The Accidental Mortgage Professional
Updated: Oct 5, 2022
I have been in the mortgage and real estate business since I was17 years old. Like a lot of you, I didn’t grow up with dreams of changing the world by helping people acquire home financing. I wanted to be a firefighter!
I applied for a CalFire job when I was still 17. I was rejected. Something about an early fire season and me not actually being 18 yet. So, I went to work sweeping floors, Xeroxing and typing on triplicate 1003 forms at my friends mortgage company. I was still resisting the Real Estate angle so I started on my engineering degree and went to work at Intel.
Four things happened simultaneously that changed the course of my life forever:
1) I decided that the corporate thing wasn’t for me,
2) I received a huge paycheck (for a 20 year old) after closing my first few loans,
3) My wrestling scholarship dreams evaporated with my early exit from the juco state tournament,
4) I failed Linear Algebra.
So, I did the only thing that made sense. I bought three suits, dropped out of college, printed some refinance flyers and hired my high school buddies to put them on every front door in Folsom. Under the mentorship of my best friend Phil Scott, things went great and I had a lot of fun.
I love this business. Anyone willing to work hard can make a good living without the traditional structure of a “9-5”. We can take time off, spend time with our families and the economic upside is unlimited. In short, we eat what we kill and, usually, we are in control.
Unfortunately, many of us lose control. My friend likes to joke that he works half-time. Either noon to midnight or midnight to noon. Many of us have lost control of our schedule and our time. The freedom that we most value becomes our greatest enemy.
My career has provided a unique opportunity to closely observe over 2000 Originators, review hundreds of real estate and mortgage P&L’s, and engage with the thought leaders in mortgage and real estate industry.
That brings us to the purpose of this site. Although my weaknesses are numerous, one of my strengths is aggregating best practices and turning them into bite-sized actions for service professionals. The best way to communicate in the new world is via a social platform and here it is.
Provide me feedback, share it with your friends and let me know what you think!