The Earth School Life-1002

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My Adventures In The Mortgage Business.

All the experiences to this date had put me in the position of being

at theright place at the right timeinorder to get me to my next step

in life. MyDestiny was for me to go into the Mortgage Business so I

couldhelp savemoney for people, and help them to survive in life.

I guess working for Godis a callingto helppeople. A priest tries his

hardest to save people’s souls. Iworked very hard to help people

savetheir ass.The next adventure put me in the mortgage industry.

because I metLeo, andIwent frombeing a cab diverto apartner

in amortgagebrokerage company.

• I Met Leo, he was my passanger in my cab when I ran out of gas.

  I Met Leo

  

  
  One day, by ‘chance’, when I was still driving a cab, I ran out of gas.

  It was the only time it ever happened to me.. Again, by ‘chance’, I

  had a passenger in the cab named Leo.

  .

  I had to call the dispatcher for another cab to pick Leo up and take himthe rest of the way home.

  While wewere waiting, Leo and I sat in my cabfor over an hour until help arrived.

  We had a very interesting conversation. Leo told me that his business was raising money for different

  typesof projects. I told him that I had aJamaican government guarantee for $30,000,000 dollars.

  He told me hemight be able to help me!

  Was it just by ‘chance’, I happened to run out of gas with a man that mightbe able to raise

  $30,000,000 forme! Whether or not he would actuallyhelp me or not was up to my Guardian

  Angels.They were in chargeof this operation, I wasn’t.

  Leo and I had a very good conversation, but to my dismay, he never calledme back, so I guess my

  GuardianAngles had to work a little harder to putme in the right place at the right time the next

  time.

  It took two more months, and they put a passenger into my cab namedBob. Funny thing was that Bob

  wasalso trying to build an alcohol plant. Bob said that he was working with a Mortgage Broker who

  might beableto help me. He said that he would make an appointment for us and call me.

  Bob did call, and the following week and we had an appointment with aMortgage Banker in

  downtownChicago.

  The day of our meeting arrived and I was very excited. I went to theappointment and met Bob in

  thereception area. We walked into theconference room, and sitting at the table were three

  gentlemen.

  To my great surprise, one of them just happened to be Leo, the same manwith whom I ran out of

  gas in thecab two months earlier! The same manwho never called me back! So God brought me to

  Leo the secondtime. Godwanted me in that office on LaSalle Street for a specific reason.The

  nameof the company was Northern Continent Capital Funds or NORCON forshort. I gave them a

  checkfor $1,500 as a retainer, and I started hangingaround there while they tried to raise my

  money. I waited and waited forabout three months, but they failed. I guess when I look back, they

  reallycouldn’t do the jobfor me; they just wanted my $1,500.

  That was really how they made a living by giving people false hope and taking their money.

  Even though my Guardian Angels knew that, they still wanted me there for some strange reason.

  Butsomething interesting did happen while I was hanging around that office.

  Someone brought in a residential loan application for a home mortgage. They of course took it.

  Eventhough they had no intention of wasting their time on a $70,000 residential mortgage, their

  greed wouldn’tlet them say no. But I had time, because anything was better than a 5.00 cab fare.

  I found it easy to raise the money for this mortgage since I had just done a $30,000,000 proposal

  for anethanol plant in Jamaica which took six months to complete. So I took the time to find the

  money for thisman. I found a home for his loan at a downtown bank, it was easy.

  So the whole point of my life was for me to get my first loan approved and closed at a time when

  the 30-yearfixed rate mortgage was 13.50%.

  It was a time in our past when President Carter lost the election to the Republicans. The Federal

  ReserveBank, in order to embarrass President Carter, increased interest rates to 16.00%.

  Ronald Regan, the actor, won the election with 489 electoral votes to just 49 for President Carter,

  thepeanut farmer, and what do you think happened to interest rates? Yep, they started falling and

  falling sothey would make the actor look good.

  So I was put into the mortgage business when an actor became president of the United States. I

  guess a cabdriver/mortgage banker is not as bad as an actor playingthe President of the United

  States.

  Well, I got lucky and found a lender from California: American Savings and Loan, with a 12.00%

  fixed ratemortgage. That was 1.50% less than all the rest of the lenders. .

  I started what no one else had the time to do a residential mortgage division at Northern Continent

  CapitalFunds.

  Being in the right place at the right time got me into the mortgage business. I had no idea how big

  it reallywas. It was all because of the cab that I got to the right place at the right time.

  Northern Continent Capital Funds was only paying me $25.00 for each loan application. I didn’t

  know anybetter, so I took the deal.

