LETTER FROM THE PUBLISHER

Cautionary Tales: Some Swear By Them

VINCENT M. VALVO | Publisher, Editor & CEO

A good magazine doesn’t parrot back to readers what they already know or want to hear. Its job is to be insightful, to be thoughtful and to present readers with ideas and information they might otherwise miss.

But in these divided days of reactionary politics, where so many believe anything that doesn’t conform to their personal orthodoxy must be baseless lies and conspiracies, it’s dangerous to put out thoughtful pieces readers might not want to read.

Real estate agents, for example, might take exception to NMP Contributing Writer Lew Sichelman’s piece in this issue where he suggests they inappropriately give financial advice better served by a loan originator. But that doesn’t make the article any less true in assessing the situation.

SURVEY SAYS

In mid-July, amidst industry hullabaloo about the chairman of AIME being sued for slander, having disseminated a pair of unhinged, salacious and sexual video rants (followed by equally gutter-quality texts), National Mortgage Professional reached out to the mortgage community to see what it thinks is the state of mortgage women being treated equally and fairly. We invited over 100,000 mortgage pros to participate. The responses were anonymous. And eyeopening.

Perhaps we’d all like to believe we’re beyond the days when men were treated as superior and women disregarded in the profession. Clearly, we’re not. The dichotomy between the answers from men and women is striking. Our industry needs to be better. Our leaders need to be better. Our commitment to professionalism needs to be better.

What’s not included in the story you’ll find later in this issue are some of the worst comments that came back – all from men. When we asked for thoughts on what can be done to improve sexism in the mortgage industry, we received many thoughtful ideas from women. From the men, the responses were more like these actual answers:

“What is being said is more a reflection of them than you. Grow up and stop being such a whiner.”

“Stop sending out surveys about stuff like this just because of one stupid isolated incident.”

“GET THE C**TS OUT!”

There were some men who made considered, rational replies, and we applaud them because only by thinking through the problems we face (even if we don’t realize they are problems), can we improve the professionalism in this industry for everyone. That’s why we’re willing to print not just the stories everyone wants to see, but those we all need to see as well.