As we go through life, I’d bet most of us come to a point where we realize we must be comfortable in our own skin.  Warts, blemishes, imperfections and all.  So as my career has progressed, I have had less difficulty ditching the pretense of needing to conceal the fact that I never attended college and accept that, in matters of business discourse, I was raised mostly with a blue collar approach of getting to the point. 

Yeah, I know I have been accused of possessing a certain facility with language that belies the high school diploma I struggled to achieve, so it won’t surprise you to know I make a consistent effort to build my vocabulary, my catalog of quotes and my storehouse of witticisms.  Still, I harbor a broad disdain for “corporate jargon.”  I bring this up because, working in the San Francisco Bay Area, with its proximity to Silicon Valley, most of my clientele has exposure to the sprawling tech campuses that employ the nation’s best and brightest.  So while the purpose of this post is not to make fun of anyone — especially not those whose intelligence far exceeds mine — if you’re going to work with me, I want you to know a few things:

• I work in the mortgage industry, not the mortgage space.  This was an industry nearly 20 years ago when I took the leap of faith to become a full-time salesperson.  It’s still a vibrant industry today.  Let’s leave the space exploration to NASA.
• I try not to leave any loops to close.  I do have a bias to action in order to get things done efficiently out of the gate.  Don’t put off to tomorrow that which you can finish today, right?
• I’m not going to open my kimono and be fully transparent.  There, I said it.  I’m sorry, but I work for my buyers or homeowners.  I don’t reveal their information to other parties in the transaction in any feigned virtue of being completely transparent.  I will be honest 100% the time, but I will not be “transparent” to that degree.  This is business.
• I never go “out of pocket.”  I don’t even know what that means.  Yes, sometimes I cannot be reached for good reasons, but when that is a possibility, I will try to provide instruction for my next in command.  Outside of those few occasions, I am probably one of the most responsive and accessible professionals in the mortgage space…I mean, industry.
• I am not rate or program agnostic.  I have strong opinions and I will share them with you.  I will respect you if you agree or disagree with reason and tact.  The way I see it, you should expect a professional to share his/her experiences and perspective because that’s valuable insight built over a career.  And it’s exactly the kind if information from which a client — someone who may only transact a few real estate deals in his/her life — can benefit.
• “Deep dives” are often bested by keeping things simple.  Even with a myriad of loan options, 95% of our clients end up with our Top 5 solutions.  That doesn’t mean that mortgage financing is simple, but it often means that wide and shallow works better for most.
• I always have the bandwidth to provide great customer service.  You will never see me more aggravated than if a member of my team tells a client or prospect that “we are slammed.”  I have worked hard my whole career in order to be busy for the remainder of it.  If I have too much business, I have enough revenue to hire additional staff to assure you timely and competent service.

So that’s my rap.  As they say, it’s easy to make a simple thing complex and hard to make a complex thing simple, so in an effort to achieve greater clarity, I’m cool with ditching the Silicon Valley lingo when we work together.  Clear communication polls way high up on the customer satisfaction surveys all the time, and my career would look very different without the effort I make to deliver it to the street.  What about you?

Time to log off,

Rob Spinosa
Senior Vice President of Mortgage Lending

Guaranteed Rate
NMLS: 22343 
Cell/Text: 415-367-5959 
rob.spinosa@rate.com

Marin Office:  324 Sir Francis Drake Blvd., San Anselmo, CA  94960

Berkeley Office:  1400 Shattuck Ave., Suite 1, Berkeley, CA  94709
 

*The views and opinions expressed on this site about work-related matters are my own, have not been reviewed or approved by Guaranteed Rate and do not necessarily represent the views and opinions of Guaranteed Rate.  In no way do I commit Guaranteed Rate to any position on any matter or issue without the express prior written consent of Guaranteed Rate’s Human Resources Department.

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