This episode is sponsored by PowerTPO

On this episode of Broker to Broker, host Marc Summers gets a new viewpoint from a very valuable perspective when he’s joined by Ethan Hough of One Stop Financial Group, LLC.

Ethan has had a very interesting career path that is very useful to his longevity and effectiveness as a mortgage broker; he became a broker after eight years of working as an underwriter. Because of his prior career, Ethan’s skills, knowledge, prep, and pipeline all reflect a full knowledge of his clients’ loans, scoping out the entire mortgage process with no surprises.

Ethan instills the notion of working as a team throughout this episode, and lays out how to make it happen. He bridges the gap between Loan Officers, Underwriters, Real Estate Agents, and their shared client. Everyone is communicating and on the same page at all times; this ensures that information rarely needs to be clarified, confirmed, updated, or re-submitted. Over-communicating keeps stress levels low, and client satisfaction high.

“The number one thing I could tell other brokers as a former underwriter would be: remember that it’s all a team effort. No matter how emotional and heated things get, just don’t accuse, don’t fight, don’t yell. It’s not productive. The most successful people I knew in my underwriting time were people that got on the phone, and problem-solved. Just be patient, be thorough, and take your time on your submission. Y’know, take a step back. I do escalations all the time, there are tools available to work and help everybody get to that closing table. The biggest thing to consider is: what questions would you ask? If you submit a loan to an underwriter and you’ve thought about what they might ask about, they’re going to have way less questions. Some of the brokers I used to underwrite with would type up like word docs, and those people’s loans were always super, super clean.” 

Key Points:

1:52 – From Underwriter to Broker, a Unique Start in the Mortgage Industry

12:08 – Underwriters & LOs – A Team Effort

16:30 – Underwriter Experience Forming Broker Pipelines

23:00 – Self-Branding & Carving Out Your Skill-Based Niche31.05 Processes & Procedures, No Surprises from Planning to Closing