Never did glow in the dark

Last Thursday I mentioned we were gonna get with the SallieMae folks and possibly offer financing (LOOT) from them to our Students to get $$$ for their training & related expenses with us. After these many days of wrestling them to the ground to get any info out of them, I learned what we charge for our most expensive training, education, and materiual isn't enough money to interest them in any student/customer referrals from us (makes me think we need to raise our various tuitions, costs & fees - hahahaha)!

I go to my primary care physician in an hour to get the results of all the tests he subjected me to earlier this month; hopefully they were all negative. Never did glow in the dark by the way!

Don't Glow in the Dark

I know it's Sunday ... just leaving for breakfast and to check out the new movie Vantage Point, trailer looks exciting, we'll see through.

Far as the residential mortgage training & education business is concerned, it's DEAD - if you check out that link you'll see one of my own favoriute terms - one I use frequently to friends and family in my real world life.

As I was leaving my last 'test' with the nuclear medicine folks, the tech told me I would be radioactive for 60 hours! The results from all of them, I should hear more about this Thursday at my next doctor appointment; whatever's up with all these tests (inside the suspicious mind of my primarty care physician) I'm sure it's not more Cancer. That ship saled almost 10 years ago now.

Student Loans?

Was contacted by SallieMae this morning about our offering/referring new students to them for student loans ... here's some of their info: "... you can borrower the class tuition, and any special costs you may incur, such as travel, lodging or any other special expenses you might have while taking our classes. The minimum loan is $1,000 and can be used for class cost for any combination of our courses or you can enroll in our Fast Start programs to accelerate your learning. You can borrow 100% of your educational cost plus an additional 60% for additional or special expenses you may have while taking the classes. Interest rates are low and you can take advantage of the deferred payment option if you wish. With a Career Training Loan, you can save over the life of your loan with variable rates as low as Prime + 1% and fees as low as 2% for borrowers with excellent credit ... interest rates are structured so that you get the best possible terms based on your credit history." It all sounds pretty good to me. We may be offering this new feature on our website soon.

I sorta feel like a pin cushion, yesterday they did a Thyroid Needle Biopsy (you can look it up on WebMD), and believe me, it hurt (like Real genuine PAIN) far more than the internet and the doctor suggests. Doctors call it "discomfort" - I called it screaming throbbing deep anguish!

Tomorrow I get the Nuclear Medicine folks gonna pump me full of radiooactive juice, while they scan me three differtnt times, 2 hours apart. They even told me to stay away from children and small pets for a day or two because I'll be radioactive! WOW, what fun. I'll report back.

How it Was is not how it Will be! - Part 2

Finished up the newsletter lead article for the March edition of The MortgageLand Journal, it turned out to be more difficult than I had imagined. This is its opening paragraph:

"Picture an old grand-father’s clock in your mind, with it’s pendulum swinging back and forth. That’s how the residential real estate mortgage lending industry trends have historically performed. The pendulum swings in one direction for a time; then it reverses itself and goes back the other direction. With each ‘correction,’ the newly changed course brings fresh and innovative ways to operate; many new concepts develop that were not a part of the former path."

From memory, I then went on to detail what the major changes were that happened to the industry during the '98-05 swing (I kinda wished I had some old newspapers, notes or whatever to look back on) - events and innovations that were not a part of the previous cycle/swing.

Next as a contrast, I described what's been different since this Winter 'o5 swing began, and what I see that will come to pass as well as a result of the effects the '98-05 cycle has had on the business. Overall, I found this one of the most challenging pieces I've written in quite some time.

Continuing my aim at mortgage broker/owners that entered our industry since the Fall '98 swing began, the second article describes how to select the best candidate when hiring an LO, and where to find them.

(Doctor appointment this afternoon, and several tests scheduled for tomorrow).

How it Was is not how it Will be

Nope, haven't figured out how to specifically attract the mortgage broker/owners with 10 years experience or less.

Our primary outreach methods to influence industry personnel to consider Secret! University as THE industry training & educational resource to date has been: (1) well placed key word/phrases in generic search engine results (we've now got over 3 dozen of them where we rank between number one and #3 - so when folks are looking for help - there we are!), along with (2) our monthly newsletters (we've sent them out 51 months in a row).

Staying on top of our SERP and keeping our website up to date are essential tasks - so when a potential student/visitor arrives at our site, they need to find it engaging. Both tasks take an enormous amount of time and effort.

The MortgageLand Journal newsletter, as well, must be a timely and interesting read since there's a great deal of industry news and information available everywhere. I have tried to focus on my own unique perspective on relevant issues and topics. As I read other residential real estate mortgage lending business newsletters, articles, etc. I see that, yes indeed, my viewpoint on most subjects is distinctive - hopefully that should translate into a positive feeling toward Secret! University.