  Because of their great interest rates and the new concept, his brokers grew from the initial 4 to

  over 350.The new industry had started in Illinois and spread to the rest of their regional offices

  through the country.

  And why not? This new way of doing business saved them more than 50% payroll and all the

  problemphone calls.

  If we didn’t have the argument, American Savings and Loan never would have increased its

  business basefrom four to over 350 Mortgage Brokers. American Savings and Loan was later

  purchased by a Companycalled Washington Mutual.

  To give you a frame of reference, World Savings today still processes all the loan applications

  submitted tothem by the mortgage brokers. They’re still doing business the same old way, And

  maybe the old way mayturn out to be the better way after all, because I believe that that is my next

  step. We will talk about thatlater.

• I became a mortgage banker and bounced millions In Checks.

  I Bounced Millions Of Dollars In Checks

  At one point, I had over 200 loan applications in process. I couldn’t process them much faster, but at

  least Ihad control of them. But I still had to find a better way. The salesman from Allstate Insurance

  offered me abetter way of doing business, or so I thought. Not only did he let me process the loans,

  buthe also let meclose and fund the loans.

  He said he would give me Allstate drafts (checks) so I could do it all, except approve the loans. That

  sounded very good, so I switched and became a mortgage banker, selling my loans to Allstate

  Insuranceadivision of Sears.

  The drafts, however, never came, but they kept promising me they were still coming. What could I do

  inthemeantime? I had to find a lot of money fast, but nobody knew what I was talking about. The

  banksdidn’tknow what a “Warehouse Line of Credit” was. It was a line of credit that was used to

  close loansuntil theywere sold.

  I asked my own bank Hong Kong Shanghai Bank but they turned me down.

  Then I got an Idea, or Guardian Angels gave it to me. I made a deal with Allstate that they would buy

  myloans within 24 hours after they closed.

  So I started writing checks, very big checks, checks that I did not have the money to cover. In those

  days, ittook a check three days to clear.

  I wrote the check and gave it to the Title Company, and they funded the loan. The next morning, I

  drovethefile to Allstate in Lincolnshire, Illinois. and submitted it for payment.

  They were supposed to pay me the next day. It worked for a few weeks or so, and all of a sudden I was

  getting millions of dollars wired into my bank account. My banker had no clue how the system

  worked,buthe did know what I was doing and that Allstate was wiring me millions of dollars.

  One day he said to me “As long as you’re using my bank to fund your loans, I might as well make some

  money from it,” so he gave me a $100,000 line of credit. As long as Allstate paid me in one to two

  days,itworked; but the $100,000 wasn’t enough because Allstate couldn’t buy the loans fast enough.

  Theirturnaround time went from one-to-two days to over thirty days.

  That’s when the nightmare began. The bank did NOT extend my line of credit and they bounced all my

  checks over the $1,000,000.00 credit line, and they were happy to do it. Why? Because they charged

  meanother prime + 3% for the bounced checks.

  I started living a new nightmare that was created by Allstate Insurance Company.

  One day, I got a call from the controller of Chicago Title. He said “I know you’re a small company, but

  don’tgive us any more Allstate drafts. I would rather take your check and hold it a week. You can use

  our money(Chicago Title’s) to fund your loans.”

  In other words, Chicago Title felt sorry for me and gave me a week’s credit on my checks rather than

  accepting another rubber check from Allstate Insurance. They gave Mike Shapiro a “Warehouse Line

  ofCredit”

  My Guardian Angels helped me through these crises as best they could. It seemed they were helping

  people”make mistakes” in my favor – like the time Allstate paid me twice for the same loan, so I had

  an extra$200,000 in my bank account.

  At one point, there was $1,000,000 dollars in mistakes deposited in my bank account, which helped

  mefund that much more in loans.

  If it wasn’t for the extra money and all the help from my Guardian Angels, I would probably have

  gonetoJail!

  With God’s help, however, I got through it, and took a giant step backward in life.I went back to

  beingamortgage broker and NOT a mortgage banker. I let someone else write the checks and take

  theliability forfunding the loans.

  Well, when I became a mortgage broker, there were a bunch of new problems. All my new partners

  wantedto cheat me. I couldn’t handle any more problems, so I took another step backward.

  I became a loan originator. That didn’t prove to be the right answer, either, because now all the

  companiesI worked for successfully cheated me. There seemed to be some type of plan of making me

  unhappy so Iwould go to another leve. Then, I could do whatever I was supposed to do.

