Skylar Welch Interview

Skylar Welch knows what it takes to build a mortgage business from the ground up. Over the course of her career, she has grown from a new loan officer focused on building a referral network into one of the nation’s top producers, surpassing $100 million in annual production and earning recognition among the top 1% of loan originators nationwide.

Today, Skylar serves as National Director of Strategic Growth at Fusion Home Loans, where she brings her experience as a producer, entrepreneur, and business owner to helping mortgage professionals grow. Her career has been largely built around purchase business, Realtor relationships, repeat clients, and a commitment to creating a customer experience that generates long-term loyalty.

That experience offers a valuable perspective in today’s challenging mortgage environment, where loan officers are competing for fewer transactions while facing affordability pressures, changing consumer expectations, and growing competition from technology-driven lenders.

We spoke with Skylar about building referral relationships, creating a sustainable purchase business, turning a database into a source of opportunity, scaling a team, and the lessons she has learned from producing at the highest levels of the industry.

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You built a purchase-focused business largely through referrals and Realtor relationships. In today’s market, what does a loan officer need to do to become someone an agent genuinely wants to introduce to their clients rather than just another lender asking for referrals?

I think there are a few things a loan officer needs to do, but the first is simple: come to the table with value, not a handout.

Too many loan officers approach their real estate partners with, “Who do you have for me?” Instead, the mindset needs to be, “What can I do for you?” That means bringing value-packed actions to the relationship, things that help the agent generate leads, create opportunities, deepen relationships with their database, and ultimately grow their business. When you do that, you’re no longer just another lender asking for referrals. You become a true business partner.

The second piece is consistency. Agents want to know that when they introduce you to a client, you’re going to deliver the same high level of service every single time. That means consistency in your follow-up, communication, and the experience you create for their clients.

That last piece is really important. Your job isn’t just to get the client to the closing table. It’s to make the agent look good for introducing you in the first place.

When you consistently bring value to the agent, create opportunities together, and deliver an exceptional client experience, the conversation changes. The agent isn’t thinking, “I need to give my lender a deal.” They’re thinking, “I have a client who needs someone I trust, and I want to introduce them to you.”

That’s when you’ve gone from being a lender who asks for referrals to being the lender an agent genuinely wants to refer.

Early in your career, you took an aggressive approach to prospecting, including reaching out to thousands of Realtors. If a loan officer needs to build a referral network from scratch today, what would your prospecting strategy look like?

If I were building a referral network from scratch today, I would still be aggressive, but I would be very intentional about where I put my time and energy.

First, I would get out there and meet people. I would reach out directly to potential referral partners, join networking groups, attend real estate events, and put myself in as many rooms as possible. I wouldn’t just be handing out business cards. I would focus on building relationships and becoming a resource.

I would also go very heavy on social media. I want everyone who knows me, everyone who follows me, and everyone whose room I walk into to know exactly what I do. I want people to think, “If I have a mortgage question, I know who to call.”

You have to consistently put yourself out there, educate, answer questions, provide value, and become the person people think of when the mortgage conversation comes up.

At the same time, I would be very focused on creating opportunities with Realtors. Once I found a handful of agents I really connected with, people whose business, personality, and goals aligned with mine, I would go all in on those relationships. I would stay top of mind, learn their business, and look for ways to help them generate leads, create opportunities, reconnect with their database, and grow their business.

I would become a consistent resource, not just when I wanted something from them, but every single week. That’s where I think the real opportunity is today.

You have to give an agent so much attention, appreciation, and value that they eventually start comparing that relationship to the one they’ve had with their current lender for years. They start thinking, “My lender hasn’t helped me grow my business. They haven’t brought me opportunities. They haven’t really added value. And here is this loan officer who is constantly showing up, helping me, creating opportunities, and making me better.”

That’s how you win the relationship.

My strategy would be to go wide to create relationships, then go deep with the right people. Don’t try to have 100 Realtor partners you barely know. Find the handful of people who are a great fit, invest heavily in them, become indispensable to their business, and earn the right to become their go-to mortgage partner.

You eventually reached more than $100 million in annual production. What activities actually moved the needle as your business grew, and what were you doing early in your career that you eventually realized wasn’t worth your time?

