Do you desire to become a mortgage loan broker? It is an interesting profession that involves helping buyers to find homes that suit their interests. As a mortgage loan broker, you will be the first contact person when any borrower undertakes a transaction involving a mortgage. You will be involved in helping home buyers to get the appropriate loans for their mortgages depending on their budgets to enable them to enjoy staying in their homes for as long as they can without any fear of being evicted.
You will be involved in identifying target homebuyers, processing loan applications for buyers, loan issuance, and coordinating with mortgage experts. You need to take the following steps for you to achieve your desired profession:
Do You have the Desired Personal Traits?
Start with a self-analysis. Understand your personality as different types of works require different personal character traits. You need to be a person who pays attention to details as loans involve a lot of details that determine the legality of the transactions. Accuracy is also a must-have. Since you will be handling large volumes of data from clients and different lenders, you need to accurately keep all the records.
You also must be an organized individual considering you shall be handling clients who are making life-long decisions. Mortgage experts at Hello Mortgage also recommend that you should be willing to offer free mortgage advice when you are needed to. You should be consistent and supportive of your clients throughout the process. If you are an outgoing individual, you will have it easy. It shall be easy for you to interact with different types of clients and potential homebuyers to get referrals and grow your business accordingly.
You must be able to efficiently communicate with your clients for you to attract new clients and keep your existing clients for future and better engagements. You should have some knowledge of the real estate industry and be willing to learn.
Revisit Your Financial Credibility
Since as a mortgage loan broker you will be involved with handling sensitive financial information from your clients and shall act as a liaison among different potential borrowers and lending institutions you must be financially credible and disciplined. Remember the lenders will need you to assure them that their money shall be repaid while the borrowers also want an assurance from you that they shall get some loan. You have to ensure both parties benefit mutually. You shall therefore have to take a pre-licensure test to guarantee mortgage institutions that you aren’t a financial fraudster.
Carry out some research to know the regulatory board of loan mortgage brokers in your country, understand all the state-specific licensure requirements, and take all pre-licensure tests. Also, take your time to identify the reasons you want to become a mortgage loan broker. You can then proceed to take the relevant training as required by the NMLS for you to qualify for a license.
Get a License
Once you have passed the prelicensure courses, then the next step for you is to obtain a credible mortgage license. Remember it is illegal to engage in mortgage loan origination if you do not have a license issued to you by your respective state. Follow the following steps to obtain a license;
- Comply with the SAFE Act which requires you to first obtain a license from your state of operation, register yourself with the NMLS, authorize licensing bodies to access your credit information and personal identity details, submit your fingerprints for a check of any criminal records, submit your details of any employment history up to ten years and attest to your certainty of the information you provide.
- Provide evidence that you have taken the pre-licensure tests as per the NMLS requirements. You should have taken a three-hour course on the regulations and federal laws on loans and mortgages, three-hours of ethical aspects of consumer protection, fair lending policies and fraud, two-hours of studying the lending procedures for nontraditional mortgages and you should have heard a twelve-hour training on mortgage origination procedures
- You should also have undertaken any other training recommended by your respective state
- Pass the SAFE MLO test and score by not less than 75%
- Provide details of your supervisor, an NMLS unique identifier and pay the fees required for you to obtain a license
Upon fulfilling the above requirements, you will be an officially licensed mortgage loan broker. You can start off working as a loan originator and grow to be a loan officer. As you work, ensure you maintain your licensure. Take as many relevant courses as you can and ensure you annually renew your license. File all the information required of you by the NMLS to avoid license withdrawal or inactivation. Continue taking the NMLS required annual courses too. This was you can confidently work as a mortgage loan broker for as much as you will want.