For those of you unable to attend or listen, attached is the 12/1/2009 video webinar hosted by NAMB addressing three main areas of regulation and updates that mortgage brokers must be aware of and be prepared for 2010.

The purpose of this particular NAMB / HUD webinar is to give mortgage brokers a high level overview of the general changes that they need to be aware of.

Expert Panel:

• Vicki Bott – HUD Deputy Assistant Secretary of Single Family Housing
• Roy DeLoach – NAMB CEO
• Tony Gallegos - Mortgage U – Director of Advisory Services and Consulting
• Alice Alvey – Mortgage U – President

There were a few technical difficulties due to the amount of participants (over 3000) that overloaded the lines, so there were a few spots in which we had a few delays and the sound quality was not crystal clear, but it did remain audible and readily understandable.  

While an hour is obviously not nearly enough time to address anything in great detail, the objective was to stimulate conversation and questions NAMB officials can use to fully represent the mortgage broker channel with HUD and elected officials in Washington DC.

Your questions and concerns are very important to NAMB, so please feel free sharing your thoughts in the comment section at the bottom of the following hyperlink page:

NAMB Comments

In addition, NAMB will be holding additional webinars over the next two months that drill down these topics and your questions in greater detail.

Below is a video bullet outline that provides you a minute marker guide that references specific topics within the video time table.

Hint: Go directly to 9:42 minute mark to skip introductions.

Video Minute Markers:

00:00 – Introductions

09:42 – RESPA / GFE Updates

11:35 – Effective Dates

12:33 – GFE Triggers

14:38 – GFE Notice Requirements

18:02 – GFE Block 1

22:21 – GFE Block 1 Questions

23:14 – GFE Line Block 2

25:01 – Float to Lock Scenario

36:32 – GFE Page 2

40:03 – Which Charges Can Increase?

44:15 – RESPA/GFE Q&A

47:30 – Message From Credit Technologies

52:16 – FHA Appraisal Policy

59:55 - FHA Broker Approval / Mini-Eagle

Not to be forgotten, both Mark Green at Top of Mind and Mark Madsen are the unsung hero's in making organizing and committing tremendous resources in bringing these educational webinars to the originator community.

Received information today directly from FHA Commissioner David Stevens about his speech last Friday concerning the FHA Reserve Fund. Actually, I should say the FHA Reserve FUND(S) (as in plural). 

 

The big FHA news last week was the the five mortgagee letters released and Commissioner Stevens' announcement concerning the FHA Capital Reserve Fund. As noted in my September 18th post, the Commissioner affirmed the agency insurer will most likely see its 2% capital reserve requirement fall below the minimum level set by Congress.  However, what every media report I read neglected to disclose is that the FHA maintains two accounts to address and pay their expected losses. 

To continue: <CLICK HERE>. 

 

Without a doubt, this is the hardest post I have ever made. Compiling a list of my favorite bloggers was easy, the hard part was limiting the list to twenty. There are at least twenty other bloggers just as deserving and for them I truly meant no slight.

However, I'm positive you will find this elite group of twenty individuals incredibly talented, smart, insightful and very deserving.

Cicerone's Top Bloggers of 2007

The Thinkers (Egg Heads):

Brian Brady - From a pure marketing perspective, Brian Brady is a combination of Jay Conrad Levinson, Tom Peters, Milton Friedman, John Boyd, Claude Hopkins and Dan Kennedy with a dose of Jesuit Priest all rolled into one. Yet, before going further, let me make three clarifications:

1. He is an updated 21st century version of Jay Conrad Levinson and Clyde Hopkins
2. Is much more polished and articulate than Dan Kennedy, and
3. Brian is a rare intellectual that can apply theory while making it profitable and efficient in the real world

We all know Brian as the ubiquitous guy in suspenders, America's Mortgage Broker and America's Most Opinionated Mortgage Broker. Yes, he is all those, yet his substance and intellectual prowess runs much deeper than most realize. If you want to learn and master strategies on bridging the digital divide via social networking, no one from a mortgage perspective does it better than Brain...why do you think he's ubiquitous?

