[caption id="attachment_9654" align="alignright" width="150"] Dave Hershman[/caption]

Dave: You are right to be worried about your business. Even if businesses open up, recovery will not happen overnight. This is likely to be an uneven recovery which somewhat mirrors the recovery from the pandemic itself.

Lender overlays, which have been imposed because of the economic conditions, are not likely to come back all at once. If a lender has a minimum score of 680 for FHA loans, it is not going to move to 620 all at once. It is likely to move to 660 first. Par pricing, which has virtually disappeared within some products is also not likely to come back overnight, especially as servicers are dealing with forbearance nightmares.

If I could tell you how long the virus restrictions will stay in effect, I could venture as to how long the economic recovery will take. These unknown factors will determine how long it will take for credit standards to loosen up as well. The good news is, if the economic recovery is slow, we will have low rates for a longer period of time, and as lender standards do loosen up, more will be able to refinance. If you remember, we had quite a refinance boom during the slow recovery from the great recession.

But, we must first start by addressing your attitude.

Loan officers all over the country are asking me: what do I do now that I am home and I can't see my real estate agents? Some are hiding. Others are in difficult work circumstances because they may be home schooling kids and don't have a home office.

Yes, some are just frozen with fear. But others are taking the opportunity to learn new technologies and more. For example, I have some originators telling me that they are having more face time than ever with their agents using Zoom or other technologies.

Others are telling me that they can make more calls without the distractions that an office delivers. Still others are ramping up their social media sites and postings and beefing up their database efforts.

Now, I know these are rough times. We are in a pandemic, our clients are getting laid off and programs are changing, it seems, by the hour. But rates are low and there are plenty of opportunities out there, especially since a good portion of your competition is frozen at home. During the financial crisis, many thrived on short-sales and foreclosures. Then they made a great living on refinances during the long recovery.

This recovery should be shorter. The question is: will you be wound up and ready to go when it happens, or are we going to have to wake you up from your slumber? You decide.

Dave Hershman is Senior VP of Sales of Weichert Financial and a top author in the mortgage industry. Dave has published seven books, as well as hundreds of articles and is the founder of the OriginationPro Marketing System and Mortgage School. His site is www.OriginationPro.com and he can be reached at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..