Any mortgage asssociates/brokers out there?!

[molly]

I just wanted to get some opinions from those that either are or were in the mortgage biz. What do you like best about it? Or what do you like least? I just got licensed and must admit to being a bit worried about the commission-based earnings! I will have to work PT somewhere for awhile to get some dough rolling in. We used a mortgage gal for our home purchase last year and she did a great job for us, but even she worked as a waitress part time! Any comments or advice would be greatly appreciated! Thanks.

[Emo]

Well.... use to work in that industry, never as a broker, just an assistant and lets just say I went back to school to find something in a more secure industry.

Things are probably a bit better now but they are most likely still slow. The time to be a broker was about 5-10 years ago when things were booming. When things slowed down in 2009 I watched my broker go a week or two at a time with no new applications coming in and he was an old-school broker with lots of existing clients. I would also expect a lot of deals that were once approvable, no longer are due to the recent CMHC and mortgage rules that just changed here a little while ago. Was much easier to approve people with a 35 year ammortization, many of those people would not be approved today.


What are you not going to like about it? The fact that when you sign on with a brokerage they will assign you to a broker to train you. This broker will make you do all your own work and give you their crummy referrals that they don't think are approvable or require a lot of legwork. If you do get a loan for one of these people, the broker training you then gets a sizeable cut of your commission. Only after you are done your training period will you get to keep your own money. **Again this never affected me but I saw new brokers working their butt off to get a deal approved and I knew they were poor quality or un-approvable deals. It was annoying to watch the broker get a cut of anything that did go through when they didn't lift a finger to help. The broker is supposed to "mentor" you but they don't want to help you too too much as you will be competition to them at some point.

You will spend a lot of time "door-knocking" or doing presentations, trying to make contacts, meet clients etc... walk-ins are not all that common and are usually distributed through-out the office on a rotational basis. Any clients you do get you need to stay in contact with as lots of deal come from re-fi's and people buying rentals etc.

Hope that helps. Most people I know have not started to make decent money on their own (at the point where they are not worrying about the next paycheck, things are more steady) closer to the start of the three year mark.

The good thing is some of the clients are really great, you will have people that will come back to you year after year and get to design some neat deals.

[Tuco]

I just passed and started my broker business a couple months ago. I did a lot of research on companies before I joined one....and yes some of them do what the last post said, but some dont......each brokerage company does business, hires, trains, and structures how they pay their brokers in a different way. It is up to you to do your due dilligence and decide for yourself what company is right for you.

The biggest mistake someone can make in deciding on becomming a broker is thinking they are going to magiclly start making money from day one. You have to treat it like a business not a job. I opened a company, opened a bank account and deposited money for start up capital. My wife and I have saved so I dont have to make a dime for the first 6 months or more so there is no huge pressure to pay the bills. This way I dont have to work another job and can deadicate my time to the business.

What attracts me to the business is the ability to work for myself, the potential down the road for a large income, and the mortgage business is different from most other commision based business like it (realtors, financial advisors ect...) that most people will need a mortgage, and they renew every 4-5 years. I know that I will have to work very hard over the next few years to build my client list and start getting repeat busines but should become alot easier in the future as long as I set myself up for the future.

It is a sales business and you have to alway be selling to fill that sales funnel.

There is other options for you as well though....there is a couple brokerages that pay a salary or you can work for the bank.....the pay is much less but you have that salary comming in.

[Jager]

I've been a mortgage associate for just over a year now. I just went full time at the start of April this year and as is echoed in the previous posts you have to have some money in the bank before you start!

The number one thing I can recommend to anyone is networking!!! It is the best way to get and grow your business! It is a tough go at first but most things in this world that are worth while don't come easy. I did about 10 deals last year while still working full time and made the decision to go full time this year to be able to do more volume and serve my clients better.

Make sure your better half (if you have one) is behind you 100%. My wife could not be more accomidating, she is also a great source of referal business.

But I still did go out and get a part time job..........not really for the money, but just to get out of the house (I work from home). It will be tough going to work at Cabelas for a few hours everyweek and selling guns. But most importantly netwroking with a bunch of people I haven't seen for a year or two.

Always have a plan.

[molly]

Thanks for the replies...I appreciate the suggestions. Yes, hubby is very supportive, thankfully. Yes, I should have saved some money before I got licensed but there you go!!