“Find a fantastic lender and a great realtor, build a team, and in two months to even a year you’ll be smiling. Consumers need to feel empowered – that’s the central theme with first-time buyers. There are headwinds, but it’s not as daunting as they think,” he said, adding that knowledge is key.
“There are certainly obstacles in the marketplace, such as rising home prices and questions about affordability. But while all that is very real it’s not much unlike what people faced maybe 20-30 years ago, when they were facing interest rates of 13-14%.”
The upside of COVID
With 43 office branches and a footprint in 27 States, the Pewaukee, WI-based company has grown exponentially under Buege’s helm, even during the pandemic.
He said the independent mortgage lender had not only weathered the COVID storm but fully embraced the technological changes that followed in its wake, predicting that the virtual work experience in the industry “was here to stay” and that the pandemic-enforced office exodus should be seen as an opportunity for companies to grow.
He said: “What the (pandemic) was signaling to everyone in our industry was that mortgage lending has become very automated.