I'm thinking of taking a position and I'm curious how those in the field feel about the industry. I get the stress, but is it worth it? How much does it impact your work-life balance?

The place that offered me a job seems to hire new groups of LO every few months. Should that be a concern or is that turnover rate pretty normal in the industry?

It's an entry level sales job, about like being a car sales person of the finance world. It all boils down to finding leads and converting those leads into contracts for the broker. For some brokers, hiring a new crop of LO's every couple of months is a strategy to generate leads as much as it is due to turn over although they go hand in hand. It works like this:

Company hires a new LO who is all full of energy and enthusiasm. New LO canvases their circle of family and friends for mortgage opportunities, both new purchase or refi. It takes about 90 days to exhaust those leads and close any resulting loans. By month 4 the new LO is out of friends and family and either learns how to hunt or figures out the mortgage business is not for them.

Those who stick in the industry can make a great living but have to be great hunters, networked and hustle all the time.

After you learn the ropes, you get promoted to Loan Arranger and get a white horse, silver bullets and a sidekick.

quote:

Originally posted by Johnny 3eagles:
After you learn the ropes, you get promoted to Loan Arranger and get a white horse, silver bullets and a sidekick.

How kemosabe?

I've done it. It's sales, but also you need to know finance and numbers. You'll be responsible for presenting options to your client - term of loan, interest rate, fees, etc.

You should be able to make your own hours. Makes for nice balance.

Know your split - how much of your commission do you have to share with the company?

I did it for over 40 years. While I loved the job, it’s not for everyone. I started as a collector, worked up to a personal banker, then a mortgage lender, then I finished as a commercial/agricultural lender. I enjoyed putting deals together plus the life lessons learned.

Where else can you learn about every type of business around. I lent to doctors, lawyers, developers, hotel owners, greenhouses, car dealerships......and the list goes on and on.

You have to start at the bottom generally and hopefully you have a sound background in accounting, business law and finance.

I found more enjoyment in smaller local/regional banks that the nationals. My son (who has an MBA) and I both worked for Wells for a very short period of time.

Good luck.
Mike

It is actually working in a call center full time, so I'd have to generate outside leads on my own time. That is still something I plan on doing.

They give 70-80% of 1% for the first year or so and then it moves to 1% plus bonuses. Not amazing, but they are generating the leads.

Long hours aren't a problem, but they don't seem flexible. Maybe that is to weed people out, but they said the job needs to be your life for the first two years.

I’m not clear on what you are looking at. It sounds like outbound cold calling? Is the company an established, responsible lender? If turnover is high, there’s a reason.

quote:

Originally posted by Ackks:
but they don't seem flexible. Maybe that is to weed people out, but they said the job needs to be your life for the first two years.

Sounds fantastic. NOT!! A miserable existence. Sounds like you would hate that job. After two years, everyone quits or is fired. So they basically need you to be a slave for as long as possible.

Better to apply to the Internal Revenue Service. Guaranteed salary and benefits.

quote:

Originally posted by Ackks:
but they don't seem flexible. Maybe that is to weed people out, but they said the job needs to be your life for the first two years.

No job should be "your life", unless it happens to also be something that you're deeply passionate about and committed to. (Think starting your own business to chase your lifelong dream, etc.)

Otherwise, that's just a recipe for misery and burnout. That's probably one of the major driving factors for their massively high turnover rate.

Are you deeply passionate about sitting in a cubicle cold-calling people to offer loans?

Yeah, I didn't think so...

(It's also telling that one of your initial concerns in your original post was about that career field's "work-life balance", and just a few posts later you're stating that the company actually expects you to have no work-life balance... Just all work, and no life.)

I'd keep looking, unless you're one foot in the poorhouse and simply need a paycheck to hold you over until something better comes along very shortly.

I've done it. I started out in 1997 in NoVA. It was, "Here's your desk, here's a phone, here's a list of real estate offices in Alexandria. Go!" Very tough, pounding the pavement business. Most deals I got were from going out to open houses on Sundays, where the realtors couldn't avoid me. And often times they'd have someone there who wanted to get pre-qual'ed for a mortgage. In fact, I'd say 90% of my business came from going out on Sundays. I grabbed the Sunday Washington Post, looked at all the open houses, matched the phone numbers with those from the offices I called on, put on some nice clothes and went out - 11am to 4pm every Sunday. Back then we used pagers and a lot of realtors would blast out a request to a lot of LO pagers and the first one to respond got the deal.

quote:

Originally posted by RogueJSK:


(It's also telling that one of your initial concerns in your original post was about that career field's "work-life balance", and just a few posts later you're stating that the company actually expects you to have no work-life balance... Just all work, and no life.)

I'd keep looking, unless you're one foot in the poorhouse and simply need a paycheck to hold you over until something better comes along very shortly.

I asked in my initial post because that was the thing that stuck out from the interview. His reasoning was that is what it takes to make it, which could be true, but also sounds like the reason they higher multiple people every few months. It could just be tough talk to weed people out as well. Anyway, they do train you and help you get your licenses. Their leads also come from inbound calls and their website, so at least there wouldn't be cold calling.

I'm trying to change careers and break into sales, so I'm going to have to pay my dues and work hard no matter where I go. That's why I'm seriously considering it.

From the posts in the thread its a ploy for suckers.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: mr kablammo,

quote:

Originally posted by Ackks:

they said the job needs to be your life for the first two years.

That's a HUGE red flag right there. He basically told you they will work you 18 hours a day, 7 days a week and expect you to pick up your phone the other 6 hours.

Run, don't walk away from this "offer".

Screw that. Do you have sales experience? They hire a big batch hoping one or two get it and do well with it.

quote:

Originally posted by BigSwede:
Screw that. Do you have sales experience? They hire a big batch hoping one or two get it and do well with it.

No, which is why I'm even considering it. Some places train you and seem to have a less intense environment, but cap you around 60k. I'm open to other sales fields if people have suggestions, but I think I'll have to pay my dues regardless.