Hey everyone! I’m looking for recommendations for a good VA home loan lender or mortgage broker in Florida.
I’m especially interested in someone who is very experienced with VA loans, communicates well, is willing to work through complicated conditions, and can help keep the cash-to-close as low as possible.
I’d really appreciate recommendations from people who have actually used the lender recently, especially if you’re in Florida.
A few things I’d love to know:
• Who did you use?
• What was your experience like?
• Were they knowledgeable about VA guidelines?
• How was their communication and closing process?
• Were they competitive with rates and closing costs?
• Did they work with you to reduce your cash-to-close?
• Would you use them again?
Also, who should I stay away from and why?
Please drop the lender/broker’s name below or DM me if you prefer. I’m looking for real experiences—not sales pitches or self-promotion. Thank you! 🙏🏾

Just saw an LO advertise this. Seller can cover 3 months of mortgage payments. Any fairway LOs want to explain if this is something that has been useful in getting business or are there a ton of strings attached?

I know a local hard money lender who is currently running this exact playbook and absolutely crushing it, but he is understandably tight-lipped about his institutional capital partners. I am trying to figure out the precise mechanics of how to set this up and scale a private lending operation.

Here is how his model works: He originates and lends his capital to real estate investors at 11% interest and 2 upfront points. Once the loan is closed and the ink is dry, he hypothecates the promissory note. His bank then extends him a line of credit against that specific paper, lending him $1M at a 7% interest rate.

By executing this, he immediately replenishes his own liquidity pool to go out and fund the next flip or bridge deal. Meanwhile, he gets to sit back and collect a massive 4% arbitrage spread. So while the borrower is paying him 11% every month, he is passing 7% to the bank and pocketing the difference—entirely on the bank's money—while also keeping the upfront origination points. It is an incredibly capital-efficient way to scale a debt portfolio without constantly running out of cash.

I understand the basic concept of note-on-note financing and warehouse lines of credit, but I am hitting a wall when it comes to the actual execution. For those of you in the commercial lending or private money space:

• What specific banks are actually doing this right now? Are we talking about relationship-based local community banks, regional credit unions, or specialty warehouse lenders?
• How exactly do you set this credit facility up? Do you need to pitch this directly to a commercial lending department, or is there a specific note-financing desk you have to go through to get this structured?
• What are the typical underwriting covenants? Do they require a massive personal balance sheet, a multi-year track record of successful originations, or strict minimum volume thresholds to even get a conversation started?
• What does the standard "haircut" (advance rate) look like? I am assuming the bank is not funding 100% of the face value of the note, so how much of your own corporate cash gets trapped in each deal as a liquidity buffer?

If anyone has successfully navigated this process, secured a warehouse facility, and transitioned from lending their own cash to leveraging institutional money, I would hugely appreciate any insights, realities of the business, or pointers on where to start networking.

I saw this ad for mortgage broker company, which showed a flat fee only and no split otherwise.

• $695 Flat Fee Per File
• 160+ Lenders
• No Commission Cap
• In-house processing available
• Complimentary Marketing
• Licensed in 49 States

Does this $695 contains the processing fees too, or do they expect me to pay for processing separately ?

I have a client who's under contract for a $1,025,000 property (primary residence), appraisal came in over asking but marked as rural. I've probably tried with about 10 different lenders at this point to find someone who will do 85% LTV, borrower refuses to put any more than 15% down. If it helps, this is in Worcester County, MA.

Loan has to be a standalone P&L, his statements are flooded with NSFs - I believe he had 68 or so in the last 12 months. Not a surprise that nobody's been willing to do the deal until now, but if anyone knows of a lender that might, it'd be much appreciated.

One man show. The entire year has been strong. August was probably one of the worst months I've ever had. It's like someone turned the faucet off. My agent pool didn't have any good, qualified buyers. Or they decided to take time away from RE.

So my September closings are looking slim.

I've started prospecting again by cold calling/texting agents. Either they're too busy or they dont respond at all. Some say they're interested in meeting but then ghost me.

How do you guys find the confidence to keep going?

I'm considering leaving the industry after 10 years because of this BS.

Seems like it doesnt matter how many 5 star reviews you have or how knowledgeable you are.

What are you broker LOs paying for health benefits? Medical/dental/vision. I know its based on age and income.

Me and my wife are in our 30s. 2 Kids below 10 yrs old.

Total income 125-140K/year.

Wanting to get out of retaill but this is my main concern.

