Dealing With Mortgage Brokers & How They Should Help
While brokers and real estate agents work day after day in familiar worlds, clients only complete mortgage transactions, on average, every seven years. Almost every part of purchasing a home or completing a refinance will feel brand new to them. To help your clients feel at ease, prepare them with a few tips from someone who just went through the buying and selling process.
Hindsight is 20/20 after all.
Here are 7 key things a broker should do in helping you secure your new home:
- Help by explaining how the entire mortgage system works
- Serve as a liaison with the financial institutions
- Act as your key negotiator
- Protect your credit score whenever possible
- Save you both money and time by being efficient
- Handle those administrative duties so you don’t have to
- Overall, guide you along the way and avoid the mortgage process pitfalls
Personal experience: how can a mortgage broker help you?
“There were a lot of surprises along the way,” shares Colleen Clark, Bridgewater Bank’s Marketing Manager, who recently purchased a new home. “Communication around the timeline to supply income and financial documents was great. But we had no idea when we would need to visit the bank, how we would receive proceeds for the sale of our current home and when our first payment would be withdrawn.”
“Our broker was experienced, but they didn’t take time to guide us through the process or set expectations with us. When we asked early in the process about when things happened, we just got vague answers. However, in the two days leading up to closing, we had to rush to squeeze in appointments in the midst of trying to move and coordinate house and carpet cleaners and furniture deliveries and child care. Had our broker taken a few minutes to outline timelines for these key steps right at the beginning, we would have anticipated appointments instead of being surprised and stressed.”
While things often pop up unexpectedly, do all you can to outline the normal steps and their approximate timing right at the beginning of the process. This will give your clients peace of mind and demonstrate that you respect their time and have their best interests at heart. “We don’t want our friends and family to experience what we did, so we won’t be recommending the broker we used,” reflects Colleen (just two short days away from closing).
Citing the old sayings that fortune favours the prepared and communication is king, keep these tips in mind as you work through deals with your clients… and secure yourself a client referral!