Why The Stress Of Long Closing Times Are Bad For An Agents Health

I know, this may sound crazy to you, however, if you are an active real estate agent closing multiple deals monthly, chances are, you are stressed in ways you haven't considered and needlessly on many occasions. Even if you are closing one deal per month on average, you have more to lose if that deal dies due to a random act of ignorance or irresponsibility. You are relying on that one deal to pay bills for the month.

Every agent today is seeing the effects TRID is having on their favorite lenders. Lenders that used to be punctual, available and accountable are becoming less so while your deals appear to be hanging out in an abyss of time and space with no real word on the potential for its closing. Your Loan Officer is rarely available via phone, returns phone calls less and less frequently. It's a stress inducing portal to baldness for all involved. We all know in the business that every day that goes by a mortgage loan doesn't close is another day full of potential for something to happen to kill the deal. The not knowing the status or even so much as hearing "Everything is fine, we are on schedule" at the very least can be panic inducing.

The effects this undue stress is having on your body is scary which can be read in detail in this article.  The side effects of this stress inducing rat race can include everything from sleep deprivation, high blood pressure, depression, heart burn to heart attack, back aches and my least favorite, what I call, "Not in the mood syndrome". Jokes aside, the stress caused by what shouldn't be such a common occurrence can be very damaging. My wife is a real estate agent and I have seen the struggles she has had in dealing with various lenders.  Its taken a while but we finally have her setup with a lender that is blasting through her deals so quickly, she doesn't even have the time to worry about what might happen and it's great!

The question is, why do we suffer through this rat race leaving lenders in control with no real interest in appeasing our needs for knowledge and security?

Did you know that the average turn around time for mortgage lenders in 2014 was 37 days?! This my friends is BEFORE TRID! Yikes! The problem is, most of the Big Box Banks are trying to close deals in bulk. Meaning, they are flooded with mortgage loans from their checking and savings account customers and a Loan Officer pipe is typically loaded with 40 to 60 deals a month, all of which are needing to be closed. Private mortgage lenders such as NRL Mortgage are closing 2 to 8 deals monthly per Loan Officer which leaves them time to be more involved and tentative to their clients. To take things a step further, most mortgage lenders have to utilize an underwriter or multiple under writers that out typically out of state at a corporate HQ, so, if your clients file gets looked at today and given the approval, there is a good chance that it wont be the same underwriter looking at the file later and they may not be so inclined to approving your deal which could send it into the "kill pile", often at the last minute. NRL Mortgage Cincinnati Branch has an underwriter right there in their office, which means when she approves something, its done.

There is also a big difference in how Loan Officers are trained. Some are trained to just take in as many deals as possible and figure out the rest later. Other lenders train their LO's to focus on prime service and building trust with their referral partners and customers knowing that business will come as word gets out about the positive experiences. This is a slow grow mentality but it also maintains the lenders ability to grow and structure their operation properly to maintain what people have grown to expect instead of constantly putting out fires and playing catchup.

Overall, if you are struggling with lenders that seem to be draining your spirit every month while you babysit them to ensure your clients satisfaction, it may be time to look in a new direction and focus on what is best for YOU and YOUR CLIENT. While real estate agents tend to be loyal to a fault with lenders that have served them well through the years, the long term effects caused by that relationship as TRID continues to take hold of lenders used to spreading themselves far too thin and dragging out closing times simply isn't worth it as its only going to get worse in 2016.

If you are an agent interested in working with a lender in Cincinnati, Kentucky or Indiana and you want to know your deals will close in two weeks or less, you should consider NRL Mortgage. Or just email me and I will be happy to setup a brief meeting at your office. If you are on Zillow, Realtor.com or Trulia, its worth bringing that up in your meeting as NRL is actively looking to help with those sorts of shared marketing efforts.