A Boulder, Colo., mortgage broker has received a federal prison sentence of five years for orchestrating a scam that ripped off a bank to the tune of almost $32 million in bogus residential mortgage loans. So reports CBS Denver.

Several loan officers have written me and asked a question like this: I understand why no one could have predicted the pandemic. However, it seems to me that we should have geared up for lower rates as soon as it happened. Why did it seem like these record low rates and the increase in business took the country by surprise? The lack of foresight had taken me by surprise and I wound up missing many opportunities as others jumped on my previous customers before I could act. Plus, my company was not ready for the volume. Why can't we get better predictions? 

In my training classes for originators, I often compare selling to sports to help students understand key concepts. The analogy works because students can easily relate to the similarities—the competition, the emotional highs and lows, and the identification of clear winners and losers at the end of a game. While all of this is true, a more accurate comparison would be selling to the game of chess.