How One Simple Action Will Make You Wealthy As a Loan Officer
Matt Enfield is a brand new loan officer out in Utah who listened to our podcast, then took my advice to just start asking for business. He closed 7 loans (over $2 million) in his first full month licensed, and sent me a Facebook message to thank me.
So we sat down recently for a little chat to talk about how he found success so quickly.
When You Stumble Upon a Loan Officer Career
Matt is just 24 years old. Three years ago, he lost his job. He was still in college and didn’t have much in savings. A buddy texted him out of nowhere with a job opportunity on the quality check side of the mortgage industry.
Matt said he’d never really even heard of being a loan officer.
He started on the bottom rung, learned more quickly than the others, and rose through the ranks. He became a loan officer assistant and interacted with borrowers more. Going to work felt like he was solving puzzles and he loved it. He made the leap, and now he’s a loan officer, just like that.
Matt’s story isn’t all that unique (up to this point at least). Most of us stumbled into this business one way or another. There’s no degree for this. You can go to college to become an accountant for $60k/year, but not to be a loan officer.
Once upon a time I knew a guy with nice cars and nice houses, who enjoyed life, and I asked him, “So, what do you do for a living?” He said, “I’m a mortgage broker.” And that’s how Carl White got into the mortgage business.
Where Do You Find 7 Loans Your Very First Month?
Now, just because a lot of us stumble onto this loan officer career doesn’t mean we all have the immediate success that Matt had. How did he do it?
Well, for starters, he has a mentor, and that mentor has leads and information and resources that Matt doesn’t. He says two or three of his loans that first month came from his own sphere of influence, and the rest came from his mentor. He knows there are always people who have more knowledge than him. He doesn’t have to do it on his own.
Matt said that’s also the beauty of podcasts. He listened to seven other podcasts before he found ours. He didn’t want to just listen to a bunch. He wanted to actually apply the stuff he was learning. He heard an episode where I talked about not worrying about sounding salesy, and he focused on that mindset of just confidently asking for business. “Why wouldn’t I ask?” Matt told me. “Worst case scenario, it’s a no.” Exactly.
He was surprised at how willing people were to help him out, but I wasn’t surprised. When you ask for referrals, people are happy to help because it makes them feel better about themselves.
You Don’t Need to Know It All Right Away (Or Ever)
Most 24-year-olds in Matt’s position spend a lot of time trying to learn the rules and regulations and guidelines. I told him I was guessing that, one month into business, he doesn’t know squat about product knowledge. What was it that made him comfortable enough to start asking for business when he may not know the guidelines?
He said that, even though he didn’t know everything, he felt like people would be better off with him, a person who cares, than someone who has all the knowledge in the world but doesn’t care.
He’s learning as he goes, and his mentor helps fill in any gap of knowledge. Right now he’s doing the whole loan, just so he can learn the process and know what to expect down the line. His wife is learning how to be a loan officer assistant for some of the loan officers in his branch.
The Simple Action That Will Make You Wealthy
So what’s that simple action that will make you wealthy? Boldly asking for referrals. Matt said he learned from one of our podcast episodes (that he listened to 4-5 times) to ask this question:
“Can I count on you to give me a call when a friend, family member, or coworker is looking to buy, sell or refinance?”
I told him it’s on record now that the podcast helped him get there. So, from this date forward, I get everything to the right of the decimal point. If his first check is $15,375.82, those 82 cents are mine.
If he could succinctly sum up the steps to success, Matt says:
- Ask for the business.
- Figure out what you don’t know.
- Care about people.
Where Does He Grow From Here?
When someone starts off with that much success so quickly, what’s next? Matt says his goals are consistency and continual growth. He doesn’t want to stay at 7 loans, unless they’re really big ones. He said he knows it might be a roller coaster for a bit, and I told him that the roller coaster part will stop the same month that he gets help. The roller coaster doesn’t come with the territory. It’s a choice. It’s not inevitable. The only way it will go down is if you stop doing loan-getting activity and focus on stuff other people could be doing for you.
When I was first starting out, I didn’t close 7 loans my first month. I closed 10 loans after 90 days. The next month I goose-egged. I spent so much time trying to close those loans that I didn’t start any new ones. I brought a bottle of champagne to the office to celebrate my 10th loan, and my branch manager said, “Not so fast, Skippy. Let’s look at the board at what you’ve got for next month. Zero. Let’s leave that bottle corked and work on the next month.” And I did.
Matt said he doesn’t want to get cocky or complacent, to think he can keep up this success without working hard, doing those same actions, calling people, bringing in the business. He doesn’t want to get comfortable and plateau.
I told him it’s actually easier and less work to close more loans. A lot of people don’t understand that concept. When I was on my own closing 7 loans a month, I was working harder than I do now. And now I get paid on 700+ loans a month. It’s a night and day difference. There’s no way I could do the same level of involvement with each loan that I did back then.
Matt plans to market to his sphere of influence, then tap into all of their different spheres of influence as well. He’s already working on finding young realtor referral partners and home buyers who are less likely to already have someone they’ve been working with for years.
I told him not to discount older high-level people as well. People like us love helping new people. If I was a real estate agent in Matt’s area, I’d refer Matt in a New York second. I’d want him under my wing. He’s new and young, and he’s going to be around for the next 50 years, and we want a piece of that. We want to know we’re making a difference for a long, long time.
We Really Did Pick the Best Career
Matt has the resources, the connections, and as long as he keeps doing good work, he’s going to see exponential growth. I really believe that a loan officer career is the best career ever. It’s just about going out there and doing it while other people are just sitting there thinking about going out and doing it.
We love mapping out 90-day plans for loan officers, whether you’re brand new in the business like Matt, or whether you’re already closing 50 loans a month. Just schedule a FREE strategy call with us, and we’ll take a look at what you’re currently doing, then give you some small tweaks you can do to close even more loans while having less stress in your life.
Whether you become a member of our Freedom Club, or just take that information and run with it on your own, it’s completely FREE. No credit card needed. If, after the strategy call, you think it was a total waste of your time, let me know and I’ll personally send you $200. That’s how confident I am that this is going to be good for you. Give us a call TODAY.