I have a great respect for Jeff and Mary and I do believe that our industry is changing and to survive I must change with it. I sit here with my wireless laptop, my widescreen high definition TV playing in the background, responding to an online community and I am wondering how I made it this far in life. With all this human contact I have subjected myself to. I wonder if I never have another relationship if I will escape the common cold.

As a sycophantic wolf in sheep’s clothing I guess I will have to get to close to the human element to give them the pumped up screw job you refer to. Maybe I will take your advice and get a job at Di-Tech and net screw them.

As you were kind enough to make an assumption that I was a nice enough of a guy. I am sure you are to. I am just at a disadvantage because I don’t know what you do or who you are. Maybe Hal the computer from 2001( another great movie)

I like most of the Rainers actually get it that the world is changing. I come to Active Rain to learn how to best adapt to these inevitable changes. Sorry for the rant.

I have to go now. I was scheduled for some surgery but I think I will go to Web-Md and see if I can’t just do it myself. What was I thinking. I don’t need a professional to help me with this I’ve got the net.

Curt Swearengin

Make no mistake: The real estate finance industry has grown fat at the trough, feeding on the lifeblood of consumers who mistake relationships for friendships (hell, even a virus has a relationship with its host).

After reading everything Jeff has put up on theXBroker, which simply comes out and says what a lot of us here have been thinking for a long time, I’d say the industry has some explaining to do.

And so do you, Curt: You say you went into the mortgage business looking to be rewarded with fair compensation and referrals. Sounds reasonable enough—until we come to the definition of “fair.” I don’t presume to know your fee structure, but perhaps you’re willing to share it with us here.

I understand what you’re saying about “price shopping whore transactions,” but when’s the last time you called a travel agent to book a flight? Or paid an extra 20% on a car purchase just because the salesman knows the names of your kids and sends you a birthday card every year?

Look, I know what Jeff is promoting is messing with your rice bowl. No way around that. I would be worried if I were you, too. But to try to build a career around the “value of relationships” in an filthy business that’s been date raping consumers with impunity will only work if people continue to make decisions in the dark.

You’re probably a decent guy and are good at what you do. But if you think that somehow grants you the ability to operate against the current in an info-driven economy where the only thing that separates me from a wholesale rate mortgage and a pumped-up screw job is a sycophantic wolf in sheep’s clothing, I’ve got a bit of advice for you:

Close your eyes and shut your mouth, because the dirt’s already in the air.

11/09/2006 by Brooks Hatlin

I went to the Mortgage business to keep the belief that if you provided value to your clients and a personal touch you would be rewarded with fair compensation and referrals. How many referrals can you expect from a transparent price shoping whore transaction? I hope they throw dirt on me before I am forced to give up a relationship with a client for a faster keyboard

11/08/2006 by Curt Swearengin

Tommie, you come across as the type of broker who is well adjusted to adopting and changing with the market…so I apologize if my words rubbed a nerve.

I do set out to provoke thought from others in this community, for my benefit as well, and so appreciate your extended insight.

$ 32 with Merrill Lynch, using their client interfaces instead of my buddy John…

Some people may say this is anti-American business…so I guess you don’t own a foreign TV, DVD, car, shirt….ok then….I have had success with an American Company (out of VA) that outsourced the document flow that processing is to a center in India.

Contrary to popular belief, the individuals I dealt with on the other end were as articulate, organized, and professional as any processor I have had (except one, and always did keep one on payroll). The people who can perform this job are among the educated elite in their country, processing mortgage files pay top $ and draws pleasantly qualified talent.

Everyone picks on the Dell/ India communication frustration levels…Show me anyone who can explain computer repair over the telephone to a novice user already in a state of high frustration, anyone….My mom yells at me and pounds the keyboard when I try to explain how to connect to a wireless network over the phone.

Technology and it’s ability to increase the lubrication of communication, can bring you closer to your clients and team, it doesn’t have to dehumanize…

11/08/2006 by Jeff Corbett

“If you’re in the process of getting a mortgage, you’re probably wondering if the rate you’ve been quoted is the best you can do (it isn’t), if the fees you’re being asked to pay are reasonable (they’re not), and if the broker/banker is hiding anything from you (what do you think?).”

That is nothing short of brilliant. I saved it in order to eventually incorporate the likes of which into a marketing campaign of my own, when and if I ever get around to it.

Having said that I feel like I can tell you this.

