I am a fairly new loan officer looking to partner with some realtors. I have teamed up wit one and will office with her soon. Since she will be getting all my referrals and some co-op money I have developed another plan. Here is the plan....

Hire the realtor as an assistant to me so they can get a split off of my commission legally. I will give a 20% split off the top before I get paid and before my branch manager gets paid. If I am referred 3 loans per month at an average price of $125,000 and I make an average of 3 points( front and back ) then the realtor would net over $2000 monthly to use for income or what I suggest.... advertising. All the realtor has to do is send me business and I make them more money though commission and advertsing. I had one realtor contact me after an email about this plan but all she wanted is co-op and another just emailed me to call her. Being realtors yourself does this sound like something that would work. I am basically paying for all their advertising and my company will not be on it with them. Thanks for your input.

p.s. if there is something else that you suggest to help me build relationships please shoot away.

Ryan

A few mortgage companies in Chicago were doing this kind of thing with realtors in Chicago making them look like loan officers until state of Illinois made it mandatory for loan officers to be certified after passing a test. Let's just say those mortgage companies lost a lot of money real fast.

I am just trying to get started. In texas you do not have to have a license unless you work for a broker. I work under a bank so I am a mortgage banker and do not have to have a license. I have looked at the courses here to get licensed and they do not teach you anything more than my branch manager has taught me the past two months. In my case I am making them do more than just refer the business to me. They have to actuallt take the loan application for me, they have to work a little for it.

p.s. if there is something else that you suggest to help me build relationships please shoot away.

Join a BNI group. It's awesome for agents and for mortgage folks!

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Richmond Realtor

Richmond Real Estate Investor Association REIA

I have thought about the BNI group before. I might do that. Besides that though, what makes a realtor choose a loan officer other than co-op money for advertising etc. I have though about hitting up all of the new agents as they are in school.

Money is always a big factor for the new realtors, but you don't get the volume from them. The older, better ones with lots of volume just simply want a loan officer who is going above and beyond, to get them the loan on time with better terms, etc. I mean a good realtor easily works 70 hours a week and they expect the same thing from you A lazy loan officer means the realtor will waste his/her time on the phone trying to figure out what happened to the loan. That is why every realtor says a good loan officer is hard to find.

I would never work with an loan officer that is making 3 points on a deal. I would feel like my client was getting ripped off just so I could make a buck...not happening.

My LO returns my calls asap, treats my clients great (always makes around company min unless its a hard deal), is willing to spend a little money in co-op advertising (ad has both of our info on it), returns e-mails quickly, e-mails me and the customer every step of the way of the loan process with updates, and the list keeps going.

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The Suburban House Hunters Team would like to thank REW members for past referrals! We are never to busy to handle your Chicago area referrals.

Always looking for quality unique content for our real estate agent blog, PM me if interested in writing a post.

My thoughts on the Sarasota Association of REALTORS actions.

what do you feel is acceptable for a loan officer to make. Realtors in my area make 3%. Do you feel that even if a loan officer can make three points ( 1 on the front and two on the back)while giving a good rate like 5.875 to a client with an average score is bad. I have no problem doing two points on a deal, I was just giving three points for the example. I have one realtor that I am working with now and I have gone more than above and beyond for her. I have actually spent 6 whole days (8am to 6pm) out of the last 2 weeks driving her and a client around the country looking for houses because my realtor is bad with directions except for her immediate area. I return calls asap as well and always keep everyone updated including the client. Do you expect a loan officer only to make the 1% origination fee and if they are not the owner to only get a 50%to 70% split on that. There is a lot more work that goes into placing a loan than you think. Go spend a day with your loan officer on a busy day and then tell me how much you think his time is worth. Good loan officers work as hard or harder than most realtors I know.

The company I used to work for was a mortgage company that started a real estate company. I was part of the day to day opperations in the loan side for 6 months just so I would know how much went into the loan process.

There is NO WAY that an average loan takes 1/3 the time and average real estate deal takes. At that I haven't found a single good LO that even claims to say that it does. Those 6 days you spent with the Real Estate agent and their client...that is the norm for us, it is a one time deal for you. In case you have no clue, the time invested doesn't stop when the contract is signed.

A loan officer can easily do 3 times the deals that a real estate agent can in the same amount of time. A slow week for my LO is still 3-4 deals, that is a great week for a real estate agent. What my LO calls a good week is better than the best month I have ever had.

Charge what you wish, just remember that a good agent will not let their customer pay more with you than the next guy just to make 20% of the deal. That was my point. We have an ethical duty to do what is best for the client not what helps our pocket books.

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The Suburban House Hunters Team would like to thank REW members for past referrals! We are never to busy to handle your Chicago area referrals.

Always looking for quality unique content for our real estate agent blog, PM me if interested in writing a post.

My thoughts on the Sarasota Association of REALTORS actions.

Here is an example.... I am doing a loan right now for $150,000. I asked the client what rate they wanted and they said 5.5% to 5.75% on an FHA. I am able to get them 5.625% and make 3.125 points on it and they are very happy. What is wrong with that? The customer got what they wanted and they are very happy, they picked me out of 5 other loan officers and this is a client from my realtor. I don't always make 3.125 points on a deal but when I locked this rates were better then they have been the last two weeks. Right now I would make 2.625 points on this deal because rates have worsened and i would be ok with that as well. I never charge more than 1% origination but I know many loan officers that always make 2 points on the front and then 2 points on the back, I think that is dirty especially because that is more out of pocket for the borrower.