How is your payroll handled? Do we deposit title company checks? What bank will we be required to have an account with?

As a Branch Partner, 100% of net commissions are paid to your branch account within five days. Payroll, a minimum of $500 per loan, is paid to the originator within the same 5 day time period. Your branch expenses are paid from your branch account.

You must not deposit title company checks. Any checks made to Benchmark Mortgage, or Ark-La-Tex, must be turned into the corporate office.

• If the loan is brokered to an investor other than Benchmark Mortgage you should submit the check with the copy package that you turn into Benchmark Mortgage.
• If you collect application fees they should be made payable to Benchmark Mortgage and submitted to the corporate office with all RESPA disclosures so that the file can be registered. You must register all loans even if no fees were collected within 3 days of application date.
  

How is the branch bank account handled? Are we responsible for paying branch expenses from that account, i.e. utilities, rent, phone, supplies, courier, credit reports, etc.?

FHA loans - can we broker out FHA loans? What are the maximum yield spread/total points we can earn on FHA loans? Must we have Benchmark process our FHA loans as we have an experienced FHA processor who has processed for five years?

You can not broker FHA loans, unless we do not offer a specific FHA product. In this case you must still submit the loan to our underwriting so that we can QC it before you submit it to another investor. This is a requirement by HUD.

5% is the maximum YSP on FHA loans. You can use you own processor or a contract processor as long as they are approved by corporate. If he/she is in-house we must pay her/his salary from your branch account. Your processor will need to be interviewed before we allow he/she to process FHA loans.

What are your cutoff times for submitting requests for payments on closed loans?

We have a 5 business day turn time. This time is calculated from the date that we have received all necessary documents needed to process the file. Brokered copy packages must contain all documentation that was used in closing the loan. Loans that were funded by us will only need to send a funding form and all invoices that are being paid from the proceeds.

May we have a list of your total fees? What are your fees in addition to your transaction fees? What are your underwriting fees, flood cert fee, funding and/or closing fee, tax service fee, etc.

Lender Fees ~ these are the minimum fees that must be collected at closing on all Benchmark Mortgage loans. If you do not collect these they will be deducted against your proceeds.

• Admin ~ 180
• Underwriting ~ 250
• Tax Service ~ 125
• Flood Certification ~ 20
• $200 - Paid to doc prep attorney
  

Transaction Fees - Benchmark Mortgage pays all loan officers 100% commission. In lieu of taking a percentage of what you make we charge transaction fees.

• Government Loans ~ 450
• Conventional Loans ~ 375
  

Administrative Service fee ~ This is a fee that we collect only on the gross wages that you W-2 for payroll. It is collected to defer the administrative cost of issuing payroll for our branches. It is 13%. It does cover all employer withholding, and we file the 941's from here on your behalf. Note: The 13% is only charged on what is taken from the branch as income. You must W-2 at minimum of $500.00 per file.

The remaining difference can be off set with invoices allowing you to control your profit and loss, i.e. Marketing company.

Do you underwrite commercial loans?

Please provide us with a chain of command or corporate contact list.

Will we be able to call directly to the appropriate contact(s) once we're signed up with Benchmark or will we have to go through the voice mail system?

Describe your background check.

The background check is a criminal background check and is performed on every employee. We also check your credit report and contact references.

How are LP, DU, credit report fees handled?

You will need to set up your own LP/DU accounts. You can find these instructions on our website. However, you run DO on www.quikqual.com free of charge.

Do you provide training to new branches?

We do provide operations training to our new branches. It is designed to help new branches adapt to our way of doing business in order to operate more efficiently. We do not train people to be loan officers.

Do you operate on a central networking system?

Are loan officer checks physically cut or directly deposited?

How much experience do you require for loan officers?

Does the 13% transaction fee consist of employer taxes?

Can benefits be waived?

Currently, the only benefits we offer are health and dental insurance. When you sign up you must either apply for insurance or complete section D on the application to decline. If you accept the insurance then you will be required to keep two months premium on deposit. If you decline, then you will have to wait until open enrollment before you can apply again.

What is your procedure to approve new lenders?

Are there any setup, startup fees; required reserves; net worth requirements?

Do you have a minimum loan amount? Is there a monthly quota of closed loans?

Does Benchmark underwrite? What is the underwriting turn-time?

Benchmark Mortgage underwrites it own loans. FHA Turn times are 48 hours for purchases and 72 hours for refinances. Conventional turn times are 24 hours.