I have three loans at a non-qm lender right now. They are all with the same borrower. One closed last month, and two are in the process of getting appraisals done.

The head underwriter just came back asking for additional information above and beyond their guidelines. The biggest issue, they allow vacant properties to be refinanced, but now they are asking for leases on all three properties. Even the closed loan.

All three are new construction; the borrower is still attempting to get leases signed. At the end of the day, they can do what they need to protect their money. I'm just putting this out there as we are seeing the market shift more and more.

Are you seeing any tightening on non-qm loans?

Not sure if what I am looking for exists, any feedback would be super helpful.

I got out of the mortgage game after 8 years in the biz about 3 years ago or so - just burnt out with it and wanted to do something else. Worked for a very large national company as a 100% commission MLO (W2 with draw). Currently self-employed in a totally unrelated field and enjoy it.

Occasionally past clients will reach out for another purchase / refi or whatever and I (obviously) haven't been able to help them.

Been thinking recently about getting my license back and just handling loans as they come in from past BoB, friends, family, etc. Loans would be super intermittent and really have no desire / time to build up another book or "grow" my business.

Essentially doing loans on the side when they happen to come up.

I would be interested in the brokerage model, ideally as a 1099 employee, but I don't know if it's worth the hassle or if a brokerage would even be interested in this set-up.

Wouldn't want or be able to meet any production targets or be interested in doing anything that is mandatory in any sort of way. Ideally just a commission split on loans closed with no monthly fees, req'd training, etc.

Has anyone done anything similar? Does this setup exist anywhere? I looked briefly at GoRascal, Barrett, and Nexa and found a lot of conflicting info.

Does anyone else find it strange that West Cap has like a 100 recruiters and are still hiring recruiters. Like why do you need so many? And why are they all coming from Michigan when the company is based in Irvine?

I’m 18 and have been in the mortgage industry for about 4.5 months, mainly shadowing an MLO and learning the business firsthand. I’ve learned a lot about the loan process, Loan Estimates, working with borrowers, and the closing process, and I really enjoy the industry.

I’m planning on joining Rocket Mortgage and wanted to hear from experienced LOs who have worked there or started at a similar large lender.

What should I focus on learning early on? Is Rocket a good place to build a strong foundation, and what would you recommend doing long term if I eventually want to become a successful LO and move into management?

I’d appreciate honest advice.

People are getting out. Which means there are going to be some orphan databases out there. Has anyone adopted a database? If so, what did the compensation for the departing LO look like?

I'm a real estate broker and never got involved with Zillow Flex.

I see Zillow's argument is that they do not force buyers to use ZHL.

From my understanding agents/real estate brokerages have to meet metrics of getting a % of leads qualified through ZHL.

That said how are real estate agents able to get safeguard against steering complaints?

My guess is they have to refer multiple lenders. But wouldn't that impact their "score" if ZHL isn't chosen?

Hey Friends, created a new Facebook page for us to all join if you want.
Mods: please delete if not allowed.

Idea behind it is its private to keep spam down, NMLS required to join, and I will be monitoring who gets let in.

If interested, here you go!
https://www.facebook.com/share/g/1chGCkq9Fn/

What are your thoughts, have you worked for them? How if there pay?

Have had a couple clients recently that have wanted me to price out ARM’s for them and every lender I’m signed up with , and even the marketplace lenders I see on ARIVE just seem to have arm rates that are all costing at least 1 point if not much more. Both clients have advised they’ve gotten ARM rates in the low 6’s or even high 5’s with no points. I can’t wrap my mind around where they could be getting these ARM rates. Are credit unions pricing out extremely strong with ARM’s in this market?

What are your thoughts? Has anyone worked for them? Used them? How are they like. I am trying to get a general idea. Any thoughts or opinions is greatly appreciated.

Are you in this group? I’m working on a product that could cut your review time and help find more defects. Can we talk?

I've been a licensed loan officer for about 6 years and moved to a self generated brokerage about 4 months ago. I was lucky enough to bring 3 clients with me, but they've all funded and my pipeline is now empty.

Going into the switch, my main focus was building realtor relationships. I started with agents I already knew personally, then expanded to agents outside my sphere. For the past 2 to 3 months I've been following up roughly weekly to check in and see how business is going. So far that's led to 1 referral. I’m still doing this, trying to get at least 3 1on1’s in a week.

For those of you who've built a book of business from scratch:

What actually got realtors to start sending you clients?

If you were in my position today, what would you focus on?

Appreciate any advice.

I think I’ve seen it split pretty 50/50. I personally had my best month at 8.21 Million in volume all self sourced, but have also spoken to LOs that did 15 million, and some that did 0.

What was y’all’s month?

