It’s a match-making service that may soon become a fact of life for B lenders, and as reported in CMP this spring, it’s making rapid progress in that direction.
It’s a match-making service that may soon become a fact of life for B lenders, and as reported in CMP this spring, it’s making rapid progress in that direction.
As CMP highlighted in its May issue, the submission process for brokers can take as little as two minutes, with the mortgage professional completing an application on the site and sending it off to as many lenders for whom the deal fits within their guidelines. Brokers can also opt to send the deal to just one player for consideration.
“We have 31 lenders signed up from B.C., 15 from Alberta and 11 from Ontario,” says Al Kelly, the founder of Strategic Matches. “We definitely should have more people on the website from Ontario, but the registration of lenders in that province is different from Alberta and B.C. Some are listed on FSCO, but a lot are not. The challenge for me has been chasing these non-conventional lenders down and making sure they are substantial enough to be included on the website.”
Each application form is configured to supply relevant information to a lender, so that it can be quickly and accurately assessed for any potential loan.
The only cost to brokers is an assessment fee upon a successful referral. It is free for lenders to participate on the website.
But for the moment, the only real obstacle Kelly is facing is getting the word out about Strategic Matches.
“We’re still in the rollout phase, and media exposure is big for me,” says Kelly. “It is good to get articles like the one in CMP magazine, and to be on MortgageBrokerNews. It helps a ton.”
Kelly explains that it may be difficult to explain the concept to people, but once they see it in action, “the light bulb goes on.”
And for a consumer culture that is turning to the Internet more and more for its search for goods and services, the idea of Strategic Matches makes as much sense as the services offered by Amazon.ca, Kijiji.ca or RateSupermarket.ca.
“Shopping on the Internet is common, and consumers are using it more and more,” says Kelly. “Mortgage financing is a commodity like anything else. I’ve been two-and-a-half years working on this – we’re not going away.”
