Loan officer.....anyone do it for a living? Do you like it?

[Mother Mucker]

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Scottie,

There are many things that can be done in any business that are immoral. You certainly have listed a few valid examples from the mortgage industry. However, morality lies in the salesman, not within the business. You mention that going after someone else's business may be immoral. If that were the case I think that capitalism would be in a lot of trouble.

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I don't have a problem with competition or good salesmanship. Clients have the right to shop around, even though banks typically don't like being played against one another in a bidding war. But there are ethics and laws, even in a capitalist market. The immoral business-chasing I was mainly thinking of was when competing banks undercut their competitors at rates that seem impossible to be profitable. Of course, they do this to get their foot in the door and eventually win all the client's business...kind of like a loss-leader in a supermarket. Is that ethical if it's unprofitable for the offering bank in the short run? It's hard to prove predatory pricing, since only the bank knows its own profitability threshhold and cost of funds. But that's how business is done in the banking industry.

Another one that crossed my mind is what happens when a loan officer leaves the bank. Who owns his client list? The client's loans don't follow the officer out the door. But naturally, the officer calls on his former clients to get them to move their relationships over to his new bank. I haven't made up my mind on whether that's unethical or not...relationships are a salesman's livelihood, but contracts belong to the business.

ScottieK

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Regarding your question about working with the same clients after you leave, I can't speak on behalf of the loan officer profession, but when I left one public accounting firm for anther, I believe it was 1 year that I couldn't contact or work with the clients of that firm. Also, you have to sign an independence form saying that you are totally independent of the clients you are working for (don't have any investments with them, don't work for them, etc.)

[Uglyowl]

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It was usually 2-5 loans a month.

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Is that all most people are getting nowadays? Rough market all around.

[johnnybeef]

Mother,

My last firm made me sign a waiver that said that I would not get paid for a loan until I closed the loan. When I left, I had one loan that was set to close a few days after I left. To the best of my knowledge, another LO closed the loan and got paid $1600 for my origination. It sucked, but as I said in a previous post, I found a positive in it in that I made a huge connection with my First Franklin rep that I wouldn't have made otherwise had I not originated the loan.

Ugly,

Rates are on the decline, but they aren't in the 4's and 5's like they were a few years ago. When I left my last job on 1/18, an FHA loan for a 30 year fixed was a 6.5, and I could get someone a high 5 if they had squeaky clean credit. That said, the majority of mortgage firms are either going out of business or growing rapidly. The ones that are growing tend to focus on sub-prime loans that deal mostly with debt consolidation.