The Mortgage Broker's Side of the Story, Part 1

I have been a Licensed Mortgage Broker for 5 years and before that I worked in Title Insurance. Those are just two contributing parties in this business. Other parties involved are Loan Officers, Appraisers, Inspectors, Builders, Lenders, Investors, Property Insurance Agents and most importantly Borrowers.

I want to take you through the whole process from the view of a Mortgage Broker(MB)/Loan Officer(LO).

Every Loan starts with the Borrower. The borrower decides, on their own, that they want to refinance their home. It doesn't matter at this point if the borrower is refinancing to take out cash or to just improve his current payments. The ball is rolling. The Borrower contacts a Mortgage professional, either at their bank, word of mouth, on-line or by finding them in the phone book.

"Thanks for calling ******* Lending, how may i help you?"

The Borrower replies, "I would like to talk to someone about getting a Mortgage."

The LO, in most cases is a entry level, commission based, easily replaceable employee of a Mortgage Lender. Most LOs have never had a job before or at least a salary one. An LO has almost no personal liability. If something is found to be fraud by the LO, he will be fired, but the Lender he works for is left with the bill. All the LO has to do is walk into another shop and say, "Hi, my name is ****** and i can close loans." and he will have a desk by the end of the day.

A MB is a schooled and licensed version of the previous. The biggest difference between the two is that a MB will be held liable for and wrong doings personally and could loose his/her ability to license in any field.

Mortgage Broker, "Hello, my name is ****** and I hear you have some questions about refinancing?"

Borrower, "Yes."

This is where tension between the customer and the professional starts. Up until this point, the borrower was the only deciding factor. Now their are two. Even worse one of them not only may know more about the subject then the other, but one is trying to make a sale and the other is just shopping.

Mortgage Broker, "Okay, what is the reason for the refinance?"

Borrower, "I would like to consolidate my debt."