How mortgage loan officer's dream career began with housesitting
Aaron Staufer’s dream was to dive into the world of real estate. Guided by his parents, who owned a successful real estate company, he fondly recalled the days of “farming,” where he and his siblings tirelessly canvassed neighborhoods, delivering information to 100s of homes.
“That would literally be our Friday night,” he said. “We had an assembly line putting all the packages together, then Saturday morning we’d run around the neighborhood delivering them.”
And for Staufer (pictured) and his siblings, that sometimes meant braving the harsh Colorado winters.
“There’d be a foot of snow on the ground but we still went out,” he said. “I always knew I wanted to get into real estate. After I graduated from college, I got my real estate licence. I’ve always been a very driven person – a hard worker. But my dad always said that success lives at the intersection of hard work and opportunity. And there was a lot of hard work being done, but not a lot of opportunity.”
While trying to make it big in the real estate world, Staufer was doing anything he could to keep the lights on – so to speak, including house sitting.
‘I need to hire this guy’
As Staufer pursued different roles, from showing specialist to property management, fate intervened when he went above and beyond to care for a client’s home while house-sitting. His thoughtful actions caught the attention of the homeowner, who recognized his potential. “I need to hire this guy,” the client exclaimed, and that was the turning point in Staufer’s journey.
“I already had my real estate license so I knew what I was getting myself into when it came to becoming a loan officer assistant,” he said. “I had a leg up on everyone. However, knowing real estate is completely different from knowing mortgages. I finished up my first day by writing down all the questions I had in my head – I drove to the bookstore and bought ‘Mortgage for Dummies’.”
Follow these steps on how to get your real estate license in California in this article.
And the book clearly worked as Staufer soon skyrocketed into the mortgage world. His perseverance paid off, and he was promoted to a full-fledged loan officer in 2013, a milestone that brought him immense pride and accomplishment.
But, not content with just being an accomplished loan officer, Staufer also took on the role of a sales manager, where he manages a team of eight loan officers while continuing to originate his own loans.
‘There’s a huge opportunity right now’
Now, as mortgage loan officer at Elevations Credit Union, Staufer’s seen just about everything – including the ongoing challenges in recruiting and retaining talent in the sector.
But, while there’s a lot of issues, Staufer said there’s a lot of opportunity there too. He revealed that the mortgage industry might experience up to 50% turnover in the coming year, creating a pool of potential candidates. Staufer saw this as a chance to attract skilled professionals who might be on the move.
“There’s a huge opportunity right now in fine tuning your process,” he said. “This is so that when things do pick up, you can really take advantage of it next time. If you take advantage of this year, you can really set yourself up for the rest of your career - but you have to see it as an opportunity.
“Many people live in that valley of disappointment and they don’t really see the production coming from it.”
