Todays Mortgage Business

Dud? Joined: 18 Feb 2012 Posts: 3

Greetings, I am new to this site and need some solid advise. I left the industry on May 24th 2009 and took a job working with family for past 2 years. I was in line to take over the family business but I am having too many problems dealing with my parents. I grew the family business 25-30% and increased there yearly sales by over $1,100,000 a year. I was getting paid a base of $71,000 a year and my car, car insurance and medical benefits were all paid for. Altogether they were paying me $90,000 a year with all the perks. Now I am in a position where I am really not happy and I have a craving to go back into the mortgage business. When I was in the mortgage business I always broke $100K a year and I always had a nice referral network. I am wondering if it is a good idea to dive back into my mortgage career because I hear its coming around. I hear that there are LO's making $25,000 a month again. I live in NY and The loan values are high in my city. I currently left my job but I could get it back. I have my state and federal tests scheduled for MONday and Tuesday and already took the 20 hour pre licensing course. Am I making a mistake trying to get back in the game? With my previous job with my family I had security but I was not happy. I had no independence. I had to deal with my family day in and day out. The family business requires tons of hours, just like the mortgage business. I have always been a hard worker and always considered myself top 3 on my sales floor of any mortgage company sales floor I worked on every single month. I know if I get back into mortgages I can't do it part time because then I will never maximize the potential. Basically a lot of you guys who have been practicing Mortgages every day can help me make a good decision. I am kind of torn right now. Also the mortgage bank I am interested are willing to pay me 1% of my volume and offer FHA and conventional mortgages with no closing costs. The even pay the borrowers upfront MIP. Is there good money to be made in this industry or am I spinning my wheels? Please advise. And by the way, The reason I left the business in the first place is because 6 of the last banks I worked for got shut down. My last manager was walked of the sales floor in handcuffs and I never came back to work in mortgages since i saw that

Posted: Sun Feb 19, 2012 2:25 am

EZ... I will give you my 2 cents for what it's worth since you asked... Also because that is about all I have left thanks to the collapse of the mortgage biz. It really all depends on all the things you mentioned you could do. If you really can get 1% of your volume, close enough volume to make that work for you, and are ready for WAYYYY more stress than you can imagine from underwriters, appraisers, etc. then maybe it actually will be good. I'm in a completely different part of the country where if someone were to ask the same question I would tell them not to even consider it.
But if you do decide to go that way, let me know... I'll come run your family's business. Smile

Best of luck.

Dud? Joined: 18 Feb 2012 Posts: 3

Thanks for your input. I decided to give it my all. I appreciate your feedback very much. By the way, what state are you located?

Dud? Joined: 07 Dec 2010 Posts: 5 Location: California

EZ FUNDING wrote:

Thanks for your input. I decided to give it my all. I appreciate your feedback very much. By the way, what state are you located?

You decided to give it your all in what? Mortgage?

Be prepared to be blamed for every delay in the transaction that are out of your control. It is very hard to get new realtors these days. Well let me rephrase that, you can get them, but it is hard to keep them happy during the transaction. It is not a given that you will get another transaction from them after the first one, no matter how hard you work. Once again, the loan officer is blamed for appraisal delays, delays in price adjustments when the appraisal comes in low, delays because underwriting keeps asking for more and more conditions, etc...

If you did jump back in the business, I wish you the best!!

Dud? Joined: 09 May 2011 Posts: 3

Hey EZ,

I am located in California. I was in a similar situation as you were early last year, but the only difference was that the business I was planning on taking over was already a mortgage brokerage firm. I decided to leave and open my own broker shop and it was the best thing I've done.

It is good that your new company offers that no cost option because in my opinion, that is the best way to go. It doesn't apply to a lot of areas, but definitely in areas where the loan amounts are larger. Since you've been out for the past few years, you have a lot of catching up to do in terms of newer guidelines, etc...but hard work will pay off for you.

Rates are still very low and you'd be surprised how many people that can qualify for a refi have not taken advantage of these low rates. At least 80% of my business now is still refis, but that will not last forever. You need to work on those realtor relationships. Those do take a long time to develop. You just need to be honest with everybody, keep on top of all your clients and that will solve a lot of problems.

There is definitely still good money to be made in this business if you know what you are doing. It definitely helps that you are in an area with higher loan amounts.

Good luck with everything!

Dud? Joined: 18 Feb 2012 Posts: 3

Thank you for your comments. I just finished my state and national exam for the MLO and did well. I decided to dive back in the mortgage game. There are a lot of people who say market is bad but I don't got any better options at the moment.

I also have a NY broker license that's in inactive status. I plan on activating it once I get rolling and am more knowledgable of all the new rules and guidelines.

Not to get personal but is it still possible to make $250,000 a year?

Dud? Joined: 09 May 2011 Posts: 3

Definitely possible.

Posted: Fri Mar 02, 2012 11:10 pm

Tomhussey wrote:

In today's time the mortgage business is spread like a little baby.There is an immediate need for turn around mortgages, and the public sees the product as affirmative.In the mortgage business the ratio of the profit is very good.

Huh?

Someone translate this for me.

Posted: Fri Mar 09, 2012 3:25 am

Every time i got jealous of someone making that much in the mortgage biz I got over it later when I saw them going to jail later.

Make it big, but make it honest Cool

C-4 Joined: 10 Jan 2008 Posts: 1139

Featster wrote:

Tomhussey wrote:

In today's time the mortgage business is spread like a little baby.There is an immediate need for turn around mortgages, and the public sees the product as affirmative.In the mortgage business the ratio of the profit is very good.

Huh?

Someone translate this for me.

Um nope no help here!