Skip to main content

Inquiring Minds Want to Know (Posted May 9, 2016)

As you’ve seen from previous editions of this award-winning weekly newsletter, we have a guy in our office who always has an interesting story to tell – and this one doesn’t disappoint either.  He has a brother who, when he was a wee lad, decided the family cat, Sam, was too dirty for his own good.  The moment this thought entered his head, like the minds of most young children, it dominated every bit of his mental attention – he could do nothing until he had reached this self-appointed goal of having a clean cat.  So, he dropped whatever he was doing – he could have been subdividing a sand castle he was building into affordable condos – and went off in search of Sam the cat. 

Finding Sam, the brother scooped him up and trundled off to the family bathroom to give him a bath.  (I know what you’re thinking: cats and water don’t mix; and you’d be right.  Remember, though, this is a four- or five-year-old boy – those things don’t factor in his head.)  As he neared the bathroom, the brother could hear that someone was already running the water in the bathtub.  I’m sure the brother was thinking, “Great, someone else in this house is on the same wavelength.  It’s about time!”  With his hands full of cat, the brother kicked open the bathroom door to find a good steam building up in the room, and he made a beeline for the bathtub.  This bathtub had a sliding glass-door enclosure, and it was closed.  Shifting Sam as much as he could into one arm, the brother reached over and slid the door open, only to find his dad taking a bath.  Unfazed, the brother – still holding the cat – looked at his dad and chirped a pleasant hello.  His father, a bit puzzled, nodded to his son and said, “What can I do for you, son?”  Without pausing, the brother said, “Sam needs a bath,” chucked the cat into the tub with dad, and closed the sliding-glass door. 

While the brother had good intentions, he committed the same error so many adults commit every day: he failed to ask the next logical question.  Instead, he made up his mind that he had the definitive answer and operated on the assumption that he was 100% right in his thinking.  At Priority Lending, asking the next logical question has been one of the most fundamental factors that continues to set us apart.  Two examples:

•  A gentleman had gone self employed a few months before coming to us for a mortgage.  He had been told by a number of other mortgage companies already that he had not been self employed long enough to qualify for a loan.  We asked him a few questions – the same ones the other companies had asked – and then we asked him the next logical question: the answer to that question enabled us to qualify him for the loan he needed. 
•  A Registered Nurse came to us with a bit of a quandary: while she earned a very good salary, she had no money in savings for a down payment.  We asked her a few questions – yes, one of them was whether she could get the down payment gifted, which she could not – and then we asked her the next logical question: and the answer to that question enabled us to get her qualified for the loan she needed. 


Those are just two of MANY examples of how we’ve been able to make a seemingly impossible transaction have a happy ending.  I’m not going to give away our secrets here – it’s always good to leave a little mystery in the relationship – but I can assure you that whatever weird or one-in-a-million scenarios you have, we’ll keep asking questions until we find a solution.  It’ll be a lot easier, too, than trying to bathe a cat!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

An Age-Old Concept Reaping Future Rewards

W hy are social media like Facebook and Instagram so darn popular among real estate and mortgage folks?   Hint: the top reason might be an endless supply of memes, cat videos, and the chance to be snarky, but the other reason runs a VERY CLOSE second.   Give up?   Answer:   They’re free – and they really help even the playing field by enabling a one-person shop look and market like an organization who employs an army of wordsmiths and graphic artists. This new century is glorious, right?   With that in mind, let me re-introduce you to a centuries-old concept that is equally glorious – and can help IMPROVE the playing field for you, regardless of the size of your team: karma.   On the subject of “free”, I’m not suggesting that you work for free, but when you freely give of yourself and your knowledge, you’ll see a greater payoff, I promise! Recently, an agent came to us with a question: she has a client who is looking to sell his condo.   It...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Power of Doubt

We find ourselves in that weird week between Christmas and New Year’s – that week that feels a bit like the Twilight Zone where no one’s sure what’s real and what isn’t.   Because of that, most people tend to focus on one of two things: eating as much as possible or setting goals for the upcoming year.   The former is squarely focused on the present – how much can I stuff into my gaping maw at this very moment before I pass out and/or puke – while the latter is focused on the future.    Last week, before the Twilight Zone kicked into full gear, I read a short article that resonated with me, and I think it’ll prick up your metaphorical ears, too.   The author of the article is a gentleman who professionally trains Olympic athletes, and he highlights the talents of a particular athlete from the Philippines who is training to be a marathon runner.   He points out that this runner is not a professional athlete, nor does she receive any type of financ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Get to the Point (Posted February 29, 2016)

As you may have already noticed, there’s some amateur art included in this week’s newsletter.   While it’s certainly better than a crayon drawing that might grace a refrigerator that’s supposed to be “mommy” but looks more like a B-movie creature, we all acknowledge there’s a reason the guy in our office who drew this . . . i s still working in our office rather than making a living elsewhere.   Be that as it may, there’s a point to the picture: is this how you’re allowing your client to choose their mortgage company?   In many cases, it’s probably not too far off.   Agreed, it’s wise to stay on the right side of the law and be sure you’re never accused of “steering”.   With that in mind, many agents tell their clients that it’s completely their decision as to what mortgage company they use (and it is, of course) and effectively step back from the entire conversation – using the illustration to the left, they’re putting the blindfold ...
Post a Comment
Read more