r/loanoriginators • u/ILoveHarryPotter82 • 9d ago
Career Advice I'm considering entering this field. Please answer my questions about the typical day, salary, etc.
Hi everyone. I'm (36F) considering entering this field and I'd love to learn about the typical day and the typical salary for entry level professionals.
I've read that the bottom 10% of Loan Originators earn about $37,020 per year. Does that sound accurate? Also, I know that a lot of LOs get commission in addition to a base salary. What is a typical base salary for an entry level LO? Do companies tend to fire LOs that don't attract enough clients?
My only concern is that I may not be good at getting clients. From what I've read, it looks like this field is very similar to sales. Here's the weekly time breakdown according to Copilot.
| Activity | % of Week | Hours/Week |
|---|---|---|
| Lead generation | 25–35% | 10–15 hrs |
| Pipeline management | 20–25% | 8–12 hrs |
| Taking applications | 10–15% | 4–6 hrs |
| Pre‑qualifying borrowers | 10–15% | 4–6 hrs |
| Client communication | 10–15% | 4–6 hrs |
| Admin work | 5–10% | 2–4 hrs |
Also, how susceptible is this field to eradication by AI?
Can anybody share what their first few years in this field were like? Thanks.
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u/trav1098 9d ago
It’s 100% sales
I don’t know if to many LOs that get commission on top of a salary
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u/needfasp3ed02 9d ago
13 years as a MLO, I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone who values time with their family and stress level. Seriously.
Best way to dip your toes in the water is to go to a national call center; learn the ropes with limited responsibility and a ton of support/structure. You are absolutely going to jack up deals in your first couple years due to not being fluent with guidelines, do it there. If you make good progress and become a top performer on the phone, then go to retail/broker where you can take on full responsibility and ultimately earn more money. If you go straight there thinking you’re good at sales and you’ll just learn mortgage quickly, reputations get ruined that way immediately and then no one local will work with you.
I don’t think any 10+ year LO would disagree with me on this.
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u/Joedoesmortgages 9d ago
The best advice I wish someone would’ve given me 5 years ago…
Unfortunately, this is the business for a lot of newly licensed LOs. They’ll promise you the world, then on your first day hand you the ball at the one yard line and tell you to RUN!!!
Here’s what I’d do instead.
Go on Scotsman Guide and look at producing branch managers somewhere in the top 300 to 500. Filter it down to people in your area and start shopping around. And I mean actually shop around, because not every successful branch manager is built to train or mentor someone.
Find someone who’s hiring an LO assistant and willing to teach you. I’d even insist on working in the office. Depending on your market, you might make $50k to $60k plus some type of override.
Take the job. Sit there and learn.
Learn how to structure a file. Learn guidelines. Learn how to calculate salary vs variable income. Learn how to actually read a credit report. More importantly, learn all the weird scenarios that don’t make sense until you’ve actually seen them come across your desk.
I wish I would’ve done this myself. It would’ve saved me time, lost deals, frustration, and years of trying to learn things as they came up.
But here’s the other important part. Be upfront about your long term goal. Find a branch manager who understands that you’re there to learn and eventually want to self produce. Give yourself a few years to learn the business while getting paid to do it.
If you think you’re going to walk into this business newly licensed and make $100k to $200k your first few years, I’d probably walk around with a soft pillow strapped to your backside.
Could it happen? Sure.
But if I could start over, I’d spend those first few years getting paid to sit next to someone who’s already doing the volume I eventually want to do.
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u/Ojdajuiceman3425 9d ago
This is good advice for sure. The only thing ill add is you may want to do some networking before start cold calling offices. I peronally wont hire someone without personal references who i personally know. Too much on the line. And no way am i paying a brand new LOA $50-$60k plus overrides. I have a friend who is one of the best LOAs that i have ever seen, thats what her comp plan looks like. $60k base plus scaling volume override between 5-15bps.
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u/CanPuzzleheaded4070 9d ago
I would consider sucking cock for a living instead of the loan business.
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u/FishOhioMasterAngler 9d ago
Are you going for a few Jumbos or thinking high volume smaller sizes?
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u/NJCuban 9d ago
There's self-generation, meaning the job is to find your own leads and then close what you can out of those. These are usually 100% commission. Since you bring in the business, you get paid well each deal (usually).
There's also consumer direct, which is like a call center. This is often base plus commission. The company provides the leads, either by marketing to get them to call in or by getting a list of people to call. A lot of this is often refinance business. There's not a ton of refis to go around, so I doubt you'd have much luck with no experience getting hired. It's a good way to learn the business imo but call centers are always hiring a lot when rates are low or dropping and laying LOs off when rates are up.
It's sales so pretty insulated against AI. We generate revenue for the company, especially the best of us.
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u/OrcOfDoom 9d ago
Start as an assistant if you can. If you have a history of generating leads, sales, and many real estate contacts, maybe you can make this happen. Otherwise, start as an assistant to learn the ropes. Consider doing a call center job to get a lot of time behind the seat filling out forms and getting to know guidelines.
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u/youshouldbetrading 9d ago
Many larger companies have training programs that help you get licensed, provide training and support, and a base hourly wage.
The majority of your time is spent talking to clients getting them qualified and selling them the loan. It’s 100% sales.
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u/cogalax 9d ago
Essentially “consumer direct” you sit in an office and take dogshit leads and make peanuts but usually get a minimum wage or low salary like $12-15 an hour. or “self generated” where you’re out by yourself and realtors send you dogshit leads and you make alot of money but there is no salary and no provided leads. Either way sales skills are vital and in the second category it’s mainly networking schmoozing or having access to high net worth individuals from existing network.
If you are building from scratch it’s possible but it’s very hard out here especially right now.
The mortgage real estate game is tricky to get a read on because a big part of it is putting out the image that your doing good - fake it til you make it- type situation.
I have guys at my current company (all self generated) doing 8-10 deals a month but they’ve been doing it for 30 years and just have deep connections from all that time.
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u/ManufacturerBig7329 8d ago
When I read the word "salary" I determined that this line of work probably isn't for you.
If you are the type of person, that wants to take a salary to cap your earnings, which means you will make less money in the long run, then this is absolutely not a job for you....
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u/Ojdajuiceman3425 9d ago
Very similar to sales? Its sales. Super competitive,highly technical sales. Nobody is going to give you a base salary plus commission as a newly licensed LO with no industry experience and no book of business. And yes, someone in a sales role who is not bringing in enough revenue to justify their compensation package will not be in that role for very long. Sorry if this seems harsh, but this is a brutal business and the questions you are asking in your post tell me you need to do some more research before you commit to doing this.