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Why Trying to Be a Loan Officer (that is, Sell Mortgages) Is Especially Grim

… and why pursuing a career in home loans is pretty much doomed to failure.

I gave the mortgage industry — the whole loan originator gig — a serious go of it a few years back. That was just before the entire real estate market melted down.

But even then, I knew after about six months that it just wasn’t for me. And as it worked out, I ditched just before thousands of loan officers were driven out by the economic collapse.

It’s odd, really, that I even gave it a whirl. I already had a great freelance sales gig in place, and that was earning me a great income. But I’m the kind of guy who is always out there looking for something new and more exciting. It was right when I was moving to Dallas, and the whole “mortgage consulting” thing seemed as if it could be fun, and I had buddies in the industry pulling down $25K a month routinely. So I thought what the hell, and I gave it a go.

But it didn’t take long for me to realize I was in the WRONG PLACE.

Because there was no way it was ever going to create the lifestyle I wanted for myself.

Even leaving aside all of the stuff I’m about to cover here, (even leaving aside having to pander to real estate agents, and what that does to your soul), at the end of the day, trying to sell mortgages — working in that industry — is just nowhere near capable of creating the kind of life I’ve got going on and had come to get used to.

The hours, the office, the boss, the stress, the tedium, the grief … It’s enough to make you want to jump off a bridge. Seriously.

But even leaving that stuff aside. Even assuming you’re a glutton for misery and your idea of a good time is a life of constant, bitter struggle and mind-wracking tedium … Fundamentally there are three main reasons why I think trying to sell in the mortgage industry is a really bad idea, especially right now.

FIRST –
The gravy train is over. It has become harder than ever to close deals.

There are several reasons for that. I’ll list a few of them:

The housing market has tanked, taking with it a lot of the people who used to be in the industry. The ones who are left are desperate for business. This has the effect of not only putting you on a crappy level with the client (since it’s get the deal or eat Ramen noodles all next month, you end up begging for business, cringing under anything a client says or demands), but it also has the effect of making the whole mortgage racket more and more a rate game.
And that’s the second reason for why it’s harder than ever to close deals. Rate are too damn high, they’re fluctuating all over the place because of all the government interference in the economy, and your prospects are OBSESSING over rate, ready to cut your throat and run to the guy down the block and leave you high and dry with nothing, over an eighth of a point.
What else is making it hard to close deals is the fact that they’ve taken away all but a small handful of programs — I think you’ve got THREE now; used to be dozens. Everyone needs to put money down, and everyone is stuck in a fixed rate. Like it or lump it. (Problem is, a lot of people are choosing to lump it.)
And finally, one other thing making it harder to close deals is the increased difficulty of getting lenders and proposed loans to fall in line with the new guidelines. Used to be, deals could be slam-dunks and you knew it. You could bury three points in the YSP and still slam-dunk it. Nowadays nothing is a slam-dunk, even at par, and underwriting can kill a deal sixteen different ways before sun down, and leave you feeling you’ve been mugged in a back alley.

So those are some of the reasons why it’s become harder to close deals. And that’s assuming you can even find prospects and get the deals into processing and submitted to begin with. That takes me to the second reason I think trying to sell mortgages as a loan officer is a bad idea:

SECOND REASON –
It is just flat out hard as hell to attract attention anymore, much less differentiate yourself from all of the other loan guys out there.

For one, people are jaded and afraid of getting screwed. They’ve become insanely suspicious — in part because they’re being flooded every day with offers for free credit reports, refinancing opportunities, doom-and-gloom horror stories of foreclosures and mounting unemployment.

Try marketing yourself as a loan officer. Good lord. You’re competing against fifty thousand other hungry mortgage guys. You’re competing against huge banks and desperate net branches. And everyone is selling on price, price, price. Selling on having the “lowest rate.” Everyone is fighting to make a buck. They’re running ads, they’re running banners, they’re sending out useless mailings, they’re falling over each other trying to get someone –anyone — in town to refer them some business.

Not a pretty sight.

And to make it worse, the big advantage you USED to be able to have was in specializing in something, some niche. The guys making the best money were framing themselves as “mortgage consultants,” and trying to stand somewhere between being a loan officer and a financial advisor.

And it worked for long time. The guys who were good at it made a fortune.

But things have changed. Back in the day, you had dozens of programs to choose from. You could customize a mortgage solution for a client, and really bring value to that interaction. You could build a plan for them, around their goals and dreams, and show them how the mortgage you were structuring for them would help them and their families get where they wanted to go.

Well … That’s all gone now.

You’ve got THREE programs you can offer nowadays. Conventional, VA, or FHA. Fixed, fixed, or fixed. That’s it. That’s all.

No more no-money-down programs. No more stated-income or stated-asset programs. No more negative amortization loans with investment plans behind them.

Increased restrictions on investment properties.

Massive reduction of new-construction loans, and the effective extinction of jumbo (much less super-jumbo) loans.

There’s no way to “consult” or offer “mortgage-planning” when it comes down to a fixed rate. People have been trained to focus exclusively on price.

And there’s always someone willing to cut your throat for an eighth of a point.

So the second reason why I’m against selling in the mortgage industry came down to how hard it is to find good leads, and how hard it is to differentiate yourself, or in any way rise above price.

The third reason is more personal:

THIRD –
It just takes so much damn WORK to try to close a mortgage deal.

Even leaving aside the effort it takes to bring in a qualified lead. (And “qualified” has a whole other meaning when it comes to home loans. Someone can want a new home loan all he wants. Whether he qualifies, under the new guidelines, however … That’s a completely different story.)

Even leaving aside the effort it takes to get the prospect to want to work with you.

That still leaves all of the endless documentation required to get the deal closed and a commission check in your pocket.

