20 Hours of Class!

For years the mortgage industry has been the place for sales people who had little or no financial education to make money. Unfortunately over the past 13 years as underwriting guidelines disappeared and more bartenders became originators, the concern for the client and their financial well being become less of a priority. If you had energy, a warm personality and wanted to make money, being a loan originator was a great career choice. Up until the middle of 2003, you could walk into most bars and swing a dead cat in a bag and hit 3-5 people that called themselves loan originators. Real Estate agents started trying to originate loans, people would do it as a second job: it was all about making easy money.

Then things started to get tough and we saw some people get out, but not enough. By 2006 there was some consolidation going on but in 2007 when the mortgage crisis began to show and companies were going out of business and others were being acquired, we really started to see the people who were only interested in the low hanging fruit leave the game. This gave us a great opportunity to clean up the profession or at least create a level of competency for those that remain and those that wish to enter the industry. Thus the SAFE act was passed in 2008 requiring that all those that wish to originate mortgages be nationally licensed, go through 20 hours of class time, complete a background check and pass a national test.

I just completed the 20 hours of classroom work and although it was extremely difficult for me to sit still for two 10 hour days, I realized the importance of the SAFE act and why we need to set a level of professionalism in this industry. We are dealing with the biggest investment most people will make in their lifetime. For any originator to simply put their financial interest above their client’s well being is a moral crime and we have seen far too many years people committing this crime. Hopefully through education and licensing we will be able to hold ourselves to a higher standard and get back to ensuring the American Dream for those who want it.