Free Guide for Loan Officers

I Filed Bankruptcy at 21.
Now I Lead a Top 1% Mortgage Team.

Here's the exact system I built to help loan officers break past 5 deals a month, build a real team, and keep more of what they earn.

Breaking the 5-Deal Ceiling — Free Guide
Download the Free Guide Instant PDF access
Zach Bleznick — Team Leader, The Ace Group

Who Is Zach Bleznick & Why Should You Care?

He Went Bankrupt at 21.
Stayed in the Industry When Everyone Else Left.
Then Built the System He Wished Existed.

Zach Bleznick is the Team Leader of The Ace Group and a partner with Home1st Lending in Orlando, Florida. He's been in mortgage for over 20 years. Not 20 years of riding a good market. Twenty years that include filing bankruptcy during the 2008 crash, rebuilding from zero, and coming out the other side leading a company that does $400M+ a year in broker volume.

Along the way, he built a conversion system and trained his entire team on it. He figured out how to combine three support roles into a single hire at a fraction of what the industry charges. And he did all of it while being a present dad to four daughters.

But here's the part that matters to you: Zach has watched hundreds of loan officers hit the same wall. 3 to 5 deals a month. Working 60+ hour weeks. Knowing they should be doing more but unable to figure out how to hire, how to scale, or how to build a team without the math falling apart.

So he wrote everything he knows into a playbook. The staffing model. The comp audit. The brand framework. The sales system. Scripts, checklists, daily schedules. All of it. And he's giving it away for free.

20+
Years in Mortgage
$400M+
Annual Broker Volume
4 Daughters
And Home by Dinner
Thousands
Loans Funded

These are Zach's results. Not typical. Results depend on market conditions, effort, and experience. Information shared here is not a guarantee of outcomes.

You're Closing 3 to 5 Deals a Month. You Know You Should Be Doing 10 to 15.

But hiring doesn't pencil out. A loan officer assistant can run you $60 to $80K. Add a processor and you're at $120K+ before you see a return. So you keep wearing every hat. Originating. Processing. Marketing. Admin. Follow-up. All of it.

Sound familiar?

  • You're the producer, the processor, and the admin rolled into one
  • You've thought about building a team but the cost feels impossible
  • You're afraid of hiring LOs who won't take care of your clients
  • Your "brand" lives under someone else's corporate umbrella
  • You're making decent money but trading every hour of your life for it
  • You've looked at flat-fee shops but they offer zero support

Most solo producers never get past this wall. They stay stuck at 3 to 5 deals, burning out, wondering if this is just how it is.

It's not. There's a system for breaking through it.

Inside the Guide

The 4-Pillar System for Scaling From Solo Producer to Team Leader

Zach Bleznick leading a team training session
01
Your First Strategic Hire

Most LOs who try to scale make the same mistake. They hire another loan officer thinking they need help with leads. What they actually need is help with their systems. You are the brand. Don't dilute it. Hire infrastructure, not competition.

The guide introduces the LEA Model: Loan Executive Assistant. One person who covers three roles you're currently doing yourself. Executive assistant, inside sales, and loan officer assistant, sometimes referred to as the LP1/LP2 model, merged into one trained hire. At roughly $30K a year instead of $120K+.

In this section, you'll see:

  • The LEA Model explained: three roles, one person, a fraction of the cost
  • An hour-by-hour daily schedule showing exactly what your LEA does from morning to end of day
  • How your LEA handles speed-to-lead, CRM management, outbound calling, and doc collection so you can focus on originating
  • The math showing how this hire pays for itself from your existing production at 4-5 deals a month
02
Where Your Money Is Actually Going

Here's a conversation nobody in this industry is having honestly with you. You've been told what you're getting paid. You've never been shown where the rest of it goes.

Most retail LOs land around 120-125 basis points. You're told that's competitive. But above you there's a branch manager, a district manager, a regional VP, a divisional SVP, and a corporate layer. Every one of those people is getting paid out of your production.

This section isn't a pitch for a specific company. It's a framework for evaluating any comp model, including the one you're on right now.

In this section, you'll see:

  • A table showing what you see vs. what's actually happening behind your comp structure
  • Why a flat-fee, P&L-based model puts you in control of your income and your expenses
  • A comp audit framework you can use to calculate your real take-home per file at any company
  • How the right comp structure makes your first hire fundable instead of a gamble
03
Why Nobody Knows Your Name Yet

At 3 to 5 deals a month, your business runs on a small circle of relationships. Maybe 3 or 4 agents, some past clients, some sphere. That works until it doesn't. Those relationships have a ceiling. You can only extract so many referrals from the same handful of people.

