Hello, LOs!
We often talk about the all-purpose LO. They hustle to find new business from real estate agents, financial advisors – whomever. And they also make sure to check in with their past clients to see if they are looking to refi into a new mortgage, invest in a new property, or pull equity out of their home.
What we don't often talk about is the specialists, the men and women who really just focus on a particular product or set of customers. There are tens of thousands of them throughout the country.
A broker-owner last week told me about the variety of LOs at his large California shop. Two of them were particularly interesting to me.
"I've got one guy who's a CPA, but he also does loans. So he's pushing one loan to two loans a month. And that's it," he said. "But during tax time, when he sees all these people, then he pushes a lot more loans because he has them in front of him, you know what I mean? And then I won't see him for six months."
Another specialist LO at his firm also picks and chooses when he wants to work.
"I've got one guy, he's an older guy, he does reverse mortgages," the broker-owner said. "He'll bang out 9,10, 12 reverses in a two or three-month period, and then I won't see him for nine months. Because he makes his money, then he chills, and then when he needs more money he works his ass off for two, three months. The way some people live trips me out."
LOs – is this something you already do or have thought about doing? How successful are those who do it at your firm?
On a related note, I'm curious to hear about your experiences with reverse mortgages. The product was heavily criticized over a decade ago, but that stain seems to be fading. Plus, there is some genuine innovation in the space, and a lot of equity in the silver tsunami. As always, you can reach out to me anonymously at jkleimann@housingwire.com.
James Kleimann
Managing Editor, HousingWire
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