Mortgage

Why Being A Loan Officer In The Mortgage Business Is Horrible

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)

Find The Perfect Mortgage Broker In Milton

Planning to get the perfect mortgage

Thinking of buying a home of your own in Milton? A dependable and knowledgeable mortgage broker in Milton can make your quest easier. It can be a complex and tricky task to hunt for a good house and even more of a challenge to get the best mortgage loan with easily repayable interest rates. But with a trustworthy broker helping you, you will be able to convert this momentous decision into reality without unnecessary stress or hassle.

Searching for a suitable broker

It can be an uphill task to understand the elaborate details of the intricate process of buying a home – especially for the first home. Rushing through the process will be costly – even making you regret the whole act of buying a home. But a reliable mortgage broker in Miltoncan chart out a successful and smart mortgage loan plan to make house purchase the smartest decision on personal front as a secure asset and sound investment option.

Broker – every step with you

The role of a mortgage broker in Milton does not comprise just securing a mortgage for your house purchase. He guides you from the pre-approval stage which is mandatory for a first time home buyer and takes you through the various & complicated steps of paper work, approvals and acceptance etc. He will get you the most advantageous terms that will make repayment fast and easy and not a heavy burden to be dreaded but more an opportunity to create wealth and security.

Good broker – great lending terms

A smart and savvy mortgage broker in Milton has great liaison with all the leading lenders and bankers. He gets inside information and advance knowledge of beneficial interest terms – actually more advantageous than advertised or published – and he tries to secure it for his client within the shortest time possible. He knows every rule, regulation and requisites that his client has to comply with and manages to make the house purchase safe, swift and absolutely stress-free.

Knowledgeable broker – right mortgage planner

A dependable and knowledgeable mortgage broker in Milton does not just focus on getting a loan for your home purchase. He takes an active interest in the financial plans and investment options that his client as a house owner. He looks for quicker and yet faster ways and means to make his client debt-free sooner. As a versatile mortgage planner, he plays a crucial role in safe-guarding his clients and clients family financial position and helps them live happily with financial security.

Mortgage Broker – a life long friend

The role of a loyal, helpful and dependable mortgage broker in Milton does not end with just getting you your house. He can greatly help you in some of your future major financial investments like
Refinancing your home.
Getting a second home.
Getting a second mortgage.
Selling your home.
It is a mutually beneficial relationship – enriching both equally lifelong. For more details about how you can have a trouble-free home purchase, refinancing, additional mortgage or second home purchase options.

Mortgage Meaning. What Is A Mortgage

We hear the word all over. A couple of years ago, they were being signed like they were going out of fashion; a large mortgage was akin to a large salary at the end of month. But the times have changed and in Dave Ramsey’s words, the paid-off home mortgage has taken the place of the BMW as the status symbol of choice.

But, what does exactly mean? The word ‘mortgage’ comes from the Old French and Latin. In Latin, mori (turned into the mort- part in ‘mortgage’ in Old French) means ‘death’ and -gage means ‘pledge’. Thus the words: ‘death pledge’.

The word mortgage comes from the Old French and Latin. In Latin, mori (turned into the mort- part in mortgage in Old French) means death and -gage means pledge. Thus the words: death pledge.

I can see how, hundreds of years ago, taking on a 30 year mortgage was comparable to signing yourself into bondage for life. As Earl Wilson correctly put it, if you think nobody cares about you try missing a couple of mortgage payments. Thats the ultimate Litmus test for love.

Funny words aside, etymologically, mortgage means that the pledge dies either when the obligation is fulfilled or when payment fails and the property is repossessed.

Interestingly, the French use mutated back into hypothque, derived from the classic Greek and meaning to put something under something else.

In some countries, like France and Spain where they have a civil-law system, a mortgage is closely or even solely related to a loan against real estate or property whereas in common-law, it represents any device in which a debtor (mortgagor) conveys an interest in property to a creditor (mortgagee) as security for the payment of a money debt. The Anglo-American definition has a broader meaning than its civil-law cousin, the hypothec.

Mortgage Software The New and Automated face of the Mortgage Industry

Technology is on its peak point than ever. Thanks to it, many businesses have streamlined their functions for better and seamlessly integrated many operations and mechanisms into one. Here, we are discussing such these two software namely mortgage software and Point of Sales (POS) which have revolutionized the mortgage industry.