Brian is also a contributing author at Bloodhound Blog.

In a nutshell, Brian is the rare individual that possesses both streets smarts and book smarts. If all Villanova business school graduates are as impressive, they really have something special going on in Philadelphia.

Hopefully, in the future we will be referring to Brain as Professor Brady or better yet, Dean Brady. Both the mortgage industry and the academic community need Brain Brady...the real Mortgage Professor.

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Pat Kitano - I don't know Pat personally, yet he impresses me. Pat Kitano authors Transparent Real Estate and is the co-Founder, Managing Principal of Domus Consulting Group, a management consulting firm working with real estate brokerages and Web 2.0 companies to develop technology marketing strategies, and with venture investors on new business models.

Since graduating from Cal Berkeley (Geophysics) and Columbia University (MBA), he has been involved in four competitive industries - films, investment banking, Internet technology and real estate.

Hopefully our paths will converge in the near future.

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Ed Rybczynski - Ed writes the best, smartest and most insightful title industry blog I have read. His blog, Titleopoly focuses on fraud issues that prevail in the title industry. From 1988 - 2003, Ed Rybczynski was the owner and president of a Baltimore based title agency named Liberty Title. In November of 2003, Ed plead guilty to federal conspiracy charges (postal fraud) stemming from property flipping and mortgage fraud.  Ed was an inmate at the Lewisburg Federal Prison Camp located in central Pennsylvania.

While incarcerated, Ed successfully developed a general studies curriculum for learning disabled inmates who were studying for a GED in a multi-cultural environment.  Before being released, Ed was asked by prison officials to head the camps career development program.

Today Ed is a highly regarded public speaker who travels nationally to give presentations to groups of title agents, corporate executives, mortgage brokers, elected officials and other concerned groups. His current project is the positioning of Rybczynski Consulting as the nations leading authority in the areas or professional development, best practices, and fraud mitigation for the title industry.

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Brett Rogers - I have had the fortune and pleasure of working with Brett in the past and believe me when I tell you - he is one smart free-thinking cookie! He currently works for a very large financial services company  (a Fortune 20 corporation) as a strategic consultant to help them re-discover its strengths by learning what drives its culture internally. Brett analyzes why people like to do business with the company and dig to see how deep that loyalty is. Looking at the company's strengths both internally and externally then enables him to see what blue oceans they might explore to grow their business.

While Brett's blog is not focused on mortgage banking nor real estate, what he writes about will force you to think. His blog, beatcanvas.com was written/programmed (by him) from scratch. No Blogger, no Wordpress- he wrote it himself. Why? As I told you, he's smart and he wanted creative control, so he could stretch the bounds and not be contained by the limitations of other tools.

Brett is a true Renaissance Man in that he is a top notch strategic thinker, skilled programmer, painter, photographer, social scientist and truly a decent human being.

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Dan Melson does not have the best looking site, yet his insight and perspective about issues related to the mortgage industry are top notch and well thought out. What I like about his posts are they are relevant to what we as mortgage professionals need to know, yet no one else seems to be writing about.

Dan is not your typical loan officer...In a roundabout way, he is the anti-zeitgeist of popular mortgage blogging herd-think and definitely not an SEO driven blogger. 

Visit his site at searchlightcrusade.net.

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The Storytellers:

Mike Mueller - A long time blogger that not only contributes at Lenderama, he maintains his own site at Mike's Mortgage Minute. His greatest asset however is his ability to use metaphors and parables to clearly explain complex issues and concepts. Mike never ceases to amaze me with his use of metaphoric devices to articulate daunting concepts...I wish he would have been my Calculus teacher in college!

Additionally, Mike is one of the good guys in the industry!

--------------------------------

Rhonda Porter -   Rhonda is the Meg Ryan of mortgage banking (and I mean that as a compliment). She is truly one of the nicest yet professional human beings in our industry. As author of the Mortgage Porter and R-Team, she has made her mark as one of the top bloggers and mortgage planners not only in her market (Seattle), but across the nation. What I love about Rhonda's writing style is her ability to tell a story and make it so relevant to her readers. Rhonda writes from her heart and with honesty. From the moment you read Rhonda's posts, her compassion and drive to help consumers is evident.

