“When they finally have a break from their work and family lives, they need to get whatever business taken care of during that time that they can,” he said. “That may mean they apply for a mortgage at 8 p.m. after the kids are put to bed, and they have questions about how to complete certain parts of the application.”
The harsh truth, he said, is that if brokers aren’t available to field that client’s call, they’ll simply find an answer with a competitor vying for their business. “I can lose them as a client at any point they wander onto the internet for answers to any questions,” he said. “Today, we all live in the age of instant gratification.
“I believe those individuals and companies who can satisfy that need for instant gratification will win more often than those who cannot.”
Work-life balance in mortgages: An impossible task?
Attempting to find a work-life balance isn’t an entirely lost cause for mortgage brokers and other professionals in the industry. Gagliano pointed out that loan officers can hire LO assistants who work remotely from other countries and are on hand to field calls in different time zones, allowing the LO to spend time with family.
They can also take a firm stance on work hours, costly though that may be. “If an LO sets work hours of 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Friday and 9 a.m. to 12 noon on Saturdays, then that LO must know that he or she is going to lose some business because their work hours did not fit a particular borrower’s hours or timeframe,” he said.