by Dean Harrington

A funny thing dawned on me as I was driving to Boston recently.

I know a lot about the people I know.

An obvious – and somewhat silly – observation, sure, but one loaded with vitamins, minerals and antioxidants. When I know someone, I know what they do for a living, if they’re married or single, the names of their kids, their likes and dislikes and even what cars they drive. I know if they rent or own, what town they live in and what their future hopes and dreams might be.

So what came first? Did I learn about them and then develop a friendship or did a friendship develop after I learned about them? For most it’s always the former – you learn some things and a friendship develops. It’s just how things work.

For example, I know what the girl behind the coffee counter does for a living. I know what my dry cleaning guy does for a living. I know what my mechanic, postman, priest and barber do for a living. Once we get to that stage, filling in the rest is easy and making a friend becomes the natural derivative.

But back to that ride to Boston. I was going to a nutritional doctor I see every six months. (I know what she does for a living: eliminates the food I like to eat so I stay healthy enough to work until the day of my funeral). I know what her two staff members do for a living. In fact, I learned all you would need to know about all three of them with just some natural curiosity. But what did they know about ME? I decided to ask:

“Hey doc, tell me, do you happen to know what I do for a living?” Her reply (peaking at my chart no doubt): “Yeah, you work at Shamrock.” Now, I could have launched into a discussion about the price of Leprechauns or the value of the Blarney Stone but she wouldn’t have had any idea that my actual career was helping people finance (and keep) the home of their dreams. Now, whose fault is that? Yup, mine. I never told her what I do for a living. I was being – as some in real estate say – a “Secret Agent.”

In hiding what we do from people, we deny them (and by extension, ourselves) access to that fundamental friendship building structure of learning about someone and then befriending them. We know people prefer to “buy” (give their business) to people they like over any other market-based decision process. So why do we deny ourselves access to the friendship building tools that sustain our pipelines? Why do we self-sabotage? You’re right, no good reason.

So stop being a Secret Agent! People want to know what you do for a living. Everyone’s curious so stop teasing them – tell them. And in doing so you’ll make a friend and a trusted referral source for years to come.

OK, time to go, my doctor’s on the phone and wants to know if I locked her rate………and if I passed on the jelly donut this morning.

by Dean Harrington

I had the good fortune of spending the weekend in Disney World with my wife and children. The weather was perfect, the hotel was beautiful and we had many friends down there as well. You couldn’t ask for a better split from the grip of late winter. Or so I thought.

For reasons that only biorhythms or lunar forces can explain, I found myself consumed all weekend with bouts of impatience, anxiety and occasional grouchiness. Nothing serious, nothing that entirely debilitated the fun, but something that made the experience a bit less than it could have been. Now, we all know that trudging small children through jam-packed theme parks can shorten your nerve-endings a bit and many of us can relate to vacation stress. I usually avoid this. Not this time.

Fortunately/unfortunately, I was scheduled to fly home early Monday – my family wasn’t returning until late Tuesday. So I got up Monday morning, packed and went to sit outside until I had to leave for the airport. The sun was shining, the temperature was perfect, the sky as clear and blue as a nun’s conscience. Heaven! And that’s when it hit me. I was crushed to be leaving. Yeah, leaving a place where my emotions couldn’t sit still, where my next mood was no more reliable than the last. Go figure.

I began to actually lust for a long line at a theme park, for the uncertainty of where to eat dinner with a large group, for cranky children exhausted beyond reason; the things that were trouble Sunday were opportunities Monday. Who (or what) changed the channel in my head? How was it that I had traded anxiety for grieving?

As I boarded the plane – and later when I had landed (to falling snow!) – every activity my family was enjoying in Disney struck a chord of envy in me. Each text, call or emailed photo brought indelible regret of how I had taken every single one of those things for granted all weekend. What an idiot I was. I had lost perspective and the price was coming due.

It recalled a time where I was unable to originate mortgage loans for a period of one year (Non-Compete Agreement) back in 1990 and felt so deprived that I sat around fantasizing about having a loan recession (a bad thing) because it meant I had at least closed a loan; the equivalent of longing for even a rainy day in Disney.

The lesson learned for me this weekend was a valuable one. Live in the moment, appreciate what you have, repel anxiety, mentally picture the alternative and let it grieve away your anxiety. Give yourself permission to enjoy what you’re doing.

I know the next time I’m in a long line to see Mickey (again!) or the next time my children are acting like “other people’s children,” I’m going to imagine boarding a plane and heading home without them. Just like the next time I have a tough day in the office I’m going to recall sitting out an entire year in business. Yikes!

Perspective is a great teacher, whether it’s being a carrot or a stick, and hitting you at the Magic Kingdom or at your desk.

by Dean Harrington

You can’t turn on the TV, read a newspaper or drive by your local statehouse and not be hit over the head with today’s battle over public labor unions, collective bargaining and worker “rights”. Everyone seems to have an opinion on this mess – some even supported by facts. Over here in our little corner of the cage in the mortgage lending world we have our own set of battles going on and maybe we’re all missing a great opportunity.

You see, 97% of all consumer mortgage lending today is either funded by or insured by vessels of the federal government (it was under 5% in 2001 incidentally). This pretty much means that most of us working in the mortgage lending world today are, in effect, (gulping hard) government worker bees. Not so you say? Well, how about this: Nearly every mortgage loan closed in the United States today is underwritten by lending rules and guidelines established by the US Department of Housing and Urban Development. Need more? The Fed alone decides which of us has to be licensed (NMLS) and which of us does not when transacting mortgage business at the consumer level. They also make the call on who is exempt and who is non-exempt from the licensing requirements established by Washington. Don’t get me started on government sponsored entities, Fannie & Freddie!

But wait, there’s more: In April, the federal government will take over loan officer compensation in ‘our’ industry. That’s right, The Fed will set the rules on what employers can (and cannot) pay their mortgage loan originators. Some might call this wage fixing. Bureaucrats call it “shut up and be quiet”. The point is, the move to nationalize and run mortgage lending is nearly complete, – on virtually every level – so I came up with a grand idea to mark the occasion, to embrace it and to have our “rights” represented:

The Brotherhood of Mortgage Loan Originators!

Sound pretty good, doesn’t it? In fact, when testing the new acronym with a small group on the front steps of our office recently it sounded positively tribal! Imagine then, the beautiful chorus that will ring out as thousands of mortgage professionals line statehouse steps across the country bellowing BoMoLo! BoMoLo! It’s enough to bring a tear to a schoolteacher’s eye, isn’t it?

