It’s Tuesday, February 20th, 2018 and it’s going to hit 72 degrees with tons of sunshine in Pittsburgh today. I should probably stop writing and working for that matter, grab my sticks and hit the links, but unfortunately our industry doesn’t allow for those niceties… especially with how competitive our industry is this year. Over the weekend I saw a few industry giants posting messages on LinkedIn explaining the difficult market landscape we’re all trying to navigate. This is a commodities business and differentiating yourself can be next to impossible… the only real way you can is executing on your value proposition. Price, Technology, Service, Speed… whatever it is, companies that want to compete in our industry must come through on their agreements to brokers and borrowers alike.
The purchase market is heating up and this spring/summer we’re going to see a big rise in new home construction. HousingWire published a great article last week that discussed the strong start to new home construction in 2018. There was a 10% gain in new housing from last year and while signs aren’t 100% clear that the trend will continue it is promising news as the weather starts to break and the sun stays out a bit longer.
When considering the importance of relationship building during a purchase transaction… you must ask… what is your lender going to do for you? Technology is the supporting function to getting loans done quickly, but when did it become more important than an individual doing what they said they were going to do and moving a mountain? Look, we (the Wholesale Industry) live in a world where our word is more important than a cool phone application that orders your appraisal instantly… is that a nice to have? Yes. Is that a need to have? I don’t know. To me ordering my appraisal instantly is great, but if it takes 15 days to turn around the inspection and then another 5 for an appraisal revision update after the inspection is complete… what is that phone application going to do for you when your back is up against the wall, the realtors on both sides are asking for updates, the sellers upset, your borrowers have a moving truck ready and you don’t like working for free (we’re in this business to make money, right?). I’d rather know that I have a lender that is going to take care of me and maybe guarantee that your loans will close on time… maybe they start to put a little skin in the game? I mean your lender is your partner, right? They work for you… not the other way around. When did we lose site of that in the wholesale industry?
Obviously, I’m selling something here… but can you blame me? All I’m saying is that as we enter this competitive market space, Princeton Mortgage Wholesale, will be your partner and work with you to meet your commitment and closing dates… it’s our promise to you… it’s our value proposition. I’m excited to have already partnered with some amazing industry professionals to take on 2018 together and I’m looking forward to forging new relationships along the way.
Talk to you soon!
Photo by Willie Fineberg on Unsplash
The opinions expressed in this post are the sole view of the writer and do not reflect the opinion of Princeton Mortgage Corporation.