When I launched my real estate career at age 21 , I was very fortunate to have my father as my
mentor . For my first 18 months in the business (as well as much of my life) , I shadowed him on
numerous of his appointments. He personally molded me to become a life long REALTOR .
Very early in my training , he told me ," always remember that Financing is the Key ! " . Now I
must admit , that while I was a Penn State grad , I had no idea what he was talking about ! By the
time he had said this to me on at least 3 different occasions , I still didn't have a clue ( and was too
embarrassed to ask him). You know tragically many of today's agents are exactly in the same boat !
It wasn't until several years later that I completely understood his statement . Like most new agents,
my business was 90% working with buyers ! He taught me how to qualify them using the 28/36
Qualifying Ratios . Do you know that 50% of agents today can not do this ! Armed with this knowledge
I was now able to help buyers to determine their economic Price Range .
But I quickly ran into another roadblock , that still plagues buyers today. Most of my buyer
prospects didn't have enough (liquid) Money to buy a house . They were Willing and Ready , but not
ABLE ! My financial friends back in that day were often their parents Home Equity and a tool called
a Blanket Mortgage . Within the next year I would learn about FHA and 95% LTV's and I was off and
running ! As the settlements piled up , I noticed how easy it was to capture buyer loyalty when I
could explain all of their possible financing options . And then it hit me ! My Father's words of
wisdom, "always remember Financing is the key !"
So what was the take away from my own aha moment (and this blog post's) ? It was taking my
father's advice and amplifying it . What he had been telling me the whole time should have been
more obvious to me ! Financially , the more ways you know to do deals , the more homes you are
going to sell , and the more money you are going to make ! Take Financing courses your REALTOR
Associations offer. Join several of the AR Mortgage Groups to continually sharpen your game .
Why ? Well that's real simple , Financing is the Key !!!
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