In 2010, working with a Mortgage Broker STILL makes sense
Posted by: Greg Fischer Post date: January 3rd, 2010With new regulations and SAFE act licensing requirements (many of which are good things), being a mortgage broker in NH is more difficult than it used to be. In some ways, working for a bank would be simpler – if only because the requirements are easier to meet.
But being a broker still has advantages. I received an approval for a refinance the other day. It was a complicated file, but all the required pieces were there – credit scores, job history, equity in the property etc. The borrowers had already applied and been denied at a big national bank. They were skeptical that I would be able to get different results, but since they needed the refinance, we completed the application and submitted the file.
The big challenge was that the debt to income ratio was high. Many lenders (that I spoke to) wouldn’t be able to approve the loan. But since I’m a mortgage broker, and have dozens of options for where to take a given loan file, I was able to find one who looked at the whole picture and thought it was reasonable. If I were a bank lender, no means no in most cases.
So the added requirements to be a mortgage broker are worth it. To me, to my borrowers, and to the industry. There are solutions we can provide that are simpler, more varied and often less expensive than the retail side of the business. It pays to ask questions (all of them) before you make hundred thousand dollar decisions.
