With interest rates on the rise and the real estate market slowing down, many mortgage professionals are contemplating a career change. “The refinance boom is over” I hear time and time again from friends that work for competing lenders. This doom and gloom attitude has always baffled me, but I’ve come to realize that this is unfortunately common. Rather than focus on how to roll with the changes, many often throw in their cards and accept their fate.

The truth of the matter is that these are wonderful opportunities for those who can adapt to the change in the market. Certainly, the refinance boom is over if you consider only rate and term refinances. But, if you consider all of the other opportunities out there, the future looks extremely bright.

Consider this, bankruptcy filings in 2005 were the highest in recent years due to the change in the BK law. This would imply that there will be a wave of new homeowners just out of bankruptcy in the upcoming months. If you consider that all of your competition has left or is soon to leave the business, then this should equate to a “tidal wave” of new prospects motivated and eager to buy a home from you, if you are positioned as the “expert”.

Furthermore, if you consider that the savings rate of the average American is negative 5%, you can see that there are still tons of opportunities for debt consolidation loans and Chapter 13 buyouts both of which are drastically underserved niches.

Ken Schreiber is a partner in LoanOfficerSuccess, teaching loan originators to become significantly more profitable with subtantially less effort. Ken has built a very predictible high six figure income while operating out of shared executive space with 1 part time assistant. Ken was selected as one of the original 5 loan officers in the world to be selected to Brian Sacks “Elite” Platinum Coaching Group, considered to be the “Best of the Best” in the mortgage industry.  Ken is also one of the founding members of the National Association of Responsible Loan Officers and currently sits on the Board of Directors.