bring down our economy (and our industry) were trained by sub prime mortgage shops and then moved onto loan modifications – it’s absolutely fascinating and truly mind boggling. Someone should buy the movie rights. I have also asked Fred Glick of NAIHP to co-write this forward. His opinion on bringing back respect should resonate with our profession. Please read below for Fred’s wise perspective. Keep up the Fight – Robert Pegg ************************************************************************************************************ 
Respect. How do you get it? Why do you need it? How does it help? The word Mortgage Broker, as you may have heard is a dirty word. People in both Governmental and public circles define a Mortgage Broker as the pushy, car sales-like guy with money as his total motive. This was the guy that told me that I was getting a one percent mortgage. And the scary thing was fifty percent of the loan agents at the time truly believed this because they were not properly trained. I can rehash all that has happened in the last few years but I think you'd all rather watch reruns of Jersey Shore in Chinese than have me go through that angst. Instead, let's look forward. Currently, I am a Director of the NAIHP, the National Association of Independent Housing Professionals that is working in Washington on a volunteer basis to straighten out the industry. After meeting with Congress people, Senators, their staff and the staff of various committees, what I see is that we need to have the respect of the people we are trying to persuade in order to get our point across. When a National Association of CPAs walk in and tell them something is wrong, they listen and respect their opinions. Why? Because their membership is licensed, background checked and properly schooled. And because of the SAFE Act, the NMLS licensed mortgage originator is too. But, there is a big difference. CPAs and their leaders are not out there partying with their clients seeing who can get the most drunk, smoke the most cigarettes, plan on the maximum amount of money they can swindle their clients of, don't come out with silly videos, don't commit fraud within their leadership and don't align themselves with just one far-reaching philosophy. That's right, boring is good. Boring is respected. In the end, your clients and the legislature will enjoy boring. Boring will be listened to. Start looking at your own business in this way. Yes, it's fun to dress in a silly tie, just every once in awhile. Don't make silliness your moniker. Make it your brain. Be the guy that people go to when they need answers, not when they need to party. I had this issue years ago. There was another loan officer in my area that was quiet, smart, plain and knowledgeable. I was the fun guy. Her name is Eileen and my nickname was Slick (get it, Slick Glick). So the line on the street was, “If it's Slick, give it to Glick, if it's clean, give it to Eileen.” The easy clean deals went to her and I got the difficult ones. Even though I pulled a lot of them off, in the long range, she got the referrals of the clean deals. See, boring works. Try it. Make your job and our job easier! Respect! Fred Glick
Respect. How do you get it? Why do you need it? How does it help? The word Mortgage Broker, as you may have heard is a dirty word. People in both Governmental and public circles define a Mortgage Broker as the pushy, car sales-like guy with money as his total motive. This was the guy that told me that I was getting a one percent mortgage. And the scary thing was fifty percent of the loan agents at the time truly believed this because they were not properly trained. I can rehash all that has happened in the last few years but I think you'd all rather watch reruns of Jersey Shore in Chinese than have me go through that angst. Instead, let's look forward. Currently, I am a Director of the NAIHP, the National Association of Independent Housing Professionals that is working in Washington on a volunteer basis to straighten out the industry. After meeting with Congress people, Senators, their staff and the staff of various committees, what I see is that we need to have the respect of the people we are trying to persuade in order to get our point across. When a National Association of CPAs walk in and tell them something is wrong, they listen and respect their opinions. Why? Because their membership is licensed, background checked and properly schooled. And because of the SAFE Act, the NMLS licensed mortgage originator is too. But, there is a big difference. CPAs and their leaders are not out there partying with their clients seeing who can get the most drunk, smoke the most cigarettes, plan on the maximum amount of money they can swindle their clients of, don't come out with silly videos, don't commit fraud within their leadership and don't align themselves with just one far-reaching philosophy. That's right, boring is good. Boring is respected. In the end, your clients and the legislature will enjoy boring. Boring will be listened to. Start looking at your own business in this way. Yes, it's fun to dress in a silly tie, just every once in awhile. Don't make silliness your moniker. Make it your brain. Be the guy that people go to when they need answers, not when they need to party. I had this issue years ago. There was another loan officer in my area that was quiet, smart, plain and knowledgeable. I was the fun guy. Her name is Eileen and my nickname was Slick (get it, Slick Glick). So the line on the street was, “If it's Slick, give it to Glick, if it's clean, give it to Eileen.” The easy clean deals went to her and I got the difficult ones. Even though I pulled a lot of them off, in the long range, she got the referrals of the clean deals. See, boring works. Try it. Make your job and our job easier! Respect! Fred Glick
