What makes a Loan Officer great?

Question

We are all going to need to work with a Loan Officer during our RE investing. The experience can be smooth or challenging. What were the actions that made a loan officer stick out as great and what were the action that made him seem to be a pain?

Joseph Leibovitch · Answer

@Susan Kim sounds like you really get it! Being totally focused on your client will surely not go unnoticed!!!

Dan Thomas · Answer

@Joseph Leibovitch

Organized and picks up the phone outside of "normal business hours" are the top two in my book.

Joe Splitrock · Answer

I would say accuracy, responsiveness and organization are the most important skills. There are so many steps in the lending process, which means so many opportunities for things to go wrong. Organization and accuracy ensure a trouble free transaction.

Many loan officers are sales people, which sometimes means they are relationship based and more disorganized. They can mitigate this if they have a super organized assistant that is making sure the work gets done.

Every lending problem I have ever seen was due to the lender dropping the ball in some way.

Susan Kim · Answer

Great Customer service, spending more time with them than the rest of the market. Working overtime, nights and weekends for efficiency. Can call direct on the cell phone and respond promptly. That is something that we pride ourselves on also have had appreciative Borrowers/Customers where I've spent more time with them to share experiences of what can go wrong and what's most advantageous and not just stick with the sales pitch. Turning down closings for their benefit but always looking over and above for their best interest with all the best resources searching high and low to grant their request is a good Broker/Lender. I know we all get busy but spending the time and effort to gain that person's trust and build a great rapport is surely worth the time.

Joseph Leibovitch · Answer

@Caleb Brown Thanks for posting! Do you have an example of a loan officer dropping the ball?

Joseph Leibovitch · Answer

@Dan Heuschele

Thanks for your detailed reply. Your input is very helpful!!!

Dan H. · Answer

Minimum items that should be expected of lender/mortgage broker:

• Good communication
• Obtain the loan.  After having a lender fail to get us the loan at the 11th hour, this cannot be overstated. organized
• Advocate for your interests.  For example if appraisal come in low the lender/broker should advocate on appeal and do what they can to get appeal verdict as early as possible.  I have had issues on appeals including appraiser disappearing.

Here are service that our mortgage provide has provided or offered that is above expectations:

• He has always gotten us the loan. This might not be above expectations, but I cannot emphasize the importance of this enough. Especially after you get a late failure to secure the loan from another lender.
• He has provided us free comp service. All we do is put in the address and we get an valuation, comps, etc.
• He has provided us free skip trace service.
• He has offered to be escrow so we can go under contract on the weekend.
• He has provided provided contact to obtain free preliminary title checks on properties we were bidding on at auction.

note I did not place cost on the list.  Beware of low cost options.   Sometimes you get what you pay for.  Sometimes it takes a while to fully realize the value that a good mortgage broker/lender provides.

Good luck

Adam Mittermeier · Answer

@Joseph Leibovitch communication and honesty

Joseph Leibovitch · Answer

@Dan Thomas I honestly do not think Loan Officers should even have after hours. Their clients are busy all day working and need them the most after working hours. (Everyone needs a break though :))

Susan Kim · Answer

@Joseph Leibovitch Appreciate it. I call around professionals in this business and meet new ones all the time. While well connected, we also meet new Private Investors, funds, Wholesale, Lenders all the time and like in any industry there's the good and bad. I just try and do my part to go above on what I can. Thank you.

What makes a Loan Officer great?

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