  I was very tired, and was ready to go back todriving my cab and so I could hide out for a while.

  Later, that’s just what I did while I was waiting forthe next step.

• Ideveloped an instant loan approval Software Program.

  My Software Program

  From the first day with Northern Continent Capital Funds, and after I started processing hundreds of

  loanapplications, I sensed the need to create a computer software program to help me. It was the early

  80s, andcomputers were the “New Thing.”

  The first IBM computer system cost me $8,000 to set up in Microsoft DOS. I had an idea! What if I

  createda computer system that would allow real estate agents to call my main computer and get an

  “Instant LoanApproval”. They could also get the status of their loan applications, and give them the

  ability to enter aloan application into the computer and send the file to the underwriter with a

  computerized credit report?

  Then the underwriter could approve the loan and enter the loan approval into the computer, and the

  realtor could view the loan approval and all the conditions. The year was 1983 and we started writing

  thefirst software in a computer language called “D BASE II.”

  We stored the data in the computer and then printed the complete loan application on a blank piece

  ofpaper with a printer called the Epson 100, the first major printer produced. The computer used

  compresscode (small fonts to make all the lines on the paper).

  The program cost me $50,000 to write. It was the first mortgage processing program to revolutionize

  loanprocessing. I was a little ahead of the times, and no one knew what I was talking about. I didn’t

  realize thatthe real estate offices didn’t have or use computer terminals to access the Real Estate

  MainComputer.

  They only had something that was like a teletype. You entered the main computer with a keyboard,

  butnoscreen.

  It typed the data on a piece of paper. Even though I was a little ahead of myself, that’s what I was

  supposedto do. So I did it.

  The concept didn’t work because DOS was a single-user program. I had to buy a main frame

  computerfromAT & T, and write the software in an environment called “UNIX.”

  I had just spent $50,000 writing the wrong software, and now I had to do it all over. I had no more

  money,so AT &T taught me how to program in a database called “Informix.” UNIX was a multi-user

  operatingsystem

  It was the database that telephone operators were using at the time. It took me six months to

  complete,butwhen it was finished, it worked!

  I could now call my main computer from anywhere and work over the phone lines, just as we do

  todayoverthe Internet. In fact, where did, the Internet come from? The Internet is an offspring of the

  UNIXoperatingsystem I was using. The multiple phone lines were called “TTY lines.” All my intuitive

  ideascame from myGuardian Angels.

  Marketing The Software Program.

  There was a Mortgage Bankers Convention coming up in New York City, so I leased a booth and

  decided todisplay and sell my software there. There were a lot of lookers, but only one buyer.His

  name was KenAshley, and he owned a mortgage banking company called Liberty Mortgage located in

  Melville, LongIsland, NY.

  Ken Ashley purchased the software, but he wanted some modifications, and since I was the

  programmerwho designed it, I had to go to NY and make his modifications. That was the beginning

  ofmy New Yorkadventure.

  Every Monday morning, I took a flight to Newark, NJ, and went to my office in Melville, NY. I worked

  thereall week at the rate of $65.00 per hour, and then flew home to Chicago on Friday night. This

  lasted for sixmonths.

  The software was a big hit and made Liberty Mortgage a lot of money in the New York mortgage

  market.The reason Ken Ashley made it work and I didn’t was because he was a mortgage banker and

  had thepower and the money to have his underwriter approve the loans as they came across the

  computer.

  It went over so well that the mortgage industry magazine did a feature story on Liberty Mortgage and

  me. Istill have two original magazines in my files. The next page will recap the article.

  After that success with the software, I tried to sell it elsewhere, but to no avail. The people who called

  hadjust spent tens of thousands on IBM computers, and again, they had no idea what I was talking

  about. Idecided to concentrate on the mortgage production instead, so back in Chicago, I opened my

  own LibertyMortgage with a man called Jerome Ceddicci.

  Excerpts From The Article On

  The Instant Loan Approvals

  Key-line, Liberty Mortgage, a mortgage banker, leased a software system in 1987, which they called

  theKey-Line program from Michael Shapiro, the founder of Direct-Line Systems in Chicago.

  Based on a UNIX operating system, Key-Line was different from any of the other CLO systems of its

  time.The success of this product was based on a simpler operating format that allowed over 350

  dumbterminalsand pc’s to call into the UNIX main frame computer.

