So I called my broker today. I know we are hurting right now, we just opened the business 6-7 months ago and we have not done much business. I called to see what I can do to help boost production, recruiting, etc. The philosophy when they opened was build it and they will come. They leased a large warehouse for about 6k a month, stocked it with computers (about 20 or so), spent about 7k on an AC/heat unit, and then more in recruiting. This along with a salaried receptionist and the normal office supplies.

The recruiting process was a initial success, we had about 15-20 people on board at one time. Soon after the new recruits decided the training wasn't good enough or they didn't realize there would be prospecting involved and about 10 quit. The owners then tried hiring (W-2) telemarketers, about 5 initially. They paid them for an average of about 1 month and then decided after absolutely NO results to take the hourly away.

After about 30 days the owners decide that they will be canceling their lease on the building and getting an executive suite. Okay, great. Let's conserve what we have. By this time there are 3 experienced LO's left including myself, and the 3 owners. The owners decide that they will be doing their own production and that the comp plan will change to a flat .75 of the loan amount payable to the broker on every deal. I believed in the company so I took the pay cut to help them float.

After about 2 months now, my broker tells me that I better start putting out my resume. What? Well, I guess this is the cards I was dealt. My broker gets upset at me asking what I can do to get the company back profitable. What else would he expect? I don't want to see the company go belly-up! The broker tells me that they are open to offering me an ownership interest if I will devote my time and energy into getting this nightmare back on track. To me this sounds like a "Hey, let's spread the debt around" tactic. I want to help them, but I seem to be the only one still interested in working. What do you think?

I have some ideas to get bodies in there with talent, such as a flat 75% split and an option of taking an extra 5% or 10% worth of marketing reimbursement. Hit the local colleges to find people willing to work and learn how to do mortgage, and recruit them at 65% split flat and training. The overhead of the company is about 7k every month and there has to be a profit. At the average loan amount of 350k with 2% origination it would be 1050.00 back to the company at worse case split. Plus about 500.00 in office fees. we need about 5 loans a month to break even! That is not very hard! Those with experience, what do you think? Does this sound appealing?

Funny you posted this. I was going to ask you how the company was doing. You hinted at their troubles when you replied to my last post.

I wouldn't want to get in on their commercial lease. I know a lady that had 2-3 years left on a lease when she went out of business. Last I heard she was looking at BK to get out of the debt. I think I would be inclined to help them generate revenue for some sort of bonus or something but I wouldn't sign any papers taking on their debt. JMO.

Isn't there a way you can accept ownership without the debt?

I'm certainly no expert on this. I think you might want to find a good biz lawyer to review any papers.

Good luck with whatever happens! I'm sure you'll land on your feet.