Tasha Smith

Full text transcript for the video: What Does a Loan Processor Do?

[Aaron Wilson]
You know, there are many people out there that would like to learn more about an opportunity that exists in the marketplace to work from home and kind of utilize their detail-oriented skills as a mortgage loan processor. And so today I’ve got the honor of interviewing Samantha Gilbert, the owner of Ops Perfection. And Ops Perfection is a contract mortgage processing company that serves many clients across multiple states.

So, Samantha, thanks for joining me today to talk about what a processor does and how someone who is looking to get into mortgage processing maybe can make this happen.

[Samantha Gilbert]
Yes, of course. How are you today, Aaron?

[Aaron Wilson]
I am fantastic, my friend.

[Samantha Gilbert]
Fantastic.

[Aaron Wilson]
So, listen, I’ve had the pleasure of working with you for a few years now, and I find you to be someone who is on top of what is happening in the industry and someone who is extremely dedicated to serving her clients in the most efficient way possible, even if you and I both still like to use a lot of paper. Go ahead. We’re paper people, you guys.

[Samantha Gilbert]
I’m working on it.

[Aaron Wilson]
We’re also computer people, just so you know, which is one of the things that Samantha and I have in common. We’re big checklist people, right? And so, which that’s probably pretty good for somebody who is in the processing field, for sure.

But so, with the current market conditions where mortgage companies are looking for ways to cut costs and streamline their processes, I’m sure that your business is probably, Samantha, on an extremely impressive upward trajectory right now. Would that be a true statement?

[Samantha Gilbert]
Yes, absolutely. We’ve definitely grown. It’s becoming more popular.

You’re seeing a lot of people wanting to come into the contract processing world. You know, a lot of the retail banks that have let go of processing and they’re not able to find jobs right now, or even people that are looking for that home-based job and want to get into the industry. So, we’re seeing a big growth in it and a big opportunity for people.

[Aaron Wilson]
I’ll bet you are, for sure. Now, will you tell us a little bit about your company, though? I guess we should probably start there.

[Samantha Gilbert]
Yeah, absolutely. So, a little bit of background on me. I came from the retail world.

I’ve been in the processing world operations for about 23 years now. I did move on to the broker side about six years ago and opened up this business back when contract processing really wasn’t a known thing. I had a lot of my retail loan officers that were moving on to the broker side and there was a need, and I found a need.

So, I took everything that I had done on the retail side, brought it over to this, and we created our business. There’s been a lot of changes in the industry over the years. We’ve grown with those changes.

You know, a lot of layoffs that have happened recently over the last couple of years. My goal was really to bring a processing company that’s here to help our broker partners build their business and take that stress of operations off of them, and also to grow within and bring in processors that are new to the industry where before they didn’t have anybody to mentor them, and also processors that are just looking to put their license somewhere and have their book of business but not have to go through all the licensing requirements because it is time-consuming.

[Aaron Wilson]
I’ll probably ask you a couple more questions kind of impromptu about that, but look, can we start here? There might be some people that are watching this right now because I guess kind of the angle I want to take on this particular topic is what exactly is a loan processor? What do they do?

Can you kind of get into the day-to-day and give us some insight of what a loan processor does?

[Samantha Gilbert]
Yeah, so there are a couple different kind of loan processors. You have loan processors that work at the bank, and they’re more behind the scenes. They don’t have an interface with customers usually, and they have a system where they take it usually from after the loan has been disclosed from the loan officer, and then they just kind of gather paperwork from the loan officer and process that way.

Follow guidelines, send it into underwriting, make sure that guidelines are followed and clearing conditions. So that’s like a bank processor. For us with the broker side, we’re more interfaced with the clients themselves, and it is a step up from being in the retail side.

So you do have to know your guidelines. You do have to have somebody that’s mentoring you if you’re new so that you can learn how to efficiently look for stuff on the paperwork that you need. Basically, we’re pre-underwriting the file.

We’re making sure that all of the conditions and guidelines are met for that loan program, that we’re building those rapports and relationships with the borrower so that they trust us and like us. And same with on the other side. We want the lender and the underwriters to trust us and like us as well.

So making sure that you’re very efficient, know your guidelines, know how to read documentation, know what documentation you need, and then work hand-in-hand with the borrowers and with the underwriters for a smooth loan process.

[Aaron Wilson]
So you’d be considered a contract mortgage processing company. Now, are you guys able to process for, you mentioned brokers, so we’re talking mortgage brokers, right?

