Here's how we pick a lender Academy Awards style.

So you've seen the ads from Mortgage Brokers "Over 30, 35, 40 (whatever) lenders to choose from" and you think "wow, I can't name 5".  Images of a broker looking over your deal and going to however many lenders they claim to deal with and getting you the best rate are probably rushing through your mind.  Well here's the reality.  We all have our favorite lenders and that's probably the biggest difference between us.  So to make it clear here is how our office narrows down the selection to a few contenders.

1. PRODUCT:  Every lender that comes knocking on our door for your business is looked at very carefully.  We look at the product and scrutinize for details.   There are the standard, prepayment, payment frequency etc and there's the fine print.  What does the penalty look like and how is calculated, is it an "MBS" product?  What is the flexibility on changes?  If we change the amount will it change the rate etc.... These are the kinds of details you would never know about if you didn't work in the business. 
2. POLICY:  What is their policy for underwriting?  Some are more rigid than others and can leave a client in the cold is something happens between the offer and the closing.  We look for the quality of the underwriting staff.  It's not a good thing if a lender goes through a lot of underwriters.  We look for lenders that trust their team to make safe and sound decisions on their behalf. 
3. PROCESS:   Extremely important to us!  No matter how good the product, if the process is ridiculous and drags our client through knot holes to get mortgages closed then what's the point?  We recently parted ways with a lender we thought had a great product but the underwriting was done locally and the "closing" person was in another time zone.  I won't get into the details of what that looked like but needless to say there are benefits to closers being able to walk over and talk to an underwriter.
4. AFTER SALE SERVICE:  We check in on our clients from time to time and find out how they are doing.  If we consistently hear complaints about a lender we will drop them.  How they treat you once your mortgage is closed is very important to us. 
5. RATE:  Yes this is important however it's also very tricky.  When we look at the rate the lender's offer we are also mindful of how it compounds (there is a big difference between semi-annually and monthly).  Also, we beleive that our clients don't mind giving up the lowest rate if it means giving up on a terrible product.  What good is a low rate if you can expect a big penalty later on. 

Once we take your application we can pretty much tell which lenders will be the best fit for you and we like to give you an option that will include a major bank and an off market lender.  I have blogged before why I think non-bank lenders are so important to the financial services industry.  They keep the market competitive.   Armed with the options, you, the academy, will vote with your dollar to determine the winner.