As an independent mortgage broker, the last thing your need to worry about is your mortgage loan processing. Your days are hectic. You must return client and agent phone calls ASAP to prevent them from going elsewhere. You must keep on top of the market, which changes daily. And, you must network and try to find new clients. There's just not enough time to complete all of the mortgage loan processing.

By outsourcing your mortgage contract loan processing to an outside mortgage processing company, you can save yourself both time and money. As you well know, good mortgage loan processors don’t come cheaply. By outsourcing, you’ll save yourself the salary and benefits of this position. In addition, by working with one of the mortgage processing companies in the market today, you’ll no longer have to spend time focusing on your processing needs and instead be able to focus on growing your brokerage.

When considering turning to one of the mortgage loan processing centers for your mortgage processing business, among the key points to consider are:

1. The average closing time for a mortgage loan processing provider;
2. The fee structure for their mortgage processing services;
3. The experience of the company’s mortgage loan processors.

Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done

Go with mortgage processing companies with fast, but reasonable, closing times

No one needs to tell you that you want to close your loans as quickly as possible. The faster the closing, the happier your customer is and the faster you receive your commission. It's important, though, to ensure that the mortgage processing company estimates a reasonable closing time. Nothing will make a deal sour faster than having to push back the closing; instead, use mortgage loan processing that's on time every time.

I recommend: Power of 3 Processing Plus offers a variety of plans for mortgage processing services. In addition, its home page always lists their current turnaround times, so you know what to expect every time.

Pay only for loans that close, not those that fall through

Unfortunately, in this business, deals sometimes fall through. You shouldn't have to pay your mortgage loan processors for these deals; they're just part of doing business. So always make sure that the mortgage loan processing companies with whom you work understand this and do not charge you fees on these deals.

I recommend: Nationwide Processing offers a wide variety of outsourced mortgage processing services and has a published fee structure that waives the costs for loans that don’t close.

Choose mortgage loan processors with experience

You know how this business works--it seems like every other day someone's friend or cousin is entering the mortgage business, trying to make it big. While it's admirable that they're just getting started, you need someone experienced working on your loans. Make sure that the mortgage processing company you choose has experienced processors who aren't just cutting their teeth on your loans.

I recommend: Express-Processing is a mortgage processing company that specializes in providing experienced mortgage loan processors to help with your processing needs. MortageProcessor.com has been in the business for 12 years and offers a free trial - they will process one file for free.

Tips & Tactics

Helpful advice for making the most of this Guide

• •  Whenever possible, choose a mortgage processing company that gives you access to your loans' status any time, day or night. This allows you to soothe your customers' worries immediately, rather than having to wait for a callback.