Mortgage professionals are increasingly having to spend more time with a file before submission in order to clear the rising hurdle of due diligence and avoid the kind of back-and-forth with a lender that frustrates borrowers.
Mortgage professionals are increasingly having to spend more time with a file before submission in order to clear the rising hurdle of due diligence and avoid the kind of back-and-forth with a lender that frustrates borrowers.
“There is more paper to deal with than ever before,” Enza Venuto of Centum Streetwise Mortgages told MortgageBrokerNews.ca. “As an experienced broker, you get to know and understand how the client works and you need to back yourself up as much as possible; we get everything up front, and if we ask the client more questions, (lenders) won’t give us such a hard time.”
Venuto empathizes with lenders that require extra due diligence to ensure the legitimacy of deals in an increasingly litigious environment. Others are anticipating those challenges by asking for and, indeed, receiving all of a client’s supporting documents in advance of submitting to a lender.
“A lot of fraud is happening and a lot of lenders are watching their backs by taking more precaution. I’m willing to deal with the paperwork because I don’t have any issues,” Venuto said.
Technology is your friend, according to another broker.
There is much more “time involved in fulfilling the conditions lenders are demanding in terms of paperwork for even the most flexible products,” Dalia Barsoum of Centum told MortgageBrokerNews.ca. “We have had an increased workload as a result and we have to leverage technology as much as possible.”
Times, they are a-changin’ and brokers have to adapt or fall behind.
“Unlike in the past when a client would just tell you how much they make for a living, nowadays there is so much more proof needed to secure a mortgage,” Barsoum said.
