Reflections on a lending fail - 2021

I was reflecting on a client from 2021 – one of the greatest years in mortgage lending history, but a very difficult year to win purchase offers if participants stubbornly believed that they should be able to pay less and purchase a home. Homes in 2021 weren't on sale as if it were a yard sale and you could get a deal because the seller was desperate. Sellers had the upper hand and if you wanted their home, you had to submit a competitive offer.

I worked all year with clients who were supported by a realtor that I adore. I wrote 12 pre-approval letters and finally the realtor and I decided it was time to move on. The clients simply would not take the realtors advice on what it would take to purchase a home.

The client said curtly as the relationship was dismantling, with a somewhat accusatory and entitled tone, George, I thought we could do this indefinitely? (meaning keep making offers and have me keep producing pre-approval letters). In theory, that's true, we could keep going forever, but who was winning in the deal? The clients weren't getting a home because they would never offer at a competitive price. The professionals in the relationship were spending countless hours with no success. We sort of all fired each other. It hurt. The realtor and I still work together and commiserated on this one for many a phone call.

I felt part of the blame directed at me. George, I thought we could do this indefinitely. Most of those letters were prepared on weekends, time spent away from family. That's okay, but I wish the effort had been acknowledged. The realtor spent far more time than I did and had nothing to show for it.

But you know what? We all want work validated that will mostly go unnoticed. It's called work for a reason and it's toil and some of it does not bear fruit.

Keep rolling the ball forward.

While this was an opportunity missed, 2021 was the best working and earning year of my nearly 30 years of receiving a paycheck. All will be well.

Here are those pre-approval letters that never ended in a contract:

begin again

I still think often of my first two closings. I started a career in lending in March of 2018. I needed something riskier and that played more to my skill set. I needed something more entrepreneurial. I approached a friend that had a career in the business and I found a way into the industry. Most of 2018 was spent training and learning. I only closed two loans in 2018. One in Durham in October. One in Garner in November. The first has turned out to be a top referral partner (it was their personal residence). The second is highlighted in the photograph below. 

There is no way to go back to the beginning. I was so proud of these first two deals. I was at both signings. This was pre-covid and you could sit alongside the borrowers and the realtor and the lawyers. I was ecstatic to collect my very first commission checks. So many people helped me make those first deals go through when I had no idea how to make the process go. Even now, so many people help from start to finish. I depend on a team, some of whom I never even meet.

Now, I am cynical and greedy and dissatisfied with a month with less than 10 closings. Gratitude and deep-breathing is a daily discipline.

You can't go home. You can't go back to the beginning. But you can remember.