  What works! The opening of the CLO market happened so quickly and unexpectedly, that the

  traditionalsoftware suppliers were not prepared. A quiet revolution has been happening in Chicago,

  Illinois over thelast seven years. Working with an eye on the future, Direct-Line Systems has been

  finetuning a MortgageBroker CLO system. They have developed a hardware/software combination

  using aUNIX based system,which will allow hundreds of DOS computers based in realtor’s offices to

  go online (communicate) with aDirect-Line main computer.

  You won’t have to wait for new hardware to be developed. You won’t have to wait to test the software

  system. The system is all in place and currently operating in both Chicago and New York. It’s simple

  tooperate, easy to install and best of all, it’s shockingly inexpensive.

  The most important part of this system is that the users end (the computer in the real estate office)

  hasbeenmade practically foolproof. It is so easy, if you can read, you can operate it.

  Direct-Line has been fortunate to have the collaboration of two test market operations to assist in the

  refinement of the system.

  Able Mortgage, in Farmingdale, New York and Interstate Financial Group in Lisle, Illinois have been

  working closely with Direct-Line Systems over the last two years, helping to simplify and debug the

  software. Both firms are showcases for the effectiveness of the system. Able has achieved tremendous

  growth quickly in an intensely competitive market due to the softeare.”

• I was at the airport in Israel when the missies flew of it.

  The War In Israel

  About the same time (1991), a developer I knew wanted me to go to Israel with him. He wanted to

  buildhouses there, and I thought that maybe I could start the FHA of Israel.

  I was a bit naïve at the time. We were about to return to the U.S., when my wife called me. She said

  that I’dbetter be on that flight the next day or else. The Arabs started a war with Israel and were

  planning to blowup the airport.

  
  

  My wife never calls me when I’m on the road. She called three times that day to make sure I was

  cominghome. I had every intention of leaving anyway, but Dave, my associate, was going to stay. I

  actually flewout on my scheduled flight, but we had a delay as missiles started to fly. We got the all

  clear and the pilotsaid lets get the “blank” out of here!

  We got the “blank” out of there and came home back to the United States of America.

• I sold Liberty Mortgage, NY a mortgage software system in 1993.

  Liberty Mortgage

  So because of my New York adventure, Liberty Mortgage came to Chicago. Yes, I started a mortgage

  brokercompany in Illinois named after the company I’d made successful in New York. Unfortunately, I

  couldn’tmake it as successful because I just didn’t have the money they had in New York.

  Liberty Mortgage in Chicago did acquire a mortgage operation in San Francisco, however, from one

  oftheirinvestors.

  She gave me $350,000 to take over her son’s mortgage operation in hopes we could turn it around. So

  Itookit over, and tried to cut his expenses and save his company. There were three offices in

  California,and theywere all losing a lot of money: San Francisco, Burlingame, and San Jose. In fact,

  I was visitingthe San Joseoffice when theEarthquakehit.

• I crushed my hand in the earth quake in San Francisco Earthquake.

  The California Earthquake

  The San Jose office was located in a high-rise building on the 14^th floor.

  
  I flew into San Francisco, and one of the employees drove me down to San Jose. I was in San Jose

  when theearthquake struck. San Jose was the center of the quake. The building rocked from side to

  side at least 20degrees in each direction. I was thrown from one side of the room to the other. My

  handwas caught in alarge door, and two of my fingers were crushed. They looked like someone took

  a hammer and smashedthem. The quake finally ended. I was stuck in San Jose without a car.

  They closed highways with thousand of cars stuck on them. That was also the time when some of the

  highway collapsed in San Francisco.

  First I had to take care of my crushed fingers, so I wrapped them in toilet paper.

  Then I taped them tightly with Scotch tape. That’s all I had to work with. Then I walked five or six

  milestothe San Jose Airport, hoping to rent a car.

  When I got to the airport, I walked right over to Hertz. I had never rented from Hertz before because

  theywere the most expensive. I hoped that would be a good reason to use them that day, and it was. I

  got theirlast car!

  Along the way, there were sirens everywhere – fire trucks, police cars and ambulances. The highways

  wereall closed, so I drove sixty miles on the local streets. All the traffic lights were not working, so I

  had to stopat each intersection.

  When I got back to San Francisco, and went to my regular motel, they didn’t have any electricity and

  didn’twant to rent me a room. So I asked them for a room with a moonlight view. They had one, and

  Istayed in amotel room with out electricity. I considered myself lucky.

  The next morning, I drove to the San Francisco airport and was on the first flight out of there.

  Luckily,itwas a Southwest Airlines flight to Dallas Texas. In Dallas, I bought a ticket to Chicago, and

  finally gothome.

