A brief history of your Blown Mortgage Scribe, Part 2
A lot of people ask me about my background and how and why I am in mortgages. Most people want to know why someone in the mortgage industry has a web site like Blown Mortgage. I guess its a little weird having a site that is primarily focused on the negative aspects of the industry in which I work. So with out further ado, for those of you that care about who is writing this blog please enjoy this autobiographical article that should shed some light on who I am and why I write Blown Mortgage.
Here’s part 2:
After College
After college I took a year off and enjoyed the last of my halcyon
I landed in
After a few months of over-achieving at the dot-com startup I was asked to go to Frankfurt, Germany to relieve a counterpart who had been attempting (with little success) to get the German and London-based operations of the company up and running. I readily agreed, willing to take the prospects of a year abroad and an apartment over another baking summer on my buddy’s couch in a non-air conditioned, somewhat-converted Sherman Oaks garage. So off I went to
After a year (and one Christmas) in Germany the unfortunate realities of the dot-com bust resulted in our venture capitalists shutting us down to reclaim the only remaining capital left from 16 failed ventures (ours was the only one with most of the initial $5 million given) and my prompt return to Los Angeles. While the unpleasantness of the return was somewhat upsetting I had no clearly defined in my head what I was good at and what I wanted to do. I wanted to market. I wanted to do more with the web and help promote and develop business concepts and marketing programs specifically related to the web. I had finally found it.
Housing, Finally
If you were beginning to wonder when my career would converge to the industry I am now dutifully entrenched in, wonder no longer. Here we begin Morgan’s immersion in to the world of housing and mortgage. After collecting a month’s worth of unemployment during a fruitless search of Los Angeles-based opportunities I took a random weekend sojourn to visit my friend in
The company I worked for was known for its home building clients; including all the largest
I have always felt that the importance of marketing lay not in the ads on TV, nor the brochures, nor the website, but rather an orchestration of a much larger organism-the business itself. If I could I would spend 90% of my marketing budget on improving the internal operations of a business and 10% on the outside because I firmly believe that a company that can actually live up to the hype ascribed to it by their sales people, the media or overzealous fans are the ones that truly rise to dominance in their industry. And not only do they dominate; they are ascribed with a benevolence and good will from their customers. Simply look at Google to get a sense of the magic. This has always been the quest for me.
While working on marketing these homes (primarily building web sites and integrating back-end loan origination platforms in to lead-generating online platforms) I was really drawn to the experience side of home buying. As some one who hadn’t yet bought my first home I was amazed at the range of emotions that run through a prospect’s mind: from pure euphoria to sheer terror and back – more than once before taking ownership. I was fascinated by the attention to detail that these home builders put in to marketing a home; from pumping in the scent of baking cookies to playing piped in sounds of children playing in the bedrooms – all in an effort to sell homes (homes that were selling themselves by the way in 2001-2004).
Going through this experience of learning about the emotional connections people have with homes made me acutely aware of the stresses that one faces when dealing with homeownership and the uncertainties that it raises in a buyer’s mind. I also learned what worked – what calmed the soul enough to sign on the dotted line – the triggers and cues that were needed in order to reassure the buyer that the purchase was a safe and smart one (though clearly those buying in 05-06 are cursing their poor luck). This understanding was in stark contrast to the story being told to me by my soon-to-be wife and future brother-in-law.
Both worked for different mortgage companies in
Thankfully so did my wife and brother-in-law. They got fed up with the malfeasance and fraud rampant in their previous organizations. More than that, I believe they got fed up with the depravity and lack of respect and basic decency towards fellow man flaunted by their colleagues. When they got fed up, they called me.
At first I was not sure about the mortgage industry, and certainly wasn’t sure about leaving a company where I had rocketed to the top of the heap and experienced 100% salary increases in each of the first 3 years of employment. I felt like I was on a good path; yet the idea of building the ideal business (you know the one where we meet the promise) was appealing. Entrepreneurship is embedded in my genetic code. My mother and grandparents were both small business owners, and the idea of “being my own boss” was of course intoxicating as well. So, after assurances that we would be different; that we would be the answer to the unconscionable actions of others, I roped my best friend from college in to the enterprise with us and New Day Trust Mortgage was formed.
The “credit crisis” along with the predatory lending practices of companies like Countrywide Home Loans has left a record number of homeowners facing foreclosure in the United States. This is the first article in a series I am writing about avoiding foreclosure; if you’re a homeowner in trouble with your mortgage or have already received a foreclosure notice, I recommend subscribing to my RSS feed using the orange button on the left and register for my “Mortgage Secrets Newsletter.” Here is part one in the series of articles entitled “Avoiding Foreclosure.”