Skip to main content

Feelin' Blue About Your Options? Good!

With my friend’s permission, I’m including an excerpt from a humor column he wrote a few years back.  I have a point, I promise, and I’ll make it below.  

All told, I believe there are at least 764 shades of the color blue that are completely indistinguishable to my eyes, but my wife has the innate ability to differentiate each and every one.  Stranger still, when I tell her that Cerulean and Celestial look identical to me, she’ll say things like, “Oh, come on.  The Cerulean has way more red in it, and the Celestial tends to be more yellow.”  How can “blue” be red or yellow?  Aren’t we talking about the three primary colors, the basic building blocks of all other colors?

I would like to say that this truly shouldn’t matter to me, but I just spent my afternoon painting an entire wall Blue #429 – it has a name, I’m sure, but I dare not mention it for fear that one of you out there will send back to me a twelve-page thesis on the distinguishing characteristics of this particular shade of Blue.  Exhaustion has overtaken me, and I just couldn’t take that.  I’m not so exhausted from the physical labor involved; my arms are a bit fatigued, but that’s most likely due more to my personal lack of muscle.  The exhaustion, quite honestly, stems from my watching a non-stop virtual tennis volley between my wife’s two minds on the subject of the color.  “I think that will go really well with the couch and the black chairs.”  “That’s way too nautical blue.”  “It really softens up the room.”  “I was going more for the color of that pillow.”  Just when it seemed like one side had smashed it over the net to decide the match, the other would make an unexpected comeback that seemed just as devastating.  AmI rooting for the side that likes the color as it is?  Of course!  More to the point, though: I just want it over.  As I write this, I believe my wife’s in bed right now muttering pros and cons in her sleep.

Earlier today, before the paint was purchased and ushered into our home, I went on a hike with our oldest son. While we were out communing with nature and swatting at mosquitoes, I decided it was a good time to spring “the Birds & the Bees” talk on him.  AsI finished the short discourse, I asked him if it made sense, and he said, “Sort of.”  I could tell from his befuddled response that I had taken him completely by surprise and that he thought I had been out in the sun too long.  I got that.  So, I gave us both an easy out and said, “Well, when you start having questions along those lines, just ask me.”  His response to this was calculated and well delivered: “You wanna throw rocks at that flower on top of that cactus?”

I can honestly say that the details of my explanation were pretty straightforward but limited to fit the audience.  However, maybe the approach was all wrong.  Granted, I don’t want my children getting this type of information from other kids at school, television, or a former President of the United States – so I do need to get them the facts.  But while I’m preparing them to embrace the responsibilities of adulthood and married life, I should begin the discussion with the question: “How many shades of blue do you think there are in the world, son?”

Earlier today, I overheard one of our office veterans give one of our newer loan originators a great piece of advice: don’t let the borrower tell you in the beginning what type of loan is best for them.  He went on to explain that doing this is a disservice to the borrower because it limits what the loan originator is going to search for and provide.  Instead, the LO should gather as much information as possible from the borrower, even if it seems unlikely it will ultimately be needed.  It’s okay to have too much; it’s not okay to have too little. 

If you get off the phone with your lender and feel slightly exhausted from all the questions, that’s a good thing: it means you’re going to have more options maybe almost as many as there are shades of the color blue. 

Comments

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...

KNOWING is Half the . . . Problem

If you’ve learned one thing from reading these columns, it’s this: I don’t read a ton of books by or about the French philosopher Descartes or spend large amounts of money traveling the world to view the Masters’ paintings in far-flung museums – my entertainment and sources of knowledge run to the more . . . mundane, if you will.   Well, I’m not about to disappoint.   In the movie Men in Black , the two main characters J & K (played by Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones, respectively) have recently met and K is trying to recruit J to join the clandestine government agency that monitors aliens on planet Earth.   Agent K has just shown J a lot of things that are hard to believe/explain and urges J to keep them secret.   At this point, J interrupts him, and this piece of dialogue ensues: J: Why the big secret?   People are smart.   They can handle it.   K: A person is smart.   People are dumb, panicky, dangerous animals, and you...

An Intergalactic Lack of Knowledge

This past week, word had reached my ears that the federal money available for homebuyers in a certain grant program would run out by April 1 st of this year – despite the date, I’m fairly certain it’s not intended as some cosmic April Fool’s Day joke.   At any rate, a real estate agent that I’ve worked with for many years felt it would be a good idea to make a big deal of this and put together some Facebook and Instagram posts letting potential homebuyers know that time is running out.   No argument here.   Anyone who’s sort of been sitting on the fence about buying a home could use a little nudge, and this might be just what they need.   After I had created the posts and put them out there, I started to think about what will happen once this federal grant does run out.   What will potential homebuyers do who need help coming up with a down payment?   And you know what the next thing was that popped into my head when I asked myself that question...