With all of the new regulations and disclosures it seems this industry is getting more restrictive instead of less restrictive. When the industry began to turn down in September of 2005 I told me colleagues that my biggest fear was that the government would try to help out with the free market. I'm not a profit to say the least, but my fears have certainly become a reality and I'm not that happy about it.
I began my career in 1989 with Realty World Vista in Fair Oaks California while continuing my career as a full time Nurse/Crisis Counselor. I worked full time in the Sacramento County Main Jail Forensic Inpatient Unit at night, went to the gym when I got off in the morning, then went to my office until late afternoon. I would get home in time to see my small kids and play with them for a bit, take a nap, then start all over again when I awoke. In 1991 my little Realty World office closed and I was devastated. I was so discouraged that I went back to nursing full time and forgot all about real estate, even though I had it in my mind to switch over to the lending side at the time
As you can imagine, burn out is a huge part of nursing and being in the psychiatric field makes it even worse. In the late 90's I decided that lending was becoming an option but I wasn't real keen on the idea yet. In 2002, it became a great option and I began studying for my real estate license. By 2003 I had my first position and was looking forward to a long distinguished career as a Mortgage Banker/Broker. As 2004 began to wind down I noticed how long the housing cycle had been going up. I then became alarmed at some of the new mortgage programs being hailed as "terrific" when the reps would come in telling me how great the new program was. I was working with a teammate at the time, and more than once we uninvited a rep from our office ever again as some of the programs were a foreclosure waiting to happen. When ethics and morals are thrown out the window and replaced with greed, nothing good will happen. Fortunately for my clients, none of them have gone into foreclosure.
I've said all of this to make to make my point: Those of us left in this business, for the most part, follow an ethical and moral model of business practice, ensuring our clients top quality customer service and a relationship that can be counted on for decades to come. Now with all of the new regulations that have come about just since the spring, we now do business entirely differently than we did as late as May when HVCC kicked in and dropped the quality of customer service without our permission. Not only is our job more challenging, it can be downright demoralizing for some. This could have an effect of losing those still in the business in it just for a buck. Conversely, I know for a fact that we're losing good honest professionals at this point because they just can't get around all of it anymore.
So, pat yourself on the back for just being left in the mix at this point. Although our job is much more difficult now, it is still one of the most exciting careers around in today's economy. We all need to do our part in contacting our legislators and letting them know our point of view on new legislation that is coming down the pipe. We also need to use our power at the ballot box with those legislators that can't seem to understand our point of view when it comes to doing what we tell them to do. When a legislator begins to thing that their point of view is more valuable than ours, they should lose their job, as they work for us, not the other way around.
Keep your chin up cuz yer still in the game. And it's still one of the best games around.
Wishing you the best!
Ed
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