North Carolina Mortgage License

I'm glad to see that some folks have been logging on and beginning to use this blog as a source for info. Today, we'll be looking at licensing in the state of North Carolina.

North Carolina has 3 license options: Mortgage Broker, Mortgage Lender, or Hud Qualified Lender. There are some differences in the requirements for these licenses which we will cover below. It is our understanding that if you qualify as a lender or qualified lender, then you are permitted to broker, but if you qualify as a broker, you are not permitted to lend.

NC also requires that all loan officers who will work with NC borrowers must be licensed as a NC Loan Officer. Each l/o must take an approved NC education course and must pass the NC loan officer exam. We typically recommend to our customers that they fly to NC and take the course and exam in the same trip in either Charlotte or Raleigh. You must license at least 1 loan officer per office in order to apply for the company license.

Mortgage Broker
North Carolina requires that in order to be licensed as a mortgage broker, you must have a physical office located within the state. This means that if you aren't currently located in NC, you will have to open an office there. This office must be staffed by an employee of your company who is a licensed loan officer and who has at least 3 years of experience. Also, you must have at least one licensed loan officer in your corporate office who also meets the 3 year experience requirement. These individuals will be designated as your Branch Managers.

Other requirements include a $50,000 surety bond, company financial statements, and completed fingerprint cards for all principals and loan officers of the company.

Mortgage Lender
The mortgage lender license for NC does not require that you maintain a physical office in the state, and therefore, offers a significant advantage if you can meet the financial requirements ($100,000 in company net worth and a $150,000 surety bond). As stated in the paragraphs above, if you can qualify as a lender, you can still broker loans, so many of our companies will do all they can to obtain the lender license so they don't have to open an office in NC.

Under this license, your l/o's still have to take the course and exam, and you still have to have a branch manager with 3 years of experience. But, the good news is that you only have to do this for 1 office (your corporate office) versus having to do it for 2 (your corporate office and your NC Branch) under the broker license.

Qualified Mortgage Lender
NC defines a "Qualified Lender" as a company who operates as a lender in NC and who is approved as either a supervised or non-supervised entity with the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and who also can show audited company financials in excess of $250,000. If you can meet these requirements, you are exempted from the $150,000 lender surety bond requirement, but otherwise all other requirements are the same as the Lender license.


From a distance, NC licensing can be rather intimidating as the application is lengthy and the requirements are rather strict. I hope this entry has been helpful and please let me know if you have any questions or comments. For more information, feel free to check out our company, American Mortgage Licensing at www.amlicensing.com