Why use a mortgage broker?
Whether it be for a home loan to buy your first property, refinancing your existing home loan, the need to fund your construction, a loan for your car or your commercial property, a mortgage broker will provide significant benefits. Why you may ask?
- Options, tailoring and hustling: Even if you want to use your own lender that you currently bank with, a mortgage broker can help you here. Your mortgage broker will keep them honest and most of the time negotiate a better deal than what you could, saving you thousands each year. They will try and keep you with your current lender if that’s what you desire but in any case, let your broker compare the savings amongst a few of the lenders and the way forward is generally black and white.
A mortgage broker has access to more than 20 different lenders and each specific lender’s senior business development managers. Yes sure, for purchases and refinances, you can do the leg work, knock on 20 different lenders doors, or jump online and find cheap loan options yourself but how do you know your current circumstances will fit the changing lending policies. Do you have the same relationship a mortgage broker does who sends millions to these lenders each year? It’s sort of like buying power that these brokers have with these lenders and their business development managers. The more business these brokers give these banks, the stronger their relationships. Staying on top of the best rates, on top of the policy changes and keeping these relationships strong with all the different lenders is what a mortgage broker will do to add for you the most value. A mortgage broker will hold your hand through the process and provide clear reasons as to the options provided. They will hustle your chosen lender to ensure the cheapest rate is obtained and then utilise their experience to achieve the smoothest settlement for you.
- Experience counts: More often than not, brokers will be have had some serious experience at either one or a few different banks. They’ve seen the way lending policies are written, dealt with customers on a day to day basis or even dealt with 100’s of different brokers themselves. They understand what each bank wants in terms of business and how they’re run. This helps manage customer expectations as the mortgage broker given their experience will know what to expect and be able to manage for you in black and white, the steps in the process. It’s this experience that enables brokers the ability to provide their customers with peace of mind.
- Interests aligned and free service: Most mortgage brokers are free to use for their services. They get paid a commission from the lender that your loan settles with. There is no salary here for a broker. Your local bank manager who is to an extent limited to work with their bank’s specific products and policies, will continue to get paid if your loan doesn’t settle or even if they cannot assist you. If a mortgage broker doesn’t find you a tailored solution, provide excellent service, a competitive rate and then a settlement, they won’t get paid. So a mortgage brokers interests are aligned with their customers.
- Simplicity: Mortgage brokers understand that the industry is full of confusing jargon. With experience, they become sort of like translators to keep things black and white for their customers.
- Long game: Most mortgage brokers are referral based. This means that the better the service and the more special the experience, the better the chances the customer will refer them onto their friends and family. Mortgage brokers should understand that you don’t get a second chance at creating a first impression. So from the get go, the service should be awesome.
Peter Vassilis
Black and White Finance