Wednesday, January 16, 2008

What kind of RUSH are you?

I work for a mortgage broker. The job of a mortgage broker company is to bring in the clients and place them with a lender that best suits their needs. We deal in very high volume and send lots of file packages to several lenders (Citibank, HSBC, Wells Fargo, etc.). More often than not we are at the mercy of the lender's own volume for a quick mortgage approval. To circumvent this problem the loan originator who brought in the business would mark the client’s file with the word RUSH with a red magic marker. Usually in big letters across the front cover of the file. This will indicate to the lender that we need them to step on it so we can get an approval quicker than a non-RUSH file. This sounds simple. However, the busier we get, the more RUSH files get sent to the already overwhelmed lender. Therefore if every file is a RUSH then NONE of the loans becomes a RUSH! The more RUSH-es we have, the word RUSH no longer has a meaning. The urgency of these files gets diluted.

To troubleshoot, we have come up with different levels of RUSH depending upon the client’s situation. Below is a matrix of these levels (Sort of a Homeland Security Advisory System for Mortgages):

- *BLANK* (No Rush. Client’s do not have a deadline to get approved, meet rate & guidelines or closing).
- RUSH (Client needs an approval in a week. And will need to close within 60 days to meet rate & guidelines).
- RUSH RUSH! (Client needs an approval within 5 days as they need it for a coop board meeting and closing within 60 days).
- MAJOR RUSH!! (Client needs an approval within 4 days as they need it for a coop board meeting and closing within 45 days).
- SUPER RUSH!!! (Without an approval in 3 days, their coop board meeting will be delayed a month and cannot close within 30 days now before their rate goes up).
- SUPER SUPER RUSH!!!! (An approval must be faxed within 2 days as the seller has already set a closing date 20 days from now and there are a lot of outstanding items that have to be cleared!).
- EXTREME RUSH!!!!! (Must have the approval by tomorrow!! The seller is threatening my client to close within 15 days!!)

Well it does get worse. We have yet to use these following terms, but maybe we may have to as this industry gets more frantic and competitive:

- SUPER SEVERE EXTREME RUSH!!!!!! (200 pages were faxed to the lender at 9:01 AM! Must get an approval no later than noon today! Must close by Friday or the clients lose their $100,000 down payment!!!)
- BLOODY SUICIDAL SUPER SEVERE EXTREME RUSH!!!!!!! (HELP!!! We stole this loan from another mortgage broker!! Needs to close in 48 hours! We just faxed you 300 pages. Need the closing set now!!! AGHHH!!!!!!).
- MAJOR SUPER EXTREME SEVERE BLOODY SUICIDAL HOMICIDAL RUSH RUSH RUSH RUSH!!!!!!!!!! (I’ve never seen this kind of RUSH before. But if I do, it will probably be the seventh sign of the apocalypse).

- The Mortgage Cat.

19 comments:

Anonymous said...

This is the mortgage broker you work for...now stop blogging as I have a MAJOR SUPER EXTREME SEVERE BLOODY SUICIDAL HOMICIDAL RUSH RUSH RUSH RUSH file!!!!!!!!!!

Doc said...

O-U-C-H !!

The Mountain Cat said...

Hey 'anonymous', whoever you are, It is only a SUPER SEVERE EXTREME RUSH!!!!!! So I have some time.

Anonymous said...

I said who I was...the mortgage broker you work for. Since you don't know what a MAJOR SUPER EXTREME SEVERE BLOODY SUICIDAL HOMICIDAL RUSH RUSH RUSH RUSH file is..then let me tell you. IT'S A DEAL THAT CAME IN TODAY THAT NEEDED TO CLOSE LAST WEEK. What time? You have no time. Get in your TIME MACHINE NOW!

The Mountain Cat said...

I know who you are. No Time Warp for me boss, I am off the clock.

Karen said...

I understand that there some things that need to be rushed, but in general I think clients always thing their situation is major bloody super sucicial severe homicial rush. People need to chill out and realize things will get done in proper time.

Or maybe I just hate all clients today.

Anonymous said...

You forgot MAJOR SUPER DUPER EXTREME SEVERE RUSH RUSH RUSH RUSH: Just sent over 4 pages and clients are at the closing table waiting for the wire!!!

Loved the blog :-)

Schmoop said...

This post gave me quite a rush. Cheers!!

The Mountain Cat said...

Karen - It is just the nature of my business.

Claracita - The thruth of the matter is that you don't underwrite fast enough for me. Just kidding. Who loves you more than me?

Matt-Man - A RUSH like a needle to a vein? eek!

Anonymous said...

Hurry up and wait!

Real Live Lesbian said...

Gah, I'm stressed just reading about all this rushing!

I'm going to be one of the Rush-Rushers soon. Wish me luck!

The Mountain Cat said...

And I am just as busy as I was last year with LESS files. The mortgage industry has gone haywire!

Doc said...

I think that Christine needs to Hurry up and create a Blogger profile.... and put a RUSH on it.

The Mountain Cat said...

Yo sis, See you in Bensonhurst tomorrow?

Anonymous said...

Vince - send me an email with instructions on how to create a profile. STAT!

And yes...I'll be sitting in traffic tomorrow for, oh, maybe 5 hours so I can stay for two and drive back!

Doc said...

It's easy Christine... just go to the top of the page and click on create a blog. It will have you create an account.

Then you can "guest blog" here if you want to...Just have Vin send me your e-mail address

Anonymous said...

Yes! ASAP! I'm going...rushing...faster...(This pace is easy for me. I'm an Aries!)

Anonymous said...

Did someone say they needed a mortgage?...I can rush it thru in no time and my closer, Vince, well he rocks! It just a jump to the left......

Anonymous said...

How about EVERYONE "ruch" back to work....