Kellum's korner: A matter of trustAnthony O. Kellumtrust, relationships with clients
You have them, I have them and our parents relied on them. We
stake our health and wealth on their input and expertise. Maybe
it's the doctor you speed dial when your son has the flu, who
immediately calls back with advice. It could be the accountant who
not only takes the time and trouble to go through your messy
shoebox of receipts at tax time, but also gives you the heads up on
new deductions. It might be your stockbroker, who smoothes your
feathers every time you get a whiff of market trouble. Whoever they
are, your life doesn't fire on all cylinders without those trusted
advisors. They are your lifeline between complex advice and your
personal prosperity, and we count on them to have specialized
knowledge and interpret their expertise to fit our situation for
our benefit.
And of course, we as brokers serve as trusted advisors to our
clients. We navigate not only our clients' financial terrain, but
their emotional terrain as well. Hopes and dreams hinge on
calculations that are routine to us and momentous to them. Our
specialized knowledge of our clients, their demographics, our
marketplaces and industry trends means that we go beyond
pencil-pushing application takers to full-service real estate
consultants. For this reason, you can imagine my devastation when a
few years ago, the Detroit mortgage community came under close
scrutiny due to the nationwide increase of mortgage fraud. Michigan
was named as one of the FBI's top 10 hot spots for mortgage fraud
in 2003, and Detroit, as the largest city in the state, was placed
under a microscope. Of course, more people equals more crime, and a
housing market that was beginning to show the first signs of steady
appreciation in years meant unscrupulous people flocked to take
advantage. Inflated appraisals to obtain higher loans,
falsification of documents to qualify for properties otherwise out
of reach and double-sold loans meant that the brokers were in a bad
place. Lenders began to turn their backs on me as a broker because
of the types of loans I made and the properties many of my clients
wanted to purchase. So clients like Larry and Linda, whom I knew to
be honest first-time homebuyers with a modest income, were
stereotyped as unemployed con men trying to buy an overvalued home
to take out phantom equity and quickly let the property lapse into
foreclosure. Worse still, suspicion fell on the broker community as
the FBI indicted brokers who were assisting in false verification
of employment, income and residence schemes.
Like most of you, my roots go deep in my community. We would not
be successful without the respect and repeat business of people who
trust us and our ability to make money for lenders. My community
efforts, like sponsoring home giveaways, holding educational
seminars and my past presidency of the Michigan Association of
Mortgage Brokers (which advocates internal policing and
credentialing of the industry), were overlooked or ignored; and
both my clients and I suffered. I wanted to tell the individual
stories of the families we had placed in homes, trying to better
their lives and improve their stake in the American dream. But
instead, loans out of this area and the brokers trying to push them
through were painted with the broad brush of ill intent and
blacklisted. Fortunately, we can't paint all lenders with the same
brush either. Wells Fargo Home Mortgage has partnered with the
Kellum Group to establish the community-rooted type of branch that
shows its commitment to helping Detroiters become homeowners.
Despite the backdrop of mortgage fraud, Wells Fargo took the time
to examine the landscape and seek out someone who had an
understanding of the market, the consumer and the unique
circumstances they bring. Teaming my grassroots knowledge and
experience with such a large-capacity lender makes our branch more
sensitive to the challenges of lending in a distressed community.
This partnership led to us putting our heads together to develop
new products for the market allowing us access to more clients
through more solutions. In this capacity, I am allowed to tell
Larry and Linda's story without suspicion and with
encouragement.
So I say that we return to the trusted advisor concept in
business. We provide full-service solutions for our clients and
specialized information to our lenders that is unique and valuable.
Just like you can't paint all doctors, stockbrokers or accountants
with the same brush, a few stand out from the crowd. And those are
the ones we keep on speed dial - just as we hope our clients do to
us.
Anthony O. Kellum is a past president of the Michigan Association of Mortgage
Brokers, as well as a speaker on a variety of topics regarding
the mortgage industry. He may be reached at (248) 866-9292 or
e-mail
[email protected].
