I’ve been in the business way too long to think I can predict every funding dollar I can do for each month. I say this because there are too many items that are not in my control so therefore, committing to it would be silly and just not accurate.

Let me explain, better yet, let me give you an example. You meet with you client, gather information and fill out the application. So far, so good, right? You send the paper work to the processor and everything is going well. You schedule the title work and the closing just like you do all the time. The appraisal comes in and everything is right on track. You have this $300k deal in the bag. You’re already thinking how you will spend the commission money for this one.

Then it happens. You get a call from the Processing team and they say, “Umm, we couldn’t verify the employment. We were told the borrower no longer works there.” You call the borrower and find out he got laid off the week before but he didn’t think he needed to tell you about it. Guess what, because the borrower no longer has this income, the closing won’t happen. So now the numbers you committed to won’t happen. Your team didn’t hit the funding commitments. That money, which you had earmarked to pay your car payment, has now disappeared.

You may not have ever had this happen to you, but I was merely illustrating what could possibly happend to anyone in this business. I point this out because recently I’ve heard too many upper level management types wanting dollar funding commitments from their Loan Officers. I guess I don’t understand this because the best anyone can do is what THEY can do. If a Loan Officer, or anyone for that matter, commits to a funding goal, that number may as well be pulled out of the sky. Because, IMHO, NO ONE can commit to what other people will do.

You can commit to your activities, you can commit to phone calls, cold calls, networking events, luncheons, coffee meetings, etc. But to commit to what you’re HOPING others will do is, as I said earlier, silly. Maybe I’m just too much old school and this kind of philosophy escapes me, but that’s my story and I’m sticking to it!

Posted by admin in Officers. Tags: Commitments, Management Types, Upper Level Management