Look, next month, our feel good friends at the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) are set to become an official public labor union – Yeah, baby! Congress, never letting a (legal) tender moment slip away, is in full throttle support of the TSA’s come-together moment. So why not let the BoLoMo’s come along for the big “vote & grope’? Sounds like a no brainer, right? Besides……we dress better than TSA agents, we don’t (yet) require full body scans for mortgage approvals, you can keep your shoes on with us and we would never grope our clients unless it’s mutual. So come on, let’s do this people!

“BoMoLo! BoMoLo! BoLoMo!”

by Dean Harrington

“I never forget a face. I just can’t remember names.”

Now, if you hear this from, say, an undertaker or a forensic sketch artist then, sure, maybe it makes some sense, But when you hear it from someone in sales – SALES – it defies explanation. And we hear it a lot.

What is someone really saying when they say this? Think about it.

What they’re saying is that my eyes can recall your face but it’s not worth remembering. Nice! There’s a relationship-building starting line for you. As Dale Carnegie once taught us, the sweetest sound anyone can hear is that of their own name being spoken by someone. No extra credit points for saying their face looks familiar – you need to remember their NAME.

Here’s how:

Make it a priority. Often the best path to accomplishing something is to simply make accomplishing it important. When you first meet someone, remind yourself that knowing and remembering their name is important. Vanquish the self-doubt that you are somehow improperly wired to recall one and two syllable words. “Yes, I can and will remember his/her name.”

Use it or lose it. With the will to recall their name fully animating your efforts, now it’s time to charge your brain with helping out. You do this by simply repeating the person’s name back to them when introduced. “Hi Jim, nice to meet you” works far better than just “Hi, nice to meet you.”

Make sure you continue to use their name during the conversation – but be careful; don’t overdue this. My rule of thumb is once every three to four minutes of conversation. Lastly, always close the conversation with using their name one final time as you part.

Word associations. One classic way to ensure recall of someone’s name is to link them in your mind with another person you k now with the same name. This is easy and it works. If I meet a Tom, I picture that person briefly as being another Tom that I know. Sometimes this is best done with picturing famous people. I recently met a Quentin and made the association with noted director Quentin Tarantino. I even linked the guys face with Pulp Fiction. (Kill Bill was too freaky to do to this poor guy.)

Image associations. Another proven method is to create some pictures. The language of the human mind, after all, is pictures. For example, try not thinking about a pink elephant…pretty tough, huh? So when you meet someone, say, a guy named Paul, picture him wandering about the room with a large beach BALL tucked under his arm and carrying it wherever he goes. Or, if you meet a Barbara, picture her face completely wrapped in barbed wire with the barbs causing puncture wounds to her skin. Pretty graphic, right? The more detail the better; and trust me, you won’t forget them. Soon, every Ann you meet will have ANTS crawling all over her face and every John you meet will have an upside down TOILET on his head. But you’ll remember their names!

None of these methods is revolutionary or original. What really matters is that we understand the cost of not being able to recall someone’s name. Reverse engineer this and think of the casual acquaintances you’ve made in your life where the person instantly recalls your name. It so impresses you, doesn’t it? Just as impactful, it embarrasses and humbles you when you’re unable to recall their name. Consequently, you’ve already surrendered your best focus and effort. You’ve knocked yourself off your own game and isn’t that best left to the undertaker or the police artist?

by Dean Harrington

We talk a lot about having a plan, setting goals and maintaining a positive attitude. In real life, however, there are tremendous forces working to pull apart plans, rip up goals and supplant good attitudes with bad ones. This is the true struggle of everyday life. The world is constantly colluding against your plans, goals and your frame of mind. So what do we do about it? How can we maintain healthy plans, goals and attitudes?

In competitive athletics the answer is to train harder, practice more and to outwork the guy trying to beat the other guy. Daily nutrition, weight-lifting and running are some of the ways athletes battle the erosion of their plans, goals and attitude. What can the rest of us mere mortals do to similarly prepare for the battle of keeping and flourishing our plans, goals and attitude? Easy, where they feed their body, we feed our MINDS. And the food for us?

Books.

Our plans, goals and attitudes must be fed a daily diet of quality thoughts – brought to us by words and carried to us by authors. We brush our teeth daily; wash our hands, drink coffee and channel run so why wouldn’t we READ daily. Consider; when was the last time you met a disciplined reader who was a failure? Had a lousy plan? No goals? A terrible attitude?

Here, then, are six books I have found invaluable in my life:

	The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People By: Stephen Covey The how-to book on personal success. Private victories over public victories and the character ethic vs the personality ethic will teach and serve you every day of your life.
	How to Win Friends and Influence People By: Dale Carnegie The first of its kind with Napoleon Hill’s Think and Grow Rich. A masterpiece about relationship building. Everyone’s favorite word to hear – their own name. Great bits of wisdom that stand the test of time.
	Stumbling on Happiness By: Daniel Gilbert The things we fear rarely happen and when they do they weren’t nearly as bad as we thought. (Refreshing thought, huh?)Many other incredible observational studies on the way we trick ourselves into being unhappy. Quite humorous, too!
	The Richest Man in Babylon By: George Clason A quick, easy parable that teaches effective ways of money management. Brilliant.
	The Road Less Traveled By: Scott Peck “Life is difficult” is the first sentence of this inside look at spiritual psychology through the stoires of actual patients in therapy. Remained on the NY Times bestseller list for an astonishing 13 years.
	The Bible: Think of it: even if the world were full of nothing but agnostics this would still be the most widely read book in the history of the world. It can teach, inspire (humble) and enlighten anyone, at any time. It can be started on any page, any chapter or any verse.

There are, of course, many others and on any given day I find myself inspired by the writings of many books NOT listed here. However, no day goes by where I am not eternally grateful for having read these amazing books. My plans, goals and attitude cheer them daily.

(Love to hear your list of books. List them below in the comment sections.)

by Dean Harrington

I have a fatal allergy to seafood. Eat it and I die. Pretty straight forward. On two occasions, tiny seafood particles found their way into a portion of the food on my plate. In both instances, I played cat and used up two of my nine lives. Just the smallest of exposure had nearly killed me. I wish this were the only fatal allergy I have but unfortunately I have another. It’s not as acute. It’s a bit more progressive, stealthy – just as lethal. And it’s very sneaky!

