Getting Your Florida Mortgage License

Posted on March 9, 2008

Have your customers or family moved to Florida? Are you thinking of buying a second home there? Many mortgage brokers and lenders on the East Coast and Midwest find themselves with customers who ask them if they can do their loan for their condo or new house in Florida. You can close that loan only if you are licensed in Florida.

Florida is a relatively easy state to get your license. It does not require an office in the state. For companies, they offer 3 levels of licensing – broker, correspondent lender, or mortgage lender. Each of the company licenses requires a principal (either an owner or senior management) to have taken 24 hours of classroom education in Florida and then to have passed a test. This requirement is not as onerous as it sounds. The classroom education is given by various approved schools in Florida. Many out-of-state applicants schedule the classroom work the weekend before the test and take the test the following Tuesday. The classroom work is geared totally towards the exam. The principal must also have 1 year of mortgage broker experience.

If a mortgage broker doesn’t want to deal with minimum net worth requirements or surety bonds, it can apply for a mortgage broker business license. The major restriction with the mortgage broker business license is that all of its loan officers must be licensed individual mortgage brokers.

If a mortgage broker needs to get certified financial statements for another state anyway, go for the correspondent lender license. Mortgage brokers get much higher income from their brokering. But a correspondent lender needs to maintain a $10,000 surety bond and show the Florida Department of Financial Regulation that it has $25,000 minimum net worth and that is where the certified financial statement comes in. Mortgage lenders must maintain $250,000 net worth.

Gronsky Law Office represents numerous mortgage brokers and mortgage lenders with their licensing and compliance needs. You can find out more about the licensing process and compliance issues by visiting her web site at http://www.mortgagelicensesolutions.com

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