What brokers need to focus on when building out their teams
Many mortgage companies are ramping up hiring efforts to prepare for what could be a surge in business over the next couple of months. Whether you run a small brokerage or a large one, odds are you may be looking to add some help.
For brokers who spend a significant amount of time cultivating relationships and pursuing new business, it can be challenging to find time to conduct a thorough interview process to bring in new assistants and loan originators. One mortgage veteran is hoping to help those brokers out.
Irene Duford (pictured top), visionary founder and owner at Loan Team Training, has been coaching top loan originators for more than 10 years and has been in the mortgage industry for more than two decades.
She will be one of the speakers at the upcoming Association of Independent Mortgage Experts (AIME) Fuse event in Nashville. Her goal is to help brokers find the right fit to join their company.
“You can only do so much if you don't have a team, and not just a team, but the right team,” Duford told Mortgage Professional America. “I can give them some really good things, like deciding how they want their business to look so it's tailored to what they want, not what someone else wants.”
Hard work and ‘SWET’
Duford, whose company helps train loan professionals and assists companies in hiring the right people, wants to share some of that knowledge with brokers. She said it starts with understanding what you need from a new hire.
“I can give them a success formula of how they can decide that,” she said. “Then hire the right team to make sure that they have the right people on their team doing the right activities, mapping out what those activities are and making sure that they know who is doing what on the team.”
She said one of the biggest keys is to make sure there is consistency across your team members. This will ensure that the customer has a consistent experience from the initial meeting through to loan closing.
“It's building great systems and processes that are going to wow clients,” Duford said. “When you have a system in place, when you have a process in place, and your team and you are seeing things the same way every time, and you're connecting with the clients and really making them feel welcome.
“They're going to continue working with you because they like you, because they trust you, and you're saying the words all the time throughout the whole process that help them know that you care about them.”
When creating the system to hire new loan professionals, Duford said it’s a three-step process that ensures you are bringing the right people through the door.
“The three takeaways, basically, are how to create the business they want, how to hire the right people and make sure that they're doing the right activities to map those out,” she said. “That's part of building great systems and processes. Doing things the same way every time, I like to call it SWET, the ‘same way every time.’
Loan partners, not assistants
One area where new loan professionals are often brought into a brokerage is as a loan assistant. Duford said it is more appropriate to call them loan partners. No matter the name, she said you must find someone who is not only knowledgeable but also a cultural fit.
“Everybody who you hire has to be in alignment with the way you like to do business,” she said. “Especially if you only have one loan assistant. I like to call them loan partners, because nobody likes to be handed over to an assistant. And besides, they shouldn't be treated like an assistant. They're a key part of the team, and so I like to call them loan partners.”
She noted that, in addition to having that alignment with a new hire, having the systems in place to support them will help keep everyone in alignment, ensuring that whatever they may be telling a customer is exactly what you would say to them. This is especially critical if someone is out of the office and a customer comes in for an update.
Laura Brandao, CEO of Lighthouse Advisors, shows how purpose—freedom of time, relationships, and future—fuels stronger client connections and career fulfillment.https://t.co/8HalbRTHgA
— Mortgage Professional America Magazine (@MPAMagazineUS) September 24, 2025
“What we do with the loan partners is make sure that they're in the right alignment for the loan officer,” Duford said. “So, I help loan officers hire people as well. Whether they have a big team or a small team, they need to have those processes in place. Otherwise, everybody does what they want, and nobody knows what anyone else is doing.
“And if someone's out, nobody knows what's going on with that loan. We’ve all experienced that, and I'm sure you've experienced that because we all have, who've been in the mortgage business. Because I was doing it for 20 years, and it gets crazy when people are out.”
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