The New MLO Show Episode 5

The New MLO Show provides insights and advice to new and aspiring Mortgage Loan Originators. Whether you are already licensed and looking for tips for more business, or you are looking to get licensed and become a loan officer, this podcast will help you reach your goals in the mortgage business!

For information on joining the loan officer team with the best rates, programs, and leads, visit https://NewMLO.com

If you are not licensed yet and would like help getting your mortgage license, visit https://NewMLO.com

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Welcome to the new MLO show. I'm your host, Kyle Hershey. This is episode five. And today we're going to be talking about why the next 24 months could be the best opportunity for new loan officers. So remember, the mortgage cycle is typically, you know, it typically repeats, right? When rates drop, volume explodes, uh, rates go up, business gets tougher, eventually rates come down, you know, and that's just the way that things go. So you know, we have to be aware of that and be aware of where we are right now in the process, right? So, you know, recently one second here. So recently we all, as we all know, you know, rates have gone up, right? Um you know, a couple years ago they jumped the highest or the fastest they've ever jumped. And so, you know, that's where we're at right now, right? Now, in the last couple weeks, rates have started to go down, and we're obviously hoping that they trend down more. And what's going to happen is a lot of the people that are on the fence right now about buying or refinancing are going to pull the trigger here soon. Now, as a loan officer, you want to already be positioned to be able to get that business. So you want to be reaching out to people, building your pipeline, and be the person that they call when they're ready to pull that trigger. Now, if you're not a licensed loan officer yet, this is definitely the best time to get licensed because we're gearing up for that part of the cycle where rates are inevitably going to be going down and people are going to be jumping off the fence on actually doing something. And you want to be in on this. You don't want to wait until rates get low, everybody starts making a bunch of money, and then you want to go get your mortgage license and then learn how to be a loan officer, start building your pipeline. You're going to be behind at that point. If you want to get in on all the money that's about to be made as rates go down, you need to get licensed right now. You need to get going, start getting some leads, build your pipeline. And that way you're actually able to capture the explosion of income that's inevitably going to come soon. So if you don't have your license, you should go to new mlo.com and get your license because I think it is the best time to get license right now. So some people say, well, rates are still pretty high. You know, might not be the best idea to get my license, but I'm telling you, this is when you want to get your license. So one aspect of this is that, you know, tens of thousands of loan officers left the business. I think over 100,000 left the business in the past uh two years. Um, and so, you know, when it gets difficult and rates go up, a lot of people quit the industry. They don't renew their license, they uh quit when it gets hard. And what that does is open up an opportunity for us to be able to come in and take the business that they would have gotten, right? And so a whole lot of people that were in the industry that were your competition have left. And so now is the time to, you know, if you're not licensed yet, get licensed. If you're already licensed, start building your pipeline, start making sure that you're the one that people call when they're ready to pull the trigger and look at it as a plus that yes, the industry has been hard recently, and it's not like it's super easy now, but it's definitely getting easier. But the positive side is that you know, a fifth of your competition left the industry. So if you're willing to put in the work and stick it out, these next two years are going to be very good for you. So, in my opinion, I think now is the time to become a loan officer. Now is the time to start working your leads as a loan officer, building your pipeline and getting ready for the gold rush that's inevitably going to happen here within the next two years. And you don't want to wait till afterwards, you know, to start um building that, right? You want to get in on it now. So I promise you, when rates go low, tons of people will get their mortgage license. And that's going to be even more competition for you instead of you know, you actually using this time right now to train and build your pipeline and get ready for that gold rush of refinances and purchases that is going to happen of all this business that is built up over the last few years of people not wanting to pull the trigger because rates were high. It's just going to absolutely explode when rates go down more. And you want to be in the business and have clients and have a pipeline when it explodes so that you can cash in. You know, this the fact that so many loan officers have left the business in the last few years is a huge opportunity for new loan officers. It's a huge opportunity for people to get licensed as a loan officer and start. It's a huge opportunity for loan officers who weren't doing that many deals. If you will, you know, push through it, then it's going to be a great reward for you. If you're putting in the work and building your pipeline right now while everyone else quit, not everyone else, but a large part of licensed loan officers quit over the last few years, then it's definitely going to be a good situation for you. So if you stick it out and you put in the work, then I promise you, um, you know, deals are coming as rates get lower. And rates have been so high for quite a while now that it's going to be quite an explosion when they do go low enough