[quadzilla]

I have worked straight commission jobs since graduating college. I worked as a loan officer for two years. We specialized in sub-prime loans but, did some conforming loans as well. My opinion of it was that there are easier ways to make the kind of money that you want to make. There are numerous downsides to this type of position.

1. With sub-prime loams you are dealing with the type of people that are sub-prime for a reason. Getting them to give you the documentation that you need can be very difficult. Many of them lie about thier situation (income, assets, etc.), and the is a huge falloff rate.

2. You depend on a lot of other people to make loans happen. There are underwriters, processors, appraisers, title comanies, etc. Any incometence on there part will hinder you.

3. To really make big money you have to take advantage of people. The guys making $200K are the guys that take full advantage of these people. They overcharge fees and inflate rates. This is the only way to make big $$$ as a Loan officer.

4. Paperwork is the worst part of this type of job in my opinion. It is a huge pain in the ass. For example, you are trying to push a big loan through and the underwriter says that you need to have an additional doc signed. It doesn't bother some but, I hated it.

I left the industry and went back to headhunting. Way more money and much fewer headaches. If your job could potentially top out at $500K why would you even think of doing this?