Count Down Begins.....

The Holiday Party Count Down Begins

Within this image are hints to of the fun that awaits........

Success is a TEAM Activity

When you look at the biography of sales people who are successful in their careers over a long period of time, they all have one common denominator, they were part of a cohesive, diverse skilled, and mission focused TEAM. 

Although humans tend to self-preserve and put their own and family's needs first, in business it takes a village to sustain scale and income growth. 

One person only has 24 hours a day, X amount of energy, and typically cannot master all skills in business.  There is no doubt self focused people can be successful in their career, the issue is their success is limited to their individual resources and health. 

Although I can individually sell with the best of them, I have never wanted to sell without a TEAM.  In Banking and in the Mortgage Industry, I have always ensured I had a caring competent TEAM with diverse skills around me.  There is no better feeling or more fun than working with people who care about each other and respect the trust required to support the TEAM's overall success and continued growth.  As a result, the TEAM provides you and your family with safety and stability. 

A sales person that has to make sales calls, follow up with clients, process loans, handle the inevitable client or Realtor Issue, close loans, and stay in touch with clients and Realtors after the closing has a daunting task and tends to be too much for any one person.  Something has to be forgone in this scenario given time, energy, and skill create restraints to incremental success. 

Less time with your family, Not Staying in touch with past clients and Realtors, and that one issue that takes up a whole day putting you further behind are the accumulated limiter to scaling the income from a large referral base of Realtors and closed happy Clients.  What if this sales person gets sick or disabled?  Who will step up during difficult times?  The one constant in life is the unexpected always happens.  There is a reason commercial airplanes have two engines.  Redundancy matters. 

To truly maximize a sales career, the most efficient and successful path is to be part of a TEAM or a Village that has one common goal and belief system.  http://southeastmortgage.blogspot.com/2013/03/the-village-by-cal-haupt.html  With this mentality, a person’s career can scale up due to complimentary resources supporting the individual’s efforts.  With a TEAM, a sales person can rely on competent processing, underwriting, closing, and Client Relationship Management to provide great experiences for Clients and Realtors while staying in front of them for years of consistent growing referrals and applications.  A TEAM focused sales person has 75% of their time to develop more business, provide more personalized service, and time to spend with their family or go see their kids play sports.  If the TEAM sales person gets sick or has another hardship, they have a TEAM of people supporting them and maintaining their pipeline and closings.  This ensures their income from years of referral growth and their family is protected. 

My life experience has taught me individual success is not mutually exclusive from TEAM success.  Individual scalable results (more results with less effort over time) can only be achieved through a TEAM approach.  TEAM really means TOGETHER EVERYONE ACHIEVES MORE.   

Cal Haupt
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Southeast Mortgage of Georgia, Inc.
www.southeastmortgage.com
770-279-0222

10 Year Bond (Fact or Fiction) - This one is playing out real time - TBD

The 10 year Bond is one of the primary indicators Mortgage Professionals use to guess rate direction and analysts use for Bank Non-Interest Income potential.

Normally the 10 year bond yield would be higher with the Stock market at all-time highs, high consumer confidence, rising housing prices, and rising household income.

 

I read posts from originators in the industry cheering a lower bond yield and the prospects of lower mortgage rates.  This baffles me in that the originators doing this are missing the bigger picture.  Rates are already at historical lows and a further reduction in bond yields (higher bond prices) could cripple the foundation that supports their client’s confidence to buy.  Consumers buy homes for various reasons.  The most common is security for their family, a sense of belonging to a community, better schools for their children, and the benefits an investment in a home has over renting.  There is a saying “people forget rates but never forget poor service”.

 

As an industry and as a consumer, we should all appreciate the favorable rate environment QE1, QE2, and QE3 provided and understand a healthy economy is more important than short term gratification.

 

So why is the 10 year bond yield falling?  Is it an aberration or is something more insidious brewing?

Ø  Short Covering as the month is ending and quarter drawing to an end?

Ø  Flight to safety for foreign entities?

Ø  Veil Government monetary policy contrary to public taper?

 The consequences of a falling 10 year bond yield?

Ø  Given the reduced channels of income available to Banks, without spreads provided from deposits to overnight and mid-term investing, recovery could be in question and could facilitate a conservative credit posture thus slowing growth

Ø  If banks miss earnings due to Non-Interest Income, the market could interpret this as a slowing economy initiating an overreaction by the overall market creating a severe correction and consumer pull back

Ø  Investors could extrapolate bank earnings to other healthy sectors forcing a broad sell off and a reversion to 2009 mind sets

Ø  A broad sell off greater than 20% could impact consumer / business confidence enough to severely impact jobs and the current economic recovery pushing us closer to the next recession or worse

Recessions occur roughly every 7 years and the US is 5+ years out of the last one with the Stock Market at all-time highs.  As a business person and consumer, I prefer the growth periods versus the contraction periods.  The current economic growth can continue with a more stable base provided by a steeper yield curve and bonds coupled to historical relationships.

 
 

 

In my opinion all outcomes are possibilities; however, the Federal Reserve will ensure banks remain healthy and thus the 10 year yields will go north due to basic economic relationships or monetary intervention.  We should all hope there is a keen eye on this subject.

 

Cal Haupt

Chief Executive Officer

Southeast Mortgage of Georgia, Inc.
www.southeastmortgage.com