I used to be in the mortgage business for a while, and about a year ago is when i stopped. I just was curious how is the business doing right now? Is it still slow and hard to get loans or is there ways of making money etc?

In my experience if you are not lending FHA, VA or USDA you are not going to have much of a chance right now.

I am doing mostly fha, but I had my best month ever in July.

As a banker, my deals have been flying thru underwriting.

I am sure that it would be tougher if I were in a declining market.

As more lenders and loan officers exit the business and the banks cut back on risk I am finding that my local market needs the banker/broker more than ever.

We are the only lender with the ability to broker left in the city. So I have been calling the loan officers with the banks and have been setting up appointments with them to go over what we can do. The response has been phenominal. A banks turn down has been gold in the secondary market. The bankers feel good knowing they can send their customer to someone who can help them and not try to steal the accounts the customer has with the bank.

I used to spend more time talking to realtors. Now I talk to more loan officers and it is working.

My pipeline is stronger than it has been over the last 2 years.

Here in Ohio we have an OHFA loan which uses FHA and Fannie Mae loans in conjunction with either a grant or a second mortgage to get a borrower into a home with no money down. Then I have FHA, USDA, VA, and the 203k.

OHFA Very interesting, I live right across the river from Ohio and had heard something about that loan but never studied it. I really need to look into that

It is a loan that uses either grant funds or a 4% second mortgage to acheive 100% financing. You close the loan through US Bank and you have a choice of an FHA or a Conventional loan.

I'm doing pretty well, my focus is private money. I've built up a pretty good database of private investors, funds, etc. and am also getting a decent amount of business from other loan officers who do not have the resources to place particular deals.

OHFA has been suspended. Just an update. About a month ago.