Are you ready to make the life-changing switch to a career as an independent mortgage broker or loan officer? Our team at BeAMortgageBroker.com is here to help you every step of the way.

TAKING THEIR TALENTS TO THE WHOLESALE MORTGAGE INDUSTRY

Every business owner has a different goal for how they want things to run and how much they want to grow. The beauty of being a mortgage loan officer is that you have the autonomy and control to make that happen, while still having much-needed support resources. Since making the switch from retail lending to wholesale, Kim and Mandy have accelerated their business at a pace neither of them thought was possible.

COMBINING THEIR SKILLS

With backgrounds in lending operations, loan processing and underwriting, Kim and Mandy already had a wealth of combined knowledge about the mortgage business when they met in 2017. At the time, Mandy was working at a bank as a mortgage loan officer and once she realized Kim had a similar background, she thought they’d work well together. Kim decided to join her at the bank and they began working as a team. From there, they went to a big name retail mortgage lender together. It was there they realized that retail lending wasn’t the right setting to achieve their goals.

“We both like to feel as though we have more of a sense of control in the process and in the loan file (in wholesale). Being on the retail side, there were certain departments and things that you had to go through and adhere to,” said Kim.

There was another issue that kept popping up for Kim and Mandy on the retail lending side—one that became a tipping point.

“We started to see that we were losing clients due to interest rates, mostly because of the way that the retail operations are set up,” said Mandy.

DISPELLING COMMON MYTHS

Since they both had extensive experience working in retail lending, Kim and Mandy were very familiar with some of the misconceptions that exist about the wholesale mortgage industry. Once they decided to make the jump from retail to wholesale, it didn’t take long to realize that none of them were true.

“A lot of people think that working with a broker means that it’s going to be more complicated or more expensive and it’s actually the exact opposite,” said Mandy.

There’s also more control, both over their loan process and the interest rates and pricing they’re able to offer to their borrowers.

“Not only are we able to control those things, but we can also get to loan closings faster and then make room for more loans coming in.” said Kim. “That’s been one of the greatest benefits, having more control over the process and pricing.”

A SHORT RUNWAY TO SUCCESS

Not only have Kim and Mandy had a smooth transition to the wholesale mortgage industry, they’ve also experienced success sooner than they initially expected.

“I’ve heard it from other colleagues in the wholesale industry. Whenever you jump from retail to broker and you have the support like we have, you typically will grow your business from where you were and we are starting to see that in a very short time frame,” said Mandy.

As they continue to build their business, Kim and Mandy want to help as many borrowers as possible. Thanks to the different loan products they now have at their disposal as mortgage loan officers, they are positioned to do just that.

“We try to work with the borrower to come up with a game plan,” said Mandy. “Now that we’re on the broker side, we have more options and are able to give more approvals.”

More options, more approvals, more of everything they need to run a successful business the way they want — it seems like Kim and Mandy are just getting started.

“We can make it as big or as little as we want to and we want to make it big,” said Kim. “Being on the broker side, it gives us the ability to actually be able to do that.”