It doesn’t just hide in restaurants, or in the ocean for that matter. It’s not identified by smell and can’t be voluntarily avoided. It’s also an allergen that uses people as its carrier – so it’s potentially everywhere I go. And no amount of cat-lives will spare me.

You see, I’m also fatally allergic to doubt.

Of course, it won’t get me as quickly as a nice bite of scrod but it will get me. If I let it. What takes seafood minutes takes doubt a little longer. (One kills you today, the other kills you on an installment plan.)

Doubt is fear in action. Doubt is the opposite of faith. Doubt has currency with darkness, with worry, with lack of growth and ultimately, with death. Doubt is never wrong. When you entertain doubt you empower it. (“If you think you can, you can. If you think you can’t, you’re right.”)

I recently tackled the subject of doubt with Jay McHue of ReMax Unlimited on my radio show Real Estate Today. Jay is a dynamic guy who also has a significant doubt allergy. The two of us went to work on discussing a possible serum for doubt; basically outlining a way to remove the Kryptonite. What we found is powerful. Real powerful. In fact, it’s the EpiPen assault rifle for doubt. It’s easy to remember and just as easy to administer.

Doubt can’t live (it dies!) if two essential agents are applied against it: (1) A Plan and (2) Action. No ‘doubt’ can survive a person with a plan and who takes action on that plan. Not possible. Can’t exist, can’t breathe, has no audience. I’ve put this antidote to work with a simple acronym that may sound memorable……iPAD:

i
Plan
Action
Doubt

If you have any two of these, the third is dead.

- Action with Doubt makes having a Plan impossible. You run around taking random action while doubting it will work. Pretty much the opposite definition of plan.

- Plan with Doubt makes taking Action impossible. Who doubts their plan and still takes action on it? No one.

- Plan with Action makes Doubt impossible. Anyone who creates a plan and gets out there taking action has destroyed doubt.

I carry an EpiPen to stop seafood from killing me. I carry a Plan and Action to stop doubt from doing the same. Maybe you should, too.

by Dean Harrington

There are lots of important things to do each day in being a productive, professional mortgage originator or real estate agent. Likewise, there are a series of important things NOT TO DO in your role in a real estate transaction. At Shamrock, we call them the things that send you to “jail”. Consumers call them a reason not to refer you. Regulators call them a way to collect hefty fines. Activists and bureaucrats call them an opportunity to further restrict the lending industry.

Here are the top auditor findings on mistakes (no one will use that word, of course) made in real estate and mortgage lending. Ignore them at your own peril.

1. Good Faith Estimate (GFE) missing information, not filled out completely or not delivered within three days
2. Truth-in-Lending (TIL): ditto GFE, same issues
3. RESPA disclosures not in file
4. Servicing Disclosure Statement not provided to applicant
5. HUD-1 figures do not match up with GFE
6. FHA Addendum to Application not in file
7. Underwriting approval not in file.

These are what bank examiners and internal compliance auditor’s report as the most systemic violations in the real estate lending world today. Make sure when originating, processing or closing a real estate transaction – on the buyer, seller or lender side – that these things are bullet-proofed.

Remember, auditors and examiners are often pressed for time and are creatures of history. These Seven Sins are very well known to them and that’s where they’ll start digging. You know this in advance so there’s no excuse for leaving these scraps on the table for examiners.

You can be sure that a mortgage lender that misses its rate locks, doesn’t meet its commitment dates and thinks promises are wishes will violate many of the Seven Sins. They go hand in hand. A well run, experienced lender will not.

by Dean Harrington

We all know that children hate change. Go ahead and tell my five-year old that her ballet class day moved or we’re trying something new for dinner if you want proof. In fact, you’d be better off telling her Santa gave away the Easter Bunny to a kid in Poughkeepsie. Children thrive in a structured environment where change can’t be washed down with a Xanax. Productive adults have no such luxury.

Recently, I attended one of Shamrock Financial’s workshops on the re-certification process for HUD condo’s. Pretty basic layout; not much different than our USDA guideline presentation or a number of other similar “Educate and Motivate” days for Shamrock. It was well attended, full of neatly dressed professional people, good energy, smart folks – oh, and enough complaining to give a five year old a headache.

It seems that everyone couldn’t believe the number of changes being thrown at them – day in and day out – in the mortgage and real estate industry. Change, change, change.  Frustration, frustration, frustration. (Maybe everyone just needed a blanky and a nap.)

Don’t get me wrong, our industry has been a merry-go-round of change since the housing bust filled-in for the tech bust and it DOES make one’s career more challenging. But more than that, those changes give our career opportunity!

With each change we have two great market advantages handed to us: (1) an additional touch-point with our prospects, referral partners, clients and data-base, and, (2) a chance to distinguish ourselves from the competition (who may still be with binky and blanky, taking a nap).

If “information is power”, isn’t more information, cooked and served from change, a HUGE occasion for us? We have a reason, indeed, an obligation, to reach out to our circle of influence and make a difference. A difference that pays us well!

Real estate agents and mortgage loan originators need to approach their careers like adults, not children. Didn’t we learn this growing up? Change happens. There’s no way to stop it. If we accept and employ it we’ll prosper from it. We know this. It’s what separates us from children.

When we use change as a tool we function as a business adult. When we let change demoralize or threaten us, we’re acting like a business child. Our challenge for 2011 is to grow up, to put the binky and blanket away and to leave the kicking and screaming to the children working at the competition.

January 18, 2010

by Dean Harrington

I guess you could say Heidi introduced us. It was the summer of 1974 and I was 14 going on 30. The introduction lacked formality, Heidi being a cat and all, and it wasn’t long before I learned her name was Alberta.

Alberta was nine years my senior and lived around the corner. She didn’t drive so our street became a thruway to the places she visited most: Al’s Drug Store, Dunkin’ Donuts – the bus stop. And because Heidi was like a rock star (the feline version of Cher you might say), we could expect to see Alberta everyday. Alberta loved her.