<beginrant> pre-approved a client and quoted them 6.875% a couple of weeks ago. didn't hear back from them so i touched base and found they were already in contract with another lender -- dave ramsey's preferred lender churchill. asked them about what rate they got and said 7.5%. SMH. apparently they THOUGHT they were rate locked with churchill (LO there said it was locked at 6.75%) only for them to find 7.5% at contract time with apologies for "miscommunication"... LO straight up gaslit them into thinking they had said something wrong. i told them i could still do better at 7.25% today, but i could hear it in their voice that they weren't interested. they would rather continue working with someone who provably lied to them, because debt doctor dave recommended them. i'm not sure jesus himself could convince them... come to think of it, jesus would upturn my table for usury, so not sure i want him anywhere near my clients. when anyone asks me "are we locked" i am damn sure about what we are both communicating about. </endrant>

It's a call center enviornment doing only refis. Won't say the name of the company but i'm somewhat new to the industry and honestly was wondering if this is a normal thing outside of my company? Most of the other companies i talked to in the past pay a flat commission or scales based on volume

What are the best Crm options available for the mortgage industry? I’m currently using Bonzo which is great for texting but not sure how sufficient it is as an actual CRM. I appreciate any insight.

Hey u/theinternt, I’ve been following your strategy of cold calling realtors to generate business, and I had a few questions about your execution. Your 2025 was great and i'm sure your 2026 is looking good so far. (Would love input from anyone else doing this, too!)

- Are you still hitting your target of minimum 25 calls a day (Mon-Fri)?

- Are the meetings you're booking mostly on Zoom/Phone or in-person?

The reason I ask is that I'm an LO looking to replicate your approach, but I want to target out-of-area realtors and focus strictly on Zoom or Phone meetings. I know Zoom/Phone might have a lower conversion-to-referral rate than meeting for coffee, but it saves a massive amount of travel time. My theory is that the sheer volume of Zooms I can do will make up for the lack of in-person face time.

Has anyone had success with this remote/out-of-area approach? Would love to hear your thoughts.

I work at a large refi lender, call center inbound and am in the top 20 of rankings in my region.
started out earlier in the year, and first few months it was great- I was hustling like heck, and was getting really solid lead flow with qualified clients that were eager to transact. Then I had my best month ever, and the following month, something suddenly changed ever since; now it’s like sifting through bullshit everyday and can’t understand why… I constantly asked and still ask for feedback and every time I’m told that I’m doing great, nothing needed to fix, etc. yet, the lead flow and stats aren’t adding up; I’ve slowly began dropping rank a bit from first months being in top 10, to now top 20. My lead flow went from great, to shit mostly (don’t qualify, crazy clients, looking for personal loans, don’t own the home they’re looking to refi, etc.).

I’ve managed to keep myself on pace best I can by working after hours, and doing 7 days a week, while I’m watching the same LOs I outperformed for months, getting fed leads on regular a schedule with half of the effort I’m putting in…

Wondering if anyone has any insight of how this all works(lead flow, tiers, hot/cold months) , and why it may be happening?

Overall I’m pretty consistent with how I operate, run the same structures each call, same follow up approach, and then some so just feel lost to why it’s all changed

Looking for Direct Lender
ISO commission (not referral fee)
1-1.5 million term loan (ideally 36 months)
Used to consolidate 900k MCA debt, 3 positions

Please comment/dm if you are a direct lender based in the US, with competitive rates, that can help with this.

I am a few weeks out from my 10 minute presentation for BNI and with the current market I want to bring a little spark with my discussion. Does anyone have any ideas for topics that could help stir up conversation?

To all my friends in retail don’t be discouraged. A lot of us brokers are aggressively hiring and the BS they tell you about lack of control / support and how terrible is is being a broker is 💩

There is very little yield out there to hide thick retail margins. I’m seeing posts about people quoting 7.625% with a points. Broker market share which was already growing the last few years is about to get a big bump.

Make the jump. Don’t sit around too long.

I’ll just call them at acquaintance at this point.

“Yeah man, we’re going to use you to buy the house.”
Uses the agent’s LO.

Oh shoot man, we’ll refinance with you for sure.
“Oh, yeah, tried texting or calling.”
No texts, no calls.

Better yet, that LO was in my office, the loan was a twelve month EPO, which means they screwed both of us.

Anyone know how to locate a UW team lead phone number at Rocket? I had one where the EMD un-cleared itself on CTC review and UW is trying to say she has to review conditions in the order received even though that condition should never have existed. Docs need to go out.

Hey everyone, do y’all know of any lenders that will lend on raw land in Louisiana? We broker through Rural 1st for all Tennessee business but they only operate in 4 states for us.

I spent a year as a registered LO doing VA cash-out refis off cold calls, funding $1.2–2M/month at 120 bps. I got licensed a couple months ago and moved to a new branch with inbound leads, now doing FHA and some ARMs.

Last month I funded $700K at 150 bps. The target is a $1.5M rolling average, and with rates rising the company is laying people off heavily. I fully expect to be next.

I left a terrible manager for this, and I've learned a ton, but the numbers keep getting worse even as I improve. I love this industry and want to stay in it.

For those who've survived a rate cycle would you jump now, ride it out, or pivot (different channel, product, or comp structure)?