Mortgage Broker Course | Where to Find One & What It Covers

If you are wondering what the requirements are to get your mortgage broker license, this post is going to help clarify and point you in the right direction. 

Unlike other professions in the real estate industry, there are not multiple licenses, courses or tests that you need to take to become a mortgage broker, only multiple steps and knowledge you need to learn.

Let’s start from the beginning, everyone who wants to be a loan originator must take the 20-hour PreLicensing course and then pass the Uniform NMLS exam.  After obtaining your license and official NMLS approval, everyone must complete annual continuing education each year.  Beyond that, there are no mandatory courses or exams to become a Mortgage Broker. 

This is very different than real estate because when you go to get your real estate license, you need to take a class and then an exam to begin selling real estate.  Then, if you want to become a real estate broker, you need to take additional classes, meet a requirement regarding how much real estate you sold, and then you take an additional exam to receive your real estate broker's license.

In real estate sales, there are real estate agents who are brokers just for the designation. There are people that become brokers who manage an office because you have to have a broker's license to manage an office and you have to have a broker's license to open your own real estate company. What may surprise you and where mortgage licenses are different is that it is the same license that every loan officer (also called loan originator) holds, no matter if that loan originator:

• Works as a Loan Originator for a Mortgage Lender, Mortgage Broker, or Bank
• Opens their own Mortgage Broker or Correspondent Company
• Owns a Retail or wholesale bank

Everyone takes the same 20-hour class and everyone takes the same exam that they pass to get their official NMLS number. So it might surprise you that if you are already a loan officer who works at a retail bank, you've already taken the exam. There is no additional course or license that you need to go work as a mortgage broker; it is just a term as long as you are working for someone who owns a mortgage brokerage.

Where the difference comes in for anyone who wants to work for themselves, is in the steps you must take to get a company and branches approved in your state. If you want to own the mortgage brokerage, then you have to apply for a company's mortgage broker license. There are no additional classes that you need to take and there is no additional exam that you need to take. You just need to go through a set of steps that your state outlines and you need to produce a number of documents while forming a company and then you submit those things to your state to get approved as an official mortgage broker-owner.

For any of you that work at a depository bank, you could have an NMLS number, but if you didn't take the NMLS exam and pass it, you still are going to need to complete both the 20 hours and the exam, if you want to go work at a mortgage brokerage, start your own brokerage or work anywhere outside of a depository bank.

For all of you that already have your NMLS number and have passed the NMLS exam, there is no course or license you need to prepare for.  You simply must complete the steps outlined in your state’s checklist and outlined in this post.

How to Get a Mortgage Company License

The classes you may need are state-specific classes if you are opening in a state that you have not been licensed in before,   So let's start with anyone who doesn't have their license and has never taken the test. ***Regardless, if you want to be a loan officer at a retail bank or you want to be a mortgage broker,  you have to take 20 course hours.  Depending on the state that you live in and are going to get licensed in, you will need a combination of federal laws, mortgage origination activities and then your state determines the  additional hours at the end that you have to take. So there are online courses you can take, or there are in-person courses you can take to satisfy all of these. Let's say you have already taken the test and you have your NMLS. In my case, this is an example in the state of Pennsylvania. I was licensed in the state of Pennsylvania.  When I went to get licensed in Florida and Ohio, I didn't need to go take the main 16 to 18 hours again, I just needed to take Florida and Ohio's state-specific license classes, just the one to four hours that they required. I didn't have to take an exam again. I just needed to go through their state's checklist of items that I needed to get crossed off to be able to do loans in another state.

With all the above outlined, are loan originators lucky to not have to take a required course to become a mortgage broker?  Some would say yes, but the lack of this requirement is not without drawbacks. In fact, one of the biggest mistakes loan officers run into who follow the path of opening their own mortgage brokerage, correspondent company or wholesale company is that there is a ton of uncertainty loan officers feel when they want to make the transition into opening their own company.

They know how to submit a complete 1003.  They understand the actions that are flagged as fraudulent from all of the ethics classes they have taken through the years, but they are completely uneducated about the knowledge it takes to open and run a business or make decisions that affect the loan officers that eventually work for them.

This uncertainty and lack of structure can lead to mistakes and vulnerability in the early years of opening a mortgage brokerage,  leaving both the owning loan originator and their employees at risk of making many mistakes, and going through a lot of ups and downs through the years.  Let me explain further:

As of the date of this article, there are many NMLS-approved courses to get a loan originator’s Individual License, continuing education, and the state CE classes, but there is yet to be a class for loan officers interested in becoming a mortgage broker.  If you make this decision, you are on your own and need to figure things out.  Yes, there are now licensing companies that can help you with a few steps, and there are compliance consultants who can give you the required templates, but loan officers who want to run their own company still do not have a step-by-step roadmap that will help them eliminate the mistakes and walk them through the necessary order and helpful information that will set them up for success from the start.

It is one of the main reasons why we created Mortgage Broker FastTrack, a course created to educate & empower loan officers to step out and open their own mortgage company, a mortgage brokerage.

This online course was written by mortgage broker industry veterans and is a complete step-by-step roadmap that takes you from licensing to closing your first loan. With Mortgage Broker FastTrack, you'll learn everything you need to know to be successful in this business, including how to find the right niche lenders, how to get approved, and how to close loans quickly and efficiently. So don't wait any longer, sign up for Mortgage Broker FastTrack today!