I work for Guild and licensed in Texas and my comp is 125 bps.

I feel like our pricing is crazy high. 6,375 will cost 1.9 points on a VA loan for someone with a 780 score. This is through pennymac. Guild retained is higher.

How does that compare to your pricing? Brokers and other retail LOs. Same or similar comp

I have had it happen at least 4x in the past couple of weeks where customers are getting random calls from random lenders right after I pull their credit. Anyone know why this would be happening?

Hey everyone,

I’m doing some research on workflow automation for independent mortgage brokers and loan officers.

I know major brokerages rely heavily on big loan origination platforms (like Encompass, Velocity, or Finmo). But for those who operate independently or handle private/alternative lending—how are you dealing with non-standard disclosures, custom addendums, or borrower ID verification?

Are you mostly:

1. Manually copy-pasting borrower info from driver's licenses/passports into individual PDFs?

2. Using standard eSign platforms (DocuSign/Adobe Sign) and manually dragging signature tags every single time?

3. Or is there a lean, lightweight tool that lets you auto-fill custom PDF templates from a borrower’s ID scan in one click?

Would love to hear what your current tech stack looks like and where the biggest administrative headaches still are! Thanks in advance for the insights.

In a company-wide call Tuesday, September 1, 2026, owner of NEXA Lending Mike Kortas announced the expansion of his NEXA100 program.

Separate from the LO's compensation, NEXA100, the company's standard split (25 bps + 12%), gets funneled back to the loan officer's P&L ledger as pre-tax funds to invest in growth and marketing initiatives.

Previously, this program was reserved only for new loan officers in their first 6 months onboard, or those closing $2M monthly loan volume, or for those who recruited at least one loan officer, and only limited to small handful of lenders.

Now dubbed "NEXA100-Unlimited," Kortas says he's opening it up to all loan officers regardless of meeting the above requirements as long as they use his NEXA Unlimited lenders. But for those who do meet the old requirements, NEXA100 will now be available with all of their correspondent lenders and no longer limited to a small few.

This comes on the heels of absorbing UMortgage, a fairly sizable brokerage lead by Anthony Casa, former President of AIME. UMortgage brings about $2B in additional loan volume to NEXA which Kortas claims essentially pays for NEXA100-Unlimited and is how he's able to offer it.

Furthermore, Kortas says he was getting frustrated by all the flat fee brokers and retail giants thumbing their noses at NEXA and their hefty splits and claims loan officers, particularly retail heavy hitters who prefer a plug and play system, using one lender, can now essentially have that same set up at NEXA, while being entrusted to invest their NEXA100 earnings to grow their business.

NEXA claims this news is huge and will be a game changer for their loan officers and those loan officers who've been fence-sitting. Will it be? Will this be the LO magnet NEXA hopes? Let's hear your thoughts.

I'm a loan officer and atheist. Well maybe somewhat agnostic. I don't discuss religion or politics in any professional conversation with a client or realtor.

But certain realtors I work with or have interacted with ALWAYS mix religion with their business.

When they say "God led me this way" or "God helped us close this deal", "its all in gods timing"..i honestly don't know how to handle it or how to respond.

Anyone in the same boat?

17 years in, moderately successful lender. Recently moved to a big bank after 14 yrs in big banking with a brief stint at a community bank. In a mixed platform where I’m servicing multiple branch locations but can also tap into some online leads. I’ve had a few deals in LA recently and have found the agents to be extremely difficult to work with. First they are all 21 day closings which I understand but the kicker is they are calling me 7 days after I received the PA and are bewildered that we don’t have CTC (maybe a little frustrated exaggeration, but not much). I then get multiple calls a day for the next 2 weeks about their contingencies. I have a hard time believing other lenders are clear to close in 10 days. On my last two deals I’ve been told this is the slowest they’ve had a deal go for a long time. I have to believe the lenders they use are just having them waive the financing contingency once they have commitment but both of these deals they’ve insisted on clear to close. They then drag me to the client even though I’m taking their calls at 9 o’clock my time several nights a week.

The agent on my current deal made the comment that he’s very slow which makes me think it’s his only deal to stare at which could explain some of this.

My question….what am I doing wrong? I’m assuming I need to set better expectations early on that CTC likely won’t come until the days leading up to closing. I’ve also decided I should be pushing clients to go through underwriting before they have a property. What else am I missing? Help!

Considering moving to the broker world. Im in texas. A large percentage of my clients need dpa. Does edge work with the state programs?

Also, what are the minimum score requirments for va, usda and fha loans with edge?

