Is This Helping?

Just thinkin
Just thinking out loud...

A recent survey conducted at Zillow has provided some eye-popping insights into the consumer’s mortgage brain trust. In short, they are wildly un-slash-mis-informed about mortgages.

Blame The System, Not The Consumer

It’s a full time job for me to understand this business, the marketplace, the regulatory elements, and the general process of navigating a home financing transaction. It’s nothing short of complicated. And to be fair, it’s rather boring unless you’re at that point in life where you need to go through the process – one that happens a handful of times at best in our lives (even then, to call it an enticing area of study would be a sham…). So there’s not a lot of incentive to stay “fresh”.

I certainly cannot blame the consumer for being lost.

However, some of the misunderstandings are notable. Most of my clients appreciate the time I take to sit down and educate them about the process so that they can make well-informed decisions. It’s not what everyone I work with wants, but my objective is to be as available to them as desired in this capacity. So these misunderstandings are notable, to me, as one who educates others about the process.

Sometimes I get too complex, too deep, or grind over details that are not ultimately of concern to my clients. I’ve seen their eyelids get kind of heavy on a few occasions. But I’d rather be at fault for over-explaining than under-explaining something.

Why I Do This

This survey reminds me not to gloss over even the most basic of concepts on the assumption that they’re already understood. Much of this site’s mission is about sharing information and helping to educate the consumer when in need of guidance. Sometimes I’m here just to blow off a little steam. From the basic mechanics of mortgage borrowing to the subjective and contextual  facets of the journey each individual consumer embarks upon when exploring the idea of borrowing money, everyone is in search of slightly different information. I hope to have a little something for everyone.

What brought you here? Are you finding what you’re looking for?