This week finds me back fresh from a mortgage symposium in Ottawa. Meeting this time was in the aviation museum.

My two favourite things all wrapped into one.

I’ve mentioned this before. There is just something about meeting with lenders and reviewing their portfolio offerings that causes the creative juices to flow.

Staring at an F-18 for an hour is also pretty cool. Lean mean fighting machine.

I’m sure there’s an analogy here or two or three.

Well there was no B-52 or even a B-17, but there was one massive Lancaster bomber on display. One bomber or “B” class of note on display and magically also one “new” B-lender on display. I hadn’t a clue who VLC was. Fortunately the district manager showed up with some info and caught me by surprise. Self-insured (i.e. not CMHC/Genworth/AIG) and willing to go to 90%. Golly! How about bankrupts and folks in proposal? Bankrupts with established credit 85% or 80% with no credit, with no 2 year waiting! Folks in proposal, they will use the clean payment history of the proposal as a form of credit … wait there’s more…. they will also consider doing a refinance of your property in order to payout your proposal. Likely lower your overall mortgage rate (most of them today are in the 12-14% range with HLC or HSBC), thus give them some cash to live on. Now wouldn’t that bring a smile to good hard working stiffs that just need a break.

To me at least that was quite the “bomb shell”. Now if I could just get that paramedic who dropped into the office one day to call me I could offer him a solution. At least I gave him my card. Maybe he’ll call and ask a question.

The “stage” was set up right beside a beautiful Challenger Jet. An absolutely magnificent plane. I kept staring at this aircraft while the panel discussion was going on about how to package up commercial deals. I kept thinking most of the people here are probably to scared of the “unknown” to even think about attempting a commercial deal. Personally, I just see it as a “challenge”. More work, more documentation, more effort, longer closings, more hoops to jump through, etc. But the payoff is also 4 times as large. Right now for me, it’s the icing on the cake. I imagine building a business of commercial deals and start to think, maybe I could one day afford not just to ride in a challenger, but afford to buy one. (Ok, so I should really check the price of a small personal jet and maintenance costs, but if you’re going to dream… why not dream BIG).

I guess there are other war analogies, like much of the time I feel like I’m in the trenches trying to get deals done. I get this one sweet deal and try to make it “fly” only to get shot down by a lender. Or all the new strict documentation requirements are like flying through flack. Dangerous as there is real potential the ‘flack’ could take you out of the sky.

They also had a couple “sections” of he Avro Arrow. Sorry, but I just have to draw a comparison to Nortel at this stage. Government has done nothing to protect one of it’s key critical assets and now it’s being sold off in parts to different companies around the world. Will folks look back on Harper like they do Diefenbaker?

How about Spitfires or the P-51 Mustangs. Lean mean fighting machines. Comparisons? I guess the brokers who have been in the business for 10+ years. They know how to handle themselves in a dog fight and get deals done. They have weapons at their command and know how and when to use them. I guess their assistant would be their wing man.

So many planes…. so little time.