A mortgage loan originator is a mortgage loan originator is a mortgage loan originator.  That’s exactly how most home financers see it.  How will you attract the attention of qualified customers and generous referral sources with so many thirsty competitors out there...

Imagine visiting your doctor due to a painful knee.  Your doctor, who just happened to be a cardiologist by trade, enters the exam room and, after examining your knee, writes you a prescription for high blood pressure medicine.  “Doc,” you ask as your gaze shifts...

I was a high-numbers, top-producing loan originator back in the early 2000’s when the 30-year fixed interest rate was 9%.  So I am not paying any mind to the mortgage professionals currently complaining about and predicting how rising interest rates are going to...

For every hundred people who read this article, forty-nine will never pass the NMLS National Mortgage Licensing Exam. Yup! You read that correctly. Per the NMLS itself, the NMLS exam’s overall failure rate is 49%. This means that slightly less than half of those who...

Piggyback Financing You’re contacted by a potential mortgage applicant who wants to buy a home.  While interviewing her, she shares that she only has 5% to use towards a down payment.  “Ok,” you think.  “Conventional financing or FHA could work.”  You schedule an...

Interest-only (I/O) loans do not fit into the Qualified Mortgage (QM) category.  Therefore, if a lender were to originate a loan containing an I/O component, it would have to either keep it in portfolio or sell it to a private investor.  Although not terribly common,...

They’re certainly rare!  But they’re still out there.  Collateralizing properties in both first- and second-lien positions.  And even though you may never personally encounter or originate one, for NMLS testing and mortgage training purposes, in general, you’ll need...

Conventional Mortgage Loans One of the most fundamental, but frequently-asked questions, that I receive from new mortgage professionals is to explain the meaning of “conventional” and “conforming” mortgage loans.  The answer is relatively straightforward. In order to...

It happened almost fifteen years ago but I remember it as if it were yesterday.  A woman who I had known for less than a month was crying on the phone to me.  And it was in that instance, at that very moment, when I finally understood why I became a mortgage loan...

A police officer graduates from the police academy on Friday.  How comfortable would you be with that officer entering a patrol vehicle and patrolling your town, by himself, on the following Monday?  Probably not too comfortable, right?  No rookie police officer would...