Rhonda is also a contributing author at Rain City Blog.

Over the last year I have gotten to know Rhonda and she is honest, ethical, knowledgeable, experienced, caring and best of all, the real deal!

--------------------------------

Dan Green - Dan's ability to explain the multi-disciplined nature of economics and how it is a combination of sociology, history, political science, philosophy and personal finances all rapped into one is surpassed by no one in the industry. In fact, he reminds me of the late Robert L. Heilbroner and his ability to make the lives and concepts of the great economists interesting even to college freshman taking their first economics course.

In addition to Dan being the consummate mortgage planning professional in Chicago-land, he is also the driving force behind Bring The Blog. 

-------------------------------- 

Mortgage:

Morgan Brown - In a short year, Morgan's Blown Mortgage blog has become one of the most visited and popular mortgage related sites in the blogosphere. Quite frankly, that didn't happen by accident...he works hard at his craft. Morgan writes with a dour bend towards the housing market while exposing many of the unethical or darker participants/practices in both the real estate and mortgage industry.

Over the last few months, Morgan has upgraded his blog platform, improved the layout and added contributing authors to Blown Mortgage. In a nutshell, he keeps making it better and I for one look forward to seeing what 2008 has in store for Blown Mortgage and it's readers.

A University of California at Santa Barbara graduate, Morgan like Brian Brady above is a right coaster that switched to a left coaster.

Morgan is also a contributing author at Bloodhound Blog.

-------------------------------------------

The Hybrids:

Todd Carpenter at Lenderama is in the midst of building a truly great mortgage and real estate blog. Over the last few months, Todd has re-designed his site and build a team of top notch contributers from across the the mortgage and real estate spectrum.

I'm very excited to watch Lenderama grow and find its voice as Todd learns and grows with his new format. Todd, I can feel the momentum building!

-------------------------------------------

Greg Swann at Bloodhound Blog has build the standard in which any contributer based blog in the mortgage or real estate industry is measured. He has assembled an all-star group of contributers that are second-to-none and his layout is top-notch.

Since Bloodhound is so well know, I won't spend a lot of time singing its praises (they are numerous).

-------------------------------------------

Real Estate:

Sound Bite Blog - There are two master minds behind this blog, Rich Jacobson and Mark Flanders.

Rich is the Realtor and Mark is the mortgage originator/site designer/webmaster. Truth be said, this is the first blog I fell in love with and in my humble opinion the coolest looking (compliments of Mark Flanders). Additionally, Rich and Mark write one of the top five hyper-local blogs in the industry. Every time I read their posts (pictures and all) it makes me feel like packing up my family and moving to the Puget Sound.

Another thing I have not mentioned, they are GREAT guys and truly professionals in each of their respective fields.

-----------------------------------------

Athol Kay injects his site with humor like no one else in the mortgage or real estate industry. One of my mentors (Dennis Geist) taught me years ago that one can have fun and laugh while still being a top notch professional...Athol proves that point in spades!

Athol is a Kiwi that ads a punch to both the Connecticut real estate market and the readers who visit RE Agent In CT in droves for their daily viewing of Bad MLS Photo of the Day.

Athol is also know in his market as the Leonardo Da Vinci of taking MLS photos.

If Athol reads this - Two things I really miss. (1) The Sock Puppet and (2) The Feedbag.

RE Agent In CT is one site I check out every day!

--------------------------------------- 

Jeff Brown aka The Bawld Guy is also a thinker. Jeff specializes in working with real estate investors. Anyone interested in learning the essentials of real estate investment must read Jeff's Bawld Guy Blog.

Jeff is also a contributer at Bloodhound Blog.

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Maggie Dokic is someone I greatly admire as a person, Realtor and writer. Maggie has experienced challenges during her lifetime that would have buckled most, yet her positive outlook on life, her faith in God and her desire to help people never ceases. Originally from Cuba, she and her family escaped and emigrated to the United States. Additionally, As a young woman her husband passed away unexpectedly leaving her with several young children to raise by herself.  When reading her posts at Active Rain and The Blog That Ate Miami, one immediately senses her empathy and understanding of people.