The truth is, and I don’t think enough people say this, it wasn’t something magical that led to my success. I just grinded. I worked. I put in 15 to 17 hours a day for years.

I hustled. I didn’t sit around and wait for things to happen. I went to every networking event I could. I went heavy on social media. I reached out to as many real estate agents as I could, and then I stayed incredibly consistent with those relationships.

I followed up like crazy. I made sure I was top of mind. I focused heavily on communication and creating a great experience for my clients and referral partners.

Those were the things that actually moved the needle: having conversations, building relationships, following up, and being consistent.

One of the biggest lessons I learned, though, was that just because you can do something yourself doesn’t mean you need to.

For probably the first eight years of my career, I was doing everything. I was originating the business, structuring the loans, working up all the income, chasing every condition, and essentially trying to control every part of the transaction. I thought that was what being successful looked like.

Eventually, I realized I was spending way too much of my time on things that didn’t require me.

Hiring an LOA was one of the best decisions I ever made. It allowed me to take the things that were consuming my time and give them to someone who was better suited to handle them, so I could focus on the things only I could do: the conversations, structuring, relationships, referral partners, and growing the business.

That became a huge turning point for me.

What’s crazy is that in my first five years in the business, I went from having no kids and never having closed a loan to having three kids under five years old and closing more than 400 transactions a year. I had to learn pretty quickly that if I wanted to continue growing, I couldn’t just keep adding more hours to my day. I had to build a team.

That didn’t just take my business to the next level. It gave me better balance in my life. I stopped measuring my success by how much work I could personally carry and started measuring it by how effectively I could build a team, leverage everyone’s strengths, and spend my time where I could have the biggest impact.

If I had to boil it down, the things that moved the needle were prospecting, relationships, follow-up, communication, and consistency. The thing I eventually realized wasn’t worth my time was trying to be the person who did everything.

Consumers can compare rates and lenders almost instantly today, and you’ve spoken about borrowers leaving an LO late in the process for an online lender. How can loan officers create enough value throughout the relationship that the mortgage doesn’t become a commodity decided solely by price?

There are a few things I do that I believe truly separate me from an online lender or a rate quote.

First, I’m available. Nights, weekends, after hours, when my borrowers need me, I’m there. If they’re writing an offer on a Saturday night, I can answer their questions, run the numbers, and get them the preapproval letter they need. That matters when there’s a house on the line.

More importantly, I’m a mortgage advisor, not an order taker.

If a borrower tells me they want an FHA loan, that doesn’t automatically mean FHA is the right loan for them. My job is to look at the entire picture, including income, assets, goals, credit, and future plans, and help them determine what loan actually makes the most sense.

I want to help them understand not just what they qualify for, but what purchase price gives them a monthly payment they’re genuinely comfortable with.

That relationship doesn’t end at closing. I want to be the person they call when their financial situation changes, when they’re thinking about buying another property, when they want to restructure debt, or when they’re trying to figure out what the next chapter looks like.

The other piece that I think gets overlooked is execution. A great rate doesn’t matter if you don’t close.

I’ve had countless transactions where I’ve had to go to bat for my clients to get them to the closing table. I’ve driven to houses to pick up documents. I’ve chased down condo documents. I’ve worked directly with appraisers and other professionals to solve problems. I’ve made phone calls and pushed things forward because my client’s closing date mattered.

That’s the value of having a local professional who has relationships, understands the market, understands the nuances of the area, and has a reputation to protect.

When you work with me, you’re not just getting a mortgage. You’re getting someone who is invested in getting you to the finish line.

Ultimately, I think that’s how loan officers keep a mortgage from becoming a commodity. Be the advisor. Be available. Solve problems. Communicate. Advocate for your client. Create so much value that the borrower isn’t just comparing your rate. They’re asking themselves, “Who do I trust to get me to the closing table?”

One of the hardest transitions for a successful producer is realizing they can’t do everything themselves. What are the signs that an LO needs to start building a team, and what should their first hire take off their plate?

For me, the first sign that I needed to build a team was when I realized my service was slipping.

