Is your licensing info on the Consumer's NMLS website yet? We played with the site and its pretty much impossible to find "individual loan officers" - consumers are going to freak out if they can't find you. Learn a few tricks on how to find your NMLS listing - to make sure your clients can verify that you hold a valid mortgage license.
The SAFE Act legislates that all states must have a loan origination licensing and registration system in place by Aug. 1, 2009 (or Aug. 1, 2010 if they have a governing body that meets biennially). If a state does not participate, HUD has the right to step in and implement the licensing system for those states. (Right now, only Minnesota and Nevada are the only two states not included.)
One of the provisions in the Act is that a consumer website be created to determine if a loan officer is in "good standing" with the licensing laws.
Well, it's just been released. Here's the official NMLS Consumer Website URL -
The consumer has to enter all the information requested (name, company, city, state, zip and license number).
But here's the problem: Trying to find an "individual loan officer" based on the criteria that is requested, is virtually impossible unless the data is exactly correct. For example, if your legal name is Joseph and you go by the name of Joe, the search function simply won't find you.
However, the search function provides a "filter" option, where you can search by company name. There is a drop down mention and you can also click on the "state" the company is located in.
But, then there is another problem! If the company is licensed in another state, with mortgage branches in other states, it won't show up either. The solution is to just do an "All States" search to find the mortgage company.
Still one more problem: I did a search, by company name, of a very large mortgage company, which we know have had all of their loan officers licensed (around 200 of them). The loan officers' info showed up just by the company name and the "all states" search, but the loan officer names are not in alphabetical order. I gave up trying to find a couple of people that I know that work for the company because it would have had to go through the entire list to find them.
Just one more (and I swear that I'll quit). The "search" feature needs a lot of work. For example, I searched Rivercity Mortgage, Wisconsin. It did not show up but the mortgage company is in my back yard. When I entered "Rivercity Mortgage, all states," it gave me not only Rivercity Mortgage in all the states reporting, it gave me 24 other mortgage companies that did not have anything to do with Rivercity Mortgage. So the consumer, who is trying to find you on the site, will also read the names of your competitors.
If you have already been licensed or registered, we suggest that you find your info on the consumer site.
Then, here's what I would do: When you find either you company or your personal license, instead of having clients search and find nothing (because if they may a do a search and nothing shows up) include the link to your personal license listing in your brochures and e-mail.
I suggest that you read the FAQ page. Check out the link to your state regulator.
If your name shows up on your state's list, but not on the consumer NMLS, e-mails and phone numbers are provided to find out why your name has not been listed on the Official NMLS Consumer site.
Karen Deis is president of