Maggie inspires me and the Miami Real Estate Community is lucky to have her represent them.

-----------------------------------------

Joe Zekas at YoChicago can be arrogant, brash and down right in your face at times, yet, I keep reading him religiously. Why? Because he is a damn good read!

How does one explain Joe? I think that is best left to Joe's self description of himself as a "dirt-poor Pennsylvania coal-town kid, shortest in class through 8th grade, New Jerseyan, hitch-hiker, motorcyclist, statistical typist, library clerk, delivery boy, classical scholar wannabe, gas station attendant, tuxedo salesman, psychiatric aide, social worker, civil rights activist, draft-dodger, gun-toting truck driver (Brinks), bartender, temp secretary, Lucey's Raider, Wisconsinite, large-firm attorney, real estate developer, condo converter, tax shelter syndicator, multi-level marketer, married person, newspaper publisher, money-losing tech gadfly, software developer to name a few."

Yo, check Joe out at YoChicago.

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The Techies:

Nicole Nicolae at MyTechOpinion writes a smart blog focusing on technology in real estate. I pick up numerous tips on a weekly basis and highly recommend it to anyone interested in maximizing technology in their real estate or mortgage business practice. To be fair, Nicole's husband Reggie Nicolae and Chad Johnson are also major contributers.

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Misc...:

Julia Wei is a litigation attorney with the Law Offices of Peter N. Brewer and maintains Dirt Law Blog. Dirt Law is a site providing commentary and insight into real estate and lending law, mortgages and foreclosure process from a legal perspective. While Ms. Wei addresses these issues from a California viewpoint, most anyone will find her posts informative and in most cases, applicable to their geographic area in which they live.

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The Old Guy at OMG Larry consistently makes me laugh. While the old guy has nothing to do with mortgages and real estate, he is worth a daily read. We are in a tough business and sometimes a little humor is what we all need.

Plus, I bet he would be hilarious to meet!

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Lani Anglin felt cheated, demanded a recount, and secretly believes Athol Kay rigged the final results. Like a true Texan, she called the original Cicerone's 20 Top Bloggers of 2007 list BUNK for not being fairly represented with skinny blonde Realtors with racks (her words, not mine).

Thus, because of the controversy Lani brought to our attention, I'm declaring Lani tied for 20th place with OMG Larry (since he is not in the business).

NOTE: Lani truly is one of my favorite bloggers and is very deserving.

Another post from The Mortgage Cicerone.

2007 was definitely a tumultuous year for companies heavily vested in the mortgage industry. No major player escaped unscathed by the events and happenings of the mortgage secondary market. However, there were companies that navigated the troubled waters better than others. Why?

In my humble opinion, they were the companies that mitigated their credit losses and took a level headed approach to the zeitgeist mania that powered the Alt-A and Subprime frenzy of 2002 - 2006. While others chased the easy short-term profits and loan volume, a select few maintained credit risk discipline.

Who and what companies escaped the credit crunch relatively unscathed and who are those struggling to survive?

Here's a look at the performance of the leading mortgage-related stocks over the past year. Each company has been color coded based on their stock performance from 1/3/2007 to 1/3/2008. The companies highlighted in yellow are those that lost less than 20% of their stock value. While a loss of up to 20% of value sounds high, the environment for companies heavily vested in mortgage related industries were such that a loss of up to 20% is actually quite exceptional.

Yet, if one where to look at the companies that lost more than 50% and 75% respectively of their stock value during 2007, I believe a trend can be identified.

Below is an explanation of what the last two columns represent.

• Retained Value = 2008 Stock Price / 2007 Stock Price (Higher the better)
• % Change = % Drop in 2008 Stock Price over 2007 Stock Price (Lower the better)

Below is a color coded alphabetic list of the biggest mortgage related stocks (see legend at bottom).

