A house. You know you want one. The problem is that the price tag typically starts around $150,000 and the only people who have that kind of cash lying around are either obscenely rich or really good at finding large bags of unclaimed money. 

Assuming you're neither, you're going to need a mortgage. If you want a loan that big, you'll need to fill out a forest's worth of forms, agreements, appraisals, job documentation, and probably about nine other things we're forgetting. If only there was someone out there whose job it was to keep these things straight...

Enter the mortgage broker.

Paperwork cowboys for hire, these loan specialists are happy to surf that mile-high wave of documents right to the bank...where they'll drop off your loan application just before cashing their own fat commission check. That's right, they're not busting through six printers a year for free. With the right client base behind them, good mortgage brokers can make anywhere from $50,000 to $150,000 per year (source).

Order a stack of business cards with the words "mortgage broker" on them, and soon you might be helping hundreds of people into a new home each year like a boss. Like an actual boss. That's right, most mortgage brokers are their own boss, which means never getting in trouble for showing up late or in their underpants. Of course, showing up late probably means their salary will suffer, which will inevitably risk sinking them financially, but hey, underpants. Well, maybe don't do that either.

Big money changing hands is like a tourist passing their friend a sandwich at the beach. Both of them want the transaction quick and uncomplicated: he gives the sandwich, she takes the sandwich. But that doesn't stop swarms of hungry seagulls dive-bombing the hand off for a taste of the pastrami.

Every year, thousands of mortgage brokers fly in for the annual National Association of Mortgage Brokers convention. (Source)

Becoming top bird in these situations requires an incredible amount of interpersonal skills. And yes, before you ask, our frenzied seagull analogy dies right about here by necessity. See, there are only a certain number of sandwiches—ahem—homebuyers looking for loans, but countless brokers vying for their business. The ones successful in bringing home clients will typically be the most confident and savvy.

Mastering the art of being personable is important, but your long-term reputation matters too. People trust personal recommendations much more than advertising which makes the impressions mortgage brokers leave with people paramount in increasing their annual salary from zilch to something livable.

Remember, mortgage brokers don't need to be there. Banks employ officers to work through completed paperwork on their own. That means brokers are hired because people don't want to deal with these headaches themselves. 

This thinking can leave customers open to terrible deals if they employ unscrupulous brokers who think giving them a bad loan will net them a larger commission check. While that may be true, it's a loser's strategy in the long run. Unhappy people don't usually tell their friends about bad deals. At least not using nice words.

"Yeah, totally ripped me off. He put in all this stuff about paying him through integrated interest that destroyed me financially. Here, I'll get you his number!" (Source)

Mortgage brokers also have the ability (and the motivation) to check a ridiculous number of banks for a deal, while a bank loan officer is there only for his or her single bank. Taking a stack of paperwork too big for the trunk of your car to your favorite bank is not fun, but getting told no and then starting over again from the beginning gives "not fun" a whole new meaning.

Of course, the life of the mortgage breaker has its ups and downs. Hunting down paperwork and educating people about loan-to-value approximations isn't all fun and games. Working from your couch and enjoying boundless income potential is great and all, but what happens when the real estate market slows down or crashes entirely?

Yeah right...like the real estate market would ever crash entirely.

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