A family of three sit on the floor on a white shag rug in front of a tan couch eating pizza together A prominent mortgage bank posted this employment ad last week in a very popular mortgage blog: The company culture at ****** Mortgage is a direct reflection of the lender’s vision to Inspire Hope, Deliver Dreams, and Build Prosperity.

I laughed when I read that b/c I am pretty sure the company really just originates and funds mortgage loans.

I also laughed b/c it reminded me of a blog Scott Galloway (a Marketing Guru I cite often) wrote about “yoga babble.”

According to Galloway, when margins are fat and/or when capital is abundant, all too many firms resort to lofty and all but meaningless “touchy-feely” mission statements that often signal troubles in the future.

Galloway provides numerous yoga babble examples, showing how stock performance after an IPO is often inversely proportional to yoga babble reliance.

WeWork for example wanted to “Elevate the world’s consciousness” (not so much 😊) – when they really just rented office space.

Peloton wanted to “sell happiness” – when they really just sold really cool stationary bikes.

I highly recommend reading the above linked blog b/c it is short, interesting and pretty funny.

I bring this up b/c the entire mortgage industry is now running on fat margins as a result of all the refi demand – and we are again seeing “yoga babble” surface.

The same thing will happen with real estate brokerages as the market heats up again.

Yoga babble is harmless when times are good, but it often foretells problems down the road when margins and/or capital inflows inevitably tighten.

And tighten they will.

The mortgage industry has about a 12 to 18 month run until the current refi boom ends – at which time a brutally destructive battle for market share will start.

The winners will be the low-cost, highly efficient producers who only rely on efficiencies, value and stellar customer service instead of on lofty mission statements.

A friend of mine recently sent me this excellent blog about DoorDash selling pizzas below cost in order to win market share.

A pizza store that did not even deliver pizzas discovered that DoorDash was offering their pizzas for $8 less than they sold them.

Comically, the pizza store bought their own pizzas from DoorDash in order to resell them at a profit. 😊

There is much more to the story but the big lesson here is that companies in low margin businesses are often willing to lose a ton of money in an effort to win market-share.

And – this is a reality we will all face in the future. And it is a reality that will make yoga babble reliance totally unaffordable.

So, we probably should all focus on what we really do.

At JVM – we help birds fly higher and babies smile more while sharing positive energy with the universe.

Kidding!

We close mortgage loans better than anyone else!

 

Jay Voorhees
Founder/Broker | JVM Lending
(855) 855-4491 | DRE# 1197176, NMLS# 310167

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