	Top Mortgage Related Stock Performance
	Year Ago 1/03/2007	Today 1/03/08	Retained Value	% Change
Bank of America	$53.33	$40.56	76.05%	23.95%
Barclays	$59.43	$39.90	67.14%	32.86%
Bear Stearns	$162.83	$85.30	52.39%	47.61%
Citigroup	$55.25	$28.92	52.34%	47.66%
Countrywide	$42.11	$9.00	21.37%	78.63%
Credit Suisse	$70.11	$59.68	85.12%	14.88%
Deutsche Bank	$135.34	$129.06	95.36%	4.64%
Downey Financial	$72.17	$30.23	41.89%	58.11%
E*Trade	$22.91	$3.42	14.93%	85.07%
Fannie Mae	$59.86	$37.46	62.58%	37.42%
FBR Inc.	$8.11	$3.12	38.47%	61.53%
Fidelity National	$23.69	$14.32	60.45%	39.55%
Flagstar Bancorp	$14.94	$6.56	43.91%	56.09%
Freddie Mac	$67.89	$32.74	48.23%	51.77%
Fremont General	$15.75	$3.57	22.67%	77.33%
H&R Block	$23.20	$18.61	80.22%	19.78%
HSBC	$92.97	$82.44	88.67%	11.33%
Impac Holdings	$8.72	$0.59	6.77%	93.23%
Indymac Bancorp	$45.19	$6.48	14.34%	85.66%
JPMorgan Chase	$48.07	$42.17	87.73%	12.27%
Lehman Bros.	$78.63	$62.19	79.09%	20.91%
Luminent Mortgage	$9.50	$0.77	8.11%	91.89%
Merrill Lynch	$93.61	$52.76	56.36%	43.64%
MGIC Investment	$63.46	$21.81	34.37%	65.63%
Morgan Stanley	$81.62	$50.95	62.42%	37.58%
National City	$36.95	$15.59	42.19%	57.81%
New Century	$31.30	$0.01	0.03%	99.97%
NovaStar Financial	$105.80	$3.10	2.93%	97.07%
PHH Corp.	$29.21	$17.10	58.54%	41.46%
PMI Group	$48.02	$12.72	26.49%	73.51%
Radian Group Inc.	$55.18	$11.61	21.04%	78.96%
Stewart Title	$44.60	$25.84	57.94%	42.06%
Thornburg Mortgage	$25.33	$9.75	38.49%	61.51%
UBS	$61.39	$45.79	74.59%	25.41%
Wachovia	$56.81	$37.17	65.43%	34.57%
Washington Mutual	$45.47	$13.72	30.17%	69.83%
Wells Fargo	$35.74	$29.10	81.42%	18.58%
Color Legend
Lost < 20% of Stock Value	Best
Lost >20% & < 50% of Stock Value
Lost >50% & <75% of Stock Value
Lost > 75% of Stock Value	Worst

Hat Tip: The Truth About Mortgages

Another post from The Mortgage Cicerone.

Countrywide chairman Angelo Mozilo, the Vladimir Putin of mortgage banking is now the subject of further speculation or at least the company he leads is.

Because of CFC's active involvement in sub prime lending over the last several years, it was targeted yesterday by Senator Chuck Schumer who urged the company's use of its access to the Federal Home Loan Bank's (FHLB) lending system be reviewed and possibly curtailed.

In a letter sent this week to Ronald A Rosenfeld, Chairman of the Federal Housing Finance Board, Senator Schumer expressed:

"serious concern over the lending practices of the Federal Home Loan Bank of Atlanta, specifically in regard to the significant volume of advances made to Countrywide Bank."

According to recent SEC filings, the FHLB Atlanta made advances to Countrywide of 51.1 billion as of September 30 of this year. Countrywide pledged 62.4 billion of mortgages as collateral for the advances. These transactions represent 37 percent of the FHLB's total advances as of the end of the third quarter and 78 percent of Countrywide's total portfolio of mortgage loans.