  The next day, I went to the University of Illinois Medical Center and became their one and only

  earthquakevictim. They said I did a good job taping my fingers, and because of the pressure I

  applied,they didn’t evenneed to give me any stitches. They cleaned everything up and sent me on my

  way. I wasone of the luckyones.

  I closed down the offices and haven’t been back to California, even to this day. My partner from

  Liberty Mortgage moved to California, invested in real estate and made a lot of money. Rumor says

  he’s madeoversixty million dollars.

• I started Interstate Financial Group another mortgage company.

  Interstate Financial

  I must have been a masochist because a realtor I knew talked me into opening another mortgage

  company,even after my last partner took advantage of my generosity for over $150,000. So Interstate

  FinancialGroup came to be located in Naperville, IL.

  I started a school for loan officers, but after completing the course, the loan officers all decided to

  workforother mortgage companies. I think I was supposed to fail, however, because I found out

  later thatmypartner in Interstate Financial wasn’t such an honest guy. He was convicted of stealing

  propertyfrom hisclients buy forging deeds, and he went to jail.

  I guess my Guardian Angels did their best to keep me out of jail as well. Even though I wasn’t aware of

  hisdirty dealings, who knows what would have happened if my partnership with him continued?

• I gave up and became A Loan Officer

  I Became A Loan Officer

  I had had enough. At this point of my life, I just wanted to make a living, so I became a loan officer for

  acompany called Alliance Mortgage. At one time, the owner of the company had worked for me

  callingonreal estate offices when I was promoting the computer concept.

  When he worked for me, he was so successful that he opened up his own mortgage company and took

  allthe realtors with him when he left me. Ironically, I was now working for him.

  I needed a gimmick, a way of producing business. One night I had a dream. The dream was that I was

  in mysupply room and I was opening up a box of envelopes.

  When I lifted the cover off, there were no envelopes inside just money. Lots of money. I interpreted

  thedream to mean that I was supposed to send out letters or mailers and they would turn into money.

  I did a mailer campaign, and it did turn into money.

  Collecting the money was the problem. So I left Alliance Mortgage, and started my six-year journey at

  different companies, but I never really found a home – just someplace to spend the night on my

  adventuredown the mortgage path.

• I had my own RadioTalk Show.

  My Radio Show “Mortgage Talk”

  After 23 years in the mortgage business, I got a crazy idea. Maybe I could do a radio talk show about

  mortgages. So I called WBBM Radio in Chicago, and the program director asked me to send a demo

  disk.Where was I going to get a demo disk?

  Six months later, by ‘chance’, I got my demo disk. One afternoon at Washington Mutual, I met Linda,

  andfound out that she had a radio talk show on WJJG. During our conversation she asked me i I

  wouldlike tobe a guest on her show and talk about mortgages, “Mortgage Talk”.

  One Thing led to another and we started a new show, “ABOUT THIS BOOK”. I was Sunday Morning

  for anhour for 52 weeks . Fifty two weeks and I didn’t have enough time to tell all my stories.

  Listeners alsocould call in their stories.

• Reggie and I went ourseparateways.

  I got Rid Of Reggie

  Reggie was a business acquaintance of mine for over 22 years. He was never my friend, but more or

  less aparasite that used my ideas. He was devious, and I really never trusted him.

  But for one reason or another, I never said a flat-out “NO” to him. I guess My Guardian Angels

  decidedoneday that it was time he left, so they took him out of my life.

  Because Reggie didn’t close a lot of loans, he never had any money.

  One day he told me that he owed me $1,800 in commissions, $800 from a passed loan and $1,000

  from thecurrent loan I just closed. Two weeks later, he asked me if I would go to work for him full

  time.

  I replied “How can I work for you when you don’t pay me my commissions?” He was shocked and said

  “Idon’t owe you any money.”

  I replied “You said you did, and I didn’t want to bother you. He said he would check it out. He never

  calledme back That same week, I got an $800 check in the mail, probably by mistake. He never knew

  that I got thecheck.

• I Got Fired

  I got Fired

  In the fall of 2005, I changed jobs, still in the mortgage industry. I became a wholesale

  representative,calling on other mortgage brokers and soliciting them for more business.

  I worked very hard, but I made very little money. I called my sister (who is quite psychic) and asked

  her,why? She answered “It’s your next lesson, and you have to experience it”. I couldn’t stand it ! The

  mortgagebrokers were stupid and did the easiest thing they could to make money, not really caring

  about theirclients, just about their profit.

  One Friday, I called my sister and asked her to ask my Guardian Angles if I could quit.

  She answered “No. They said to give it one more week.”

