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The Loan Officer Species

The hunt continues! A couple of weeks ago we discussed the various types of Realtors one is likely to come across. Now it is time for the loan officers to be exposed. Once again, this post is littered with stereotypes and generalizations, but we all know we have run across these folks at some point in our lending careers so don't get all politically correct on me. It would be wise for consumers to figure out which one they are dealing with.

The Gangster: Maybe you haven't heard, gangs and street thugs have figured out that mortgage fraud is a lot more profitable than dealing drugs and damn sure less dangerous. Seriously, if your loan officer has a tattoo on his neck or a dollar sign tattooed on the palm of his hand, you may want to keep shopping for a mortgage loan.

The Newbie: Everyone starts off as a newbie. Newbie loan officers are very similar to newbie Realtors. In fact, they usually have the same birth mother. I think the temperature of the womb determines who winds up as a Realtor and who winds up as a loan officer. In the finance world, newbies are dangerous. Nothing like being young and dumb. Every established loan officer remembers their dumbest newbie mistake. Mortgage lending is a game of experience, so consumers would do best to focus on your loan officer's experience rather than that low rate quote. Sooner or later the newbie morphs into other species of loan officers. What they become is based on where they started off.

Jack of All Trades: Nothing like juggling several different careers. Most part-time loan officers got in the game during the refi boom. Be forwarned, Part Timers are Part Timers because they aren't good enough to be full time. You wouldn't use a part time lawyer. Or better yet, let's use a part time surgeon. Dumb right? So why do consumers use part time loan officers for the largest financial transaction of their lives? Part Timers also have a knack of being able to hook you up with a ton of ancillary products that they also sell on the side. Need life insurance? I got ya! Need homeowners insurance? I got ya. Need a notary? No problem. I can even list your home for sale. I also have my Realtor license. Note: As I was writing this post, a FedEx delivery man dropped off a package and mentioned he was a loan officer on the side. God help us all.

The Super Producers: There are loan officers who close in excess of $100 million in loans per year and can make seven figures (yes, you read that right). Every loan officer aspires to be that guy or gal. Like Super Producer Realtors, Super Producer Loan officers have figured out how to make the world revolve around them. Car of choice is ususally a Range Rover of if they are really bold, a Porsche. Super Producers are either really good or really bad loan officers. Like Super Producer Realtors, you are bound to run into an army of assistants. Super Producers are all about volume. Phone calls may only last about 2 minutes with them. You are a fortunate client if they remember your name.

The In House Guy: This loan officer usually works inside a real estate office as part of an affiliated business arrangement. They usually are into S&M because there is no way any normal loan officer would ever want to be stuck in a office full catty Realtors all day on purpose. Hint to consumers: They weren't referred to you by the Realtor because they are good or have low rates... it might be that year end cruise to Aruba for in house referrals that is really motivating the referral.

The Graphic Artist: Trained by Ameriquest, these Loan Officers are experts at Adobe Acrobat and Photoshop. Need tax returns? No problem. Your employer forgot to include that $50k bonus on your w-2? Wink, wink. We can fix that. These loan officers are masters at making those deals that every other loan officer told you was impossible possible. The FBI will come a knocking.

The Refi Monkey: Believe it or not, there are loan officers who have no clue how to handle a purchase transaction. These loan officers got in the business during the refi boom and there was plenty of money to be made just churning loans and selling low interest rates to refi customers. Of course, as rates started going up, the refi monkeys quickly found out that you can't live off refis forever. Now they are running around driving Realtors crazy dropping off rate sheets and donuts. Can often be heard saying things like "Why can't we just push the closing back a few days?"

The Fisherman: This loan officer doesn't have very many clients. Of course, you only need one or two closings per month if you make $20k in fees off every deal. Like his name says, he is in constant search of the whale of a client. I haven't figured out if he just targets borrowers who are short on brain cells or if he is just that good of a salesman. Fisherman are easily spotted because they never work more than 15 hours per week.

