This past couple of weeks, I have been sitting down with local mortgage brokers to chat about the services they offer clients and get a feel for who they are. I have had 2 coffees and an office chat and I still have a couple more appointments to come. It has been great sitting down and talking with local, professional, experts who see another angle of the real estate market.

Buying a house, that can be fun and exciting - I mean, who doesn’t love endlessing scrolling the MLS® looking and dreaming of their next home?? But, actually paying for that house, that is intimidating. And let’s not even talk about the feeling you have when you have to go get the bank draft for the downpayment when you finally purchase the house!

Since our first purchase in 2015, we have bought 3 other properties, which means shopping around for 4 mortgages, plus we refinanced one mortgage. Shopping for 5 mortgages in the past 8 years has given me some perspective on the banks vs. brokers conundrum.

For our first purchase, we actually visited all the major banks to talk about mortgages and what they have to offer. One bank actually told us that if we went out and found the rate we wanted at a different bank to bring it back to them and they would match it. Basically, you go out and do allllllll the work, and then come back here.

“Um, NO!”

Ultimately, when it comes down to talking with someone about your mortgage needs, you should:

Speak with someone you trust
Maybe talk to two or three different people, one of which should be your bank.

Comparing mortgages sometimes can feel like comparing apples and apples. A mortgage broker can help you make sense of what the terms of each mortgage offers you.

For our most recent purchase, we spoke with both a private mortgage broker and our bank We ended up getting a slightly better rate through our bank and a substantial reimbursement on some of our fees, which ultimately in the end made more financial sense. But, I do usually prefer working with a mortgage broker.

Here are a couple reasons I prefer a broker over the bank:

I find mortgage brokers aren’t trying to slip anything past you. Maybe it was because of Covid and we were trying to get a mortgage appointment in while having the kids watch TV in the car, which means my husband and I were taking turns going back and forth between the mortgage specialist at the bank and the van. This means that everyone’s attention was split and not focused on the task at hand but I just felt like there were definitely things that were not well explained. My history with a mortgage broker has always been that everything was very well explained because they are there to do best by you, not the bank’s interest!
They do the shopping around for the best rate for you and have multiple options about where they find the best deal to work for your needs.
They can work with alternative lenders based on your financial situation to help you achieve your goals!

If you are thinking of buying a new property in the near or distant future, it doesn’t hurt to sit down with a mortgage broker to see what you should focus on in the immediate future to help you achieve your goals. They can help you come up with a plan to get you into your next dream property on your timeline.

Talk about a Mortgage Broker

If you are just starting to think about buying your next home, a great place to start is to have a complete understanding of how you spend your money. I recommend using You Need a Budget. This amazing software/app can really help you gain a full understanding of how much money you are spending, on what, and what your true cost of living is. It can also help you plan for the purchase of you home by seeing how much you can truly afford for the purchase. Don’t plan to go “house broke” when you buy your house. Know that you can afford the home that you are purchasing and understand, technically being able to afford something and actually being able to afford something can be two totally different things. The bank or broker might tell you that, based on numbers, you can technically afford $XXX,000. But what does your budget ACTUALLY tell you that you can afford.

Bank Vs. Broker