I was the oldest of five children; all born in four years (twins, to fix the math problem) and each of us developed a relationship with Alberta. We could see her turn the corner and shuffle up the hill towards our house and we’d scramble to find Heidi for her. On most days we conversed pleasantly with her as she fawned over Heidi. Occasionally, we needled her as only kids with too much time on their hands can do and she’d just smirk and mutter, “Oh, you kids…”

When I was 16, I got a job at the local supermarket. I worked in the deli and had a direct view of the entrance to the store. As if it were the bottom of my street, I would see Alberta coming through the electronic doors. She would walk down the aisle and position herself in front of the deli until I had a chance to say hello. This was also the setting where I learned Alberta’s mother had died: She marched right up, didn’t wait for the customers to leave, and blurted out the news before she started crying. (No Heidi there to bail me out.)

In 1984, I married and moved to another town. Heidi, still alive, stayed with my dad and Alberta continued her daily visits. I’d catch up with her whenever I visited, and in 1990, I purchased my Dad’s home and lived there for a decade. Heidi left us in 1988 but Alberta would still stop and talk with me before moving along on her busy schedule. It was as if we hadn’t skipped a beat.

In 1987, I worked in downtown Providence and spent many lunch hours walking through the Providence Arcade. Sure enough, I’d often find Alberta sitting quietly enjoying a cookie at the Providence Cookie Company. We’d chat for a few minutes, I’d tease her and tell her I’d see her at home and she’d light-up – maybe even blush a bit. “Oh stop it you kidder,” she would say.

In 2001 I sold my house and moved a few miles away but assured Alberta we’d stay in touch. (I no longer worked in Providence.) Over the next couple of years, Alberta would leave countless messages on my answering machine and I would return her call when I could. This seemed to frustrate both of us so I did two things: First, I started getting my haircut at the Arcade and secondly – and more importantly – I gave her my cell phone number.

And then it started.

Alberta would call me at least once a day – and usually two or three times a day – for the next 10 years. I talked to her all the time and from everyplace imaginable, including foreign countries (time zones –whoops). I talked to her during the most challenging and memorable moments of my life. And while never convenient (four kids, a wife, a business, etc.), I soon decided that if Alberta was calling I was answering. No question. If I missed the call she always left a voice mail. I even saved a few of her messages because they lightened my day. In fact, my favorite, “I call you all the time because I love you.”, still remains one of the nicest things anyone has ever said to me.

The calls usually lasted between 30 seconds and a minute. If we went to two minutes it was major news. The calls were almost always the same: “How you doing?” and “Whatcha’ doing?” followed by Alberta telling me (in a heartfelt, emotional voice) that she loved me and that I was such a nice man.

Once a week, I’d drop by for a quick visit outside her house. Occasionally, we’d take a ride; grab some lunch, or just have a quick talk.  A few years ago, I began to weave Alberta into several of the stories you tell your little ones about your own youth. My youngest two daughters never met Alberta but with each Alberta story (possibly embellished a little) the wonder in their eyes would grow and grow.

One December night I closed with a dozy; the tale included everything imaginable: the neighborhood, Heidi, and, of course, Alberta. As I walked from my daughter’s room I tipped my head back and said: “And I even told Alberta today that I was going to tell you guys that story.” Well, hearing that, they leapt from the beds, charged the door, screeching, “Alberta is real? She’s alive? You didn’t just make her up?”

A week later I called Alberta and asked her to come outside for a moment.  My two daughters were in the back seat when I announced that it was time to meet Alberta. “When daddy?”  “In less than a minute”, I replied. The look on their faces was one of excitement and, perhaps, outright dread! Bringing a fictional character to life is quite a plateful for a couple of little girls.

Alberta did not disappoint.

Climbing down her steps, balancing on the railing, she approached the car in typical seasonal attire, even donning a fine Santa hat. I lowered their window and she gushed over my two girls, who remained speechless; as if the Cat in The Hat himself were standing before them. Magic. Pure magic. One of daddy’s cherished stories had come to life and Alberta put the moment in high-def. Many more visits like this ensued, including trips to our house. My girls never lost that luster in their eyes, nor did Alberta misplace for a second the importance of it all.

Shortly before Christmas this year Alberta unexpectedly got sick and ended up in the hospital. I got a couple of calls, visited her, and prayed for a recovery that didn’t come. Alberta spent her last full day on Earth the same day I turned 50.

Death is hardest on the living, we all know that. But how do you replace someone in your life who called you only to tell you how much they loved you and remind you how nice a person you were? Who picks up that role in your life after 35 years? My sister profoundly suggested that maybe I had traded an angel in life for one in heaven. Not a bad exchange. Not a bad exchange at all.

They say Alberta was a “special needs” person but no one who really knew her ever saw her needing anything special. Just love, a warm hug and, perhaps, a few minutes with Heidi.

January 11, 2011

by Dean Harrington

There was no presidential declaration of war, no congressional War Powers Act and few can recall seeing reconnaissance planes flying over banks and lending institutions in 2007 or 2008. But make no mistake about it, the mortgage industry is under attack from all sides and that isn’t likely to change any time soon.  We can debate whether or not the war on the industry is justified but that tends to easily ignore the fact that there IS a war. (Bad idea arguing you shouldn’t be under attack while you’re being attacked.)

Since 2005, the number of loan originators in the mortgage industry has shrunk from over half a million to around 125,000. Most left standing see the attrition as a healthy cleansing. A fine British loan originator in 1801 called this an effective reduction in the “surplus population”.

Most homeowners and prospective homeowners go to great lengths to choose their property, the color of their house, the street, the neighborhood, the lawyer and real estate agent that will help them, the builder, the contractor or moving company. Unfortunately, few employ the same discipline in selecting the loan professional who will handle the most intense, significant part of the entire process – the mortgage financing.

To continue the metaphor, in a war of this magnitude, don’t you want the best soldier standing with you? Here are the four ways to absolutely choose the best loan professional:

1.       Make sure they’re licensed. Pretty simple really. Your hairdresser is licensed, shouldn’t your loan professional be? And licensed does not mean registered. Check here to be sure: http://www.nmlsconsumeraccess.org/

2.       Is the company that the loan professional works for a direct lender? Will your application be processed and approved locally or will they be “sending your file out”? Understand this: Greater the distance your file travels the less control. Less control spells delays in performance. Lack of performance creates communication issues. Communication issues lead to frustration. Local underwriting and processing shortens the process, secures your rate lock and keeps everyone on your team face-to-face.

