To be a mortgage broker now

[Crabcake Johnny]

Well I just got off the phone with a friend of mine - he was actually one of my agents over 2 years ago - who's been pounding it out as a mortgage broker for the last couple of years, and doing quite well I might add.

Well, that's over. His manager just gave all the brokers their walking papers in a nice 15 minute "we're done" meeting this morning. They cannot get "jumbo loans" which are over $400,000 and in MD that's the average price of a single family house. There are a lot of cheaper homes but 100% financing is done and buyers even with good credit need 10% down.

Refi's? A mark on your credit? No go. Larry told me a good portion of his business was equity loans to people who are in a bit of trouble. Now that's all over. He can't find an equity loan for people who's have a few "late's" on their credit. Their office specialized in 100% loans to people with "iffy" credit.

He told me that as of last week he was working on over 15 loans. Now he's working on zero. They also had clients pre-approved and those approvals got yanked back.

So now he's coming back to be an insurance agent.

 

[James]

Like everything else, it goes up and down. Obviously we are moving into a down period and home prices will drop and once again money will loosen up and loans will be more plentiful. High Risk Loans? Should propably be gone but I'm sure they'll come back in one form or another.

Just like the Stock Market, we haven't found Nirvana and likely never will. In other words, the good times simply don't roll on forever, you have to have the down times so we know when we are in good times!

Ps, hopefully your friend will do just fine in his/her new upcoming reemergence into the insurance field.

 

[CHUMPS FROM OXFORD]

The mortgage business will bounce back. Actually, most mortgage brokers stick around. This is a blip and we have already begun to see some stabilization.

 

[007]

I guess, the ebb and flow of any business unless off course the insurance business is economic proof recession.

 

[midwestbroker]

My wife works at the corp office for a financial planning company in the recruiting department. She told me that they have had a lot of mortgage loan officers look into jobs there.

I am guessing the ones who have been in business for a long time are the ones who are sticking around, but all the ones with under 5 years are looking.

 

[TriDad]

MIL is an escrow officer/manager out in Los Angeles. They started laying people off this week, and she may even get laid off in 30-45 days if things remain the same.

She may be retiring early to move in with us