How to start?

Find your niche,learn to research for your key words.As you have been in mortgage industry,you could aproach that side,even if is very saturated.But you could try focus on your area.....something "like mortgage in Nort Pole",if you live in that area.
Get yourself hosting,set up WP,find a nice template for it,do not go for shared one,cracked,etc,as most of them have viruses,etc,get one from the official WP site.Are a lot of them free.
Find around here which are the most useful WP plugin,install them on your blog,chose the wright settings for them,put your site up and start posting articles.2-3 per week is ok.
As you are just starting,write your own articles,from your experience on that particular niche.You know what people want,what they want to hear.
After you have put your site online,get tools to monitor that site,the keywords you are targeting,visitors to site,how they came to your site,check your site seo,learn about h1,h2,h3 tags,etc.
Optimize your site for best user/visitor experience and you are ready to go.
Now is time to work on your backlinks.For this you need tools.....the good one are expensive,with monthly subscription.But you can find good tools cracked,some on this forum,some on others.
As you are just starting,you need al least 6 months to get things wright.
Leaving the money part aside,is quite f***ing great to see your keyword on first page of big G***le.
When you have reach that,some money will start to get in your bank.
I have not mention nothing about adsense until now,for a good reason.
Put adsense on your site,only after you have clear all errors that any noob do.
That way,you dont get banned from adsense,and your account should be accepted much quicker,as you already have a decent site.
For the start,go for chikita,etc are other options out there,but your main purpose,at this point,is not to make money,you just need to learn how to create a site,get good rankings,get backlinks,etc.
I have not mention any tools here,just because the tools i use,might not suite you.But at least you know what they need to do,and you can start look for them.
On the other side,nobody will give you full info.You just need to search,read,search again,read again.
Most of your questions,are already answered here,or on ther forums with same thematic.
I have been working hard in the last 2 years to learn,and now the results start to show.
Before asking a question,search,here or on big G,if nothing came up,then,post here,but im sure that the answer is already here,maybe just on a different way.
This is a very basic way to start,does not cover all the aspect of the problem,but is a good start.
As an example,i m out working on my regular job,which pays my bills,and sneak in here to look for info,to steal experience,to learn and apply later on.Im not here to look for something,just to see what is around.I usualy came here for 2-3 times a day,to check out what is new around,read,learn and back to work.I do this with 2-3 forums,on a daily basis.
Good luck!
PS:Quality pays back,quantity not anymore.................