What is your Plan B?

By Brian Kent

Everywhere you look, big retail lenders and banks are cutting their team of loan officers.

Fortunately, you survived layoff round 1.?And perhaps you survived layoff round 2.??Will you survive the next round if management at your company decides to make further loan officer cuts???Hopefully you will.??But if you don’t, what is your Plan B?

Personally, throughout my life, I’ve always hoped for the best, but planned for the worst.

If for some reason your mortgage company decides on more rounds of layoffs and you don’t make the cut, where will you go and what will you do?

You’ve spent years honing your craft as an originator, but suddenly may find yourself on a sinking ship as your company looks to make cuts, which are out of your control.

While the market has clearly changed, you know your expertise in the mortgage space is still valuable to your client and Realtor partners. You don’t want to leave them hanging.?

So, what’s the answer??What should your Plan, Be????(lol)

Obviously, you’re looking for a solid platform where you can thrive and feel free to originate how you want to originate.?You don’t want unnecessary required meetings with managers, you don’t want having to deal with office politics, and you certainly don’t want someone dictating to you how to run your origination practice.

What you do want is a company with high splits, lots of freedom, a full slate of lenders and programs, preferred pricing, a cloud-based modern LOS, optional weekly education/marketing webinars, and high-energy quarterly sales rally built in.??Most important, you want a company with a solid culture.

There are many good companies to choose from.?Some companies tout the number of loan officers they have as a mark of value.??But, the number of originators means very little, of course.?If a company hires anyone with a license, you end up with lots of bodies, but generally very low caliber originator.

What is more important, in my opinion, is to join a company that is made of seasoned, knowledgeable, and high-quality originators.?

C2 is fortunate to have this, and on top of that,?our originators embrace a ‘Collaborative Community’, which as you may have guessed is what our 2 C’s stand for.

A community of one originator helping another, whether it be placing a loan, recommending software, or just bouncing marketing ideas around.

But, C2 is not for everyone.?C2 generally attracts originators who don’t want their hand held or need their hand held.??Folks who know the business and are just looking for a solid and simple platform to operate from.

Having said that, some of our seasoned originators will mentor Jr originators, if the Jr originator is willing to make a serious commitment.??Amongst our originating corps, we have deep knowledge to share with those new in the business, but it’s only shared with the most committed.

Whether you look to C2 as your Plan B, or another company, what’s most important is you have a Plan B in place, should the next round of cuts hit you.