The Smooth Loan Process #2010-30

License? We Don't Need No Stinking License

There's a point of contention in my house these days about the "poison" contact solution that I used to clean my contacts the other day. I argue that Katie (my wife) should have told me not to use the "poison" contact solution. She argues that I should have read the bottle. Either way, this led me to a trip to Dr. Chris Heetland at Insight Eyecare in Chandler for an eye exam. He is excellent.

In the past, I had not had any kind of vision insurance so I have gone the cheap route of getting my contacts and eye exams from Nationwide Vision. Today, I learned that this has been an ongoing mistake for the past 10 years. It turns out that I have astigmatism in both eyes and the people at Nationwide Vision never bothered to address it. Thanks to Dr. Heetland, I know have the proper prescription and the proper contacts and I am amazed at how wonderful the world looks to me now. Good vision is really cool.

What's the point of all this? I realized after leaving Dr. Heetland's office that my eye care escapades are eerily similar to what is going with Loan Officer licensing.

Because of the S.A.F.E. Act, all loan originators are required to be licensed by July 1, 2010. Except for those that are employed by a Federally chartered bank. The good loan officers are getting their licenses. I believe this to be true. The not so good ones are either getting out of the business or going to work for one of the big banks.

What difference does that make? The licensed loan officer does not rely on his big name company to generate his business. If I do a bad job on a loan, word gets around pretty quick and my business suffers. But if I'm a loan officer at Bank of America for example, I can do a bad job and I don't have to worry about my business. I have millions of potential customers that walk through the doors of the thousands of branches everyday. I just have to wait for the next one to come to me.

I am not arguing that having a license will make a loan officer better. However, a loan officer that is not willing to put in the effort to obtain his license may also not be willing to put in the effort to make sure you home loan closes smoothly. The easy way out of licensing is to go work at a bank. It makes sense.

If you're an optometrist, maybe the easy way out is a place like Nationwide Vision. Why do a good job when all you have to do is wait for the next person to come in? No thanks. I'll stick with the professionals.

The Smooth Loan Process lesson for today: Check to see if your loan officer is licensed at http://www.nmlsconsumeraccess.org/ . Here's a copy of my license Harold License .

Harold Perkins
Galaxy Lending Group, LLC
602-595-1233
Harold@HaroldPerkins.com


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