There is the appraisal, the sales contract, the gigantic loan application, the credit check, the required bank statements and pay stubs, the verification of employment and income, the verification of bank funds, the home-owners insurance, the mortgage insurance, and on and on and on it goes.

Then the client has to actually get approved.

And come up with the down payment.

(And somehow, during all this, manage to avoid the hoard of hungry banks and mortgage companies and other loan officers out there trying to steal your deal out from under you before you can get it to closing.)

And even THEN it’s not over. Because it takes time, you see. And you have the pure joy of sweating under the stress of endless underwriting grief, where nothing is easy anymore, and every closing is precarious and uncertain.

So let us try to sum up …

At the end of the day, trying to sell home loans in the mortgage industry is hell on wheels. It is getting harder and harder, to earn less and less.

This year the industry is predicted to take another slug in the head, and thousands more will end up unable to close enough loans to pay their bills, or see their mortgage companies chain their front doors closed, without so much as a severance check from commissions on deals that had already funded.

I predict that we’re headed toward complete and utter commoditization of mortgage lending, with mounting government controls, where everything becomes cookie-cutter and in the hands of a few gigantic banks.

So unless you want a future in a cubicle, taking down loan applications over the phone and entering them into a computer for eight bucks an hour (assuming things don’t go completely automated, and they still need someone to at least type the stuff in) …

Here’s my recommendation:

– Forget the mortgage industry.
– Find something different.
– Find something better.

I’ll be talking a lot more about that “something better” here real soon …
At MaverickSalesGuy (dotcom)

What is Team National? Team National Review
Team National is a $200+ billion a year network marketing company (or MLM home business) founded in 1997 by Dick Loehr. Located in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, the company is a legitimate business as evidenced by their various designations and associations: members of the Direct Selling Association (DSA), a Registered Member of Dunn & Bradsteet (D&B), a Member of the US Chamber of Commerce and a Member of the Better Business Bureau of Southeast Florida (BBB), plus strong endorsements from people like best selling author & leadership development coach John Maxwell, among others.
The “Product” of the Team National MLM Home Business:
Every legitimate MLM home business company must market something of value to its customers in order to generate revenue to the company and to be able to pay it’s network of distributors. Team National is different however, in that it markets a membership to help people save money who use it on a vast array of products and services in over 20 different industries. Since 1997, total membership and product sales is approaching $1 billion.
The idea behind developing a company to provide benefits and services – now called membership savings – came as Dick envisioned an MLM home business program, that would allow anyone who owns a membership package to enjoy the type of discount buying power as a Fortune 500 company. Starting with only a few basic discounts – savings on oil changes and new car purchases – the Team National MLM home business now offers substantial savings on everything from small everyday items (household goods, business supplies, communication services, insurance and travel services, clothing, food, you name it…) to larger once-in-a-while type items like jewelry, home furnishings, vehicles and toys.
They split the savings into 4 different divisions:
1. Factory Direct (up to 65% savings on items like jewelry and home furnishings)
2. Group Buying Power (over 20 different industries)
3. Business Exchange – save locally at thousands of small businesses across the country
4. E-Commerce – up to 30% commissions from over 100 popular and brand-name retail stores with a Team National website
The Opportunity for a Team National Home Business:
AlthoughTeam National’s membership program demonstrates clear value and representatives – or Independent Marketing Directors (or IMDs) as they’re referred to – who mainly want to sell the aspects of the membership in order to get sales will not make much money with Team National. As with all MLM home businesses, MLM and internet home based businesses, creating a sustainable, booming, walk-away residual income requires leverage in the form of team building. Through building teams, you can multiply your efforts to get not just a few membership packages purchased; in fact, it’s possible to get hundreds and thousands of memberships purchased through your network from which you receive your override so-to-speak (just like an insurance broker receives an “override” on the accomplishments of their people).
The Team National compensation plan offered is also one of the better ones in the industry simply because of the amount of money Team National pays out. This is because the company pays out 72% of the price of the memberships back to the reps in commissions and bonuses with their hybrid binary structure. This unusually high compensation amount – they talk about weekly pay for your first “Progression check” of $1,500 – is because there is no needed product markup or profit margin added onto the price of the membership. This enables the company to negotiate these savings based on the group’s high-volume buying power (just like a nationwide co-op). This again is one main advantage Team National has over its rivals in the industry.
Highlights of the Team National MLM Home Business compensation plan:
As discussed previously, the Team National business model as with most network marketing companies, pays out the most for those who build teams (because that gets more memberships purchased). Using their hybrid-binary structure, they pay out between $25-$100 for every membership sale. In addition, Team National has created a points system where just 4 membership sales (on average) in each leg of the binary will produce a $1,500 check as often as weekly (see compensation plan for exact details). This is strong compensation and as your team grows you earn additional legs (paycenters they call them) which each pays out an additional $2,500 when on average 4 sales are made on each of the paycenter’s 2 legs. This can add up to substantial income for the serious business builder.
It’s worth noting the difference between $25-$100 per sale (for the salesman) versus building a team and being paid $1,500 from 4 or so membership sales in each leg that you or your team bring in. All in all, Team National is one pretty powerful MLM home business for those who approach the business the correct way.
So how does a Team National IMD go about building a thriving, income-producing team?
First, you must have some kind of system in place to help you promote to find and qualify potential business partners to present the Team National MLM home business opportunity to. You can do this by just talking to people you know, or you can work smarter by utilizing the power of tools like the internet to help you sort through an almost endless quantity of probable prospects actively searching for an opportunity like the Team National MLM home business provides. Work smarter to leverage your income and get your business in front of more people to make more money (it’s all a numbers game after all) or continue doing what you’ve always done if you want to continue to get the same results.