Sub-Prime Sam: Nearly extinct after the sub-prime implosion, this loan officer only focused on subprime loans because "people will always have bad credit" and he was "tired of dealing with A paper rate shoppers." Sub-prime Sam wasn't aware that there is such a thing as a full documentation loan and just because the borrower lost their last paystub doesn't mean it automatically needs to go stated.

The Professional: Like Professional Realtors, the professional loan officer is a rare breed. They actually care about their client's financial well being. They have made a career in residential finance. Most of their clients are through referrals. Clients can expect to be treated with respect and educated on all aspects of their largest financial transaction. Professionals usually put together the best overall package of rate, fees, and service for their clients. The rate is always delivered as promised. The fees never change. The loan closes on time. They also may actually attend their closings in person!

The Call Center Monkey: These loan officers usually work for big mortgage banks or internet lenders. They usually go by names of Mortgage Specialist or Loan Coordinator. If you are lucky, they have been on the job longer than two months and may even be located in the US. If you called a 1-800# for a big bank, the odds are you are dealing with the Call Center Monkey. Good Call Center Monkeys strive to learn the ropes so they can leave the hell of their Dilbert-esque call center and start making real money in the outside world as a self-sufficient mortgage broker. Depending on the company, some may turn into the JT Marlin though, so be careful!

JT Marlin: An evil relative of the less intimidating Call Center Monkey, the JT Marlin works at a boiler room mortgage hack shop. These loan officers love repeating lines from movies such as Boiler Room and Glen Gary Glenross. (Warning: Dirty Language). Success is measured in fees collected. Be careful, because they are always closing. I captured some rare footage of the JT Marlin broker at work. Almost always will be under 30 and can usually be seen driving a leased Hummer H2.

I am sure there are other classifications of LOs, so I would love to hear about them. Fire away!

Posted by Russ Martin Residential Mortgage Advisor on 07/18/2007 01:49 PM

Comments (7)

mortgage brokers, realtors

7 Comments on The Loan Officer Species

JUL

2007

Great descriptions. I had to laugh at a couple. Goodpost. Now we know where we stand.

wonderful and thanks for the laugh

Too funny, but accurate. Well stated. The "In House Guy" is the best, because it is a fact.

The "In House Guy" maybe wasn't in line for the cruise but had money put into their retirment account. Here in Minnesota, a couple of our larger real estate broker offices were hunted, then haunted by the Attorney Generals office.

JUL

2007

oh my god! haha...I have been waiting for this Russ. You make some very entertaining blogs, please keep them coming!

AUG

2007

i read this article on Business Week Online and i found it to be really interesting. This is in reference to "Jack Of All Trades"

Is a loan officer a bad loan officer if they do it part time? I find it to be encouraging to want to be a master in more than one field. why not be a little more well rounded; why limit yourself? anyways, here is the article

BusinessWeek Online
Unleashing Your Many Identities
Monday June 25, 8:08 am ET
By Marshall Goldsmith Marci Alboher is a lawyer-turned-journalist/speaker/writing coach who knows that she introduces herself with an abundance of labels and punctuation. She does it on purpose, because she's hell-bent on spreading the message that people should be unleashing their many identities. For her new book, One Person/Multiple Careers, she interviewed hundreds of people living these lives, from a longshoreman/documentary filmmaker to a management consultant/cartoonist.

