Two years ago, I held 25 state Mortgage Loan Officer licenses. To obtain these, I had to complete a pre-licensure course and pass the NMLS National Exam. The former was fairly easy, while the latter was hard. "I can do hard things" my 4-year old son often says. If he chooses to become a MLO when he's older, one of those hard things may be the NMLS National Exam, which has failure rates of 44% for first-time tries and 54% for subsequent attempts.
Even though my son can do hard things, sometimes taking the easy route makes more sense. After all, once I passed the NMLS National Exam, I was able to get licensed in Illinois, where I live. I then had to apply to get licensed in each of the additional 24 states, which meant fees for each and - maybe worse - continuing education in each, every single year.
What is the easy route? Well, instead of becoming a state-licensed mortgage loan officer, the alternate path is to become a federally-registered mortgage loan officer for a bank or credit union. What are the advantages? No NMLS National Exam, no pre-licensure course, and no state-required continuing education. Plus, federal MLOs can originate in all 50 states.
These advantages certainly make the federally-registered path more attractive. So, why don't all MLOs become federally-registered instead of state-licensed? Primarily because federal MLOs are employees of a bank or credit union - they cannot be independent contractors. As an employee, they typically need to be paid at least a minimum wage, receive paid-time off, and be entitled other such benefits typically available to employees and not independent contractors.
OwnEasy Solutions recruits high-producing real estate agents and brokers to take the easy route and become part-time (average 5 hours per week) mortgage loan officers for banks. By leveraging world-class technology and support, MLOs average spending 1 - 2 hours per loan to earn .75% of the loan amount ($3,000 on a $400,000 loan). MLOs offer Rocket Mortgage products (i.e. Conventional, FHA, VA, Jumbo) and bank products (i.e. non-QM, DSCR, ITIN, Investor, HELOC) at pricing better than if borrowers went direct to Rocket or the bank. MLOs are even paid for training.
Even though real estate professionals often "do hard things" to be successful, taking the easy route and becoming a part-time federally-registered mortgage loan officer makes more sense.
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