to, you know, get all those people off the fence. Because obviously having less competition is better, right? And relationships take time to build, uh, your pipeline takes time to build up. So you want to get in, get going, and not be late to the party when the rates go down and you know everybody's making a fortune and uh you're you're trying to catch up, right? Don't play catch up. Be ahead of the game. So if you don't have your license, get your license now at new mllo.com. If you're already licensed, you could join our team at new ml.com. We give you leads, help you build your pipeline, have the support for you to close loans. Um, and so you want to get in that system, you want to get set up, and you want to get going so that when everything explodes, you're there to cash it. So, you know, this career as a loan officer is remote, right? It's flexible schedule. Obviously, you know, you have closings going on and stuff, you have to work around those, but for the most part, on your day-to-day basis, it's you know, be your own boss, have your own schedule. And, you know, the income is essentially the income potential is essentially limited. Um, and it's a a career in real estate. It's really great for realtors or any sales professionals, also entrepreneurs. Um, you know, these are the type of people that will typically do well because again, it is kind of, I mean, it is a sales job. Don't get that wrong. I mean, there's a back end of actually doing the loan and knowing the loan programs, but the majority of it is the front end of calling, texting, emailing, following up with people, building relationships, meeting people in person, and being a salesperson. So realtors do the same exact thing. So realtors are, you know, typically make great loan officers, plus you can make both sides of the transaction as long as you give the proper disclosure. Um, so I I recommend all realtors go get your real estate or excuse me, go get your mortgage license. If you have your real estate license, you should also go get your mortgage license uh to capitalize on that. And then any sales professionals are pretty used to the day-to-day of being a loan officer, which is you know, making calls and connections and following up and all that kind of good stuff. And then entrepreneurs as well, because it is somewhat being an entrepreneur, right? Um, you kind of make your own hours, it's remote, you kind of bite off as much as you want to chew, do as much as you want to do. Uh, you have ways to kind of set up your own systems. And so, you know, entrepreneurs tend to do well, you know, too. And just anyone who's used to, you know, commission income, right, is gonna do uh pretty well with it. Okay. So, you know, overall, just the the gest of today here is it's time to get your license. If you're not licensed yet, you want to be in on the front end, not the back end. You don't want to be late to the party when all the the cash starts rolling in from the gold rush. That's going to inevitably happen when rates start going down, which they're already inching down now, lower than they have been in the first few uh in the last few years. So now is definitely the time. So, my my biggest recommendation is if you're not a licensed loan officer, go get your license at new mlo.com. If you're already licensed, you could join our team, which provides support, leads, the best loan programs, amazing interest rates, some of the highest compensation in the industry. Um, you know, and we provide you with leads to get your pipeline going, which is going to be important for you right now to build that pipeline, you know, so that when rates go down, you're able to get in on that gold rush that's coming. So let's go ahead and get into some questions here. Remember, if you have any questions, you can send them to at the new mlo show or at Kyle Hershey. And um, you can, you know, uh also drop them here in the chat because we do stream this live on the different platforms. So uh keep in mind new mlo.com, if you want to get your mortgage license, we can help you do that, walk you through it, and then onboard you to our team. If you are already licensed, you can join our team at new mllo.com as well, and uh we can uh you know kind of uh walk you through the onboarding process as well, get you started, get you leads, and all that kind of good stuff. Okay, here. Question from Brandon. Do you think interest rates will actually drop soon? Yeah, I mean, they're dropping right now. I mean, and they're going a little bit up and down, but again, last week they hit the lowest they have been in the past uh two years, three years. So, yes, and you know, they eventually come down, right? So inevitably in the next you know, year, two years, that that's for sure that they're going to come down. Uh, it just depends on when. But again, you want to get in now so that when it does happen, you're already, if you have a large pipeline of clients and and potential loans and leads, then when the rates go down, there's a lot of business that's going to come to you if you've put in that work of following up with people, making sure they know about you, they know about your loan programs, maybe you've quoted some of them, whatever the situation is, right? So, you know, it's important to get it done now so that when business starts happening, you're not behind chasing. And if you're behind, you're going to be chasing people that people have already talked to, right? People who are already loan officers probably already talked to that person and you know, uh let them know, and they're probably thinking about working with them. So it's important we get out in front of it. Let's see. Melissa's asking, is it risky to start in a mortgage? Or is it risky to start in mortgages during a slower market? I think it's the time to get into mortgages in a slower market, honestly, because most people leave. Uh, most people don't take it seriously enough to stay when things get hard, and that can differentiate you from everyone else. And