Loan Officers, Do You Want Success?

A short observation on success...

Having the opportunity to speak to thousands of loan officers across the country has given me an opportunity to pull out my "magnifying glass" so to speak. One of the things I have noticed is that there is a certain quality, or intangible that separate those who are successful versus those who are not.

During my weekly calls, I will speak to 50-75 loan officers each week. Out of this number of lo's I will typically find one loan officer who is either already experiencing a level of success,or has the necessary mindset and tools to begin improving.

Did you catch that? Only one person out of this group of 50-75 actually feels that he/she is experiencing success! This isn't meant to scare you or discourage you, it is only meant to illustrate a point. The secret to success in the mortgage industry has very little to do with your marketplace, personality and the company you work for. While these things certainly can make the job easier, they will not help you one bit if you do not possess that elusive "something" that seems to catapult a rare group of men and women to new heights.

Are you ready to hear what this quality or "something" is? Ok then, here it is:

They work.....

You read this right. The main separation between those who are successful and those who are not is this group of individuals is willing to be proactive and MAKE things happen!

As "plain Jane" as this trait may seem, what did you expect? We all seem to constantly look for some glossy, super secret technique that will FORCE success into our laps, when the answer is floating in front of our faces all along.

See, I give away free materials, and campaigns, and techniques EVERY SINGLE DAY. Yet, when I conduct follow-up surveys, I find that the VAST majority of individuals who were so pumped up and excited about the information and techniques they learned, did absolutely nothing with what they learned.

We all know that this knowledge does us no good unless it is put into practice, so why do we do this? Why do we refuse to invest in ourselves? Why do we refuse to put the necessary time and energy into our business? Why do we fail to realize that sales and marketing is nothing more than communication; a form of processing and distributing information in an effective manner?

I ask these questions because each and every one of us needs to take a look at ourselves, and decide to work ON our business instead of just working IN our business.

The answers are out there staring us in the face. Whether you wish to be successful with refi's, builders, Realtors, equity loans etc. Nothing happens until you decide to DO something. More energy is expended complaining about lack of success than actually doing something about it.

Please don't read into this as a rant, but rather as a wake up call! There is so much talent out there that goes unrealized it blows my mind. Success CAN happen, and it can happen relatively quickly once we decide we want it bad enough to do something about it. Chances are you already possess a talent or potential that you have'nt even realized yet. Do you believe enough in yourself to uncover this talent? What is stopping you?

Chad Weber Average Joe L.O. www.averagejoelo.com

Average Joe L.O. provides unique, no-hype marketing solutions for loan officers determined to build their realtor referral business. Free training materials and educational conference calls are available on the site http://www.averagejoelo.com.

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Assumable Loans and Resale Value

The value of an assumable loan comes from two sources. It is often easier for the buyer to qualify when assuming a loan and the payments may be lower than for new financing. However, its value may be limited by two important factors. If the balance of the loan is much below the asking price, the loan may not be worth much. For the buyer to assume, either a large cash down payment is requited or additional financing will be needed. This extra financing may be a loan provided by the seller. Second, if the rate on the existing loan is close to or above the going rate, there is little advantage to assuming it.


How do you know if your loan is assumable? An FHA or VA loan is likely to be assumable. A conventional loan is not likely to be assumable. Look in your loan contract for a “due on sale” clause. If it is there, the lender has the right to call in the loan when you sell the home. There are assumable conventional loans that require a slightly higher interest rate.
If you have an assumable loan at an interest rate below the market, you should get a higher price at the sale. Remember that when you repurchase, you will have to pay more for financing. A higher resale price compensates you for giving up favorable financing.


How much is the loan worth? Consider that, since the loan payments are lower, the buyer could pay a higher price and still make the same payments. Say you have a home that is worth $100,000. You have an assumable loan for $70,000 at 8% interest. There are 25 years left in the teim. A new loan for $70,000 at the prevailing rate of 10% and 30 years requires a monthly payment of $614.30. Your loan’s payments are $540.27. The monthly savings of $74.03 would service a loan at the market rate over 25 years for $8147. Therefore, a buyer who assumes the loan could borrow an additional $8000 and still enjoy lower payments than by using totally new financing. Whether you could extract this amount in the sales price depends on market conditions. However, the assumable loan provides an important sales tool in any market.


If you think you may sell your home in the near future, you may want to refinance with a new assumable loan at a relatively high loan-to-value ratio. This will provide a form of insurance in case interest rates rise or mortgages become hard to get when you do sell.




This article may be published freely as long as you keep the below credits:
 Article by (Tommy Lee). For more info on Finance and Refinancing Mortgage loans, visit http://www.smartrefinance.net

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