We recently connected with Dorian Rogers and have shared our conversation below.
Dorian , thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today We’d love to hear about one of the craziest things you’ve experienced in your journey so far.
The world of real estate is a crazy place all on its on. There are a lot of ups and downs that we experience through the process but there is one file that I would never forget. This may have been the hardest loan I ever completed with one of the toughest clients that ended up being very grateful in the end. It is a myth that it is hard to get pre approved to buy a home so this client came into the process very apprehensive about showing documentation and really allowing for me to help them get pre approved even though they felt like they had already taken all the right steps to get ready to purchase like go through credit repair. I am very firm in making sure that all parties are comfortable in the process so I did my best in ensuring the client I would hold their hand through the entire process. We finally got through the application part and, CONGRATULATIONS the client was approved! They went our shopping with their agent and a week later came back to me under contract. This is where is all started going crazy. Once under contract we were able to do all of our due diligence in pulling our fraud reports to really make sure there was nothing that could pop up through the process. We always pull our fraud reports at the beginning while in the option period just in case we have to back out to the contract due to any potential issues. Well this fraud report came back with 3 $10,000 judgments making the borrower have to pay $30,000 to be able to get these released and be able to close on their home. Funds where already limited! The borrower was doing down payment assistance AND we received seller credit so that the funds to the table where little to nothing. When I let the borrower know she would have to pay off $30,000 she completely freaked out on me and told me that i was a fraud! During her time in credit repair due to the new laws, multiple collections had been removed off her credit but the debt was never paid and this turned into judgements. The borrower stood firm in the fact that this debt should be gone which made us go outside of the option period. Once we are outside of the option period unless you are denied you are at risk of losing your earnest money. The borrower actually had the funds in a 401k so our underwriting team stated that technically she was not denied due to actually having the funds in an account that we could use BUT the borrower DID NOT want to touch this. This was the first time that i truly got cursed out and threaten for me doing my complete due diligence. The borrower was so upset and completely freaked out on me and the realtor due to her losing her earnest money because she just trusted her credit repair specialist. This was truly the craziest thing that ever happened and made me so happy that the address in my signature is my corporate office and not my home address!
Dorian , before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
Hey! I’m The Mortgage Lady in Red and The Best Mother In the World. :) I have been in the mortgage industry for about decade and started this journey right out of college. Back in 2012-2013 the only goal out of college was to be able to get a call center job to support my family as I only had two children at that time. I started working at Bank of America call center servicing mortgages by just taking the payments and doing property claims. On a daily basis i would leave the job completely exhausted and frustrated because even though i may have had the best call times, i was being cursed out multiple times a day by people that did not understand their mortgage could possibly increase due to your taxes and insurance. This made me leave work everyday wondering who was at the front of this line that did not educate the borrowers on what happens and what they were signing when they purchased the home. Due to the questions in my head and the daily feelings i had, I had to figure out how to get to the front of that line. I left Bank of America after a year and moved into the appraisal department at another mortgage company that only lasted 3 months as an underwriting position became available and I knew that was more my speed. I was an underwriter for 3 years before I truly noticed the person at the front of the line was the Loan Officer, so, I got my license and left underwriting. This all occurred about 7 years ago now that I have been licensed but I realized my true passion was educating and helping people buy a home as well as deescalate problems to make sure realtors have smooth and relaxing closing. After a year of being on my own I joined a team and became the Operations Manager.
Now that the market has shifted I am back in the Loan Officer role and actually have the full capacity to truly help clients reach the finish line. I offer many different loan options from the traditional loans like FHA, Conventional, USDA and VA loans all the way to Investor loans like DSCR that does not require income to be verified and bank statement loans that help self employed borrowers. Giving and exploring options for homeowners is truly my favorite part of my job. I feel like one of the hardest things that people really experience when buying a home is not actually know the options that they have and that is my main goal to show them.
At the end of the process with working with me clients get to walk away educated, informed on the process and knowing that they truly have a lender for life as this is not just my career but my passion.
Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?
Pivoting is one of the most important things I have to do in my business which is why options are important. When I first became a loan officer one story that I will always remember has to do with what started out as a VA loan and created a VERY important lesson for my business. Starting out, I just trusted what clients told me. In my mind, it was their life and they knew it better than I did so why not believe them. After this file, I quickly had to unlearn trusting without verifying! The borrower came to with the intentions of doing a VA loan. By guidelines standards i did all my due diligence in making sure that the borrower was in the reserves for 6 years and that would make him approved BUT what I did not know was that for 2 of those years he did not receive any points which were needed for us to be able to have the VA benefit of no money down. I pre approved the client by just trusting their word and not getting a copy of the Certificate of Edibility (COE) up front. Low and behold, they did get under contract and we had to submit an application to request a copy of the COE so that we could get the borrowers file submitted. It took the VA 3 weeks to tell us about him missing points and he does not qualify for a VA loan! I had to pivot and change the whole loan program from a VA to a FHA loan as most contracts are only 4 weeks and we had no other choice to throw a hail mary to allow them to close. Thanking God that the borrowers had the money to go this route it seriously taught me the valuable lesson that I CANNOT just trust the words of clients I have to verify!
Now, no matter what I am told, I will not send a letter for an agent to submit an offer unless I have copies of COEs and everything is verified.
Any advice for managing a team?
As I managed a team of 6 individuals during my time as an Operations Manager and the one thing that i learned that kept the team motivated and morale high was not keeping secrets! Transparency in leadership is super important. A lot of the times as managers we try to protect our people by not telling them everything that’s going on because it may be scary and also pretend that nothing is going on in our own lives as i we are not really people like them. To make sure the team always felt as one and supported we always went out to lunch together once a week. When you are breaking bread with people you work with and they are allowed to take a break from work as well it shows that you care. We had weekly meetings to make sure any problems they were having were addresses weather it was problem with a file or another person.
We spend more time talking to our co workers than we ever are able to talk to our own families so making sure that the team knew that me supporting them and their happiness was important to me along with the weekly lunches really made a positive impact in keeping everyone production high with a great morale.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.OurLendingHand.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dorianrogers_mlo/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DorianRogersMLO
Image Credits
Main photo is credit to GoldenLight Studios