The Senator said he found the FHLB lending numbers;

"alarming as reports continue to emerge about how Countrywide's reckless and predatory lending practices were a leading contributor to today's foreclosure crisis. Moreover, it is my understanding that Countrywide's loans held for investment at the bank have been far from immune from the credit deterioration that has resulted from unsound lending."

With the Fed considering lowering the Fed rate yet again and CFC's use of Federal Home Loan Bank's (FHLB) lending system, the question to be answered is, are the taxpayers of our nation indirectly subsidizing Countrywide existence and Mozilo's subsequent generational wealth?

While having a conversation yesterday with Brian Brady, it appeared he was having similar thoughts regarding this issue and was just finishing a post regarding this. I would highly recomend visiting his post at:

  Countrywide Bankruptcy Likely? Not While the Feds Are Bailing Them Out

Another post from The Mortgage Cicerone.

In Harvey Mackay's book titled "Dig Your Well Before You Are Thirsty," he asks his readers:

"Who Can You Call At 2:00 a.m.?"

This question is one of the most critical and revealing questions one can ask themselves about their network of friends and business/personal acquaintances.

To help understand what I'm getting at, answer these three questions:

1. Can you make a list of ten powerful people you know that can make things happen if you called them.
2. What have you done for any of these people lately?
3. Do you only call them when you need something?

Whenever I'm speaking and ask these questions, I often see the audience squirming when they understand the point being made.

Getting back to the question, who can you call at 2:00 a.m. in the morning?

According to Harvey Mackay, that question is without a doubt one of the most important questions one can ask themselves as an individual or business person. When answering this question, you are really asking yourself:

1. Who can I count on?
2. Who's counting on me?
3. Would anyone answer my call if I called them?

Bottom line, networking is more than keeping a contact database or putting every person you meet in your PDA. It's about CONNECTING with the people in your Blackberry. The art and science of connecting is so much more than phone numbers or names in your database...it's about connecting with people who can make things happen.

Now the next question...are you connecting with people who can make things happen?

TO BE CONTINUED...

Part One - The People You Know?

Another post from The Mortgage Cicerone.

Have you every taken the time to think of or write down the names of all the people you have known? When you you complete this exercise, the web of connections throughout your lifetime is wide.

Yet, HOW MANY ARE STILL INVOLVED IN YOUR LIFE TODAY?

Now ask yourself, HOW MANY HAVE FADED AWAY FOR ONE REASON OR ANOTHER?

Whether they are distant family members, old neighbors, friends from school, ex-coworkers and other casual acquaintances you have met along the way, they have all in some shape, way or form influenced or impacted your life positively or negatively.

It is important to know who you know now and have known in the past...it encompasses who you are today.

Now an even more important question is; WHO WOULD YOU LIKE TO KNOW THAT YOU PRESENTLY DON"T KNOW NOW?

When you ask yourself who you know now or who you would like to know, think about your current state of business and what you would like it to be in the future.

According to Jeffrey Gitomer:

"Who you know encompasses who you can presently connect with easily and obviously. The better you know them, the easier it is to make a connection. How well you know them determines how early or how late you can call them on the phone.

There is power in who you know. Not just the connection power. Growth power. Success Power. Even fulfillment power."

That's why it's critical to your career to know:

1. Who do you know?
2. How well are you connected?
3. Do you know how to make a connection?
4. Who knows you?

Who knows you and did you make a connection?

It's more than just knowing someone, it's making a critical connection with the people you want to know and need to know.

It's the connectors that succeed long term in the mortgage and real estates business. Yet connecting is more about giving than receiving and that's where so many people striving to be a connector fail.

TO BE CONTINUED

Another post from The Mortgage Cicerone.

Over the last few months, several friends and associates have asked me to consider writing a book about originating mortgage loans.  The more I pondered their request, the more I found it to be a challenge. Every skilled mortgage originator has their own ideas about what it takes to be a successful originator and I am no exception. After twenty years in the business, I have observed, read and developed my own style and way of conducting business successfully.

While my unique mortgage experience (good and bad) is very helpful, the more I thought about authoring such a book, the more it caused me to question and investigate what I really know about originating mortgage loans. This led me to examine my opinions and methods, which in turn led to further research of key areas I felt were important and to assimilate this information from varying sources and viewpoints.

