[vimeo id=”95463347″ width=”625″ height=”352″]
Our Internal Beliefs and Consequences
Our internal beliefs can go largely unnoticed except when evidenced by our actions or outcomes. Even more so our beliefs determine our level of happiness, something we all want more of in our lives. Our personal and professional lives often deal us multiple blows often all at once. The key is to increase our happiness factor to where such frustrations and discomfort don’t prevent us from moving on or getting trapped in a state of misery. Let’s look at a few ways each of us can increase our happiness quotient.
#1- 50 shades of gray. Not the bestselling book but people. Rude borrowers or prospects are not always that way. Often we may catch them on a bad day. Avoid thinking that splits a person as all good or all bad…
Download the video transcript here.
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7 Comments
Shannon,
Great advice for all those Reverse LO’s who are only focused on the changes as being negative instead of focusing on the positive aspects. We need to maintain the status quo of helping senior homeowners improve the quality of their retirement life.
Ben Newell
I try to convey my “upbeat” attitude to my customers every time I talk to them … I smile, even if I am just talking to them on the phone. When I receive any negative comments … I turn it around by repeating to myself …”I will never let anyone steal my joy!”
Excellent suggestions Ben & Joyce. Thank you so much!
Happiness is relative and fleeting. It is not the continual state of man as emphasized in the Declaration of Independence which recognizes the right to pursue happiness but does not guarantee it. Happiness is also relative; men have experienced it in almost every situation. Happiness is not an ideal but should be the result of achieving some reasonably difficult goal.
Frankly, I detest the way that HECMs are promoted today within our own industry. We are being told that the new HECM costs less and is better suited for seniors who are wealthier than our traditional market. Yet that is a very, very false and misleading picture about today’s HECM.
First after reduction for initial MIP, the proceeds available from the new HECM is not that much different from the proceeds from a Saver after reduction for its initial MIP. On the other hand, the proceeds available from a Standard after reduction for its initial MIP is significantly greater than the proceeds available from the new HECM even with no reduction for its initial MIP.
So, second, comparing similar products the only alleged cost savings from the new HECM is due to its alleged lower upfront MIP. Yet the initial MIP of a Saver was 0.01% no matter what percentage of the initial Principal Limit was available to the borrower in the first year following initial funding. The initial cost of a new HECM is at least 50 times greater than a Saver unless the prospect has more than 60% of the initial Principal Limit available in the first year following initial funding. In the latter case the initial MIP goes to 250 times the cost of the initial MIP of a Saver. If one ignores the Saver, a twisted argument can be made that the new HECM has a lower initial MIP which only applies if not more than 60% of the initial principal limit is available to the prospect.
If the proceeds after reduction for its initial MIP are little different than Savers after reduction for their initial MIP, how is today’s HECM better suited for anyone? Before September 30, 2013, prospects had the choice of a product with significantly higher proceeds whose initial MIP was cheaper than today’s HECM where the proceeds available to the prospect in the first 12 months exceeds 60% of its initial principal limit.
Yet thriving on negativity is not what causes me to stay in the industry. The reason for sticking with the industry is because despite its worse features, today’s HECMs can still help seniors even if they are slightly wealthier than our traditional market. It sickens me to hear originators complaining that we cannot help the most needy senior homeowners. Yes, rescuing a senior from foreclosure is a great feeling but that has never been the driving reason for my being or staying in the industry. It is because I can help seniors with a product that is financially and fiscally sound. It is a product I can believe in.
Cynicism masquerades as wisdom, but it is the farthest thing from it. Because cynics don’t learn anything. Because cynicism is a self-imposed blindness, a rejection of the world because we are afraid it will hurt us or disappoint us.
Stephen Colbert, Knox College Commencement Address (3 June 2006)
What is a cynic? A man who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing.
Oscar Wilde
While you are analyzing the multiples of costs, we are helping people see that costs are a small part of the potential future benefits.
Harlan,
It seems you confuse being a cynic with holding to modern cynicism. The Cynics of ancient Greece had a much different view or perspective than that which modern liberalism ascribes to being a cynic. So called modern cynicism is little more than a very shallow form of being a cynic.
But you are certainly right that I lack the wisdom and learning to see “…that costs are a small part of the potential future benefits.” What an odd thought to perpetuate on seniors since costs are the price of those undefined potential benefits. (It is also redundant to use the adjective future with the term potential benefits since potential implies that the benefits will occur in the future.)
Perhaps you intended to say that the costs are a small price to incur in comparison to the potential benefits but sad to say, you write that “we are helping people to see that costs are a small part of potential future benefits” and I agree that there is more than just you trying to do just that.
A true cynic asks if the potential benefits are truly worth the costs and if they are, to enter into a transaction and if not, do not conclude the transaction. But one thing never do, rely on the commissioned salesperson to measure the total costs or potential benefits of what that person is selling; the salesperson lacks independence and is not disinterested in the outcome of the proposal. Oddly some commissioned salespeople profess that costs are in reality “a small part of potential future benefits” and do not address them for what they are, the price for the potential benefits they profess.
Oddly, learning does not lead to wisdom as wisdom cannot grow without learning. Oscar Wilde may be right but he was no Jesus of whom John wrote that He did not entrust Himself to man because he knew what is in man. While by birth I lack such wisdom, by experience I have learned it the hard way.
Update:This is only going to last thru March. FHA case numbers assinged on or after April 1st 2012 will be subject to a .35% annual MIP. This was just announced along side the upcoming April 1st MIP increase set by HUD last week.