Brian Leland outlines Home Trust's approach to broker servicing
This article was provided by Home Trust.
It’s no secret the last two years have been a rollercoaster ride for the mortgage industry. A prolonged high-rate environment, muted home sales and an unpredictable economy have all thrown down a veritable gauntlet of challenges for brokers. However, with the Bank of Canada’s decision in June to lower the overnight rate for the first time since March 2022, the industry could finally be on the cusp of an upswing.
Brian Leland (pictured), executive vice president of residential lending at leading alternative mortgage lender Home Trust, believes this upswing represents a golden opportunity for brokers to diversify their revenue streams by servicing borrowers who might not qualify for a traditional mortgage from a big bank.
Shifting demographics and the role of the alternative space
The decline in interest rates comes at a critical juncture for the mortgage industry. Data from Mortgage Professionals Canada shows that almost half of residential mortgages are up for renewal in the next two years. Additionally, demographic shifts caused by federal immigration targets, trends in employment and rising living costs have encouraged the rise of three segments of mortgage borrowers: newcomers, self-employed borrowers and borrowers with bruised credit.
With their unique financial circumstances, Leland said borrowers in these segments need solutions beyond what the big banks can offer.
“We’re looking at large and small business owners, gig workers, customers in the early stages of building or rebuilding their credit performance, and those many individuals with a unique life experience precluding them from more traditional mortgage channels,” said Leland. “It’s a large and growing market that allows brokers to build upon their value proposition and create great customer experiences by nurturing clients to rebuild from an alternative, or non-prime borrowing situation, to a more traditional prime mortgage.”
A pioneer in alternative lending
As a pioneer in the alternative space, Home Trust has established a strong reputation for its approach to lending. According to Leland, this approach starts with a team that provides a deeper and more experienced understanding of the market to service brokers’ and borrowers’ needs.
“We live this with our front-line sales team, underwriting expertise, and the breadth of our Classic alternative product offering and market-leading Equityline Visa product,” said Leland. “We’re always challenging ourselves to deliver better and faster and to ensure our products remain tuned to the environment and needs of brokers and customers.”
Leland also highlighted how Home Trust looks to redefine what it means to deliver service excellence.
“It starts with the desire of the sales and underwriting teams to deliver the best broker experience and backing that desire up with execution,” said Leland. “We don’t just say it – we live it and deliver on it.”
Focus on the broker
According to Leland, Home Trust’s advantage as a broker-focused lender allows their partners to grow their alternative business. For instance, Home Trust regularly pairs its business development managers with underwriters to streamline the deal submission process.
“Whether it’s a straight-down-the-fairway deal approval or one that presents more challenges, the more aligned the team is, the easier the process for brokers will be,” said Leland.
This laser focus on service excellence has garnered Home Trust a strong reputation for honouring promises and commitments and making deals that “stick”, as shown in recent broker surveys.
“We pride ourselves in our consistency and the up-front work we do to ensure the deals we approve are deals we can confidently shepherd across the finish line to closing,” said Leland.
Home Trust’s commitment to listening to brokers has also led the lender to broaden its lending footprint by reclassifying several geographies in Alberta, British Columbia and Quebec. Leland stressed that this move is about more than expanding Home Trust’s lending areas.
“It’s about hitting the ‘refresh’ button on areas we’ve long lent in but with a particular – and maybe even dated – mindset,” said Leland. “It’s remarkable just how quickly Canada is growing and expanding. This is pushing more jobs, and by extension people, into markets that not that long ago would have been considered secondary or tertiary. We must ensure that we’re doing our market research to understand Canadian growth and expansion to ensure our products and mindset remain progressive and current for mortgage brokers and customers.”
Other new broker-centered initiatives that Home Trust has taken to improve its servicing quality include a new online loan-to-value calculator that can help brokers advise their clients on their financing options and launching an automated property valuation service with FCT in the GVA and GTA.
What’s next for Home Trust
Earlier this year, Home Trust announced its merger with Fairstone Financial, a fellow Smith Financial company. The planned move — which is still undergoing regulatory reviews — is poised to create the leading alternative lender in Canada, servicing more than two million customers.
Leland said his team’s commitment to service excellence remains. This means brokers can still expect “the same top-notch level of sales, mortgage broker relationship management and mortgage underwriting expertise, service delivery and dedication to the mortgage broker channel that Home Trust has built a franchise on and is known to deliver.”
Additionally, Leland said that heading into the second half of 2024, Home Trust has taken “deliberate measures to ensure we are as on top of our game in our markets outside of Ontario as we are within.”
“Right across Canada, we continue to invest in providing a better broker experience by removing friction from the process and improving the speed of decision-making and response times,” he said. “Turnaround times are the best they’ve been in years and will continue to improve, but not at the expense of strong adjudication. We are excited about the things we’re working on and even more pumped to get them implemented for brokers.”
To learn more about how Home Trust can help you grow in the alternative space, speak to your BDM or visit hometrust.ca/brokerlogin/sales-team.