3.       It’s a job interview. You’re the employer, they’re the applicant. Know this going in. Treat every prospective loan professional as if he or she applied for the job. Ask them to tell you about their last closed transaction. If their description lacks detail then so too will their commitment to “detail” with your transaction. Note if they speak badly about the people they worked with (real estate agent, title attorney, underwriter etc..) and run from them if they do. Do they let you finish your questions? Do they listen for real or are they faking it? Do they give more than just yes or no answers? Would you hire them if you had to pay them, because, yes, you are paying them?

4.        Basics matter. Were they on time for their “job” interview? Did they call when they said they would? Did they return your email or text neatly and in a reasonable timeframe? Is their appearance as “put together” as you want your loan file put together? Do they seem as though they love what they do? Is it a passion or a task to them? What is your gut telling you about them? Follow it. Our instincts are never wrong, just our ability to “hear them” sometimes.

These four excellent methods can be expanded to include things like experience, were they referred to you by someone you respect, do they have a criminal record etc……but for the most part if you cover the four areas we’ve suggested you’ll mange to hit all the periphery qualifications or concerns as well.

And be careful, it’s a war out there.

December 27, 2010

by Dean Harrington

I have a good friend who is absolutely brilliant. Amazing hard-drive of events, facts, statistics and historical relevance of just about any social, economic and political subject you can name. She can summarize and articulate a convincing argument for just about any position for which she has a passion. Ask her to give a forecast or prediction of something – anything – and she comes armed with more ammo than Tony Hawk. Oh! and another thing: she’s almost always WRONG.

As we cross the finish line of 2010 we are inundated with “experts” lining up to tell us what 2011 is going to be like…Just like they did a year ago, and the year before that, and the decade before that, and the generation before that.  They’re like degenerate gamblers who convince everyone they have a “system” all the while helping to build beautiful new towers for Foxwoods, Atlantic City and Las Vegas. They simply don’t know what they don’t know.

2010 was to bring a 7,500 Dow (it’s 11,500), 8% unemployment (it’s 9.8%), 4% increase in food prices (<1%), a double-dip bottoming out of home prices (nope), the crash of gold prices – or the leap of gold prices (depending on who you listened to), a sharp rise in interest rates (they fell to all time lows), terrible holiday retail sales (not even close) and on and on. Of course, 2010 was also the year “experts” promised a sea-level increase of 40 inches (actual: 1.8) and the end of snow in Great Britain (whoops!). Twitter and Facebook were fads and the iPad was a gimmick.

In our own little neck of the economic woods here in mortgage lending we didn’t see anyone forecasting a refi-boom in 2010 or, in effect, the 2nd consecutive year of excellent origination volume in our industry. The foreclosure freeze or Robo-Signing? Ah sorry…Yet we continue to cling to the random forecasts of prophets whose only claim to fame is their steady, unshakable ability to be so consistently WRONG.

The great Earl Nightingale, “Dean of Personal Development”, warned us of this many years ago when he was quoted as saying:

“The opposite of courage is not cowardice but conformity. If you decidedly did the exact opposite of what the masses were saying in any given situation, you’d probably never make another mistake in your life…”

2011 will pose challenges in the real estate and mortgage origination climate, sure, but these pocket-Nostradamus’ have little history of accurately pinpointing what those challenges will be and they have never properly accounted for the positive and impactful events of things that will happen. The Yin will have its Yang.

So tune out the wrong-sayers and focus on TODAY. Don’t regret yesterday and never fear tomorrow – no one knows what it’s going to bring anyway, no matter how brilliant they appear.

December 14, 2010

by Dean Harrington

Legendary college basketball coach, Jerry Tarkanian, once said:  “The NCAA is so mad at recruiting violations at the University of Kentucky that they’re going to slap Murray State with an additional three year probation.”  Funny line and like most funny lines it rings some truth.

The Rhode Island Department of Business Regulation is set to establish Banking Regulation 6 in early 2011. The Rhode Island Association of Mortgage Bankers strongly opposes Regulation 6 in its current format.

The mandate would require licensed loan originators to meet minimum net worth and surety bond requirements in order to originate mortgage loans in Rhode Island.  The regulation applies only to those originators licensed under NMLS standards and working for a non-exempt entity. The regulation does not require the same of non-licensed originators working at exempt institutions. Murray State gets the squeeze, Kentucky does not.

Of course, The Law of Unintended Consequences, will ransack the Divisions ultimate objective of improving consumer protection. Let’s take a look:

1.    Loan originators failing to meet minimum net worth or surety bond requirements at a non-exempt lender in, say, East Providence, will merely find employment originating Rhode Island loans at an exempt institution in, say, Warwick. Musical chairs doesn’t make the audience safer.

2.    Loan originators working for large non-exempt national mortgage lenders in Rhode Island (with tiny origination volume in the Ocean State) will weigh the prudence of remaining in the state when they can simply move to Massachusetts and avoid the time, effort and expense of Regulation 6.

3.    Fewer loan originators working for fewer non-exempt companies will consolidate mortgage application volume into just a handful or so of “the big boys”. This eliminates the value of a competitive mortgage market that consumers rely on for pricing and service leverage.

Naturally, there are substantial questions about putting such onerous personal demands on employees of private corporations. If having a positive personal net worth were such a necessity for consumer protection why not make sure doctors, lawyers, financial planners, police and rescue workers maintain a positive net worth too? Not to mention, what illegal activity done to a homeowner by a single loan originator would lead a plaintiff to not pursue the much larger goose, the corporation, over the individual and their relatively small bond?

Regulation 6 would prevent recent college graduates, with mounting student loan debt, from entering the field. It would “fire” many productive, experienced loan originators simply because they bought a home in 2005 and have seen their net worth squashed by declining home equity.  Have a spouse lose their job and dip into savings and bang, you’re unemployed too! Don’t get sick, pile up medical bills or get divorced……………….or else!

The mortgage origination industry has purged the bad actors, eliminated sub-prime products, tightened underwriting guidelines and increased net worth and financial requirements of mortgage corporations; all against the backdrop of a substantial national recession.

Murray State continues to do things the right way…… even if Regulation 6 fails to notice.

November 23, 2010

by Dean Harrington

Back in my sophomore year of high school I ran cross country. I did it only to work myself into shape for basketball season. It was a means to an end…and it taught me a thing or two.

Before each meet I got extremely nervous. Butterflies? No. Think more along the lines of terror. And since the sport was merely a training exercise for me I knew I wasn’t all worked-up about winning or doing well. No, the fear I had was more primal.  Running cross country hurt!  It was painful. Real painful. Tremors at the starting line were warnings of the pain I would experience at the finish line.

