Siegel of Circle Mortgage answers questions about her career and her decisions

Name: Dale Robyn Siegel Title: President Company/firm: Circle Mortgage Group Years with company/firm: 12 Years in field: 27 Years in real estate industry: 27 Industry: Residential Mortgage Lending Address: 500 Mamaroneck Avenue Suite 320 Harrison, New York 10528 Telephone: 914-422-0810 Email: [email protected] URL: www.dalesiegel.com Responsibilities include: As president of CMG, I oversee the operations and procedures of the company to make sure they adhere to NYS Banking Department Regulations as well as NMLS (Federal) guidelines. As an active Mortgage Loan Originator, I have client contact and control over each loan application I take and close with lenders. I am also a licensed attorney and adjunct professor at both NYU and Baruch College. I rarely practice law these days, but use the practical experience in my writing and lecturing on residential real estate. I speak to real estate professionals on a regular basis and do hundreds of seminar for the consumer. I will be starting another consumer book on real estate this summer. Real estate organizations / affiliations: Sustaining member of WWBA, co-chair of WWBA International Women's Rights Committee, NAREE, NABE, Westchester County Bar Association, Westchester County Board of Realtors What single event professional or personal has most significantly impacted your career? Having a book published. The New Rules for Mortgages was released in September, 2009 by Penguin Publishing Group. I truly believe that being an author creates a perceived level of expertise unequal to experience. Being "published" provides a different platform to speak and offer opinion, predictions and trends on your subject area. It has also opened up an entirely new avenue for me-writing. I am working on a second book and have others planned for the near term. I find that I enjoy writing and speaking on an area I feel so passionate about. Of course, you need to prove your expertise each time you work with a new client, but it certainly helps. What was the best decision that you made in the last year? To move my physical office, work virtually more often and set up a different time management system. After ten years, I moved about 3 miles down the road to a lovely executive suite in a modern office park. The parking is ample, the location is secure and the office suite is full service. It is a joy for me to be here. One day I woke up and said, I hate this drive and it kills two hours out of every day if not more. So, I set up my servers and upgraded hardware to the latest and greatest. This allows me to work outside of the physical office anywhere at anytime. I find that I am much happier without that 5 day a week commute and more productive. It took some time to create a system but my staff and I work very well together and can accomplish the same amount of work in less time. The system has been very effective for me, both personally and professionally. What impact has social networking had on your success? Social media is an enormous part of my business model and is the future for me. I began blogging in 2006 and have been using Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and other vehicles for several years. It is the easiest way to get a message across on a new rule or process in the real estate industry. Old clients have been able to locate me via social media, new clients can easily review my profile before contacting me and vendors are able to verify my credentials in order to do business. There have been many studies in my industry that prove social media will be the best form of communication with clients on home buying and financing and I am happy I become entrenched early on. As far as speaking and writing, it is the best portfolio I can maintain to show a publisher. In any industry, technology should be foremost on the mind of management; some enjoy it more than others!