also, you know, you want to be in it when things get easier, right? So don't leave when it gets hard. Uh, I think you should get into it when it's getting hard because you have an advantage because so many loan officers quit the business over the last couple of years. So you have less competition and you can get into it, get the ball rolling, build up your pipeline because uh a drop in interest rates is coming, and uh, you know, you'll do very well in that environment. Okay, what kind of personality does it take to succeed in this business? So definitely a sales type personality is what you would want, right? So, uh, not to say that you have to be salesy like use car salesman, but to to just saying that just like a realtor, you're dealing with people. So a lead is a person, right? And so you're gonna have to call people, you're gonna have to talk to people, uh, you uh should be talking to everybody that you meet in person. So it is one of those jobs where you're kind of always on, right? That's why we get paid so much. It's not easy. Um, you know, that's why we're paid so well. So, you know, it's not necessarily you have to be a type of person. I've seen all types of people uh come into the business and make a lot of money. And then some people that you think would make a lot of money don't, right? It's really just if you commit to this business or not, in my opinion. It's the people who find it interesting, the people who uh, you know, are dedicated to it and decided, hey, I'm gonna really give this a go. It's always just like in real estate. It's always the people who are just kind of, hey, I just got my license to see, maybe I'll do a couple transactions, or maybe this is easy and I'll make some easy money. Well, real estate and mortgages are extremely difficult, right? That's why the commissions are so high. And you know, we're commission only, right? So the people who are just kind of dipping their toe in are usually not going to make any sales, right? Uh, it's the people who go all in, you got to grab it, get a hold of it, start building your pipeline, and take it seriously. If you don't take it seriously, you're most likely not going to do any transactions, right? Um, you know, maybe a family member uh once a year or something like that. If you stay on top of your family members, to be honest, a lot of people have, you know, never done a loan ever. And they have multiple friends and family members who have refinanced and bought houses in that time, but they didn't do it with them because the person never talked to them about it, never told them that that's what they do, never followed up with them. Uh, you know, and so they end up not getting the business and and not closing any loans. Let's see. Can you start part? Tina's asking, can you start part-time as a loan officer? Yeah, absolutely. You can start part-time on our team, go to new mlo.com, uh, get your license if you don't have it yet, and you can start part-time. Uh, obviously, you're not gonna be making the six figures and multiple six figures until you're full-time, right? It's kind of a uh, you know, making sure you're all in type situation. But that doesn't mean you can't start part-time and start building your pipeline and uh, you know, hopefully close some loans and then you know, move over to full time. And at our company, we have a mentor that's gonna walk you through your first six loans. And so, you know, that's going to help you. So even if you're part-time, by the time you go through your first six loans, you should be making income. You should know how to do things now, and that would probably be the time that would be good to switch over to full-time. Okay. Uh, David's asking, what's the biggest mistake new MLOs make in their first year? I think the biggest mistake loan officers make is not working their sphere. Some people are scared to tell people they know about what they do. Um, I tell loan officers on my team, you have to do it. You have to call, text, email, um, at least one of those things to everyone you've ever met, everyone you know. We all have hundreds or even thousands of contacts in our phone, and every single person should know that we're a loan officer. That doesn't mean you have to sell them. That doesn't mean you have to be salesy or push them to do something. You just need to let them know because if you don't let them know, you can't be upset when they don't use you, right? And they're gonna use somebody else. And they could have used you if you just told them, even just a text message. Hey, letting you know I'm a loan officer. I can help you with refinances or purchases. I would love if you, you know, let other people that you know, if you hear them talking about real estate, let them know that I could help them get pre-qualified. Uh, so not only let them know that that's what you do, but let them know you'd appreciate any referrals. So let me tell you, let's look at this. How who's gonna get more business? A person that's just calling online leads that don't know them, or a person that texted every single person in their phone that they've ever met, that they're a loan officer, they'd appreciate their business and they're they'd appreciate any referrals. Who's gonna get more deals? Obviously, the person who told everybody they've ever met, because they're going to get not only business from some of them, but they're also going to get referrals from some of them, right? And so, you know, online leads are great and we provide them for people on our team, especially if you need to fill your pipeline. But you need to have already worked your sphere, right? You need to actually tell everybody. And again, some loan officers are so scared of it because they don't want to seem salesy. I I tell them all the time, you're not being salesy, you're just letting them know what you do. That's all. You don't have to say, are you ready to refinance? Let's make something happen for you. I got the best rates. That's not what we're talking about. We're just talking about