Eventually, like any self-loving, self-preserving individual, I hit the point where such fear and pain had to be muted. Somehow…it had to go. Fortunately, I had a plan.

When we reached the state qualifying meet on Columbus Day, I had resolved that I would feel no fear at the starting line; that I would put a smile on my face, engage the race officials and find a pre-race peace. It was a nice clear, sharply cool morning.   I was going to relax and “enjoy a nice run through the park.”

At the line, I could hear – feel – the heavy breathing of all those around me.  I could sense their anxiety; I could almost cut the tension.  I was experiencing none of that.  Wow. This was the way to go! The gun rang out and the frantic runners sprinted for the first turn.  It was the last time I would see the pack.

As I hit the woods, the pack thinned, then thinned some more, then evaporated ahead of me completely.  My breath was steady, calm and “paced”.  I felt no pain.  My legs weren’t tightening.  My lungs weren’t burning and my skin was cool and comfortable.  As I exited the woods and hit the open final stretch of the race the only sight my eyes found was that of my coach standing at the finish line with his arms folded in a clear posture of irritation.  I crossed the finish line with NO PAIN!  I also crossed the finish line LAST.  Dead last.

If I had finished in my usual middle of the pack spot we would have been a top-3 qualifier for the states. Instead, my fearless run had cost us a much larger prize.  We failed to qualify for the states entirely!  It was at that moment I learned an invaluable lesson that I still apply in my business career to this very day.

If you are doing something of value it will require hard work.  It will occasionally ask for a price paid in a currency of pain.  If you do not have butterflies in your stomach in advance of a big moment, then you are not alive in that moment!  Your comfort zone is your loser zone!  What if that fear, that anxiety, that adrenaline is God spreading out within you so HE can help?  You want to “calm away” that kind of presence?  No!

“Feel the fear and do it anyway!”  and you’ll never, ever let yourself down.

November 17, 2010

by Dean Harrington

The Housing Affordability Index recently hit an all-time high of 179. This means that the average person has 180% of the necessary income to afford a home. This is a remarkable statistic. Consider that in 2007 the average person in the United States needed to earn $52,000 a year to buy a median priced home. Today that person needs to earn $37,000! Amazing.

What we know is that with a HAI this high, there is an abundance of qualified buyers for almost any degree of inventory. Sooner or later these buyers will leap full force into the market and when this happens prices will bounce back and the HAI will, correspondingly, decrease. It’s the job of mortgage and real estate professionals to help prepare those buyers to enter the market. Here are the FIVE indispensable habits of highly successful buyers:

1.    Practice, practice, practice: If you are renting now at, say, $1,000/mo and you know your projected mortgage payment will be $1,400/mo when you start your mortgage then set up a savings account and begin to deposit the difference between your rent and projected mortgage payment into that account. Do this for a year and you’ll prove you’re able to afford your own home and you’ll have saved your closing costs or part of the down payment.

2.    Know the score: Find out your credit score and work with a licensed mortgage originator at a direct lender to increase that score. Most every credit score can be lifted with some simple cosmetic surgery by a trained professional…and it’s worth it! The higher the score the better the interest rate.

3.    The arena matters more than the seat: Focus on a location, not on a particular house. Love the area before a street, a neighborhood before a house. Start your search by city, town or zip code. You’ll find your dream house somewhere in that vicinity. Don’t fall in love with a house and justify its location.

4.    Play the field: Commit to looking at 10 houses. Period. Your tastes, perspective and eventual wish-list will sharpen and change as you “play the field”. If that first house really was the one, you’ll come back to it and be even more certain of your decision to make an offer on it.

5.    Buying is a team game: Don’t go it alone. Hire a buyer’s agent to represent you. This is what, your first, or maybe your second home buying experience? An experienced professional has done it hundreds of times. They have the cheat notes. You wouldn’t operate on yourself – get yourself a real estate doctor.

Buying a home is a contact sport. Be armed with these crucial habits and you and your clients will come out on top every time.

November 9, 2010

by Dean Harrington

There are two kinds of businesses that exist in every city or town.  The business whose existence is dependent upon the patronage of the community and the business whose existence is NOT dependent upon the patronage of the community.  If a company manufactures a product that is sold overseas (or even to another part of the United States) or makes a product sold to corporations instead of consumers they may employ people from the community, pay taxes in the community and hold a physical presence in the community but they do not have a relationship with the marketplace in that city or town.

Other businesses, of course, would cease to exist without a committed interaction with local consumers. Retail stores, restaurants, bars, professional services, landscapers and a host of other businesses must trade products and services with residents of their cities and towns to remain open and viable.

Those of us in the business of buying, selling and financing homes have, perhaps, the most intimate relationship a product or service can have with its community. A person’s home is, well, just about as provincial as it gets in terms of a business relationship; and with that comes a considerable degree of expectation and OPPORTUNITY. As local business people we better understand this – our survival depends on it, our “thrivival” lusts for it.

Plainly put, if you expect to exchange goods and services for money in your city or town you’d better be willing to invest some of it back into the community itself. Each business person has three things – the Three T’s – they can exchange BACK into a community: their time, their talent or their treasury. In others words, volunteer your time and ability or donate your money. It’s that simple. And it’s required. The Go-Giver mentality will not just help you survive…….it will help you thrive!

Your Three T’s are the present that gives, while you receive. Think about it, as you exercise your Three T’s you manifest two amazing things:

(1) You use sacrifice as a tool to release your own gratitude and when you do this you put your own personal state of mind in its most powerful position for success, and

(2) You meet people! Those people who you might not otherwise have met. People who will tell others about you! Prospecting never was so easy ….or so fulfilling.

It’s no coincidence that our year ends for personal “profit” (12/31, W-2, 1040 etc.) coincide with the Season of Giving, “The Holidays”.

Make this Holiday Season a giving AND receiving season by plugging your Three T’s into your community. They’re worth it and so are you.

October 27, 2010

by Dean Harrington

Steven King wrote about it as the Ballet of the Flexible Bullet. Tony Robbins blended it into his million selling Personal Power series.  Countless successful people work diligently on controlling its influence.  So what am I talking about?

The questions you ask yourself.

Yup, it’s that routine. Each thought you have is simply an answer to a question you’ve asked your brain.  Control the question and you control your thoughts. Control your thoughts and you control your state-of-mind. Control your state of mind and you control your attitude. Control your attitude and you control your behavior. Control your behavior and you control your destiny.