Both these software automate the workflow of mortgage industry. As the USP of most mortgage companies is loan origination, it becomes mandatory for them to expedite it and provide complete accuracy and convenience to their customers. Business Intelligence, as most of the companies call it, point software has made most of the companies offer paperless lending in real! Imparting quality regulation during workflow processes and loan origination, POS has increased the overall profitability of credit unions and financial companies. s.

Likewise, Mortgage software has integrated the solutions of the hassles and concerns like compliance issues, information security and multiple product options in one. An ideal combination of different lending technology solutions, it offers profitability and efficiency in loan origination process along with simplifying compliance and data management issues.

With software like POS and mortgage, a company gets notified whenever a customer files a request on the website. With an instant click, employees of the companies can get to see the complete credit report of the customers. Just in case, if there is any update on data front, they are implemented all across the interface. For investors and lenders usage, library of 1,000 forms is available. No wonder, mortgage software has transformed the mortgage scenario from an onerous, time-consuming process to quick and automated one.

Apart from the security against data theft and corruption, Point software provides support on all channels of lending processes. Be it customer management as per their demographics, appointments and referrals or to manage the leads generated by team members, all things are automated. Also, creating promotional material such as e-mailers and flyers can be done at one pull. Most of the POS software can automatically upload more than 1000 application to the system at one time and manage sales tool suchlike calculation of loan amount and pay- off periods.

Lenders To Avoid – Business Loan And Commercial Mortgage

I have published many articles which are designed to assist commercial borrowers in avoiding commercial loan problems. One of the most serious commercial mortgage business loan situations is a commercial lender that causes problems for their commercial borrowers on a recurring basis. It is particularly this type of commercial lender which prudent commercial borrowers should be prepared to avoid unless viable alternative business financing options do not realistically exist.

As a direct result of my commercial loan experiences advising business owners for over 25 years and regular conversations with other business financing professionals, I do in fact believe that there are a number of commercial lenders that should be avoided. This conclusion is based on a recurring pattern of lending abuses by some business lenders.

This article will not name specific lenders to avoid, but specific examples will be provided to show why informed commercial borrowers should be ready to avoid a variety of business lenders in their search for viable commercial loan solutions. This business financing strategy article will illustrate the significant benefits of avoiding “problem lenders”.

Meaningless Pre-approvals for a Commercial Mortgage Business Loan

An early commercial mortgage pre-approval is often sought by commercial borrowers. The expected advantage to this initial commercial loan approval is that the business borrower can make other business arrangements which are based on the business financing being completed.

An ethical commercial lender will treat any form of business financing approval very seriously. Commercial borrowers should expect that a meaningful version of such an approval will not be realistically possible in just two or three days.

However, there are lenders who prepare a misleading and questionable version of a pre-approval shortly after receiving minimal application data. Because this approach often produces surprises for the borrower as the commercial mortgage process moves forward, borrowers should be wary of any lenders that do this.

Why do some commercial lenders provide such meaningless pre-approvals for a commercial mortgage? There are two likely reasons. (1) To motivate the commercial borrower to stop considering other potential commercial lenders. (2) To provide a business loan pre-approval that is similar to a structure prevalent with residential loans.

Because many commercial loan situations are facilitated by residential mortgage brokers who are typically unfamiliar with normal business financing requirements, this reason will be especially relevant with business lenders that primarily work with residential mortgage brokerage firms. Such a lender should be avoided for most commercial mortgage circumstances.

Commercial Mortgage Loan – Yes or No?

I have published an article which discusses the tendency of many banks to say “yes” when they mean “no”. Such banks will typically attach onerous business financing conditions to commercial loans instead of simply declining the loan. Business owners should explore other commercial mortgage alternatives before accepting commercial financing terms that put them at a competitive disadvantage.

Think Outside the Bank for a Commercial Mortgage

In some non-competitive business markets, it is unfortunately common for a lender to employ business loan terms that would typically not be seen in a more competitive commercial loan environment. Such business lenders can repeatedly take advantage of a non-competitive commercial lending imbalance.

An appropriate response by commercial borrowers is to seek out non-bank commercial loan options. It is neither necessary nor wise for commercial borrowers to depend only upon local traditional banks for commercial mortgage solutions. For most business loan situations, a non-local and non-bank commercial lender is likely to provide improved business financing terms because they are accustomed to competing aggressively with other commercial lenders.