There is no doubt the market is changing. It always has been, and always will be. Adaptability is a key ingredient to any business, on any timeline, in any industry, in any sector. One thing that will always remain constant to any successful business is profits. It seems these days a lot of borrowers ask themselves:

Where or how can I get this done the cheapest?

The answer to that question leads to disappointment, frustration, and heartache. People can and will prove tomorrow that “you get what you pay for”. They proved it to themselves yesterday and the day before that. That will never change. The fact of the matter is when you go out and ask for money from a lending institution so that you can afford the American dream over the next 30 years as opposed to having to fork up the jack now, heaven forbid, someone is going to make a little bit of money off the transaction.

You mentioned a good analogy. One of which I am familiar with. I too am a former stock broker and I have witnessed this all before. I’m not in the mortgage business because I was eliminated from the stock broker business, but because I saw an opportunity to utilize my skills more as an entrepreneur and I had built quite a history and interest in the real estate industry on the side. I’ve found my financial background very beneficial. I worked for Morgan Stanley, and last I checked Morgan Stanley was still in business. In the last four years they’ve managed to double their market cap. While suretrade, etrade, scottrade, ameritrade, and all the other disintermediators / fear mongers preached to everyone that would listen to run from Morgan Stanley and other large full service firms, those that didn’t got a 100% return on their money. Not a bad return for four years. Come to find out the wicked witch won’t really push you in the oven after all.

Just a little FYI when you refer to the huge “rips” the stock brokers were making, there is no such thing as a “rip”. “Rips” is a Hollywood term from the movie boiler room (great movie). It was a play on “rip-off”, but there is no such term in the stock broker business and it’s not because they were “exposed” or “marginalized”, it’s because they simply never existed. The closet thing to a “rip” in the stock brokers business is the mark up and mark down allowed by the SEC. It’s at 5% now just like it has always been. So while you’re logging into your computer buying 100 shares of TWX at 20 bucks a share from ameritrade for a trading fee of 8 bucks, or whatever it is now, your actually paying 108 bucks, but they don’t have to disclose that to you. All the while you’re thinking you’re sticking it to the man when in reality you could have just picked up a phone and you’d have paid about 34 bucks, or whatever it is now, over at Morgan Stanley.

The India connection? Sounds pretty scary, but I think I will just wait to see how all that plays out before I start taking down the pictures in my office, and removing my name plate from the door. I met a wonderful young lady at a happy hour by a local title company a while back. She was there promoting her processing company that outsourced everything to this “plant” in India. I took her out a couple times after I met her. She was a good time, but the company was anything but. There still is a level of communication that occurs during the processing of files. When borrowers are asked for a better copy of last years W-2 by someone over in India, the first thing they start thinking about is all their other personal information this person in India has of theirs, the second is all those stories of identity theft they’ve heard about, the third is all those stories of identity theft they’ve heard about (redundant for affect). I can tell you first hand they don’t like it. Even if his name is now John or Scott or whatever other American name he borrowed for his new found 3 dollar a day job.

An informed consumer is a good consumer, a scared one isn’t. In my adjustments to the market I have tried to make myself and my views on the industry as available and beneficial as possible to my clients and prospects. Hence my blogs, this comment, etc.. Re-Humanizing the industry is what my clients are looking for. The jig is about up on lowermybills, lending tree, etc. people are tired of giving up all their information on computers only to find out “you mean they don’t even lend money”. The way I do business is not a “self-proclaimed”, “right-way”, it’s the way my clients expect me to do business per their mouths, per their money.

Sorry so long winded, I could write a book on this, maybe I will. I like what you’re doing in exposing the rogue brokers out there. If I were out there kicking people in the teeth trying to make a quick buck, your blogs would send me looking for other employment. Fortunately, I’m not, so I won’t.

11/08/2006 by A Day In the Life of a Loan Advisor – Tommie W. Gibson

When you look at the facts, transparency will improve the industry not destroy it- it is simply a more honest way of doing business that will be much appreciated by the consumer. The fact is, the mortgage broker could go the way of the nearly extinct travel agent if the industry doens’t have a complete overhaul soon. Like you said, this generation is comfortable with online transactions and doesn’t value the “relationship” so the logical move is automation or semi-automation and transparency.

11/08/2006 by Mary McKnight

Get on the bus, Gus

Make a new plan Stan

No need to be coy Roy

Just listen to Jeff

He is on the money!

11/08/2006 by Jamie Chafin

11/08/2006 by Tony Marriott, Associate Broker, CRB, CRS

11/08/2006 by Rich Jacobson