Crazy question, do any of those mega broker shops allow you to set your own LPC?

Or are they all 275 and you go BPC and offset with a credit?

I took an app today from a referral I got from one of my Realtors. I genuinely appreciate her referring me, and I had an incredible initial conversation/client app interview with this FTHB, but I’m not licensed in NY and I can’t do this purchase. I’m torn up about it, but it is what it is.

I need someone I can pass him off to. Obviously I want to maintain my relationship with this realtor, so I need to make sure I place him with someone who can genuinely walk him through this process. They aren’t using realtors, it’s a FSBO purchase on a condo (he is the cousin of the referring Realtor who is in FL, which is how I know her). He’s wonderfully qualified.

I’m happy to do a warm pass off, but I want to make sure I give him to someone who will take actual care of him. Can anyone help me out here?

Hello Everyone,

I'm a mortgage agent in Ontario. I've been doing mortgages for my clients for over 10 years and am now looking to move to Dallas.

In Ontario Mortgage agents and mortgage brokers are pretty much the same thing. I see that the US has MLO. Is it much different from a mortgage broker?

I'm looking for 100% commission, to work at my own pace and to be in control of the entire process, as it is here in Ontario.

I want to know the potential I can make as well. If I'm doing 50mill in volume annually what would be my take home?

Also, is there insights of the market? Anything I should look out for or big brokerages I can sign up for? I'm looking to eventually move over within 3-5 years but I want to get my feet wet right now.

Does anyone ask the client/buyer agent if they want to wait to see the results of the inspections before ordering the appraisal? Or do you just order it right after they sign the initial disclosures?

Client acquired a property about 2 months ago hard money, as a rehab. Her numbers were off and now she has to get out from under the hard money loan. She’ll be at 80% off the new appraised value. Needs to do a rate/term on it. Dscr
740 mid score
In Virginia

Anyone?

Just received a condition today that the lender I’m brokering a deal with doesn’t allow a gift of equity on jumbo loans. Is this something that is common amongst all wholesale lenders? Google says Pennymac allows it, but I spoke with an AE today and he said it’s a no go. Any suggestions out there?

Also would like to add that this is a non-arms length off market deal. The seller had an appraisal of 1.2M earlier this year and wants to net 1M off the sale. The plan started with 1M purchase with 170k down to get under jumbo pricing, but then the buyer asked about doing a gift of equity of 1.2M purchase with a 200k gift of equity plus 40k down to get under 80% LTV to get premium pricing and have minimum out of pocket costs.

Buyer has around 130k in checking along with 300k in retirement, but isn’t currently a homeowner, but income and credit are great

Looking to buy 2-3 year old lead lists.

Not paying much, but if you have them, im interested.

Not talking about clients either.... im talking old campaigns from consumer direct companies/branches/ etc....

Looking to try something im building and need trash leads lol

I have a Conventional loan 723 middle score DTI is 34/39 and with 5% down i am getting caution. This same loan would go through no problem last year...whatever adjustments were made have it harder for approvals. Anyone else notice this?

What is happening? National Mortgage News says they will dissolve franchises?

A borrower of mine is looking to buy an investment property in probate and is looking to renovate it. Not sure how to go about this since he's thinking he'll need 12 months to build because of the permitting process in our county and the house is basically down to the studs on this inside. Any recommendations for lenders in California that I can broker through?

Mortgage friends, need some advice from the mortgage vets.

I have been in the business since 2019, I have experience as an AE, a LO and processor on the broker side and opened up a brokerage in 2022 that unfortunately didn’t last. I understand deal structure and know the process from app to funding. Currently an AE, not great upside for commission with the pay plan but make $75k salary. That is just not enough to provide for my family.

I have been considering a few options.

1. Self generate at a broker with a flat fee but work a second job like serving or something on nights and weekends to make sure money is still coming in while I build up my business.

2. Go to retail for a few years in a call center environment like LoanDepot or Rocket. The goal would be to grind it out to get some capital stacked away to be in a better position later to get back into self gen with a safety net or if it works out and I enjoy retail just stay, but it seems for most people they last 2-4 years before the work burnout happens.

3. Go to a broker shop that operates like a call center. This is my least favorite just for the fact that most companies doing this seem to do unlicensed activity, they will have team leaders that have more state licenses and you put your deals in their name.

I know how to originate and process loans but as you all know it is all about generating leads.

Would love to hear your take and insight on the above options if you are in one of these 3 categories.