Commercial Property Commercial Loan Appraisals

For commercial mortgage loans, commercial appraisals are an unavoidable part of the commercial loan underwriting process. The commercial appraisal process is lengthy and expensive, so avoiding commercial lenders which have displayed a pattern of problems and abuses in this area will benefit the commercial borrower by saving them both time and money.

Copyright 1995-2007 AEX Commercial Financing Group and Stephen Bush. All Rights Reserved.

Interest Only Mortgage

Interest Only Mortgage

An “interest-only” mortgage is like a line of credit. You can pay only the interest on the mortgage. This can greatly reduce your payments in time of financial stress. However, it also means that the debt will never be paid off.

With an interest only mortgage, you pay only interest for the first five, 10, even 15 years of the loan. This can lower your monthly payment by quite a lot. And that seems to have increased the popularity of interest only mortgages in the past few years.

The interest only mortgage is an interesting mortgage type. All you pay over the life of the mortgage is the interest on the balance. However, there are options once this interest only period ends. You either begin to pay interest and principal at a faster rate than if you’d done that from the beginning, or you can choose the balloon mortgage approach, which means the total loan principal becomes due at the end of your term.

When do interest only mortgages become more popular? Typically, as interest rates rise and the cost of housing increases, more people will look at this type of mortgage. Why? At issue for some consumers is the size of their mortgage payment and making that payment lower. At the same interest rate, an interest only payment is less than a payment of both interest and principal. A lower payment can mean that you will have a higher budget for home shopping. And that makes a big difference for some home buyers.

Many interest only mortgages have an interest only period (5 to 15 years) and then you begin to pay both interest and principal. If your interest only mortgage has a term of 30 years, after your initial interest free term, you would begin to pay interest and principal. You would begin to pay principal as well as interest in order to pay-off the balance by the end of 30 years. This actually means that your payments will be considerably higher than they would have been if you’d paid off principal all along.

Other interest only mortgages are like balloon mortgages. However, most balloon mortgages would ensure that you are paying down the original principal over time. When you pay your final balloon payment, it would be less than the original loan amount because of your payments of both interest and principal. With an interest only balloon mortgage, your final payment should be exactly equal to your original loan amount. All you’ve paid is interest; all the principal of the loan remains.

When would you consider this kind of loan? The circumstances to consider this kind of loan would be unique. Usually, a family with a single wage earner should not be considering this type of mortgage. Your exposure to financial risk would be too high. However, investors might be interested. The advantage with an investment property, that you expect to go up in value, is that the interest you pay is tax deductible. Therefore, you can deduct the interest paid from your taxes, while you own the property. At the end of the period of the loan, you could then sell your property (hopefully at a profit) and take the returns to pay out the mortgage.

However, this is a gamble. There’s no guarantee that the property appreciates in value. And there’s no guarantee that you can sell it when you decide to. If you can’t sell the property, you would have to refinance (unless you have made enough from the property to pay out the balance of your mortgage) and refinancing could cause you some challenges.

The other advantage to this kind of mortgage is that you can save or invest the money that you would have paid in principal on the loan. Again, this situation will usually favor investors of one kind or another.

Interest-only loans come with many of the options of other types of mortgages. With some, you can lock in a fixed interest rate for the full term, while others resemble adjustable rate mortgages (ARM), which carry a fixed rate for a certain number of years and then adjust every six months to a year.

What kind of savings are you looking at on your monthly mortgage payment? They can be significant. Let’s look at an example: You borrow $200,000 using an interest only loan with a 4.75 percent rate and no principal payments due for five years. Your monthly payment will be just $791, or about $250 a month less than if you went with a regular 5-year ARM with the same interest rate.

This can really work for you, if your property appreciates in value. Of course, there’s never a guarantee that prices will go up. And if you don’t sell your property as planned, your monthly payment jumps drastically after your interest only period. You’ll have to be prepared for that.

Interest-only loans can also make sense for people whose income is sporadic, either because they are paid on commission or because they receive a significant portion of their income in annual bonuses. In this case, you have the option of only paying interest some months, but can pay above and beyond the amount due when they get their bonus checks. There is typically no prepayment penalty on interest only loans. This gives you flexibility in applying extra money to your mortgage when you have it, and yet keep monthly payments low.