To consistently do 10+, you need agents who've never met you to have already heard of you. And if they Google you, they need to see something real. A team name. Content. An identity that says "this person is serious."

In this section, you'll see:

  • The three things brand actually means for a loan officer: recognition, reputation, and portability
  • A brand self-assessment checklist to figure out if you're building your own brand or someone else's
  • Why most LOs who leave their company start from zero because their clients know the company name, not theirs
  • How brand is what allows people to join your team when you're ready to build one
04
The Sales System

Infrastructure gives you the time. The right comp gives you the margin. Brand gives you the reach. But without a system for every conversation, the rest doesn't matter.

This is the most tactical section of the guide. Word-for-word scripts, a proven call framework, objection responses, and a business generation model you can implement this week. Not theory. Not motivation. Actual words to say on actual calls.

In this section, you'll see:

  • The 5-Step Call Framework that works on every conversation: realtor, borrower, past client, cold lead
  • A word-for-word cold realtor call script and the BOGO strategy for capturing both sides of every deal
  • BAMFAM (Book a Meeting From a Meeting): how to make sure every conversation ends with a scheduled next step
  • The 3 Buckets model for picking your three highest-leverage business generation channels
  • 7 objection scripts with exact word-for-word responses for the pushback you hear every week
  • The daily math table showing exactly how many conversations equal your income goal

Here's Why Most LOs Never Hire

Most loan officers who try to build a team spend $140K+ a year on support staff. A loan partner and a processor. That's before you see a single dollar of return. It's the reason most solo producers never hire.

$140K+
What Most LOs Pay
for Support Staff
$30K
What You'd Pay
With Our System

That's $110K+ back in your pocket every year. Same support. Same output. Fraction of the cost. The guide breaks down exactly how the staffing model works and why it costs what it costs.

Real Producers. Real Numbers.

The Ace Group team at Home1st Lending
Jose
Team Leader
Was a solo producer doing 2 deals a month at 55 basis points with no support. Built a 3-person team, doubled to 4 deals a month, and is on pace for $15M in annual production. Income doubled. Fewer hours.
Arthur
Team Leader
Started from scratch. Built a team that now does $53M in team volume, $18M personal. Used the Brand Builder and Production Engine from day one.
Suleyma
Team Leader
Started as a receptionist. Grew into a team leader who has closed 116 units. Built her own brand, her own team, her own identity within the system.

Case study results are not typical and depend on individual effort, market conditions, and experience.

Everything Inside the Guide

From Zach's desk:

I filed bankruptcy at 21 years old.

I had the BMW. The townhouse. The credit cards. The designer shoes. Then 2008 happened and all of it was gone. My $233,000 house was worth $80,000 overnight.

Most people left the industry. I stayed. Not because I'm tougher than anyone else. Because I didn't have anywhere else to go.

That turned out to be the best thing that ever happened to me.

Over the next 15+ years, I rebuilt everything from zero. I learned what actually works. I figured out how to build a team without going broke doing it. I figured out how to keep my brand, keep my comp, and build systems that let me be home for my four daughters.

This guide is the system I wish someone handed me when I was stuck at 3 deals a month, wearing every hat, wondering if it was ever going to get better.

It does. But only if you have the right infrastructure.

Zach Bleznick
Zach Bleznick
Team Leader, The Ace Group | Partner, Home1st Lending
NMLS #1418

Ready to Break Past 5 Deals a Month?

Download the free guide. See the full system. Decide for yourself if this is the infrastructure you've been missing.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who is this guide for?
Loan officers doing 3 to 5 deals a month who know they should be doing 10 to 15 but can't figure out how to hire, scale, or build a team without going broke. Also for experienced producers looking for better comp, better infrastructure, or both.
Is this a sales pitch for Home1st?
This guide teaches you the system regardless of where you work. The staffing model, the comp audit, the call framework, the scripts. All of it is useful no matter what company you're at. If you want to see how it looks with Home1st's infrastructure behind it, that's what the 15-minute call is for.
What makes this different from every other recruiting pitch?
Specificity. Most recruiting pitches say "great comp, great culture, great support." This one shows you the actual cost structure, the actual staffing model, the actual case study numbers, and exactly how the four pillars work together. Names, numbers, systems, and proof.
Do I have to join Home1st to use this?
No. The principles in this guide apply regardless of where you work. The Pod Accelerator and Brand Builder are specific to Home1st's infrastructure, but the strategic thinking around team building, comp structure, and scaling applies everywhere.
What happens after I download?
You get the PDF instantly. Over the next few weeks, you'll get a short email series that goes deeper on each section. Tactical stuff you can use right away.