Why use a mortgage broker?

A bank employee can offer you their employer’s products. That is not a criticism; it is their job. A brokerage is not employed by a lender, so the comparison runs across chartered banks, monolines, credit unions, trust companies and private funds — each of which prices and underwrites differently.

That difference matters most where a file is not standard. Self-employed income, a property with an unusual use, credit that needs explaining, a short closing. A file that is a decline at one institution is routine business at another, and the gap between those two outcomes is knowing which is which.

Underwriters read hundreds of files. One that arrives complete, with income documented the way that lender expects and the awkward parts explained up front, gets a cleaner answer than the same file submitted raw. A large part of brokerage work is assembling and presenting, not shopping.

It also protects your credit. Applying to lender after lender on your own leaves a trail of inquiries that itself becomes a reason for decline. One prepared submission to the right lender avoids that.

On a standard residential file the lender pays the brokerage a finder’s fee on funding, so there is no direct cost to you. On private and some alternative files there is a brokerage fee, and it is disclosed to you in writing before you commit — never found later in a commitment letter.

If you have strong credit, salaried income, more than 20% down and an existing relationship with a bank that is quoting you a sharp rate, a broker may not improve on it. We will tell you that rather than waste your week. The value is concentrated in complexity, in choice, and at renewal — where the offer in the envelope is an opening position rather than a final one.