The problem is, most of us ask ourselves terrible questions. And the brain is a marvelous machine: it will answer any question you put to it. It never asks you to retype it. It doesn’t freeze up, or go off-line, or crash, or ask you to use some kind of ‘advance search’. It answers. All the time. Every time.

Ask “what’s wrong with me?” and your brain will give you every weakness and limitation that you have. Ask: “why me?” and your brain will catalogue a list of the bad things you’ve done (to deserve this, of course) and dump them on you in seconds. Ask: “why can’t I lose weight?” and your brain will spit out every roadblock you’ve ever created. Your brain is always wired to a polygraph machine. It tells it like it is: the good, the bad, the ugly.

It’s up to you to ask yourself the right questions.

The book, The Secret, is essentially built on “what you think about, you bring about.”  Well, what you think about is what you’ve asked yourself about. “What’s going to go wrong next?” or “Why am I in a bad mood?” brings your brain to a bridge over troubled water. The Secret tells you to focus on what you want, not on what you don’t want. By extension, this means to ask yourself questions that focus on what you want not what you don’t want because the brain will answer those things too!

“What can I do right now to improve myself?” Your brain will give you solid, useful replies. “What can I eat right now that I like that will help me be healthy?” Your brain will give you the answers. But your brain isn’t just wired to answer these kinds of questions about particular actions. It’s also wired to answer another set of questions that are even more powerful.

Ask yourself questions that empower your state-of-mind!

“How did I feel after I closed that big deal?” “What would my best clients (or friends) say about me if they were telling someone about why they needed to meet me?”  “What actions did I take in that week where I was all over it in my life?” “What makes me happy?”  “What are the best things I like about myself?”  “What am I thankful for in my life?”

The answers to these types of questions changes your attitude –instantaneously.

We start our days with military-like habits: wash our hands, brush our teeth, put on the coffee etc, etc… But do we start our days emotionally, mentally with any kind of healthy routine? Do we let our worries and our troubles start asking the questions or do we plan out a series of empowering questions to put us in the right state of mind to move ahead and blow away those worries and troubles?

Make sure you are controlling the Ballet of the Flexible Bullet!

Write down FIVE questions that will empower your state-of-mind, putting your attitude to work for you, not against you. List these questions on an index card and tape it to the mirror in your bathroom. Spend a few minutes reading and absorbing these questions. Contemplate the answers, feel what your brain is saying. It will alter your attitude. It will make a difference. How do I know?

Easy, I asked myself: “What can I do each morning to get myself in a peak state-of-mind?”

October 19, 2010

by Dean Harrington

In my previous entry I wrote an overview of the foreclosure freeze that has hit the real estate community. Today, I’m going to stop stamping my feet and pounding my fists and focus on a number of clear distinctions:

1. Most in the lending world are defending these issues as an error of process, not an action of deceit, as alleged by states’ Attorney Generals.

2. The media is referring to this as a “robo-signing” scandal but that’s essentially just a euphemism for a paper trail Easter egg hunt gone bad.

3. Borrowers are claiming, in effect, that the servicer of their loan, an entity that differs from the one that funded their loan, has no right to take possession of the house they’re NOT paying for.

4. Mortgage lenders are being accused of back-dating, falsely notarizing or out-rightly losing mortgage loan documents.

5. Lenders are defending themselves by sighting the “in-blank” procedure for transferring a mortgage to a yet unknown investor or servicer as a safety net for the claims of absent or missing chain of assignments.

6. If a borrower pays Lender X for a few years doesn’t that invalidate their claim that Lender X is not the rightful holder of a right to foreclose?

7. Since most pending foreclosures are either insured or funded by government sponsored enterprises/programs are the AG’s not eventually opening up individual litigation targeting fellow taxpayers?

8. How long before the 95% of homeowners NOT in foreclosure get upset carrying the bill for the 5% that are in foreclosure but living rent free under the umbrella of their own AG’s efforts to invalidate the debt of their non-paying neighbors?

9. Look for Short Sales to become much easier, faster, Banks will have to look to this soft-eviction process in absence of the ability to foreclose.

10. Thus far the DOJ and the Obama administration are not standing behind the state AG’s in this moratorium. Keep an eye on this. This DOJ has jumped into states’ issues before and post-election they may do it again. Time will tell.

Shamrock Financial is co-presenting a series of Emergency Summit’s beginning this Friday. Jump in and join us: http://www.shamrockfinancial.com/events/the-short-sale-aftermath-steps-to-prepare-your-short-sale-clients/

October 14, 2010

by Dean Harrington

Words are often weapons of the truth, aimed at a vulnerable mark knowing that cynical bystanders will lose sight of the sniper and, instead, see only the target. Yell fire in a crowded room and everyone searches frantically for the flames, not for the person who carelessly started the chaos.

Yell “fraud” in the mortgage industry and you have similarly trained everyone’s focus on lenders, regardless the scope or merit.

This past week the US Department of Justice and an estimated 30+ states’ Attorney’s General offices have moved to stop banks and investors from foreclosing on defaulted mortgages throughout the country. They’ve done this in much the same way Ohio Attorney General, Richard Cordray, has in alleging that mortgage lenders, namely GMAC in Corday’s case, have committed FRAUD. He alleges that by signing foreclosure documents without reading them lenders have misrepresented full knowledge of the contents and that this is fraud. (Does that make Nancy Pelosi and the rest of congress guilty of fraud for signing legislation without reading it? Is that fraud too?)

These bank employees did not commit fraud. What they did was robo-sign largely boiler-plate orders to foreclose on homes that people had long since stopped making payments on.  Why is it a greater crime for a bank employee to not read a document than it is for a borrower not to make the payments?  Because it’s an election year and politicians are bowing at the altar of the downtrodden to curry favor with the media and enhance their own electability.

The argument really boils down to this: “Hey, we haven’t paid in 8 or 9 months but they didn’t read the document that says I need to pay to keep my house before they signed it so I should get to stay here rent-free even longer.”  Ever hear of any borrowers claiming the fraud is that they are up-to-date on their payments but the lender is still taking my house? Of course not.

AGs are also sniffing around the lending industry’s reliance on MERS (Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems) as a vehicle in accessing servicing channels for mortgage loans. Carving-up and securitizing mortgages by utilizing MERS can foster robo-signing, as well as a heightened hunt and chase game to discover who the actual mortgage holder is, but politicians should be very careful before attacking a system that has made affordable loans and low interest rates available to millions of homeowners.