I had gotten to the point where I was trying to be everything to everyone and handle every single piece of the transaction myself. The problem wasn’t that I couldn’t do it. It was that I couldn’t do all of it really well while continuing to grow.

I started to notice that I wasn’t giving people the best version of myself. When your clients, referral partners, or team members start to notice that your service isn’t living up to the standard you’ve set for yourself, that’s a pretty big warning sign.

I think the first hire needs to be very intentional. I would look at two things: What takes up most of your time, and what are the things you’re not particularly good at or don’t enjoy doing?

Those are probably the things you need to get off your plate.

For me, I realized that I’m a salesperson. I love relationships. I love meeting people, generating business, and figuring out how to structure a difficult loan. That’s where I bring the most value.

Working up income, organizing documents, staying on top of every little detail, and making sure every follow-up happens consistently weren’t my strengths. Frankly, they were a huge time suck for me.

So I hired someone who was better than me at those things, and that was a game changer.

It didn’t just give me more time. It gave me the ability to spend more of my time doing the things I was actually great at and the things that generated revenue. I could focus on bringing in deals, building relationships, taking care of referral partners, and structuring loans while someone else made sure the details were handled at a really high level.

That’s the mindset shift successful producers have to make. Your goal isn’t to prove that you can do everything yourself. Your goal is to build a team that allows everyone to operate in their zone of genius.

Once I made that transition, I actually had more business, better service, and, honestly, I enjoyed my job a lot more.

If you’re constantly working but your service is slipping, you’re stressed by things that aren’t your strengths, and you’re spending your best hours on tasks someone else could do better, those are probably signs it’s time to make your first hire.

A lot of loan officers have databases filled with past clients and old leads, yet very little business comes from them. What have you learned about turning a database into an actual source of repeat and referral business rather than simply a list of names?

Your database should be your number one source of business. If it isn’t, I think you’re probably missing one of the biggest opportunities you already have.

The first thing I’ve learned is that your database isn’t a list of names. It’s a list of relationships. If you only reach out to those people when you need a referral, they’re going to feel like a lead in your CRM instead of a person you genuinely care about.

It starts with the experience you create the first time you work with them. I want my mortgage process to be so memorable, personal, and different from what they expected that when someone they know says, “I’m thinking about buying a house,” they immediately think of me.

The goal is to create an experience people want to talk about.

Closing isn’t the finish line. It’s really the beginning of the long-term relationship.

I stay in touch with my clients, check in on them, send personalized closing gifts, birthday surprises, anniversary cards, and make sure they have their Closing Disclosure at tax time. I send personalized videos after closing just to check in and let them know I’m still here, not just a week later, but a month later, six months later, 12 months later, and beyond.

I also ask for reviews and, most importantly, continually remind them that I’m a resource for anything mortgage- or real-estate-related.

There’s another really important piece: you have to give people a reason to hear from you.

Don’t make every database call, text, email, or video about, “Do you know anyone who needs a mortgage?” Instead, be useful. Share something happening in the market. Help them understand their home value or equity. Let them know when there may be an opportunity to refinance. Give them advice about buying an investment property. Connect them with a great Realtor, contractor, attorney, or other professional when they need one.

You want to become the person they think of when they have a question, not just when they have a transaction.

Then, yes, ask for the business. There’s nothing wrong with telling a client, “I’m never too busy for you, and if someone in your circle needs mortgage advice, I’d love an introduction.” That ask is much more powerful when you’ve spent the previous year actually adding value to their life.

Consistency is also critical. You can’t decide in January that you’re going to “work your database” and then forget about it for six months. There needs to be a system of texts, videos, events, client appreciation, social media, market updates, and personal touches happening throughout the year.

Ultimately, the database becomes a source of business when you stop treating it like a database and start treating it like your very best referral source.

I want my clients to always think of me first when they have mortgage needs and never question who they are referring their friends and family to. That’s when your database stops being a list of names and becomes a business asset.

Shift your mindset from the term “past client” to simply “client” for every transaction you have ever closed.

You built your career around purchase business rather than depending on refinance waves. What habits or systems make a purchase-focused business more resilient when transaction volume is low and competition for every deal is intense?

I’ve always believed that the most resilient mortgage business is built around relationships, not interest rates.