  On the following Wednesday, I got a job offer from a company called Lakeview Mortgage.

  I told them I’d think about it.

  The next day, I had a telephone confrontation with one of my lenders. She was very stupid and wasn’t

  listening to me. She then called Adam, my boss, who called me and fired me over the phone.

  I know this was set up by my Guardian Angles, making good on their one-week promise. They got

  everyonecrazy and I was fired because they knew I wouldn’t quit on my own. Adam later apologized

  tome, but I saidI’d rather leave. I started my new job with Lakeview Mortgage the next Monday.

  I made $29,000.00 in the next two months!

  Conclusion: God knew I wouldn’t quit the job, so He got them to fire me.

• I Had A Stroke

  I Had A Stroke

  One day, I wasn’t feeling very well. I was actually dragging my foot. When I went to our local

  immediatecare center, the first thing they did was take my blood pressure. They immediately called

  911, and withinminutes, I was in a Fire Department ambulance, on my way to the hospital.

  I kept telling the paramedics that “I’m fine”, and they kept repeating “No, you are NOT fine.”

  They were very serious, I was not fine.

  I thought it would have made a great movie scene.

  It turns out, my leg was dragging because I had had a small stroke three days earlier, and my blood

  pressure was still elevated.I spent the next two days in the hospital while they lowered my pressure

  andfound out that I also had high sugar, diabetes, and high cholesterol.

  My sister got a message for me from my Guardian Angels. “It was your wake up call.”

  The stroke was my own doing because I never took care of myself. The fact that I could still walk and

  talkwas definitely a gift from the Angels. They couldn’t let there be any permanent damage to hinder

  mymission on Earth.

  They saved me, but I knew I’d better start taking care of myself.

  From then on, I was more aware of my health. I knew I’d had high blood pressure for the passed

  twentyyears, and even with the medication, my pressure still varies between 145 and 180. I don’t

  know how muchtime I really have left to complete “The Mission.” But I do know that after the

  stroke, Ichanged. I becamemuch more sensitive, and I even talk slower. It was hard to deal with my

  newemotions.

  I was told by a stroke therapist that it is common for stroke patients to experience the change.

  I’m not really sure that I can deal with the new me. The mortgage business difficult enough to begin

  with,and now I feel its constant emotional stress. One day, it was so bad, that I actually quit. I wanted

  to quit”God” and my mission and life. My sister got another message for me. ” You’re not going back

  just yet, if youjumped off a cliff, you’d just walk away, so stop it all this about quitting.”

  I did officially quit, however. The next day, I had a dream between 7:00 and 8:30 AM.I’m never asleep

  atthat time, and the Guardian Angels wanted to make sure I remembered the dream. The dream was

  awarning that I should pay attention to the signs, and take advantage of opportunities as they

  presentthemselves to me.

  Then one of my clients, Maria sent me a letter saying that “maybe God sent me to her to replace the

  fatherthat she really never had.” It was very nice. I also went to a rest home to meet one of my clients

  and got thismessage while I was there: “Consider yourself very lucky because you could be a patient

  here rather thanjust visiting someone.”

  Then, that afternoon, my wife asked me to go to church with her.

  She had never asked me before. I went, and the sermon was as if it was written for me. It was about

  believing in God when the waters get rough – just like my life was at that moment.I guess that GOD

  doesn’twant me to quit this life, and that I should be ready for the next step. I guess we just have to

  seeif He tookmy resignation seriously or not – to see if I am to be replaced or allowed to continue on

  myjourney.

  I know that it’s God’s decision, not mine. If I am allowed to continue on my journey, I need the tools

  tofightEvil and if I don’t get those tools, then I can’t continue my journey. I must leave it to God and

  allHiswisdom. Who am I to question? I must wait and see, and be ready if the opportunity arises.

• I could't take the stress any more and asked for help.

  My Stress Is Over

  The mortgage stress is finally over. I closed my last problem loan, and for the first time since my

  stroke,myblood pressure dropped to 128/92. It must have always been the stress from the mortgage

  business.

  In the mortgage business, the most important thing is the ability to process loans correctly so they

  canclose. If they don’t close, you don’t get paid.In all my twenty-five years in the business, I’ve never

  reallyhada good loan processor.So for the past twenty-five years I’ve worried about processing the

  few loansthat I’vehad, and never really had time to be doing anything else. Why? Because I’ve been

  too busy toexpand.

  Oswaldo, the owner of Lakeview Mortgage (the company I’m working at now) called me and asked if I

  knewa processor because the one we had wasn’t making it.

