The late great housing boom that breezed through the first decade of the new century needs no biography. Its obituary has been written and the memorial services for its victims are held daily by auctioneers (no clergy here) on the front lawns of properties that used to be called “houses,” investments that used to be called “homes.”
Many lost their way in the now-infamous decade of prices, values, equity and souls. Wide-eyed buyers, thirsty sellers, ambitious lenders and zealous bureaucrats all conspired to author a perfect tragedy out of the American Dream.
For those of us in the real estate and mortgage banking profession, the decade did wondrous things for our balance sheets – but at a substantial cost to our perspective, our grace and our humility.
When you suddenly find yourself confronted with an abundance of business in your day-to-day operation, it requires you to focus on internal processes, efficiencies and execution. To handle the increased volume you had to develop and maintain high-quality systems that eventually demanded your constant attention – at a great cost I’m afraid.
When your aim becomes how to efficiently handle the greater sales, bigger approvals, lower rates, faster closings and bigger homes, you lose your WHY!
Retooling Our Vision
To be fair, much of this was a consequence of demand. Lose out on bids, approvals, rates and closings due to a lacking infrastructure and your client simply became someone else’s client. While we were trading mortgages, rates and qualification guidelines, consumers were trading agents, lenders and attorneys just as quickly. The whole thing became a moving commodity and our true WHY got erased.
The new decade has awakened many of us from the “nightmare” of the lost WHY only to rediscover the true reason we got into this profession originally: To be an active partner with those pursuing the American Dream.
So we now set out each day trying to reclaim that inspiration; to retool our vision. We want to be part of the fantastic celebration of buying your first home, your next home and your vacation home; of owning your own piece of freedom.
The lost decade taught us that the American Dream isn’t a process, a system or a clever loan program.
The American Dream is a home, and those of us in this profession promise to never lose sight of that again.
Dean Harrington is a founder and CEO of Rhode Island-based Shamrock Financial Corp., a registered mortgage lender in Rhode Island, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Connecticut, Maine, New York, Virginia and Florida.
