Money doesn't actually talk. We do.

My So-Called FiLife: Steve Heideman

Today’s post comes from Steve Heideman, President of the Upfront Mortgage Broker Association and, more importantly, a genuine and official FiLife Guru. Like other FiLife Gurus, Steve will be contributing articles to the site, answering questions from users on topics he knows a lot about and helping in innumerable other ways.

I don’t think anyone grows up wanting to be a mortgage broker. In the minds of most of the public, we are just above “used car salespeople” in terms of our business ethics and integrity. We would need to reach up to scratch the belly of a snake.

I got into the mortgage business pretty much by accident. I was working in sales support at an organic gardening products company (my college major was Biology with a Botany concentration) and my supervisor’s husband owned a mortgage company. Being a Gen Xer, I was always good with computers. One day my supervisor came to me and said that her husband needed help putting together a computer network for his mortgage company. Making a little more than slave wages at the time, I jumped at the chance for a side job in computers. When I went to his office and started to learn about the business, I became intrigued by the idea of being a “financial professional.” Since I was always good at math, I found a natural affinity to being a mortgage loan officer.

A few years into my career, I was lured away by a financial services firm that did financial planning, insurance and asset allocation. They hired me to start a mortgage division for them. During that time, my financial education took a quantum leap. I began to make the shift from looking at a mortgage as a debt to be paid off, to viewing it as a financial planning tool-a view that would later be affirmed by a study done by the National Bureau of Economic Research.

When I was done with my stint at the financial services firm, I knew that I had a vision for a different kind of mortgage company. One that did not focus on pushing products and “selling” loans, but rather a company that put the mortgage where it belongs-in the context of a family’s short and long term financial planning goals. This is why I moved to Arizona and started United Mortgage Financial Group, Inc.

One thing I never could get comfortable with was the degree to which bait and switch tactics were commonplace in my industry. I guess I’m too Pollyannaish, but I always find it amusing that one of my unique value propositions as a mortgage professional is that I am honest. In my world, that is just the way business is done. It is my core philosophy that the surest and best way to get what you want, is to help as many people as possible get what they want. One day I was reading the paper and I came across a column written by Jack Guttentag (aka “The Mortgage Professor“). He was discussing the mortgage industry and his concept of an “Upfront Mortgage Broker.” An Upfront Mortgage Broker is a mortgage professional who works for their clients on a fixed-fee basis that is negotiated (surprise, surprise) up front. The fixed fee may be paid by the client, the lender or both, but all lender rebates above the agreed-upon price are given back to the client. The commitment of an Upfront Mortgage Broker can be found here.

This concept was music to my ears. So I wrote to the professor and, shortly after that, became a bona-fide Upfront Mortgage Broker. In 2005, the professor came to me and asked me to be the founding president of a new association to ensure the survival of the Upfront Mortgage Broker after his retirement. I agreed and in 2006 the Upfront Mortgage Broker Association was born.

As far as my own mortgage, I utilize interest-only loans because I am a believer in keeping myself as liquid as possible for emergencies, disabilities or economic downturns. (Boy, am I glad I did with the current mortgage credit crunch :))

– Steve Heideman