I’ve focused my career heavily on purchase business because I wanted to build a business that wasn’t dependent on the next refinance wave. My foundation has always been my relationships with referral partners and the experience I deliver to every single client. When you do those two things really well, you create referral business regardless of what the market is doing.

The reality is, people are always moving through life. They’re buying homes, getting married, getting divorced, having babies, changing jobs, relocating, buying investment properties, needing to access equity, and making other major financial decisions.

My goal has always been to become the person they call when one of those life events happens.

That requires some pretty consistent habits. I stay close to my referral partners. I’m not just calling them when I want a deal. I’m constantly asking myself: How can I help this person grow their business? How can I create opportunities for them? What can I do to make them better at what they do?

I want to be viewed as a business partner, not a mortgage vendor.

I also protect the client experience regardless of volume. One of the biggest lessons I learned during the refinance boom is that your busiest season can actually be your greatest opportunity to separate yourself from your competition.

When the refinance boom happened, I was still 94% purchase business. A lot of lenders were suddenly overwhelmed with refinances. They stopped returning calls to their Realtor partners, communication slowed down, turn times went through the roof, and their service suffered.

I did the opposite.

I continued communicating with my referral partners. I continued delivering the same level of service. I continued taking care of their clients.

While other loan officers were effectively saying, “I’m too busy right now,” I was showing Realtors, “I’m going to be here for you regardless of what the market does.”

That created an enormous amount of trust.

I also think purchase-focused LOs have to stay disciplined when business gets slow. When transactions slow down, you can’t spend all day staring at your pipeline waiting for the phone to ring. That’s when you increase your prospecting, reconnect with clients, call your database, meet with referral partners, create content, ask for introductions, and look for ways to generate opportunities for the people around you.

In a slower market, activity becomes your competitive advantage.

Finally, you have to understand that purchase business is a long game. You may have conversations today that don’t turn into a loan for six months or a year. That’s okay. If you consistently provide value, follow up, stay visible, and become someone people trust, eventually you become the first person they think of when the opportunity arises.

For me, the formula has always been pretty simple: Build deep relationships. Create an exceptional client experience. Stay relentlessly consistent. Generate opportunities instead of waiting for them. Never allow the market to dictate the quality of service you provide.

That’s what makes a purchase-focused business resilient. You’re not waiting for rates to create your next opportunity. You’ve built a network of people who create those opportunities for you.

You’ve spoken openly about burnout despite being highly successful. What did burnout teach you about the difference between being busy and actually being productive, and what would you tell an LO who feels like they’re working constantly without seeing enough results?

Yes, burnout is absolutely real. I’ve actually experienced a couple of very different types of burnout throughout my career.

The first happened when I was producing at an extremely high level. I was closing more than $10 million a month, making a lot of money, and from the outside, everything looked great.

But I wasn’t sleeping, I was barely eating, and I was barely seeing my family. I had three kids under five, and I would justify missing things by telling myself, “They’re too young to remember this anyway.”

I remember one very pivotal moment. I walked into my office and told everyone I was going to be gone for a week and completely unreachable. I rented a cabin on a lake, drove there with my family, and turned my phone off for an entire week.

I knew I was at a point where something had to change because I was either heading toward a complete breakdown or I was going to walk away from the career altogether.

That week taught me something really important: being busy and being productive are not the same thing.

I realized I didn’t necessarily need to do less. I needed to stop spending my time on things that drained me, stressed me out, and didn’t require me personally.

So I started hiring people to take the things I hated doing off my plate. That was a huge turning point for me.

I learned that the goal isn’t necessarily to work fewer hours. The goal is to make sure the hours you are working are spent on the things that actually move your business forward and the things you’re uniquely good at.

Later in my career, I experienced a completely different kind of burnout. I was still producing at a very high level, but I wasn’t getting the same personal fulfillment from production that I once had. I found myself filling my time with things outside of work because I wasn’t feeling that same drive.

I started realizing that maybe my purpose had gotten bigger than just my own production. I wanted to impact more people. I wanted to help other loan officers grow, build businesses, and create better lives.

