Written By: Steve Probst, Vice President of Sales, HomeKey Mortgage, New York, and a national speaker for the mortgage industry with presentations about Time Management and Business Planning (www.MortgageSpeakersBureau.com). Steve can be reached at sprobst@homekeymb.com.

Storytelling has been around for centuries! This article by Steve Probst tells a poignant story and makes a comparison between being a loan originator who is a “lion” and loan officers who are “scavengers”. There are only a few lions in the jungle; yet there are many scavengers!

Which type of loan originator are you?

In the current mortgage business environment, all the pleasantries will be dropped and the dog-eat-dog mentality will kick in.

Many loan officers today are so new to the industry that they are unaware of how a seriously declining market will affect them. They are scared and unsure of the proper way to behave and survive the next year. And, they SHOULD be concerned. The loss of a significant percentage of the refinance market will likely take away anywhere from fifty to ninety percent of some originators' income. I am sure even the seasoned veterans have some concerns!

Recently I addressed my team of loan officers, to try to give them a competent view of the future of the mortgage industry, and what they should expect as far as production. I am a visual learner and thereby have become a visual teacher. So the analogy I used was the King of the Jungle - The Lion!

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