[Samantha Gilbert]
Yes, yeah.

[Aaron Wilson]
You hear the word broker and you think, well, like a stock broker or what kind of broker? You know, a broker of a real estate firm. So we’re talking mortgage brokers.

So are you guys able to process for not just mortgage brokers, but you could process for a bank or a mortgage lender? I mean, in other words, are there any limitations to the type of company you can process or loans for or serve? And also, are there any limitations on the types of products that you can handle?

[Samantha Gilbert]
So that’s the one great thing about being a contract processor on our side. We have the ability to work with lenders everywhere. So there’s not any products that we don’t handle.

And then we also have the ability to work with credit unions, banks, whenever they, they tend to keep their own in-house processing, but when they have refinance booms, they will hire us as contract processing to take the overflow.

[Aaron Wilson]
That makes sense.

[Samantha Gilbert]
That makes sense.

[Aaron Wilson]
You mentioned, earlier, you had mentioned about different guidelines and things like that. And so this might be a question for another video, but I think I’ll throw it in here anyway. So my assumption is that in the industry, well, not really an assumption.

In the industry, we have different types of loan operating softwares that different companies use, right? And you probably know all the names of them better than I do even. And, but like, I guess my question is, is if somebody is doing contract processing, are you using multiple systems to process those loans or are you processing those loans off your own system?

Or how does that work?

[Samantha Gilbert]
So we have multiple systems. When you work for a contract processing company or you have a contract processing company, we can actually subscribe to the systems on our own. So the loan officers just have to assign us to the files that they’re working on.

But yes, because I have brokers that work in a system called Arrive. So we own the contract processing version of that. And our brokers that use Arrive can assign us in those files.

I have another set of brokers who use what’s called LendingPod. And we own the contract processing version of that as well. So they can sign us to those.

I do have some that are on their own platforms. So some of the retail lenders that are banks, they use their own platforms. So with those, they usually set us up so we have to be in there too.

So one of the things with contract processing that you find is you’re learning a whole lot of systems.

[Aaron Wilson]
I’ll bet. I can only imagine. You don’t have anybody that tries to push paper anymore, right?

None of your brokers are taking paper applications. Okay.

[Samantha Gilbert]
So I’ve been in the business forever. So I will tell you, I have some long-term loan officers that I work with that, yes, are very old school and do paper applications.

[Aaron Wilson]
I was just kidding. Are you serious?

[Samantha Gilbert]
Oh yeah.

[Aaron Wilson]
Oh my God.

[Samantha Gilbert]
Absolutely, yes.

[Aaron Wilson]
That’s awesome. So can you explain maybe how someone would break into becoming a loan processor? And you could say this just in general or with an organization like yours, it’s a contract processing organization.

How would somebody break into becoming one?

[Samantha Gilbert]
Yeah. So for me, one of my biggest things is training. I love training.

I love building. I love seeing processors start at the beginning and work their way up and become really successful in the industry. So I definitely, I take somebody who’s interested in it and get a feel for where they’re at, how much mortgage knowledge they know, if they know anything at all.

And then I start them on their path of getting them introduced to the processing world. I usually start them off in a position called a loan officer or a loan officer assistant or a loan setup. So I start them in that position so that they can learn what disclosing means, what fees are, what title documents are.

And I just really hold their hand through the whole process and teach them from beginning to end. And once I feel like they’re ready out of that position, then we’ll start giving them more responsibilities and build from there. But I started in the industry as a loan officer assistant and it was the best thing ever for me.

You really learn, but you do have to find a mentor. You do have to find somebody who’s willing to take the time and invest and show you the right way.

[Aaron Wilson]
Yeah. And so I’m going to spill the beans here, Samantha, if that’s all right. I’ll just tell them.

So Samantha and I have been talking about this for a while and I think I’ve got, I think Samantha, do I have you talked into this? I think I’ve got Samantha talked into doing a kind of like a, what do we call it? Intro, intermediate and advanced processing course.

So we are in the production stages of putting that, those three courses together. So for those of you who are looking to break into the industry, you can get a better sense of what that looks like ahead of time and kind of get your feet under you before you even, you know, look for that type of position. So we’re going to lean on Samantha and her experience to give us those again, that kind of that beginner or introduction, intermediate and advanced course.