Online Mortgage Broker Course

Mortgage Broker Fasttrack is offered as a self-paced online course.  There are plans to offer the course LIVE in the future, but as of January 2023, it is only available in the online format.

What is inside a Mortgage Broker Course & What Will it Teach You?

Will the course teach us:

Could you open a mortgage brokerage on your own?

Yes, of course, you can, just as every broker that opened before you has figured it out on their own.  But, you will get frustrated.  You will waste tens of thousands of dollars testing accounts, lenders, and information, and mostly in the TIME that it takes to figure out the most efficient ways to do things.

 Are there any resources to help guide you if you do it yourself?  Yes

• Wholesale Lender UWM has a helpdesk you can call and ask questions to, as well as a 2-page outline
• Build a Broker 4-hour workshop

Both of these resources are helpful in giving loan officers the 3,000-foot view of opening a brokerage, but they will not guide you step by step and they do not cover everything you will encounter opening your brokerage.

They are value add-ons provided by two of the biggest wholesale lenders to their customers, mortgage brokers.

5 Reasons why LOs should purchase a Mortgage Broker Course instead of a DIY

There are many reasons why Loan Officers should purchase Mortgage Broker FastTrack instead of trying to open a mortgage broker business on their own.

The Mortgage broker training course promises to make your life easier by eliminating the mistakes that most new mortgage broker businesses make.

• Licensing taking much longer than it should because you are guessing at the items on the checklist- how to do them correctly, where to go to get certain items
• Signing up with and using a lender that will take care of you and your clients
• Using a credit agency that is much more expensive than the alternatives we introduce you to
• Not knowing your numbers- volume to breakeven, how much to pay employees and LO’s
• Overlooking key compliance systems & getting dinged on your first audit
• Not marketing because you don't have the budget or know how to
• Naming your business without considering your long term goals and then having to rebrand multiple times
• Declining loans you could be closing because you are not aware of the lenders and ways to get them closed as a Mortgage Broker

The course is designed to take you step-by-step from licensing to closing your first loan, so you can hit the ground running with your mortgage brokerage. You'll learn everything you need to know about how to find the right niche, get funding, and close loans quickly and efficiently.

The four main reasons taking the course will save any new mortgage broker, time, money, and mistakes:

1. This online course was written by mortgage broker industry veterans and is a complete step-by-step roadmap that takes you from licensing to closing your first loan.  Could you figure everything out on your own, yes, but it will take you A LOT LONGER and COST YOU much more than the price of the course.

2. With Mortgage Broker FastTrack, you'll learn everything you need to know to be successful in this business, including:

   • Signing up with the credit providers that will keep costs low & mortgage accounts that will make your job much easier
   •  how to find the right niche lenders, 
   • how to get funding for loans you haven't been able to do as a retail LO, and how to close loans quickly and efficiently by picking the best wholesale lender 
   • outlining your bulletproof Loan Process.
3. The cost of the course is a fraction of the cost of starting a mortgage brokerage on your own and the mistakes you will make along the way without guidance.  Mortgage Broker FastTrack costs less than what you will make closing 1 loan as a Mortgage Broker.  For the massive amount of information and detail, it is worth every penny you will spend.
4. Purchasing Mortgage Broker FastTrack will give you access to an exclusive online community of other Loan Officers where you can connect with other mortgage brokers and learn from their experience.

Frequently Asked Questions about Mortgage Broker FastTrack Course:

How long the transition takes- 

yes & no, because that will vary depending on your licensing status and the state you are applying in

What to do with the old pipeline & when will my employer find out?  

Your employer will find out when the regulator tells you to unsponsor yourself from your current company.  Some states are notified shortly after you submit to the regulator.  We suggest you call and ask them this when you are about to submit your company application.

What does the Mortgage Broker FastTrack course include?

• 6 Complete Modules/Courses (can be purchased Individually or as a whole package of 6 with MEC discount)
• 6 Workbooks- Comprehensive  & Action Driven Workbooks for every Module/Course
• 45+ Lessons- Videos with every lesson in the Course
• Bonus  checklists, guides, cheatsheets, action plans & more
• Additional Resource & Tech Library in each Module with Videos that break down difficult topics 
• Member Q&A area for the most common questions & concerns
• Paid Students Only Facebook Group- where Live Q&A’s will be announced & hosted

How much does the Mortgage Broker FastTrack course cost?

6 Modules each priced at $495 

 Special price for 250 people of:

$2,495 special for all 6 Modules

Who wrote the mortgage broker training course?

 Andres Munar & Megan Marsh

2 Loan Originators and Mortgage Brokers who have over 35 years of experience in the Broker channel and have opened  brokerages five times

How is the mortgage broker training course delivered?

Every Module has:

• 6 Loaded Modules
• Workbook to follow along
• 5-8 Lessons per Module (each with a video)
• Select Lessons have Bonus material to go with it
• Resource & Tech Library at the end of every Module
• Private FB Group where Live Q&A will be hosted & a community to connect with

What are the requirements to take this course?

We recommend that LOs have the minimum experience required as outlined by their state.  Some states require no experience and some states require a few years of origination experience.

How long will it take me to complete the mortgage broker training course?

 If you go from start to finish through all 6 modules
If you take your time, do the exercises

What if I don't have enough time to complete the mortgage broker training course?

 You get lifetime access to the material and updates

Will I be able to get help if I need it while taking the mortgage broker training course?

Content questions can be submitted through a form in the course & in the Facebook group.  There will be FB Q&A sessions each month and you will get a response to your question via email within 48 hours.