Starting New Career As A Mortgage Loan Officer

Opportunities In Starting New Career As A Mortgage Loan Officer

Have You Considered Of Starting New Career As A Mortgage Loan Officer?

Have you ever thought about starting new career as a mortgage loan officer? Keep on reading. On this article about starting new career as a mortgage loan officer, I will detail on what it entails in getting your federal and state NMLS licenses and how to get started in starting a new career as a mortgage loan officer. A career as a mortgage loan officer is unlike any other jobs due to the complexity of the job and the hundreds if not thousands of case scenarios a mortgage loan originator often faces. Any loan officer can qualify a mortgage borrower who has 800 FICO credit scores, 40% debt to income ratios, perfect credit payment history, no prior late payments, no prior bankruptcies or foreclosures, no gaps in employment, no outstanding collection accounts, no judgments, no tax liens, no charge offs, and ample reserves and assets. However, that is not how the real world works. Hard working Americans do run into extenuating circumstances such as loss of job, loss of business, divorce, and medical issues where it affects their credit and financial status.  One of the most rewarding aspects of working as a licensed mortgage loan originator is that no two borrowers are the same and the job entails always learning new guidelines in all different types of mortgage loan programs. Depending on which mortgage company you work for, you not only need to know the federal minimum mortgage lending guidelines, but also need to be familiar with the investor overlays your employer has. Mortgage lender overlays or also called investor overlays are mortgage lending guidelines are on top of the federal minimum lending guidelines that each mortgage lender can impose. For example, many mortgage lenders have overlays on credit scores. FHA only requires a credit score of 580 FICO to qualify for a 3.5% down payment FHA home purchase loan. However, a particular mortgage lender can have investor overlays where they require credit scores of 640 FICO or higher in order to qualify for FHA Loans even though the minimum required is 580 FICO. FHA does not require that outstanding collection accounts to be paid off in order to qualify for FHA Loans. However, most banks and mortgage lenders require that unpaid outstanding collection accounts be paid in full before they will approve a mortgage borrower. My team of licensed mortgage loan originators specialize in helping borrowers who had prior credit issues and higher debt to income ratios. We have no lender overlays and normally just go off the federal minimum mortgage lending guidelines. A large percentage of our mortgage borrowers are folks who could not qualify at other banks and mortgage lenders and come to us where we get the loan closed and funded. We pride ourselves in customer service and most of our borrowers become our lifelong friends. We are a growing group of mortgage professionals looking for quality hard working people to train and become part of our growing family.

Starting A Career As A Mortgage Loan Officer: First Step

The first thing you need to do to starting a career as a mortgage loan officer is to get your federal NMLS license. You first need to contact NMLS Resource Center and register and get your NMLS number. Your NMLS number is your permanent license number. You will need it to sign up for the 20 hour pre-licensing course which is mandatory for all new mortgage loan originators. There are actual classrooms as well as online courses for the 20 hour mortgage loan originator pre-licensing course. Prices vary between $200 to $500 depending on the school you select and so do schedules. There are schools that offer a three day course, schools that offers weekends only, schools that offers night courses, and the most popular courses are the online webinars.

Once you have completed the 20 hour NMLS pre-licensing course, your next step is to take your federal NMLS examination which is a three hour exam and consists of 125 questions. You would need at least a 75% on the national NMLS test to pass the exam. There are many prep courses and practice exams that you can purchase to help you pass the NMLS federal exam.

Starting A Career As A Mortgage Loan Officer: Licensing

After you have passed the NMLS Federal examination, you are now eligible to get licensed. Again, you will have to log in to the NMLS Resource Center and apply for your federal NMLS license. The licensing process requires you to go through a thorough federal criminal background investigation which includes fingerprinting and credit check. Also, you will have a separate criminal background check for every state you apply for by the state’s law enforcement agency. Once you get clearance on both criminal and financial background checks, you will get your mortgage NMLS license approved. Your next step will be to get hired by a mortgage company.

Banks Versus Mortgage Brokers Versus Mortgage Bankers

Once you get your NMLS mortgage license, your next step is to get a mortgage lender to sponsor and hire you. Those seeking employment with a FDIC bank and/or federally chartered credit union do not to be licensed and are exempt from licensing requirements.  Some mortgage loan originators choose to work for a mortgage broker. Mortgage brokers are third party mortgage consultants who represent actual wholesale mortgage lenders and get paid a commission by the wholesale mortgage lender.  Mortgage brokers do not fund loans and just broker mortgage loans. The commission they receive is called a yield spread premium. Mortgage loan officers working for mortgage brokers need to be licensed.

Mortgage bankers are direct lenders where they fund the mortgage loans they originate and may or may not service the mortgage loans they fund. Mortgage bankers need to be licensed.

Employment Opportunity With The Money Store

If you are interested in a career as a mortgage loan officer with The Money Store, please contact me at 262-716-8151 or email me at gcho@gustancho.com. The Money Store, based in Florham Park, New Jersey is a national mortgage banking firm licensed in most of the 50 states that has been in business for over 40 years. We are aggressively hiring both experienced mortgage loan originators and mortgage loan officer recruits. You do not need experience in the mortgage field but you do need a drive to succeed and help others and the drive to be willing to learn. We are looking for qualify and not quantity of people to train. If you are a self starter and are serious about becoming a licensed mortgage loan officer as a career, you have come to the right place. We have remote loan officer positions available nationwide.

Once you pass the Federal NMLS exam, you then apply for your license with the individual states you want to get licensed in.  As mentioned earlier, the licensing process takes 2 weeks and covers federal criminal background checks,  fingerprinting,  credit check etc. Once you get your licenses, we will send you a employment package and application and once its completed we will send you an employment  letter. We then will send you your credentials which includes Corporate email address,  Encompass software,  Credit Plus software,  Fannie Mae and FREDDIE Mac Automated Underwriting System software and all other programs needed to conduct business.

Our IT department will guide you and help you set up everything.  As a new mortgage loan officer, you will be assigned to several senior mortgage loan officers for training and the first several files will be worked together with a senior mortgage loan officer. There will be dozens of different case scenarios. No two mortgage applications will be the same and you will never be alone on any mortgage file.

How Do I Get Clients?

The products we deal in are in demand. The Money Store is a full service mortgage banking company with a reputation of getting loans closed and getting home loans closed on time. We are licensed to originate and fund FHA Loans, VA Loans, USDA Loans, Conventional Loans, Jumbo Loans, Reverse Mortgages, FHA 203k Loans, Non-Warrantable Condominium Loans, and Non-Conforming Loans. A new loan officer does not need to cold call. We will provide mortgage borrowers to every new loan officer recruit. With every new borrower the new loan officer recruit gets, the loan officer will come into contact with the home buyer’s realtor, home seller’s realtor, home buyer’s attorney, home seller’s attorney, and other professionals. All of these new contacts can be future referral partners for the new loan officer. The borrower who just closes their loan with the new loan officer will also give friends and relatives as referrals. As time passes and the new loan officer does more and more closings, the loan officer’s name will get branded and the loan officer will develop a reputation. Our offices will help every single loan officer recruit with marketing and business development. You do not have to worry about getting started and making money with our team.

We are aggressively recruiting hard working folks who are looking to starting a career as a mortgage loan officer nationwide. Please contact me at 262-716-8151 or email me at gcho@gustancho.com.