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Congratulations! You've passed all the requirements and you are officially on your way to a brighter future in the real estate industry. You should be proud of yourself! We certainly are! Now, you're ready to truly experience what it means to be a loan officer. It's a fast-paced world with ample opportunity for advancement, and with that comes great responsibility. You've come this far and that shows you've got the start of what it takes to excel in a highly competitive and rewarding field. So, now let's take a look at a typical day of a successful loan officer.
Scheduling Your Day to Fit Your Personality
Every loan officer approaches how to schedule their day in different ways. The great thing about being a loan officer is you get a lot of flexibility in how you structure your day. Those who are early-birds may schedule the tasks that require the most energy early in the day. While those who love a night-life may prefer quiet mornings and save energy-involved tasks for later in the day. While the flexibility is great, it's important to note that every successful loan officer plans as much of their time in advance as possible. It's inevitable that different issues will pop-up during the day that you will want to immediately address, but creating and sticking to your schedule is a time-tested key for success.
What Responsibilities Will Your Daily Schedule Have?
As a loan officer, you will be responsible for many tasks throughout the homebuying process for your customers. For example:
- Prospecting for new leads through phone calls, emails, in-person contacts, networking events, contractor meetings, community events, and personal gatherings. The more you hunt for prospects and build your network, the higher your chance of referrals and success rate.
- Interviewing and pre-qualifying potential buyers whether in-person at your office or their home/office or through digital means such as Skype, telephone, and email.
- Discussing a customer's options through every stage of the process. Starting with discussing their dreams and goals for homeownership, credit, financial history, financing options, and everything in between all the way through to closing escrow.
- Keeping up with your customers, loan processors, title companies, lenders and other vendors to immediately address their needs to ensure timely closing and keep everyone satisfied.
- Attending closings and celebrating with your customers to partake in the joy of becoming a new homeowner. Perhaps the most rewarding part of the job!
- Continuing education is a must to not only succeed as a loan officer, but also usually required to maintain your licensing. This means staying current on trends in the markets, learning how to mine and apply financial data, current laws and regulations, changing qualifications for borrowers and lenders, and more.
- Continuously developing your skills will take daily practice, as well. Pay attention to new technologies that can make simplify your tasks. Read about and incorporate ways to improve your time management skills. Take classes on sales, communications, and developing interpersonal and professional relationships, business development courses, and much more. Every skill you hone will only work toward your advantage by blowing away your customers, coworkers, leaders, connections, and even the competition!
If all of this sounds like an exciting opportunity, then we want to speak with you! With over $48 billion in closed loans, First Savings Mortgage is your source for loan financing in Virginia, Maryland, Washington DC, Florida, Delaware, North Carolina, and South Carolina we want the best and the brightest loan officers to join us. Whether you're just starting out or a seasoned mortgage loan professional, we welcome the opportunity to find ways we can work together for success. Don't hesitate to contact us or visit our Jobs page.