A minimum of once a day, I have a customer who tells me that they have tried to get approved but cannot, they have been denied by X number of lenders, or something to this effect. The reasons vary widely, and I would say most of the time, the reason is credit related. What most people don't know is that it isn't always just your credit score that is the issue, but more frequently your actual credit profile. My first question is generally "what is or has driven your score down"?
My initial conversation with that person usually tells me the only two things I need to know: 1. Is this person willing to put in the effort to right the wrongs that got them to this point, and 2. Were those wrongs something that they have learned from, OR were they due to life events that were not within their control. If this answer is yes, there's nothing that will stop me from helping that person get where they need and deserve to be: in their own home.
I had a young lady I helped last year, who I knew right away, would become a great story one day. When I say young, she was in her early 20's but already well beyond her years. She had 2 small children of which the father disappeared from their lives without a trace, had both of her parents pass away before she was 18, and had been caring for an ill relative all at the same time. She had been renting from a slum lord who didn't care that the leaking roof had eventually produced mold into the drywall, preventing her son from even sleeping in his own room. Everything about this home and this area were incredibly unsafe. I'll never forget the day when she texted me a picture from her front door of a person being wheeled by in a body bag telling me "Jennifer, please help me, I have to get my kids out of here".
And that's what I did.
Through all the challenges in her life, she managed to start her own business which began producing the income she needed to make a change in her life and the life of her family. We worked on her credit together and cleaned up everything that had been haunting her. We worked together on her credit explanation letter, to describe all the events that surrounded her past derogatory credit. That was by far the saddest credit explanation letter I had ever read.
My buyer went on to purchase a completely renovated property in a much safer part of the city. No roof leaks, no mold, and best of all as she said "I can let my kids go outside and play". When I called to tell her that her loan was clear for closing, she broke down. She put her phone on speaker and her kids shouted to me, "Thank you, Jennifer!". I choked up, I couldn't help myself.
That closing was emotional, and such a great day. The agent I worked on the transaction with (who referred the buyer to me) became a good friend of mine, because we realized we spoke the same language - humanity.
That was the smallest deal I ever did. My commission probably didn't pay my cable bill. But I would, and will do it again.
Comments(3)