  I said no. I did think of one, however, who I didn’t tell him about because I couldn’t remember her

  name.It was a woman I met while I was at Solutions Funding. Roxanna, my representative had

  introduced her tome. I later found out her name was Andrea.

  I have been constantly praying to God for the tools I need to do my mission or else, just take me

  Home.Thenext morning at 10:00 AM, Andrea just happened to call Oswaldo following up on a

  conversationthey’dhad four months prior.

  I later talked with Andrea and asked why she called. She said she was checking her old Mortgage

  Notesandsomething in her mind just gave her the idea to follow up and call. But I believe it was my

  Guardian Angelgiving her a subconscious thought she believed to be her own idea.

  We both agreed that it was God giving her directions.

  But that wasn’t the strangest part. The strange part was that I told her about how I ran out of gas

  whiledriving my cab with a man named Leo. Andrea’s reply was “Was Leo’s last name _______?”

  Myreplywas “YES!” She knew Leo ________, the man who started me in the mortgage industry

  twenty-five yearsearlier!

  Conclusions:

  • God gave me the help I needed.

  • He responded within two hours because I was really getting desperate!

  • He didn’t want me to process loan applications, because I might get lost for another twenty-five years

• They Both Called Me about the same thing

  They Called Me

  Ross Called Me First

  Ross was a former client. He called me because the amount of his mortgage payment went up from

  $1,536 to $1,650 per month, and he wasn’t happy about it. I asked him the amount of his mortgage,

  and he repliedthat it was $460,000. I told him that if he had a 6.00% interest rate, his payment

  wouldbe over $2,760 permonth! That wasn’t the real reason he called me. But he thought it was.

  
  

  He really called because he was supposed to offer me $500,000 to do a mortgage banking company.

  SoIwrote a loan on his house for $530,000 to start the company, but I had problems getting his loan

  approvedbecause I believe in my heart that Evil is working against me.

  Evil does not want me to get to my next step. It will be one step closer to God. The loan was rejected

  becauseI told the truth: It was a non-owner-occupied loan and the investor thought it was owner-

  occupied. Theyfound a reason to deny the loan. So then I resubmitted the loan as “owner-occupied,”

  and got a lower rate.

  Ross doesn’t think I should have any more partners. He wants to make all the money from my efforts.

  I’llhave to see how it will all play out.

  I heard an inner voice say: “Take the money; you can always give it back.”

  But Ross’s loan was rejected the first time because the underwriter didn’t believe that the property

  wasNON-owner-occupied, so we submitted it to the mortgage banker. Solutions Funding suggested

  that weredo the loan and make it OWNER-OCCUPIED because in my life, truth is stranger than

  fiction. It wasrejected the second time. By this time Ross was dubious about the whole thing, I was

  about to give up,and Iasked Guardian Angels for help to know if Ross was or was not the one?

  I got a message that it will be corrected in thirty days.

  I thought they would give me a replacement for Ross, but I was wrong. Instead, they gave me a New-

  andImproved Ross. I asked my sister to ask the Angels, and she got the same answer: “It would be

  corrected inthirty days”.

  • On exactly the thirtieth day, Ross called me tohave a meeting. At the meeting he told me:

  • His landlord at his gallery wanted him out.

  • He found a building that he wanted to buyFor his gallery.

  • He wanted to buy the building for cash andthen re-habilitate the property.

  • He wanted to convert all his real estate intocash, and then take the cash and invest it in

    the mortgage business.

  So my Guardian Angels changed the way Ross thought in order to coincide with my thinking so that

  thepartnership would be a better match. We closed on two loans for him, and gave him $640,000

  cashout tobuy the building. When it is finished we’ll refinance it and take out the money for the

  bankingcompany.

  Conclusion: God will send you what you need to do your job, but it might not be exactly what you

  askedfor.

  Then Jerome Called Me

  After not talking to Jerome for years, he called me out of the blue and said that if he bought a bank,

  would Irun a mortgage company for him. The last time he was my partner, it cost me $150,000.00. I

  guess I’msupposed to be a mortgage banker. First Ross, now Jerome.

  Conclusion: Will God send me $500,000 backup just in case Ross doesn’t give it to me?

• I tried to raise$400,000 to become a Banker

  Can I get $400,000

  I Got the First $100,000

  Carole, one of my clients, committed to giving me a $100,000 toward the money I need to start the

  mortgage banking company. We got her second mortgage approved, and closed.

