Stress Management In The Mortgage Process

Your customers equate stress of buying a home to getting fired

Insider

Contributing Writer

Buying a home is stressful. Sure, the job of getting people into homes is stressful for you, but it also is a huge stressor for your customers. In fact, a 2022 study by Zillow reports that 50% of homebuyers say the process left them in tears! Further, Bloomberg reported that, due to inflation and inventory challenges, Americans say buying a house is just as stressful as getting fired from a job.

Now, we all know that owning a home is beneficial in the long term — and I’m sure most people would rather own a home than get fired from their job. The point here is that buying a home or helping someone buy a home, while a positive life change, sometimes doesn’t feel good during the process. However, this offers an amazing opportunity for you to give that customer a WOW experience by eliminating as much stress as you can.

Let’s talk about why the homebuying process is so stressful for everyone and how you can cut down on stress for both yourself and your borrowers.

Borrowers

Buying real estate is the largest financial transaction most people will ever make in their lives. While this process is your every day, it’s one that most people only go through a few times, typically, in their lives. It is a big commitment that involves a process that is both unfamiliar and invasive. Someone is digging into their income, pulling their credit, contacting their employer and asking for other sensitive information.

On top of this, they are spending a huge portion of their savings and going into considerable debt. All of this with the anxiety of waiting for the loan decision and the appraisal value to be communicated. Of course, there is a reason for your borrowers to be stressed.

Lenders

As a mortgage professional, this is a stressful process for you as well, though in different ways. Since this is such a big investment for your borrowers, the success of their investment feels like it’s on your shoulders. Additionally, there are many critical moments along the way, like resolving a potential compliance issue or deciding when to lock rates, and the way you handle these has a big impact on the loan.

There also is stress that comes from volume. For the past couple of years, you have likely been worrying about how to manage high volume. Now, you may be stressing about how many applications you’ve taken this week or when the next application is going to come through.

Regardless of where the stress comes from, there are ways to alleviate the stress for everyone. Let’s dive into a few tips to help you manage your, and your borrowers’, stress.

“This offers an amazing opportunity for you to give that customer a WOW experience by eliminating as much stress as you can.”

Management Tips

As someone who is guiding borrowers through the process, you need to acknowledge their stress. Recognize that this is a big step for them. Reassure them that you’re keeping their information safe and working to get them the best terms possible. Also, take time to educate them about the process — this can help relieve the stress of any unknowns.

As a lender, staying educated, while it seems like extra work, can be critical to managing stress. If you’re concerned about compliance, read up on it — the more you know, the less uncertainty and stress you face. Being educated on compliance will help you be more confident and ideally cut down on mistakes that could add additional strain.

If making timely decisions like locking rates is anxiety-inducing, stay on top of industry news. If you have a better idea of where rates, or the market in general, are going, you can make better and more informed decisions.

If low volume is a stressor, make sure you’re marketing yourself. Applications may not be flooding in like they used to, but making a concerted effort for the few that are out there can pay off for you.

Also, communicate well with your customers and your internal team. Diligently communicating with your borrowers can significantly cut down on their stress since it demonstrates you are working on their behalf and are available to help them with anything. It also eliminates the fear of the unknown and the uncertainty created by not knowing the current status of their loan. Being a good communicator internally helps your entire team run like a well-oiled machine rather than many separate individuals or departments.

Hit The Pause Button

Whether a borrower or a lender, it is important to take breaks. Mortgage lending is a long and often overwhelming process. Whether you’re working on the loan yourself or are getting information from borrowers, know how to pace your work so that it feels more like a steady stream and less like a tidal wave for both you and your borrower.

While your job is a stressful one, it doesn’t always have to be. Taking a few proactive steps can make this process as painless as possible both for you and your customers, which will improve both your experience and theirs. Writer Chelsea Erieau once said, “Stress acts as an accelerator: it will push you either forward or backward, but you choose which direction.” Let’s go forward!