This morning when I woke up I wanted to write a blog post about the man I consider to be my mentor in the real estate investing business. Now, I’ve never met this man in person. We’ve emailed, blogged and spoken over the phone on multiple occassions. But never actually met.
Yet, he has made me a ton of money. Of this I’m sure. So I wrote the article (see link above) and then went to work. A few minutes ago I read Jeff Brown’s blog and what do you know? He had written a blog about being humble enough to learn. How ironic.
I knew I liked him because we had similar schools of thought. But that just iced it, don’t you think?
Who is your mentor in the mortgage business? Who is it you turn to when you need support? Or when you don’t know what to do with a client? Or when you just need to bounce ideas around? Who are you listening to that has more experience than you?
Bouncing around blogs is a great way to learn from other people. I urge you, however, to not stop there. If you feel you are really connecting with some-one’s written word stop, pick up the phone and have a conversation.
I’ve done this several times. And it’s been worth it.
Mortgage Industry Professionals. Like what you see?
SUBSCRIBE for free by RSS or email, and never miss a post!
{ 9 comments… read them below or add one }
Chris: I’ve been meaning to ask you, is that a minicooper in your gravatar?
We do owe much to our mentors. My mortgage mentor was Bill Jones or Mr. Jones as we all called him. He’s now retired and everyone who had the good fortune to work with him loved him and learned alot.
Mr. Jones was a mortgage banker in the true sense of the word back in the 50s. He worked for Pittsburgh Mortgage. In 1978, at the ripe age of 22, I started in the mortgage business as a mortgage originator under his watchful eye.
We only wrote FHA and VA and so that meant we worked with some buyers who had marginal credit. In those cases, we had an explanation letter submitted by the borrower and if Mr. Jones still wasn’t sure, he’d give them one last chance. They could come in and discuss it with him in person. He would judge their attitude and provide advise and maybe approve their mortgage. We worked the entire metro Pittsburgh market and so if a customer was serious enough to take time off work and drive to the office and talk with Mr. Jones, he almost always gave them a chance.
There was one exception to his rule. He just couldn’t get around it because he was such a strict Catholic. LIS, that’s right, Living In Sin. Man, if you were LIS, you needed good credit.
I lived in terror because nobody in the office knew that my future husband and I were…….LIS.
So, Mr. Jones taught me much. He was a great and wonderful boss and without knowing it, he switched the timing of our wedding from eventually to pretty darn quick.
Yes. It’s a MINI. Love it. While it’s being serviced I’ve been forced to drive a BMW. This may sound crazy. But I prefer my MINI. (Also, made by BMW…just cooler.)
Mentors make our lives easier. I didn’t mention Randy Lindemuth. He was my first broker in Tulsa, OK. A true thinker in this business. He REQUIRED that I know how to explain, line by line, a Settlement Statement.
He believed in full service wages and with that came full service service. I still talk to him about monthly. Although he doesn’t concentate on investments, he’s been in business since 1986. About as smart as they come.
We’ve got four minis. Our closers drive them. Best money I ever spent on advertising and so much fun!
What about credit repair specialists like http://www.newdaycreditconsultants.com ? Do you have any advise on credit repair. Im just a cashier with no formals education
Find yourself a trustworthy mortgage professional and they won’t charge you a dime. Having good credit is really very simple, formal education or not.
Simply pay all your bills as promised on time. Then, don’t feel compelled to use all your credit. It’s to the creditor’s advantage to have you paying forever and ever.
Use credit sparingly, when needed, if at all. Know the difference between wants and needs. If you don’t have money for milk for the kids’ breakfast, go ahead and use the credit card until you get paid.
But that new iPod doesn’t count as a need. No matter how bad little Johnny wants one for Christmas. Get a part time job. Then you can use that check for the iPod.
Chris: That’s the simple truth and to address Wade’s concern about education, your simple truths spelled out so clearly should be taught in home economics along with balancing the checkbook.
Diane, you are right. I didn’t have a mentor in the business because my boss was also originating in our small town and forbade his LOs from competing against him. I had to buy leads for people 300 miles away and work them by phone. So once I learned the ropes (after a long time and a million mistakes) I brought a nice guy into my business and mentored him so well that he became much better than I. So I had to marry him.
BTW, my S2000 eats Coopers for breakfast. And I’ll prove it once I recover from the neck surgery I just had followng a recent racing accident
Anyway, here’s a link to a column I did for people in need of credit help. As an LO I did plenty of credit counseling, as a busy LO I had less time but could send clients to reputable places. This article tells them what to look for in a credit repair agency.
http://www.mortgagecreditproblems.com/articles/debt-consolidation/counselor-or-salesperson-beware-of-debt-consolidation-service-frauds.htm
A racecar girl - woooo, neat. Sorry about your neck, though. That’s gotta hurt. Gina: What’s the fastest you have ever driven?
Gina - thanks for the link.
As for your Cooper comment, it’s how you arrive. Not how quickly.
Edited: Too risque.
Leave a Comment