THE COLD CALL - A sense of urgency

A SENSE OF URGENCY

If you are a salesman, nothing I am going to say here will be new to you, unless you are new to the business. Sales practices seem to be pretty much the same, whatever the job is that you are doing, whether it is a mortgage or not. You may have heard this.

If you can sell a car you can sell a home loan, or anything for that matter; selling is selling. When a salesman gets you on the phone his number one job is to get you committed to him first, and his product second. If the guy is selling used Toyota’s, you can go anywhere to buy one so he has to sell himself in order to get you to buy the Toyota from him and not the guy down the street. If he cannot get you committed in the first phone call he has a high likelihood of losing your business, business you did not previously know you needed.

Your sales guy also doesn’t want to plant the seed and have you go to someone else to buy, so there is a real sense of urgency for him. In order for him to get you committed, you have to first believe there is a sense of urgency here. When I was a stockbroker this was easy. Stocks are always on the move, be it up or down, they are moving. Because of that there is a real sense of urgency that you won’t find in the mortgage market. If you don’t refi in the next twenty minutes you’re not going to miss your chance to still get a good rate.

If you are not a prime borrower and feel a sense of urgency, take a step back and listen to what the guy on the other end of the line is saying. That sense of urgency you feel is not really based on fact; most of the time. Sometimes sub prime rates do change and your Loan Officer may call with a sense of urgency, but often that is not the case. If rates in general are not trending up, neither will your subprime rate. Even then just because the Federal Reserve has raised rates, subprime rates do not move lock step with prime rate. There is a big margin between prime rates and non prime ones so there can be a lot of fluctuation in the interest rate without your loan rate changing.

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Sales people are taught to instill a sense of urgency or they will not get the sale. Your loan guy will dream up anything necessary in order for you to feel like you have to buy today. He will want you to send in your documents today in order for him to be able to lock your rate. Remember sub prime rates are not locked like prime ones are. If you don’t send in your docs that very moment, it’s not like he is not going to give you that great deal if you call him a week later and fax your docs.

Just remember, subprime rates do not move rapidly, and you shouldn’t have to either. Keep in mind that the guy on the other end of the phone is operating with the directive, “get the commitment and Docs today or lose the loan to the next guy who calls.” Move at your own pace and he will still be there, desperate as he was three weeks ago, and eager to do your loan.

Happy reading and happy borrowing.