If there is anything good to come out of the credit crisis, it's the opportunity to improve broker/lender relations, industry members heard at the annual CAAMP expo in Toronto
If there is anything good to come out of the credit crisis, it's the opportunity to improve broker/lender relations, industry members heard at the annual CAAMP expo in Toronto.
"I was pleased with the credit crisis because it brought everything to the table," said Vince Gaetano, vice-president of Monster Mortgage, as part of the mortgage broker panel. "Before it was just a volume game, now it's a quality game."
In a discussion that ran the gamut from making more money to getting into the business, a popular topic concerned the changing relationship between brokers and lenders.
"If brokers and lenders wrote down the definition of partnership it would be so different," said the Mortgage Centre's Tom Hogg. "I remember speaking a few years ago and saying 'we have to change the way we do things.'"
Peter Kinch, a DLC broker and this year's CMP Top 50 broker, concurred.
"You have two customers - one is the borrower and one is the lender."
The general consensus was that keeping lenders happy is equally as important in today's climate as serving clients, but it's something that has to be balanced carefully. For instance, while it's important to give clients the best service and retain them good rates, it's not fair to receive several commitments from several lenders at the same time.
But that wasn't to say the broker panel, not to mention the audience, didn't feel it was a two-way street.
"Clap your hands if you've submitted a deal and then not lost it, but had to compete with the bank branch to keep it," asked Kinch to the audience. The overwhelming applause spoke volumes.
