We received the above comment from a very seasoned and busy escrow officer yesterday, and we thought we’d share it :)
WHEN BRAINS & TRAINING BEAT EXPERIENCE
One of our referral partners recently looked up the NMLS licensing date of one of our “Mortgage Analysts” (“MA” for short). She was concerned about his youth and short tenure in our industry.
We were impressed by her diligence, but disappointed that his full resume and training were not public record as well. That particular MA, for example, scored a 35 (top 1%) on his ACT, and earned straight A’s his entire life all the way through UCSD where he was math major.
He is also just a great guy with numerous other major achievements that I will not list for the sake of brevity.
JVM’S BRUTAL TRAINING
But more important than his brain power is his training at JVM. Ten years in the making, our training program is renowned and frankly brutal.
It is a solid three months of classroom study (with five thick binders), BRE and NMLS licensing, and dozens upon dozens of case studies, examples and practice files.
It is a program that I and most individuals could never endure.
After six months in our training program, our whiz kid MAs have seen more files, examples and guidelines than a typical loan officer might see in five to ten years.
After a year of doing nothing but pre-approving, there are no loan officers who can touch any of our MAs.
HEEJIN FIRED OUR LOAN OFFICERS
I often tell the story about the day when Heejin fired all of our loan officers. She did so b/c they were unable to retain all of the necessary information to close complex purchase transactions without issues or coming to us to do their work.
We developed our hiring standards and training program in response to that problem. And – it worked. We are not perfect, but we certainly avoid most of the problems than most other lenders endure daily.
I am sharing this info for two reasons:
1. When you interact with one of JVM’s kombucha drinking, Instagramming millennials, you can rest assured that they are exceptionally knowledgeable and well-trained (and probably more knowledgeable than 99% of the loan officers in the industry).
and
2. We highly recommend the practice of hiring whiz kids and training the heck out of them. It is JVM’s secret weapon, and it is a fantastic way to integrate exceptional talent into your organization.
Jay Voorhees
Founder/Broker | JVM Lending
(855) 855-4491 | DRE# 1197176, NMLS# 310167
