As I went back to flying, I started thinking of whether or not I should continue doing mortgages or focus solely on flying.  I came to the intitial conclusion that maybe I should just close up the origination side of the business and simply offer to speaking and educational events only as my time is very limited.

Then I reminded myself of why I got into the mortgage business to begin with.  It isn't about making money, I can do that many different ways.  It isn't even that I like doing mortgages and in all honesty, I don't like originating loans much.  The bottom line is that I love helping people and is one of the main reasons I returned to flying.

You see, most mortgage professionals just sell people a mortgage.  Sure there are many who go beyond that and ask a few simple questions, maybe even use the Mortgage Coach (mortgage planning software) and provide some advice.  But the vast majority do not provide true solutions.

What I mean is that they do not look at the overall picture of what the homeowner wants, what makes them tick, what their real goals and dreams are, and how to make the mortgage work to the degree necessary to maximize the borrower's benefit.

I was reminded of a past client who came to me with a real problem.  His credit was good, but he was faced with the problem of making much needed repairs to his home, buying another used car or making major repairs on the current one, and could not afford more than $100 a month in extra expenses.

I asked him to fill out my MEDS™ questionnaire and let me see what can be done.  Bottom line is we did a cash-out refinance that covered his planned expenses, boosted his emergency fund to over $10,000, gave him an additional discetionary investment account (met with a financial advisor on what to do with it) that was over $10,000 as well, and the increase in the monthly payment was $100.  (and no, this particular case was not an Option ARM product as it was not worth it for him)  This is an example of why I still do mortgages now.

While I know this post may boost myself, I mainly wanted to post this to inspire more mortgage professionals to do something similar and take the extra time to provide real solutions, not just the latest fad or the product that makes you the most money.  Don't limit your knowledge to just punching in numbers and talking about the result.

Providing real solutions to the homeowner's problems builds trust, confidence, and will take your business to new heights.