And those courses when they’re done, and I don’t have an exact timeline on that, you know, check back in a couple of months, we should have those courses up. But those will be posted on our website at mymortgagetrainer.com. You can always call our office at 317-566-0425.

We can help hook you up with those courses when they’re available. And then of course, if you want to, at some point in time after taking those courses, or if you’ve got some experience as a mortgage loan processor, my assumption is, Samantha, that you might have an interest in talking to those people. Am I right?

[Samantha Gilbert]
Absolutely. Yep. I would love to, love to bring on people.

And even if you’re in the mortgage business now and you’re already processing and looking for a home to hang your license, we have wonderful systems. We have access to everything. We would love to chat.

[Aaron Wilson]
Right, right on. So if someone was interested in reaching out to you, how would they connect with you? I mean, obviously I’m going to put your contact information in the description below of the video itself, but what’s the best way for them to contact you?

[Samantha Gilbert]
Visit our website at www.ops-perfection.com. All my contact information is on the website and you can schedule an appointment to chat too.

[Aaron Wilson]
Yeah, that’s awesome. Awesome. Okay.

So anything else we should add to this particular piece of this intro to loan processing?

[Samantha Gilbert]
You know, I would say there’s a lot of negativity out in the marketplace right now. Don’t listen to it. Processing is still a wonderful career to get into.

The market is always and forever changing. This is not my first downturn. I’ve been in it for, as I said, 24 years now.

So I’ve seen a lot of ups and downs and you just learn how to ride those ups and downs, but it is still a great position. It allowed me when I’m raising my children to be home and to be with them and to never miss anything. And you know, there’s a lot of opportunities and you do make good money.

So don’t listen to the negativity out there.

[Aaron Wilson]
Right. Absolutely. Absolutely.

You know, I’m reminded of a book that I try to get everybody to read every single year. And it’s a book called Who Moved My Cheese, right? And right now is going through the cheese movement and we’re all back out in the maze trying to figure out where the cheese is at.

But the good news is about the contract processing side. The way I see it is that you are somewhat insulated because when there are downturns in organizations, you know, who’s the first people that that probably get cut is going to be on the operation side of things when things slow down. And so that means the business is likely going to flow to an outside organization.

Right. So if you were to connect yourself with somebody like Samantha as a loan processor, you know, you’ve got a probably a better opportunity being insulated in a downturn market. So.

[Samantha Gilbert]
Absolutely. We have the ability to pivot and to find other brokers that are looking to bring on processing and don’t have the the expense for the for the processing, but still have a need for it. So for us, even if we lose some, we gain some.

So we always have there’s always a need out there for us. And, you know, if we need more people, then I go out and market and bring on more people.

[Aaron Wilson]
Right. Interesting, too. We’re seeing a big rise in mortgage brokerages lately.

Yes. You guys probably seeing a lot of people coming on. And and I think what it is, is that in the current mortgage market, I think some originators, you know, after coming off of 2020 and 2021, they’re like, OK, if I’m going to make if I’m going to close, you know, half the deals that I was closing, I might as well make twice the money.

Right. So we’re seeing a lot of people in our licensing side of our company switch over to starting their own mortgage brokerage company. But just because you’re a good mortgage loan originator doesn’t mean you’re a good processor.

So in those instances, your best bet is to continue to do what you do best, originate loans and let somebody like Samantha handle the details of the rest. You know, that’s probably the best best bet. So if you’re one of those people that are thinking about, I think I’m going to jump ship and I’m certainly not suggesting that.

OK, but if you think you’re going to do that and start your own mortgage brokerage company, I would certainly suggest partnering with a good third party contract processing company like a person like Samantha to actually help you so you can just stay focused on originating loans. Right. That’s probably good advice.

Right.

[Samantha Gilbert]
Yeah. And especially coming out of the retail world, it is different on this side. Having someone like us on your side that have been in this, we know the operations of it.

So you can really focus on just building and we can focus on making sure it goes to the right lender. It goes, you know, it’s in compliance and getting all your documentation together, you know, so you don’t have to have that huge learning curve coming onto this side.

[Aaron Wilson]
All right. Right. I think we covered or accomplished our goal that we wanted to accomplish on this little video.

So I appreciate again the time today, Samantha. And again, I’ll place your contact information below if anybody has any questions, feel free to reach out to her. And of course, Uncle Aaron’s information will be in there as well.

So we’ll see you next time. Thanks, Samantha.

[Samantha Gilbert]
Bye.