  But Evil had to fight me a little, even on this. Carol gave me the wrong account number and the title

  company wired it to the wrong account. She misread the beginning number. It was a 3, but it looked

  like aComputer mark, not a 3, But my Guardian Angels came through for me again.

  I got a message to check out the account number. Carole’s account was at Washington Mutual.

  I just happened to know a woman that worked there – Linda from the radio show. Linda checked the

  account for me, and found out it was the WRONG account number. She gave me the correct number.

  Icalled the title company, they reversed the wire, and the money appeared in the right account by the

  end ofthe day. Now we’ll wait and see if I get the rest of my tools. I still need another need $400,000!

  I got Another $300,000

  The next $300,000 was promised to me from a man named Jose. I met Jose two years ago when I gave

  himsome mortgage advice. It was actually more than advice, it was a mortgage lecture. I told him he

  was “realestate rich” and yet he was cash poor. He had a lot of equity in his properties, but NO cash.

  Itold him totake the cash out in case he needs it. There’s an old saying, “Cash is King.”

  The people with the cash can do any thing they choose in this society, and if you have no cash you are

  anybody. I was the only person that ever lectured him on how to use his money. I never saw him

  again, buthe remembered what I said. His loan officer, Edwardo, said that he always asks about me.

  Well, two years later, Jose Torres came back to ask me for some more advise to get him out of

  financialdifficulties. I told him to refinance his one property and pay off two other high interest rate

  mortgagesontwo different other properties.

  Then, refinance the other two properties with low payment mortgages called “Option Arms.” His net

  effectwas to take out $300,000 CASH, and have the same monthly payment.After that, he decided to

  give me$100,000 as an investment from the $300,000 cash out. His partner also committed

  $100,000, andEdwardo, the loan officer, committed to $100,000 investment.

  That was a total of $300,000 committed to my new business adventure because I never lied to him,

  and toldhim what I really felt from the heart. Time will tell if I ever get the money.

  Since God put me in the mortgage business, and I’ve been doing it for twenty-five years, my dream

  wasthatI was going to clean up the mortgage industry. I have all the pieces I need, and just have to

  puteverythingtogether and formulate a business plan. My plan is based on what I think is right, and

  theculmination ofmy twenty-five years of experience in the industry.

  Here goes;

  I plan on opening up a mortgage banking company, who actually will fund the loan.

  I’ll pay the loan officers 100% commission instead of what they’re making now (50% to 90%). In

  effect,there will be no need for a mortgage broker.

  If the loan officers get 100%, they’ll be working for the mortgage banker instead of the mortgage

  broker. Itsounds too easy, yet no one has doing it! The following is based on a $200,000 mortgage:

  They Now Receive With My Plan

  LO. Officer 3,000.00 6,000.00

  Broker 3,000.00 0.00

  Banker 2,000.00 2,000.00

  Mortgage companies have tried different variations like 70%/30% or 80%/20% or 90%/10%; yet no

  oneisdoing 100%! Maybe it’s MY destiny. Who knows!

  And Then I Will Do A Real Estate Company

  Cesar is one of my regular students; I taught him all about the mortgage business, and am happy to

  helphim whenever I can. He called me and asked me if I could help with some mailers. In order to do

  this, I hadto learn the real estate business. After his 2-hour class, I realized that if a mortgage broker

  isto besuccessful, he must own the real estate company so he can create the real estate transaction

  andthen dothe loan. So I came up with a new business idea: A real estate office, giving the real estate

  agents 120%.

  How can you give more than 100% of anything? What a hook!

  I just happen to have a real estate broker hanging around, Nuria. I told her the idea and she loved it.

  We’ll have to wait and see on this one as well. Was Nuria there because I needed her?If the banking

  company is to be successful, we’ll need a lot of mortgages, and the realtor can give us those loans.

  I e-mailed out advertising to “Hire Real Estate Sales People Today.” We’re going to pay the real estate

  salespeople 120% commission, and see how they accept the thought. Okay, you’re asking yourself

  howyou paysomebody a 120% if the whole is always 100%.

  The real estate office is going to be owned by the mortgage broker company. The sale of a $200,000

  housewill probably produce 2.5% commission or $5,000. The sales agent will get another $1,000

  from the officefor, a total of $6,000. If we give $6,000 to the sales agent, how much could we

  possiblemake?

  By combing the mortgage broker’s income and the real estate office income, that could be as much as

  $6,800 in fees on the broker’s side. That will net down to $5,800 for the broker.

  We eliminated the real estate broker and the loan officer’s commission, and we wind up actually

  makingmore money and setting the stage to go into the mortgage banking business, and make even

  more money.