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Adrian Placinta has perfected his processing to the point that he can get a clear-to-close in a week. The broker owner of True Path Loans has been honing and perfecting his processing since he joined the mortgage industry in the mid-Aughts. That expertise in processing has not only allowed him to handle a pipeline of over 100 loans as a one-man shop but also allowed him to easily and quickly scale to a shop with 30 employees in just the last year and a half. 

Adrian joined the mortgage industry in 2005 after finishing college at San Diego State. He initially joined a retail shop where he stayed for six months learning the ins and outs of the industry. Leaving for the broker channel, Adrian landed at a wholesale shop where he lasted through the stock market crash. Leaving the industry briefly in 2010, he quickly rejoined landing at another brokerage where he stayed until 2017 when he ventured out on his own. 

Starting with $10,000, Adrian was a one-man shop for his first few years. It was not until 2020 when the refinance boom hit that he hired his first employee. At that point, he had well over 100 loans in his pipeline and needed a second person to handle the increased workload. He started by hiring a processor, then a Chief Financial Officer, and then finally a sales manager. Those were the first of many hires that saw Adrian grow from a one-man shop to a brokerage with a team of 30 in roughly a year. 

The key to that growth, Adrian’s mastering of processing. From his early days in the mortgage industry, he has always had a knack for processing. At the retail shop, he quickly learned he hated sales but loved processing. He teamed up with an amazing salesperson who handled sales, while he processed. When he joined the broker channel, he had no choice but to master processing. At his first brokerage, he learned as much as he could from their processor so he was prepared when he went off on his own. “You gotta have a process or you’re going to fail eventually.”

Adrian’s parting advice: Engage with the broker community. He would never be where he is today if it was not for the connections he made with AIME. He credits the 2019 AIME Fuse conference for giving him the motivation and drive to scale his brokerage. One way to interact with the community is by attending AIME Fuse 2021 in Las Vegas on September 24th and 25th. Get your tickets before it’s too late. 

Notes:
Getting in the mortgage industry (1:21)
Processing (7:30)
Scaling & Training (16:47)
Parting Advice (26:19)