After reading a post entitled "The Sun Will Come Up Tomorrow (on the Mortgage Industry)" by Melissa Breeland, it made me think about my time in the mortgage business.  You see, I started in the mortgage processing end of this business at the height of the refinance boom.  We worked crazy hours and worked really hard.  There were lots of frustrations, but we knew that if we followed the guidelines, loans would close and we would make a lot of people happy.

Times have changed.  Guidelines change almost daily.  Lenders don't follow the guidelines and add requirements at the last minute.  The "power's that be" are adding busy work and convoluted, poorly executed laws and guidelines to make sure that it's even harder for a good borrower to get a loan, much less a quality appraisal on that home. Even when a loan is closed, until the funds are in, it may not really be done.

Last week, I was re-closing a loan for a buyer who had completed a remote closing in Hawaii for the purchase of a property in Maryland.  I had been working with these folks since October of 2008 when they first learned they were to be transferred to Maryland.  The lender was the now defunct Taylor, Bean, Whitaker. The loan closed, but did not fund.  It was a call I didn't want to make to any of the parties involved, but as they say, I swallowed the frog and made the call.  Everyone involved asked that we just get the loan re-closed as soon as possible.  We started over and the new lender's underwriter was not terribly efficient (she says with a great deal of charity) adding more angst to an already frustrating situation. 

My husband didn't like to see me take so many things that were not in my control to heart and didn't want to see me getting so stressed. He even suggested that if I wanted to, I could quit my job.

Well, that loan did close, for better terms for the buyer, in the tight time frame that was put in place, the day they arrived in Maryland.  I was able to sit across from that couple, holding their 6 week old for them while they signed their new loan package. They thanked me over and over again.  The realtors and the seller appreciated my professionalism and hard work and will probably refer more business to me.

The satisfaction of making it work are worth the stress, even in these uncertain and frustrating times!  The sun WILL come up tomorrow, sellers will still sell and buyers will still buy.  Loans will still close!

Sorry honey, thanks for the offer, but I love this crazy, ever-changing, frustrating, stressful, wonderful business!