She and I recently talked about what she learned from people who are custom-blending careers, why she thinks we're going to see more "slashing," and how we can all benefit from the slash movement -- both in our own careers and in the companies we build and manage. Edited excerpts of the conversation follow: You've gotten a lot of attention for bringing the word "slash" into the lexicon of careers. So what's going on with all the slashes? Slashes are people who pursue multiple careers or vocations simultaneously. They've taken the notion of moonlighting and turned it on its head. Whereas moonlighting was something you did shamefully, slashing has cachet. From lawyer/chefs to mom/screenwriters and celebrity icons like Bono (see BusinessWeek.com, 4/24/07, "My Dinner with Bono"), rock star/humanitarian, slashes are appearing at all strata of society. What is behind this explosion of careers with slashes? It's happening for a number of reasons: -- Now that so much work can be done flexibly, portably, and virtually, it's easy to do many kinds of work in the same workweek or even workday. -- Economic security no longer exists unless you create it. Having multiple income streams is one of the best ways to create stability. -- People are living and working longer, creating a large canvas on which to paint a career. -- We are all craving fulfillment and meaning in our careers, so it's becoming more common to combine work for security with work that feeds a passion. Are there common models for slashing, or is every case different? Some combinations are so common that people already think about them as an integrated career -- the actor/director or anyone who teaches/speaks/writes/consults in their given field. Then there are the corporate types who have a business or artistic pursuit "on the side." The slashes who get the most notice are those with incongruous combinations, like Robert Childs, a psychoanalyst/violin maker. Of course, anyone who works while actively raising children is living a slash life. Most people have trouble managing one career; aren't you just encouraging them to make careers more challenging and complicated? The most surprising thing I learned from the people I've interviewed is that while people with slashes may experience workplace stress, they tend to say that the difficult times are far outweighed by the fact that they have written the rules of their own working lives. Slash careers provide variety, multiple income streams, and a tonic against the burnout so common in those who pursue one endeavor exclusively. And in many cases, multiple identities result in unexpected synergies. Consider Robert Barr, who had a thriving career as financier, all the while publishing books of poetry. When the National Poetry Foundation was looking for a leader who was both passionate about poetry and capable of managing a wealthy nonprofit, Barr was the perfect choice. How do you create a rsum or handle an interview when you are a person with multiple careers? This can be tricky, and it all depends on your goals. For some, it makes a lot of sense to be upfront about various slashes in all contexts. Angela Williams, the corporate lawyer/minister who inspired me to write this book, says that revealing her dual professions has made her more marketable to potential employers and clients. She features both prominently in her resume and bio. Others keep their identities separate to the point of having multiple rsums. In the era of Web sites and online profiles, more people are describing themselves with a litany of slashes, but in each case it's about what works best with a person's particular mix of slashes. What ever happened to the conventional wisdom that values specialization and becoming an expert in your career? Why would anyone want to go to a surgeon who has another job on the side? Slash careers are entirely consistent with developing expertise. In fact, many slash professionals occupy the highest rungs of their various professions. Often they took on a slash at a time in their career when they had the luxury to slow down a bit after putting in their dues in a given field. And many slashes tell me that having other outlets or areas of focus made them better at their original occupation. Dr. Sanjay Gupta, who divides his time between his career as a journalist for CNN (NYSE:TWX - News) and his work a surgeon, is arguably seeing a wider world of medicine by traveling the globe as a correspondent than if he never left the confines of his hospital in Atlanta. You often refer to yourself as a former lawyer. Now that so many people go through career changes, how do prior careers fit in with the whole slash movement? I rarely encounter someone who has switched careers who didn't carry forward and benefit from the training or perspective that came from the earlier career. The key with "starter careers" is to realize how they can complement or enhance your current career. We are entering an age where the hybrids will rule the workplace, whether they're called hyphenates, slashes, or some other name. If you're an architect with an MBA, you'll see opportunities in the business side of architecture that few others will see. Careers at the intersections are where innovation is born. You say throughout your book that slash careers require constant tweaking and reinvention. So what's next for you? Just a few weeks ago, I started writing the online column, "Shifting Careers" for The New York Times (NYSE:NYT - News). Writing a weekly column is quite different, both in pace and in style, from writing a book. So I am embracing being a beginner all over again as I immerse myself in this new kind of writing. I have a feeling my next book idea will come out of that column. It has been great to interview you! I now realize that I am an executive educator/professor/coach/writer/columnist/Buddhist!

MAY

I think you need to be careful about the code of ethics when you are specific about a certain brand.

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