It’s important to be stylish; just ask Pope Francis. (Page down once or twice to see the fake image. And we wish the 86-year-old a speedy recovery from a respiratory infection.) Being Pope has its pluses and minuses, from an occupational perspective, but, returning to mortgage banking, the next time you’re rolling your eyes at a difficult loan file, or exasperated with the behavior of a whiny client, remember that there are worse professions. Being a real estate agent is not bad either. (Remember, not all real estate agents are Realtors, with a capital “R,” and there are many fine agents that aren’t.) Per this source there are 1,548,058 Realtors in the United States as of January, 2023. There are only 578,000 active listings nationwide. You can do the math. Do you have the product set to help those buyers? I don’t know how much it costs real estate brokerages to have their name listed in HW (HousingWire)’s “1,061 real estate brokerage firms in the RealTrends Nation’s Best rankings are a compilation of the brokerages who did not rank in the top 500, but are no less impressive.” “No less impressive”… (Today’s podcast can be found here and this week it’s sponsored by MGIC. Since 1957, MGIC has insured more than 13.5 million mortgage loans with innovative products, tools and strategies that help customers solve problems and fuel growth. Explore tools and solutions to boost your business here. Interview with Equifax’s Craig Crabtree on financially inclusive lending and differentiated data sets.)