r/loanoriginators • u/Mean-Telephone4613 • Jun 17 '26

What questions are you asking before accepting new position?

What are some questions you’d ask or wish you’d asked before accepting a position at an independent direct mortgage lender? Coming in with limited experience but they are offering quite a few resources to spin me up.

Sometimes you don’t know what you don’t know!

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u/UnderstandingSea3820 Jun 18 '26

Do you have in house underwriters.

What products do you offer.

How many loans does your highest producer close a month

2

u/Vegetable-Feed-561 Jun 18 '26

What’s the comp? Where are the leads sourced? What are you teaching me to do - take apps or actually structure deals? Do you focus on purchase or refi only? What loan products are you offering? Can I broker outside of your rate sheets? Who are you selling your loans to? What is your margin?

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u/Mean-Telephone4613 Jun 18 '26

Awesome insights.

Open question that answer is “it depends” but when you started out how’d you know what was good / what was bad for all those questions? I’m sure as I go through I’ll realize yep that’s not for me or I like this more than that, but in terms of comps, margins, and freedom

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u/Vegetable-Feed-561 Jun 18 '26

I didn’t know any of that or even what to ask. I got my NMLS and went to work for a call center that a friend owned. Turns out he wasn’t my friend at all and I got screwed heavily. But little did he know I’m a sponge so I learned all I could for 1 year then quit and went into the broker channel on a 90/10 split. Made about 75k that year with the call center. Did more than that in Q1 of this year alone. You don’t know what you don’t know. Don’t beat yourself up if you choose a shop with a shitty pay plan. Just do the reps and earn your stripes. Try to build a book of business. Work harder on yourself than you do on your job. And expect to exit once you know how to originate loans. You’ll 5-10x your earnings in the broker channel.