letting everybody you know know that this is what you do and you can help them and you'd appreciate if they keep you in mind for their, you know, for them and for anybody that they know. That's it. Simple. They're gonna probably text back and say, Oh, great, thank you for letting me know. Boom, done. Now you planted that seed, and it's over. Nothing, nothing drastic happened. You didn't have to feel salesy, you just have to let people know. But I'm telling you, if you don't let people know, you're not even on step one. Step one is letting everybody you know know exactly what you do, and not by a Facebook post. You can do Facebook posts, social media posts over and over again, and that's great. That'll help let people know. But unless you've directly called, texted, emailed your entire sphere, then you're still at not at step one. So, or or you're not done with step one. So I think that's the biggest mistake loan officers make. They skip past their sphere, which is the number one priority, and start trying to like just call online leads. And they'll say, Oh, I, you know, I literally had people say every company I go to tells me to work my sphere, and I don't want to do that. I just want to call leads. Do you provide enough leads for me to call to not have to work my sphere? Well, we provide leads, but every company told you that for a reason because it's insane to want to call random people who have no idea who you are off the internet, as opposed to people who know you. That that that's insane to me that somebody would think that that's a better option. Um, and so I think that's the biggest mistake new loan officers make. Uh Lauren is asking, is the mortgage industry too crowded already? No, not at all, because uh I think 100,000 plus loan officers quit in the last two years. Um, you know, you can check that statistic. I think it's even more actually, but uh a huge amount of loan officers left the industry. So it's not too crowded at all. Right now is the time to get in before it gets too crowded again. Because I'm telling you, when rates get low, everybody and their mama gets their mortgage license because it's it they think it's easy pickings, but guess what? It's not because the people who were already in it, already licensed and already built their pipeline, those are the people that are getting easy transactions. Because those people that they've been talking to for the past months finally say, Hey, I'm I'm finally ready. Send me the pre-approval. We're we're ready to buy now. Rates are where they are. I mean, you're not gonna that's not gonna happen if you had just got your license, right? So don't wait until everybody gets back into it. Make sure you're ahead of it right now. Okay, let's see here. Chris is asking, what's the fastest way to get licensed and start originating loans? Well, the fastest way to get licensed and start originating loans is go to new mllo.com. We'll walk you through how to get your license. We'll bring you on board on our team and we'll give you leads and guidance and get you up and running and assign you a mentor to help you with your first six loans. So, new mlo.com, that's the way to get your license and get set up as soon as possible. Get leads, start calling them, uh, and you know, get in on this gold rush that's about to happen as rates get lower. Let's see here. Uh, Angela's asking, how many loans does the average loan officer close per year? Um, I'm not sure. There's probably a statistic out there somewhere, but it's tough when you're doing averages. I get asked this a lot. What's the average loan officer make? What's the average amount of loans that they close? It's a very skewed question because just like it, just like realtors, the top, you know, 10% do all the transactions, and the bottom 90% don't actually work full time, don't really do it, don't take it serious, uh, or don't make the calls, whatever the situation is. So it's it's it's hard to say average, right? The people that are making a good living are, you know, making a great living. Uh, and the people who are not taking it serious and not doing deals and not making calls and just got their license to have it or just part-time and never go full time, these people don't close many deals. So it's a weird thing to say average, right? Because when you're averaging, you're really just taking all that production from the people at the top and averaging it out with the people at the bottom. But again, it's commission only, just like being a realtor, and it's sales, just like being a realtor. So just like realtors, the top 10% make 90% of the money, same thing. With loan officers, the top 10% make 90% of the money, and the other people are typically just not taking it seriously or not in it full time or not doing it as a job. Okay, question from Tyler Can someone with no real estate experience succeed as an MLO? Yeah, absolutely. So I'll tell you a story about a loan officer that joined our company uh uh uh a few years ago, uh, a situation that I had at the company that I was at. And this person had never um, you know, been in the real estate business at all. Um, they worked at a car dealership and they came on board, and within their first three months, they closed$5 million in loans, which is, you know, it was uh almost$100,000 in his pocket in his first three months as a loan officer, which is absolutely not typical, but it just shows you that you don't need real estate experience. What you need is the dedication to picking up the phone, calling the people, whether that's people in your sphere, whether that's online leads, whatever it is, or whether it's realtors to try to build those relationships. Are you doing the work or not? That's really what's going to matter. Obviously, real estate experience helps. Being a realtor, having that experience helps. But honestly, a lot of realtors that come into mortgages, the it doesn't necessarily translate because they're on a whole different side of the transaction, right? And so they have a general idea of