Get The Best!

Did you ever wonder how people with medical problems always tell you that their doctor is the best one in the city (or the county or the state?) There may be 100 doctors specializing in their area of need. How could they have possibly found the best one out of those 100?

The answer is, of course, that they can’t. Patients aren’t even qualified to make that kind of determination. What is going on here psychologically is that people who are nervous about their health take great comfort in believing that they are in the best hands, medically speaking. Look at the alternative, “My doctor is a jerk and I don’t have any confidence in him.” Not much satisfaction there!

One great thing about doctors which, frankly, allows us to have confidence in whichever of those 100 specialists we end up with is that doctors know their fields of competence and don’t try to practice outside those areas. Referring doctors know that too, which is how that referral got made and why the patient should have confidence in their new doctor.

I have a heart problem and my cardiologist recently installed a pacemaker, a relatively simple procedure. Had I required open heart surgery, I am positive that he would have referred me to a cardiothoracic surgeon to do this highly-involved procedure.

I believe that people should go through a similar process whenever they need professional help. Need a doctor? Get a referral. Need a CPA? Get a referral? Need a financial planner? Get a referral? Need a lender? Call an 800 number.

Oops! What’s wrong here? We had a sudden break in the continuity here. The sad fact is that many people seem to think that getting real estate financing is so easy that they can, indeed, call an 800 number. They think that they can get just as good a deal as if they got a referral from a friend.

I don’t believe that for a minute. I have dealt with almost 3,500 consumers in my career, and most of them are pretty smart. In most cases, however, because of my involvement in the process, they end up doing something different that what they thought they were going to do before we met. Those changes resulted in money saved.

I also know that had they called an 800 number and told some dweeb what they wanted, the dweeb would have gotten them exactly what they asked for and they would have missed the opportunity to save money.

Unlike the doctor, the dweeb at the lender won’t say, “This is just not something I’m familiar with. Let me refer you to someone else more accomplished.” Never happen! Their job is to do that the boss tells them to do, and the boss tells them not to solve problems, just to get you to send in the application.

The genesis of this is that that type of borrower just doesn’t believe that real estate finance is an area where there is such a thing as an expert. They don’t believe that someone else knows more about it than they do. They don’t believe that they need help. They hold those beliefs at their own peril.

The fact is that real estate sales and real estate financing are both areas where experts can and do regularly help their clients make better choices and save money. Unlike the doctors, however, many, many practitioners in our field do not have enough expertise to be able to help. Some only know how to answer the phone.

When you are embarking on a real estate venture, you want to deal with the best experts you can find, and you can find them by get a referral!

Be careful out there!