That’s ultimately what led me to become the National Director of Strategic Growth at Fusion Home Loans. I still produce at a high level, but now I also get to run sales meetings, coach and train loan officers, create systems and processes, and help impact an entire company and the experience we deliver to our clients.

When I talk to an LO who feels like they’re working constantly but not seeing the results they want, I tell them to look closely at what they are actually spending their time doing.

Are you spending your day doing things that generate conversations, create opportunities, build referral relationships, and move loans forward? Or are you just staying busy?

You can work 12 hours a day and accomplish very little, or you can spend your time very intentionally and create incredible results.

I think the bigger lesson from burnout is that you have to listen to yourself. Sometimes the answer is to hire help and get things off your plate. Sometimes it’s to change your systems. Sometimes it’s to recognize that your definition of success has changed and you’re being pulled toward something bigger.

Burnout doesn’t always mean you need to quit. Sometimes it means you need to change the way you’re working or change what you’re working toward.

Today’s homebuyer often needs more education, more reassurance, and more creativity to get comfortable moving forward. Where do you see the biggest opportunity for loan officers to become advisors rather than simply people who provide financing?

I honestly believe that every step of the mortgage process is an opportunity to be an advisor and a resource, not simply someone who takes an order and delivers a product.

That starts with the very first conversation. A great loan officer shouldn’t just ask, “What loan do you want?”

We need to ask better questions: What are you trying to accomplish? What monthly payment are you comfortable with? What are your short- and long-term goals?

Then we can help them determine the right loan strategy and the price point that makes sense for their overall financial picture.

During the home search, there are countless opportunities to add value. It’s being available to run numbers, talk through different scenarios, explain how changes in price, down payment, taxes, or rates impact the payment, and help the client make an informed decision rather than an emotional one.

The goal is to make the process feel less overwhelming because they know they have someone in their corner who understands the numbers and can help them navigate the decisions.

I think the biggest opportunity, though, is what happens after the transaction closes.

The relationship shouldn’t end when the loan closes. Life is constantly changing: marriage, divorce, growing families, career changes, inheritance, retirement, or simply a change in financial goals.

Those life events often create real estate and financing decisions, and the loan officer who continues to be a trusted resource will be the person the client calls first.

To me, that’s the difference between being a mortgage lender and being a mortgage advisor.

A lender helps you get a loan. An advisor helps you make better financial and real estate decisions throughout your life. That level of value and relationship is something an online rate quote or a transactional lender simply can’t replicate.

If you lost your entire database, referral network, and reputation tomorrow and had to rebuild your mortgage business in today’s market, what would you do every day for the next six months to get back into meaningful production?

If I lost my entire database, referral network, and reputation tomorrow and had to rebuild my mortgage business from scratch, I would go back to the fundamentals: relationships, visibility, value, and consistency.

Every single day, I would create some form of content and put myself in front of people. I would post on social media, reach out to real estate agents, set appointments, and make it a priority to get face-to-face with as many potential referral partners as possible.

I would walk into real estate offices, introduce myself, and make it a regular part of my schedule, not something I did once and hoped would turn into business.

For every agent who was willing to give me an opportunity, I would focus on earning their trust. I’d ask what they need and look for ways to bring value before asking for business.

Maybe that’s teaching a class for their office, creating content with them, helping with an open house, providing an open house basket, or simply being the lender who is always available when they need a second opinion or a scenario run.

I would also build relationships with local banks and credit unions. They often have products they don’t offer or borrowers they can’t help, and those relationships can become a valuable referral source.

It also creates an opportunity to connect with buyers before they even have a real estate agent and then become a resource by connecting those buyers with the agents I’m trying to build relationships with.

I would track everything. How many agents did I contact? How many conversations did I have? How many appointments did I set? How many follow-ups did I make?

I’d focus on the activities I can control every single day rather than obsessing over when the next loan is going to close.

If there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s that there is no magic lead source or magic script. The biggest advantage you can create is consistency.

Whatever you choose to do, build a plan you can actually stick to, put it on your calendar, measure it, and do it over and over again.

You may not see results in the first week or even the first month. But if you consistently put yourself in front of the right people, provide value, and follow up, eventually the activity turns into relationships, the relationships turn into opportunities, and the opportunities turn into production.

That’s how I would rebuild.