Jimmy Buffett, in his song “Volcano” starts out singing, “Well, I don’t know, I don’t know, I don’t know where I’m a gonna go when the volcano blows.”
I find myself remembering that lyric and repeating it over and over in my mind quite often lately.
I find myself saying those words, “I don’t know,” out loud often, too. I say them to clients and to Realtors and to attorneys.
The “ground is moving under me” as Jimmy continues to sing. Lending practices, regulations, underwriting criteria and guidelines, all are changing rapidly as the markets and the banks react to the continuing mortgage meltdown. Where once I was so sure on my clients’ behalf, knowing exactly how to get their loans approved, nowadays I often say, “I don’t know.”
I don’t know exactly how I can get your loan request approved. I don’t know how long it will take to approve your loan once we actually figure out how—and with which Lender—to get it approved. I don’t know if the underwriter will suddenly develop cynical dementia and decide she doesn’t like the loan and creates “obstacles” to block the path to a successful approval. I don’t know if the bank will dump that loan product a week before we’re due to close, thus causing a scramble for a replacement bank and product. I don’t know if the bank will be in business by the time we’re ready to close—or even the day of the closing.
I don’t know.
I don’t know if your property value will dip, or remain steady, or decline further. I don’t know, in the event values decline further, how much you can regain in the future when the market begins its return to vitality.
I definitely do not know where interest rates are headed—but, then again, I’ve always said that, and who the heck knew rates could stay so low for so long?
There is a lot I don’t know about our industry today, and about the varying conditions that affect your ability to sell or buy a home.
I do know one thing for sure.
I know that it is a wonderful thing to own your own home. I know that, in several conversations with clients this past week, it’s fun to put up Christmas lights on that house you own. I know there’s something special about arriving home in the dark of a winter’s chilly evening to see the lights in the windows of your home and immediately anticipate the warmth and comfort awaiting you within.
I know it’s nice to go to bed at night feeling a certain sense of peace that you own something as worthy, as valuable, and as life-enriching as a home of your own.
Not only do I know these things about the homebuying experience, I accept them as “givens.”
These are concepts and standards and quality of life issues that cannot be affected by crazy markets, high interest rates, falling home prices, and worrisome newspaper stories. These are tried and true facts of life that affect each and every homeowner, and, by extension, home buyer no matter what we mortgage professionals “don’t know” about loan approvals and other such nonsense.
I like that certainty; it’s a feeling that informs how I conduct my business. Because at the end of the day, when I tick off my long list of “I don’t knows” that one certain thing I DO know—buying a home of your own is a great thing to do—is worth the aggravation, the impatience, the uncertainty, the worry, and ultimately, the struggle, to fight for a loan approval for my clients.
So, the heck with what I “don’t know” and here’s to more of what I know.