Question about Loan Officer job options (commision, commission, fees, brokerage)

[Toxic Toast]

Hello Real Estate Professionals. I have a question that I am hoping you all might be able to help with. I am interviewing with a company on Wednesday morning, and have no experience in the field what so ever. I am a recent college graduate looking for entry level work. If anyone in the Indianapolis area wants to know who or has heard of them, that would be nice to find out too, but I would rather private message that; I do not want this coming across as an advertisment; esp if they do not hire me.

So anyway, they describe the company as this:

We are a mortgage broker that connects home buyers and home owners with financing options. We are looking into obtaining a real estate brokerage license and adding a real estate sales division to our office.

And the position is described as this:

(name of comapny) is now hiring Full Time and Part Time Loan Officers!

Experience Preferred
Commission Tier up to 75%
No desk fees

Work from your home or our office.
Applicants outside of the Indianapolis area (within Indiana) are welcome to apply!

So, without further adu, here are my questions I am hoping someone can address:

1) What exactly does a loan officer do?

2) What exactly does that "commision tier" mean?

3) What purpose does a mortage broker serve? Do a lot of real estate professionals or companies rely on loan officers and mortgage brokers?

4) I have no experience in this field; but I did recently graduate with an Economics degree. How can I spin this into a positive thing to make myself hire-able?

Thanks, and I hope you all can and are able to help!

[socalcjl]

Congrats on your recent graduation, and it appears you are trying to pursue a career in finance and/or mortgage loan origination. I would recommend that you try to gain experience first working at a company that will provide ongoing training and an hourly or salary structure to start. Get paid to learn. There is a lot to learn as you may soon find out, and this field is one that takes time to learn regarding guidelines, salesmanship, computer software or LOS software, ratios, qualifying, etc.. my suggestion would be before starting with commission sales; I would say that you start with a company that is going to assist in helping you learn the business and this will help you later if you decide to go to a commission structure and pursue a career as a Loan Officer. It is good that you received your degree. Hopefully it will allow you to relate to the occupation more with your education. I suggest training first, and see if it's what you're looking for as a career. My opinion is that you should maybe seek another opportunity instead of this one you have mentioned. Good luck.

[gwilson67]

Hello, I think it would be a great opportunity for you to learn about mortgages. I'm also a loan originator and it has proven to a very helpful tool.

[nancymccurdy]

I live in the Kankakee Illinois area and I am out of work and will be taking the loan orignation exam soon. My question is who is hiring to train on the job loan originators in the Chicago area? Also, how does the LO get paid (commissions only) or some places of employment have base and commission? I'm at a loss - any suggestions on what places I should look for employment?