The Mortgage Cicerone

Cicerone - cic•e•ro•ni (-nē) | A guide or person eloquent in sharing knowledge and inspiringnimpactful action. Tony Gallegos provides powerful evidence that it is possible for an individual to re-emerge from the big bank executive corporate collective, even after full assimilation has occurred. Now, his key focus is to provide already successful purchase-money mortgage originators a place that allow them to focus on what they do best…originate and close more loans.

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“I Hated Working For You. It Changed My Life.”

It’s time for my annual 360° manager performance evaluation. As a general rule, most manager performance evaluations are flawed mostly because they do not really tell us what we want to know—what did our direct reports learn, did they grow, are they better now, and did we change them?

Three years ago, I decided look at my 360° manager performance evaluation from a different perspective…to expose myself professionally (Managing Naked)…to growth opportunity per say.

I still look at the ratings (we all like to be liked) and even more carefully at the comments about what to improve and what went wrong. But from that point, I’m laser focused to look deeply for signs that colleagues and direct reports have changed positively, are considering change, or might change in the future—that is the whole point of Managing Naked.

Really, two weeks ago, I’m having lunch with mortgage loan originator...

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The Four Pillars of Mediocrity In The Mortgage Industry

Organizational and individual mediocrity rests upon the following four pillars:

  1. Deniability - “I tried, (asked), but they (investor, agency, regulator, management, etc…) decided, created, commanded or blocked. Not my fault.”
  2. Helplessness –“My boss won’t let me. How can I make a living when it takes 45 days to process a loan?”
  3. Contempt – “They don’t pay me enough to put up with the likes of these idiots (borrowers, loan originators, underwriters, etc…).”
  4. Fear – “It’s not good enough, it’s not worth the risk, I’ll appear stupid and dumb, people will talk, this might not work…”

Over the past few years, the mortgage industry experienced complex wide-reaching, and in some cases, game changing regulatory and compliance changes. In turn, it fostered fear and out of that fear, greater amounts of mediocrity emerged

The good news about fear is that once you see it, feel it and dance with...

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Big Lenders Losing Market Share and Loan Officers to Smaller Mortgage Bankers

The US Finance Post recently reported, Wells Fargo and JP Morgan Chase, the two largest mortgage lenders in the U.S., are feeling the sting from smaller firms

While large banks still dominate the mortgage market, their dominance is waning with smaller lenders, some of them very new, grabbing market share.

The reason? (1) Smaller lenders are better at marketing; (2) their “ability to be more nimble and opportunistic in the marketplace; (3) are often lean, thus able to provide more aggressive pricing to increase market share; and (4) have also captured more business as new financial regulations force large banks to pledge more capital for the servicing rights they hold.

Many small to mid-sized lenders allow their originators to market via their social media sites and other on-line mediums. By doing this, the originators can This seems to be putting a bit of a sting on the bigger...

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