We are now more than two years into this latest industry wide 'correction'; the punishment portion of it is coming to a close. During this period I have watched our newsletter "read-rate" plunge to an all-time low this month. It has been painfully obvious, those industrywide readers of ours continue having a difficult time surviving the changes that effect everything they do.

I have seen in previous 'corrections,' the formerly weakest areas come to understand how they contributed to previous problems and they make adjustments and improve! Dealing with these changes, is the key to any long-term success in this business. So, 'How it Was is not how it Will be' is going to be the lead article in our March 1st newsletter's edition . I'm going to try and draw a contrast to how things generally were during this past 10 years, and how they are likely to change - along with how they have already changed. Those 'good old days' are gone.

Mortgage Broker/owners - 10 yrs experience or less

In part, Saturday I said "... would be those owner/operators who themselves began in the industry since the Fall of '98 (when the last 'correction' began). That group has grown up in the atmosphere which developed since then. Most seem to have a similar attitute and view of the industry, and it's one that needs to be tweeked for them to continue on through periods in our industry that are not 'easy money' operating times." and I 've received several e-mails asking me what the heck am I talking about 'need to be tweeked'?

Hopefully, you've heard the story about the blind man who walks up to the front end of an elephant, and after touching his trunk all over for quite some time, then trys to describe the animal. I'm sure you'll agree that from his limited perspective, his distription won't be an accurate one, will it? That's the tweeking part I'm speaking about.

Today's (10 year or less) mortgage brokerage shop owner/operator who began in our business as an LO just after the last 'correction' begun, was raised in an industry that he/she saw was a business driven by sales commissions (a business concept that had just begun right before they got hired), easy big money, not all that much work, shallow training and industry education was the norm, back-office personnel were second class workers; everything centered on their EGO and sales/closing skills.

As owner operators themselves, they have run their firms that same way - and they got to enjoy paying out hundreds of thousands of dollars (millions in some cases) in commissons, baby-sitting all those LO's they brought on board, how they were treated when the LO's left their company (stealing company property - loans in pipeline, contact lists, suing for unpaid over-time, pirating employees to follow them to the promise land, etc.).

On the other hand, the animal doesn't resemble a snake at all! In the lead article of our August 2007 newsletter I describe what an LO actually is! And, that's not a commissioned sales/closer. If today's (10 year or less) mortgage brokerage shop owner/operators, hired the proper attitude/skilled LO's in the first place (shovel people) and invested(*) the time & effort training and educating them on issues of ethics, integrity and everything else that goes on in a mortgage brokerage operation ... NONE of the issues I mention above would happen!

And, what would they do with the (formerly paid out commissons) hundreds of thousands of dollars (millions in some cases)? They keep it in the company checkbook, pay salaries and small bonuses to the new LO's, increase and have a solid back-office staff (who carry the heavy load of operations anyway) and buy advertising to attract applicants - because to stay in business in our industry over-time is NOT easy; it's Hard Work.

This paradigm is what works, not the biz model they were taught and have been following. If you're one of them and have had many LO's, then you know exactly what I'm talking about. The way you learned WAS great when anybody could earn a six+ figure income - due to the fact that rates were at historical lows, property values were soaring, wholesalers were reckless with dozens of stupid loan programs to pick from, and it was easy street for everybody!

Today's the real world.



(*) they could also engage someone to handle those tasks for them, since most of them probably couldn't handle that range of tasks themselves.

Training the Shop Owners

It's been almost a week since I've had anything to add to my Blog here; did a lot of thinking today though. Got the Feburary edition of The Mortgageland Journal out on time Friday morning, and finished up the last minute touches on some new 'bullets' for our Website & Internet Originations live class web page, which I'm hopeful will make that read easier/clearer.

As I have focused a great deal these last 6 weeks or so, on updating re-writing much of our website's content/text and also updating all of our lessons - I have come to realize a concentration on owner/operators as students as well, is lacking. I have been thinking about how to help their personnel, loan officers and newer broker owner shop owners; but I've missed an audience that we could do a great deal to aid and support in operating their businesses. And, that would be those owner/operators who themselves began in the industry since the Fall of '98 (when the last 'correction' began). That group has grown up in the atmosphere which developed since then. Most seem to have a similar attitute and view of the industry, and it's one that needs to be tweeked for them to continue on through periods in our industry that are not 'easy money' operating times.

I have to concentrate on how to get their attention, so we can be a helpful resource for them.