On The New Mortgage Law Of Turkey

Since the new Turkish mortgage law passed on March 2007, the mortgage and real estate markets have continued their growing trends that are mainly driven by lower interest rates; however, this growth is probably just the tip of the iceberg.

The Turkish mortgage law that passed on March 2007 has two important properties that are expected to boom the mortgage and real estate markets in Turkey:

1) New mortgage products :
With the inclusion of the adjustable rate mortgage products, banks are able to transfer some of the economy related risks in their balance sheets to borrowers. In adjustable rate mortgage products, the interest rate is a sum of a fixed margin that is determined by the lender and a benchmark index that is set by Central Bank of Turkey. In May 2007, central bank decided that Consumer Price Index should be the benchmark index for the variable interest rate calculation. In summer of 2007, some banks started to offer various adjustable rate mortgages and these loans, as expected have lower APRs. However, as Central bank’s current records show there is almost no interest in these variable interest loans right now. This lack of interest is probably due to several factors such as: i) the lack of trust in Turkish economy and the fear of a substantial increase in the interest rates even though the economy has been performing fine in the last 5 years without any major crisis; ii) the recent mortgage crisis in the USA, and particularly, the rise in mortgage default rates in the USA and the fact that most of the increases in the defaults were in the sub prime market and adjustable rate mortgages; and, iii) the lack of understanding of the benefits and risks of these new products. We believe that these three reasons are temporary and in the near future, as people are educated about the risks and benefits of these new products and mortgage brokers fill the necessary knowledge gap, the interest in the products will increase.

2) Securitization of Loans :
About six months after the new mortgage law passed, Capital Markets Board of Turkey completed secondary legislations on mortgage covered bonds and mortgage backed securities. With this addition to the law, banks are now able to bundle the loans into securities and take them off their balance sheets. Covered mortgage bonds and mortgage backed securities are debt instruments secured by a covered pool of mortgage loans (or public-sector debt) to which investors have a preferential claim in case of default. These instruments are among the most liquid fixed income securities after the government bonds in Europe. While it is not expected to see the first securitization until early 2008, reduced risk for the banks will cause a significant and sustainable growth in the mortgage market in the coming years.

Expectations for the future

a)The secondary mortgage market will probably trigger a decrease in the interest rates as banks will be able to transfer their risks off their balance sheets and the ratings of the deals in the secondary mortgage market could be higher than Turkey’s sub-investment grade sovereign rating (this has been the case in similar cases).

b)With the secondary mortgage market’s effects, the banks’ competition growth will fuel an already booming housing market. Especially, when the monthly interest rates get closer to 1 percent per month, the volumes will be substantial, as they were earlier. Expected growth in the mortgage market is expected to mimic those in Spain and South Korea as these countries have followed similar paths as Turkey. Sizes of the mortgage market in Spain and South Korea GDP are 50 and 25 percent of the GDP respectively. So it is not inconceivable to expect that Turkey’s mortgage market may grow up to 30% to %40 percent of the GDP from its current share of less than 10%. Note that since Turkey has a very strong ownership culture, the ratio can be even higher.

c)Turkey’s new long term mortgage laws will increase the investment in Turkey. The new instruments that will be introduced with the securitized mortgages will increase the stability and depth of the financial system probably creating a natural cushion for any unexpected events and decreasing the volatility and avoiding the episodes of financial crises that were observed in 2001 and 1994.

d) Enhanced foreign investment in the property market will cause a boom in the property market. Also in addition to real estate market, as mortgages will need associated insurance, it is expected that insurance sector will be a big beneficiary of the new mortgage law.

e) The central bank will have more dominant place in the economy similar to the developed countries.

f)New law will help strengthen Turkey’s EU bid. The Turkish mortgage law will bring Turkey into line with the standards and practices expected from worldwide property purchasers and investors.

In addition to the tangible effects listed above, we expect that there will be very important intangible effects too. For example, in a country like Turkey where ‘future planning’ is measured with months (mostly because of the economic, financial and political crises), just the fact that people are now able to get a loan up to 30 years is an encouraging incident that will probably change the way people plan, invest, spend and save in the future. Since being able to plan for the future is one of the most important requirements of economic development, the additional foresight produced by the new mortgage law may be one of the biggest impacts of the new mortgage law in the long run.