By Matt Joy, Princeton Mortgage Wholesale
Yesterday, the team here at Princeton Mortgage (Pittsburgh) ran the 10th Annual Pittsburgh Marathon. I must say that for five guys that drink more beer than water… I’m awfully proud. Additionally, we have a list of injuries like a hockey team. Earlier this winter, Charles Howell (National Closing Manager) sprained his ankle playing rec basketball and in the process of spraining that ankle he also chipped a bone in his foot. Joshua Teti (Processing & Opening Manager) pulled his hamstring playing rec soccer. A week before the race the back of Josh’s quad skipped blue and purple and went straight black. I don’t think I’ve seen a pulled hamstring turn that color before. Matt Pfrommer (Operations Manager) not bearing any injuries hasn’t physically run more than 1 mile consecutively in more than 10 years… ran 3.8 miles, averaging 11-minute miles (that’s impressive for the big man)! Finally, Brandon Konieczny (Underwriting Manager) traveled 20 hours back from Africa where he spends 2 weeks every 2 years teaching and caring for the children of Uganda… He landed late Friday night, got his first good night of sleep Saturday and was the first runner for our team on Sunday. Oh… yea he didn’t just run the relay (5.8 miles) he completed the half-marathon (13.1 miles). I ran as well… but trust me the last thing you want to hear is me complain about my knees… so I’ll spare you.
If you’ve made it to this point in the blog… you might be asking yourself, why the heck am I reading about this operations team from Princeton? The truth is… the mortgage industry is just brutal. Everyone is on a time crunch, pricing is more important than ever, everyone knows how to underwrite better than the person doing the actual underwrite and closings are never as fast as you want them to be… we tend to forget that there are actual humans working on these loans. They have lives just like the borrowers we’re trying to secure financing for and aspirations just like the sales teams that are driving them to close loans faster. There is a human level involved in the industry that is easy to forget about. What’s special about days like yesterday is that I had the opportunity to watch each of them push themselves outside of their comfort zones to accomplish something for themselves. Yesterday, wasn’t about the mortgage industry or a charity… it was about each one of them, as individuals, overcoming whatever obstacles they were facing in their lives and reaching a goal. This concept isn’t much different than what happens every day in a work setting, but because it’s not on a spreadsheet or noted during a meeting its often forgotten about.
I couldn’t be prouder of this team. Whether it’s a relay race or creating the Effortless Mortgage they are a special team and I think it’s important to recognize them for all that they’ve accomplished not only at work, but in their lives.
Thanks Team!
MJ
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