FHA, FHA 203B, FHA 203K, CDA, LNYW, LNYW+, MMP, VA, Community Communitment, My Community and the list goes on and on.  How do you keep them all straight? 

The real estate industry has been changing over the last few months.  Listings are staying on the market longer.  Homes need to be staged and presented or they won't sell.  Buyer's Agents need to be fully versed and extremely knowledgeable about all the different kinds of financing available or be teamed up with a very experienced loan officer who is a genius.  Loan Officers needed to become licensed this year for the first time.  This is a good thing, especially, given the changes in the industry now and the huge number of different loan products out there. 

In the last few years the only loan product you needed to know was conventional.  Houses were on the market for 2 seconds and if you didn't have conventional financing your contract was rejected.  Now, sellers are anxious to get their homes sold and houses have been improved and staged to make them more attractive and seller's are willing to look at any contract that comes across the table.  A lot of agents have left the business because it's gotten too difficult to get clients and there are fewer and fewer sales.  A lot of loan officers have also left the business.  Cross career networking is key.  You need to have great loan officers who know their stuff in order to get your buyers the best deal out there. 

One of my agents introduced me to their latest buyer this week.  The young couple are preapproved for a CDA DSELP loan and I took a quick look at the contract and it's a good contract.  Then I looked at the financing and this couple could have qualified for a different CDA product that would have given them more help with their closing help but the loan officer didn't know about it. 

The key to our success is the team we build.  We are all interdependent on each other for the success that we all ultimately share when our clients purchase their home.  Read everything there is to read, take as many continuing education classes as you can so that you can become as knowledgeable as possible.  In the world of internet and information technology we need to be much more knowledgeable than our forefathers in order to add value to our transactions.  Learning and networking is key.  Don't be complacent, to be successful we much each depend on one another.

June Piper-Brandon, Office Manager, Advance Realty Anne Arundel Inc.