A full 30% of all homes sold in the country today are from foreclosure inventory. To stop the rightful process of evicting defaulted borrowers would, in effect, remove 30% of the home sales in this country, thereby crippling the home values of people who ARE paying their mortgage each month and dramatically shrinking local municipality’s property tax rolls.

Yelling “fire” in the foreclosure world isn’t going to make things better, but it will almost assuredly make things worse.

September 29, 2010

by Dean Harrington

Whether you’re an avid golfer or someone who wouldn’t know a golf club from a night club just about all of us can appreciate the beauty of a well groomed fairway running along the side of a road, at the edge of the woods or set against a picturesque coastal horizon.

When I was a younger man I used to stop my car abruptly at the sight of a gorgeous golf course and jump on to hit a single ball off the perfectly manicured grass. For that one single moment in time I was lost in the beauty of the opportunity to play one random shot on a golf course that was otherwise off limits to me. Even if I was chased away by security dogs or merely embarrassed in being caught by a member of the course there was no way to prevent me that ONE single swing at the ball off that perfect lie. It was a slice of serenity that belied its adventurous circumstances.

Recently, I had the good fortune to be walking along such a marvel of a golf course while in the crowd at the finals of the state amateur golf championship. As I walked along in attire better suited for the office I watched my shoes casually imprint the perfect fairway and quietly allowed myself the splendor of envisioning playing a ball off this magnificent lawn. Then, like the sound of a needle on vinyl that is abruptly grabbed and stopped, I jarred myself with the sudden recollection that HEY…. I BELONG TO THIS COURSE. I PLAY HERE! I’M A MEMBER HERE!

Yet, I never saw my home course as that random fairway I jumped onto while pulling the clubs out of the trunk of my car the same way a thief grabs his tools to break into a house. But why? Why is the given taken for the granted?

And then it struck me like a thunderbolt and became quite impossibly clear.

When we play that random, glorious, single shot off a stolen moment in time it has no consequences. There was no bad shot that it’s following and no difficult shot it must recover from. There is no scorecard howling our success, raising its ugly expectations to surely force disappointment upon us later on. It is singular. It is today, not yesterday and never tomorrow. The fairway doesn’t appear as an uphill lie, a downhill lie, into the wind or perilously tree-lined. Water ahead? What water?

We relax and enjoy the moment because we haven’t surrounded it with consequence, fear, distraction and ambition!

Our focus is on the beauty of the opportunity, the glory in the perfect blades of grass, the sweet smell of the wind and the stillness of our breath. The club in our hand never felt better, never looked better and has never been so ideally prepared for opportunity.

None of this, of course, coincides with the feelings and emotions most of us feel when we crowd out this clarity by taking a “real” shot in an actual round of golf. Anxiety, apprehension, excitement and adrenalin all conspire to help us miss the moment – quite often to the peril of our performance. In effect, we lose twice.

Our business day is no different. We fail to see that one shot because we trap ourselves in the context of several shots.

So with this all in mind, let’s endeavor to sneak onto our job today. Lay down a “ball” on that perfect fairway, see all the beauty that surrounds you, take a nice deep breath and allow yourself the joy that is the opportunity of the moment.

Forgetting your home course has never felt so good.

September 15, 2010

by Dean Harrington

We have been conditioned in this country to think of mortgages as rights. If you qualify, you are a “guest” of that lender, a discriminating shopper, a person who lives by the age-old adage that “the customer is always right”.

This mentality transitions many consumers into a mindset where they lose sight of the principle dynamic that exists in a borrower/lender transaction. And whose fault is that? It’s ours, the mortgage lender.

When we educate, we motivate; when we don’t, we allow the narrative of our careers to be told by the media, community action groups and other partisan voices. Shame on us. We own the microphone, yet we hand to others, turn our backs and run for cover.  There are too many unknown and misbegotten facts and points of reference that get left out in the rain and it’s our responsibility to bring them in, dry them off and put them back out in the sunshine.

Today’s mortgages are amazingly consumer friendly and that is rarely taught to prospective borrowers. Instead, we back peddle. Let’s “lend” some perspective and history to purge just some of today’s toxins.

• Rates are substantially discounted by comparison with other financial instruments and when measured against those in other developed countries. Lenders are putting money out at 4% and committing to that rate until 2040(!) knowing full well that at some point before that they’ll be paying depositors well over 4% on savings accounts in order to attract the money they subsequently lend. The 30-year, no-call mortgage is a thorn to mortgage banking.
• Qualified mortgage consumers are allowed to trade in their mortgage for a lower rate any time rates go down (refinance). The bank cannot demand a consumer do the same when rates go up. Pre-payment penalties used to give banks some leverage on this imbalance but, alas, they were outlawed by congress.
• If a consumer walks away from a home owing more than it’s worth they are not required to pay the bank the deficiency balance. Try this with your car! Your credit card? Your bookie? (Just kidding) Another stunningly friendly consumer law that never gets mentioned when vilifying lenders.
• ‘Let’s be more like Canada’ is popular with bureaucrats today. Great, did you know that most Canadian mortgages are 15-year notes with interest rate reviews every five? And if you walk away with a deficiency balance they chase you for it.
• Consumers are schooled not to refinance unless they can save 2%. Who created this magical formula? How does it account for three HUGE considerations?: (1) the size of the loan (2) how long someone plans to be in the home and (3) how much money someone makes.  Saving 2% on a $100K loan is $2,000 a year, saving just 1% on a $400K loan is DOUBLE that amount.
  A $100 savings for a borrower earning $50K a year is a big deal, maybe not so much for the borrower earning $200,000 a year; in the house for the next three years vs. the next 20? That would radically alter the 2% rule, wouldn’t it?
• Consumers and advocacy groups howl for longer amortization terms (40 years!) and even lower interest rates because they will reduce foreclosures.  Unfortunately, they DON’T. Mortgage defaults still arise from primarily the same three events: 1) loss of income 2) medical issues and 3) divorce. I’ve never known a longer term or a lower rate to help find someone a job, make them healthier or improve their marriage.

There are, in fact, many more “informational blind spots” out there in today’s mortgage market. It’s OUR job as educators to consistently and persistently remove these blinders before the media starts fitting consumers for even larger ones.