Pros
There’s always work to do. You will do lots of volume. You can easily make $100-250k+ if you can put in the hours and can convince agents to send you business Great company to get your feet wet after you’ve learned you enjoy loans. Work for 1 year max, you’ll then hate loans, but have industry contacts and volume to learn on. They prioritize diversity. However, if you’re not a minority, don’t expect to make it very far. If you’re support team in Austin, you’re treated very well. Each branch can be different, but understand LOs here are at the bottom of the totem pole. Inventory shortage - they will keep selling homes!
Cons
Pay is very low actually for Loan Officers, but the volume hides it. If you self generated these leads at other companies through relationships you create, you’d easily clear $1mil. High rates but you win deals through DR Hortons incentives. Without the incentives (the builder will pull at any point), we can’t win deals. We can’t close on time. It has taken over 5 weeks for my loans to get underwritten before. Processing is overwhelmed and none of them want to stay, so LOs generally have to self process. Because LOs self process and have to close 13 loans to make it worth it, you end up working 120 hours per week. Management is clueless. Your direct manager (of the branch) will do anything to keep the VP of the region off their back and will consistently throw you under the bus for their lack of performance or bad advice. They will consistently go back on things they have told you, saying “it’s always been done this way” even though you have in writing from last Friday from them to do it the other way (VP yells at them, they throw you under the bus). Underwriting will give you options to get a loan to work. You’ll do what underwriting said. You will then be written up for trying to break company policy based on what underwriting suggested saying you should have known better. I could go on. Understand this is owned by a Fortune 500 company with Fortune 500 company politics. Management doesn’t care to teach or see you excel. You are a number to them, and they care about your numbers. Personal growth and development is not a concern one bit, and they won’t teach you anything more about the industry (likely because they simply do not know themselves). It’s tough to leave since you’ll have 80 loans in your pipe for the next 5 months. So you’ll plan on leaving in 5 months. In 5 months, you now have 100 loans and can’t think about leaving because you’re too busy. You can’t work on your own business since you’re too busy and the process simply can’t handle any additional loans. Underwriting makes some really silly mistakes sometimes but won’t admit they’re wrong. I’ve lost countless loans over things other companies approved without a question. Again, expect to work 9am to 6am Monday through Friday, Saturday 10-6, and Sunday checking emails. This was my life for about 6 months before I realized I was losing my personal relationships due to this and left. (For the record, I’ve made about 5x what I was making since with about half the time per week - understand your worth)
