He said “Sourcing systems perform a great job for intermediaries, particularly in relation to residential mortgages. The process has been helped in recent years as residential lending has become very commoditised with an automated approach to underwriting based on whether customer circumstances and property tick particular criteria boxes. But the expectation that the same facility exists to source commercial mortgages in the same way will prove to be frustrating for those expecting the same degree of certainty when looking for likely lenders. Commercial debt is not a commoditised product, treating it as such has been one of the biggest mistakes of the past 5 years. Commercial mortgage lending decisions should always be a matter of judgment for skilled underwriters and not a box ticking exercise.”
He added “For brokers for whom commercial mortgages are not a major part of their business, we would recommend they use an NACFB accredited commercial broker, to provide the expertise needed. With their knowledge of what lenders are looking for, they will save intermediaries time and effort in matching them up to the lenders most likely to respond positively in a way that a sourcing system cannot match. By all means use a sourcing system to give an indication, but recognise that much time and effort will be saved by going to a human expert.”
