Sure you can. Just because you made a decision to work with one loan officer doesn't mean you're required to stay with him. Especially if this individual is not doing a very good job for you or, worse yet, is trying to take advantage of you.

No, your loan officer can negotiate your rate as well as whether or not your loan will include an origination fee or a discount point.
We'll discuss closing costs in more detail in Chapter 15, but the loan officer does have some leeway; by no means is one percent a requirement.

Sure they are. You got what you wanted the interest rate and the loan officer got a little more money. But this isn't regular practice. In fact, some mortgage companies prohibit market gains. If a consumer wants to lock in the loan, then lock in the loan and quit playing around with it. Why wouldn't mortgage companies want to make more money on a loan if they could?

A market gain is the difference between what the mortgage price was when you locked it with the lender and what the mortgage price is when the loan is physically locked with the lender's secondary department or with a mortgage broker's wholesale lender.

Some very handsomely, some not. It depends on whom they work for. If they work for a national bank or mortgage banker, they more than likely work on base salary plus a commission on each loan. If they work for a mortgage broker or a smaller mortgage banking operation, they more than likely work on straight commission. No closed loans, no paycheck.

Most states have minimum education guidelines and individuals must take courses to get their license to operate as a loan officer. No state is exactly the same as any other. In California, for example, a loan officer must be a licensed real estate agent. In Texas, loan officers must pass the mortgage broker exam and maintain a minimum number of hours in education classes.

Most loan officers will tell you that they never intended to get into the business, that they just ended up there somehow. There are a few colleges that offer degrees in mortgage banking, but not many. Sure, there are degrees in finance or accounting, but not in mortgage banking. At least they are not as widely available as other business degrees. Loan officers get trained by experience, by their company, and through courses, as in many other lines of work.