The banks are increasingly hot for renewal business, but one broker is pointing out a curious exception to that rule – one ripe with opportunity for brokers.
The banks are increasingly hot for renewal business, but one broker is pointing out a curious exception to that rule – one ripe with opportunity for brokers.
“I’ve seen clients offered posted rate at renewals and the lender wants to get the client off the book because they have been late with a few payments,” Stephane Prevost, owner of Opulent Mortgages told MortgageBrokerNews.ca.
However, even those who are offered a great rate by the banks may be better served to make the switch to a broker.
“I’ve had clients, in my own experience, who have called and said they have fantastic rate and I’m challenged because the rate is so good,” Prevost said. “Then I look deeper and I see that they have a lot more consumer debt than when they got their first mortgage – the sort of client situation may necessitate something other than a five-year fixed rate. It depends on the stability of the client.”
Nevertheless, at the end of the day – as most brokers would agree – each client situation is different.
“We’re going to talk about lifestyle; are they looking to downsize, upsize, have kids, taking equity to pay for kids’ school?” Prevost said. “You’re not going to put them in a fixed rate mortgage if their lifestyle will change because the penalties in terms of discharging it for another property, increasing the size or decreasing the size of the mortgage. So you put them in a variable rate.”