what's going on, but sometimes they have misconceptions about what's going on because they're looking at things from the end that they're used to looking at things from. And so sometimes the more people know, the more uh you know difficult it is to kind of reprogram them into mortgages. But absolutely, you can start with no real estate experience. Some of the some of the top producers um that we've had never had any real estate experience at all. Okay, Samantha's asking, what should new loan officers focus on in their first 90 days? So, in your first 90 days as a loan officer, you need to first focus on your sphere, letting everybody know what you do and letting them know you'd appreciate their business and appreciate any referrals. And then you're going to obviously start working leads online. We provide you with new online leads when you join our team at new mlo.com. And so, you know, those are kind of the things you're going to do in your first 90 days. Obviously, you're going to be learning about the business as well, but really you're going to be working your sphere and then hitting the calls and building your pipeline of online leads as well. And just make sure that you're not uh focusing too much on learning things on the back end because getting deals on the front end is going to make it so that you learn deals on the back end. Okay, Eric is asking, what's the biggest advantage, uh biggest advantage of joining your team versus going solo? Well, there is no such thing as going solo, right? As a loan officer, you have to work at a brokerage or a lender. So there's no such thing as being a solo loan officer. Um, joining my team just means joining uh the company, right? So new mlo.com. If you go there, all the information about joining the company is there. You're just joining through me. There's no, you know, specific thing about my team or the fact that you join through me and I provide you with leads. So, you know, I guess to answer your question there, Eric, there is no such thing as being a solo loan officer. It's just about what company you're at. All right, Rachel's asking, are for are refinances or purchases better for new loan officers? Uh I'm I'm not sure. I think a refinance is probably easier to do on the back end, but I think a purchase is um easier to get, right? So a purchase, getting a pre-approval for somebody who's looking to buy a home, especially if you're working with some realtors, is a lot easier to get that deal. It's easier, it's not easy, but it's easier. But a refinance is easier to do on the back end, right? Because when you're doing a pre-approval, then the person has to go shop for a home, find a home, then you have to redo the approval for the correct amount and situation. Uh, and then you got to wait for all the you know inspections and all this kind of stuff. And there's plenty of things that can go wrong because it's relying on a real estate contract as opposed to a refinance. There's no real estate contract, right? You're refinancing something's already there. There's no inspections. Of course, there's an appraisal, but there's not inspections, there's not all these chances for the deals uh to fall through like there is when you're purchasing a home. So when you're purchasing a home, you're just part of a much larger process with multiple other people involved, and everybody has to do their job. Uh, when you're refinancing, it's mostly just that you have to do your job, and part of that job is managing your customers' expectations so that they do their job. And so the back end much easier, but you know, the front end is obviously easier to find people who would like to buy a home, especially if you're working with realtors. That's what they talk, that's the people they talk to all the time, and they refer them to a loan officer to get pre-qualified. So I would say that easier to get purchases on the front end, easier to do and execute refinances on the back end. Uh, let's see here. We'll take one last question. Michael is asking what separates top producing loan officers from everyone else? What separates top producing loan officers is typically realtor relationships. And that typically takes some time to build. But that is what allows you to be able to do so many deals because uh there's only a certain amount of leads you can call online, there's only a certain amount of people that you know in person. But if you have multiple realtors sending you deals every month, uh it can get almost unlimited, right? If you keep building relationships with more and more realtors, more and more realtors, then the deals just show up every day. You're getting requests to get pre-qualified. And remember, when you're sending out pre-qualls, that doesn't necessarily mean you're going to get a sale by any means. There's a whole hundred other steps that have to happen before you close that loan. Uh, but you know, when you've got realtors sending you people all day, every day, and you got hundreds of pre-qualification letters out there, uh, then they're gonna start dropping deal, deal, deal, deal, deal. So I would say that's what the top producing loan officers typically have is just great realtor relationships and the deals kind of just flow into them. But it takes time to build, right? Mind you, they've already worked their sphere. They've already built a pipeline of some online leads, typically. And then they've focused on creating long-lasting realtor relationships. The people who do that, those are the people who make a fortune in mortgages. Okay, we'll go ahead and wrap it up then. Remember to get your mortgage license, go to new mlo.com. We'll walk you through that process, help you get licensed and come on board. We'll even give you leads so that you can get going. If you are already licensed, you can go to newmllo.com and sign up to join our team. All the information is there as well. Um, so we look forward to working with you. Thank you, everybody, for tuning in. We will see you on the next episode of the New MLO show.