Loan Officers in the World Today

Tips for Hiring More Loan Partners and Processors

You can work on your own as a loan officer, but you will never grow and scale your business working alone. You’ll need to add loan partners and loan processors to your team. And you’ll need to know how to pay them correctly and provide the best environment to encourage their productivity.

To be clear, a loan officer is the one who secures a loan, and a loan processor takes over after the loan is sold. A loan officer is spending his or her time on the phone and meeting with clients and referral agents. A processor is preparing the mortgage application file and all the necessary paperwork to get the loan to closing.

Hiring a Loan Partner

The first person you’ll want to hire is an assistant who is answering the phones and processing loans for you. But, eventually, you’ll want to add more loans than you have the bandwidth to acquire on your own. This is when you’ll hire another loan officer, or loan partner, to join you in your business.

It can be tricky to set a salary for this person when you don’t have much hiring experience. You need to get this right, because it’s a necessary incentive to keep them motivated while on the job. Go for a straight, fair, feasible amount. I recommend paying 10% more than other employers in your market. This may be painful at first, but you will attract more talented employees this way, and it will pay off in the end.

You’ll need to pay close attention to when your loan partner is overworked, and it’s time to hire another person. Your loan partner shouldn’t be exceeding weekly office hours or working weekends. Keep the lines of communication open between you and your partner, and you can make the next hiring decision together.

Hiring Loan Processors

I’ve heard other loan officers brag about how much their loan processors can handle. This is a BAD idea. If you want to grow your business while fostering a healthy work environment, you CANNOT overwork your processors. That’s not the kind of boss you want to be anyway, right?

There’s a balance here. Hiring more processors might mean less pay for the processors you already have. But, if hiring more people means you can process more loans, it will increase everyone’s pay across the board. Again, it’s important to keep the lines of communication open with your team. Encourage them to be honest about how much they can handle and if they’re feeling overstressed by their current workload.

Overworking your processors will lead to:

• Costly mistakes
• Unhappy customers
• Burnt out employees
• A toxic office environment

Ideally, you want employees who work hard for you but also love coming into the office each day to work. 

I’ve been in the loan business a long time and have hired a lot of people to work for me. If the thought of hiring people stresses you out, I’d love to walk you through it. You don’t have to do this on your own. Click here to schedule a FREE strategy call with me TODAY. I’ve got you.