Are There Any Absolutes To Successful Mortgage Origination?

Many years back while in college, a professor boldly stated to my class with supreme confidence:

"There are no absolutes."

I immediately asked him:

"So what you are telling me is that there are ABSOLUTELY no ABSOLUTES?"

And his response was:

"Absolutely!"

I then responded:

"Then the only absolute is there are no absolutes? Which makes your statement an absolute which in turn contradicts it and makes your absolute statement false?"

Needless to say, the learned professor was not happy when my fellow students laughed and the good professor could not defend his statement.

What  does this have to do with mortgage origination?

Bottom line...I believe there are a few absolutes to being a successful mortgage originator over the long haul. While I agree there is substantial gray in our business, at the bottom of my heart, I believe the number one absolute to long-term success and self-fulfillment as an originator:

"You must always conduct your business honestly and in the best interest of your clients even if it means losing a client, commission or referral partner."

In my humble opinion, this is the number one rule (absolute) every long-term originator must follow. There are numerous examples of individuals that did not follow this rule and in turn made BUNDLES of money. However, the key operative term is LONG-TERM success and wealth sustainability. While it is very likely an individual or company can make a small fortune during certain markets (e.g. 2002-2005) ignoring this precept, their long-term sustainability is questionable. The marketplace is currently full of such examples. I recommend visiting Morgan Brown's site Blown Mortgage for numerous examples. Morgan has done a wonderful job chronicling exactly what I'm getting at and a must read for any serious mortgage professional.

There are countless topics concerning loan origination and over the next few months, I will be sharing my thoughts as I ponder, research, develop and write a comprehensive book about mortgage origination.

"As soon as you trust yourself, you will know how to live."  -- Goethe

"One must be fond of people and and serving them if they plan on being successful long term in the mortgage or real estate profession." --  Dennis Geist

"A man who doesn't trust himself can never really trust anyone else."  --  Cardinal De Retz

"Trust men and they will be true to you; treat them greatly and they will show themselves great."  --  Ralph Waldo Emerson

"A person will not buy from you until he is convinced that you are a friend and are acting in his best interest. You must make this clear." -- Brian Tracy

"A professional is a person who can do his best at a time when he doesn't particularly feel like it." -- Alistair Cooke

"If I work on a certain move constantly, then finally, it doesn´t seem risky to me. The idea is that the move stays dangerous and it looks dangerous to my foes, but it is not to me. Hard work has made it easy." -- Nadia Comaneci

"We have not wings we cannot soar; but, we have feet to scale and climb, by slow degrees, by more and more, the cloudy summits of our time." -- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

"A man who works with his hands is a laborer; a man who works with his hands and his brain is a craftsman; but a man who works with his hands and his brain and his heart is an artist." -- Louis Nizer

"People who have good relationships at home are more effective in the marketplace." -- Zig Ziglar

"Be a problem detective; look for customer problems that your product or service can solve." -- Brian Tracy

"Lack of homework shows up in the marketplace as well as in the classroom." -- Jim Rohn

"Some people serve with pride -- because they 'want to' do and be their best; other people serve with disdain because they 'have to' do their job. Which person do you think will end up running the show?" -- Jeffrey Gitomer 

"Take time to listen to your people when they want to talk. This is a real motivator." -- Brian Tracy

"People are your most valuable asset. Only people can be made to appreciate in value." -- Stephen Covey

"Good people are found not changed. Recently I read a headline that said, 'We don´t teach people to be nice. We simply hire nice people.' Wow! What a clever short cut." -- Jim Rohn

"It isn't the people you fire who make your life miserable, it's the people you don't." -- Harvey Mackay

"Few things help an individual more than to place responsibility upon him, and to let him know that you trust him."  -- Booker T. Washington

Another post from The Mortgage Cicerone.

I love searching and discovering powerful phrases, quotes and words of wisdom that inspire action and provide insight to making myself a better person. Below are quotes from individuals that hopefully inspire you as much as they do me.