It’s not just the mortgage sector that thrives on exclusives. Unearthing an exclusive is the Holy Grail for journalists, regardless of what field they are working in. Eking out an exclusive sets them apart from other reporters. It suggests dedication and professionalism, as often they will have put in long hours to uncover the story or to get the subject of a story to speak to them and them alone. A newspaper that can boast a steady stream of exclusives will poach readers from its rivals as they increasingly recognise they are getting a better service for their money.
The Cambridge dictionary’s definition of exclusive is ‘limited to only one person or group of people’.
Mortgage networks seek to supply their members with products that are available to them alone. The network negotiates various exclusive mortgage products with lenders for the benefit of intermediary members and ultimately the general public. These ‘exclusives’ serve the same purpose for the mortgage professional as the exclusive story serves the journalist. Namely, they provide added value – a value that extends to the customer through supplying the broker with products that enable them to serve their customers better. This in turns helps the broker grow his or her own business all wrapped up in an increased sense of professionalism and greater customer care.
One of today’s buzzwords is ‘choice’ – and we are led to believe that the more we have of it, the better. But first-time buyers and those remortgaging are now faced with thousands of different home loans and might disagree that this much choice is a good thing. This is why a broker plays such a key role in the mortgage process. Getting the right mortgage can be like finding a needle in a haystack. A good broker will do everything from liasing with solicitors to chasing up the client’s paperwork with a lender, all central to the application process. However, this effort is denuded if you cannot provide your client with access to the best products in the marketplace. By having recourse to exclusives, brokers immediately add value to their business proposition and their customers reap the benefits by having access to products that may be better suited to their circumstances, so it’s a win-win situation all around.
That’s of course if the network has access to the whole market or has a large and wide-ranging panel of lenders. Having such access means the mortgage broker is able to offer many thousands of mortgage products from many different lenders.
By definition most mortgage exclusives are not available directly from the lender. Lenders choose to offer exclusives through networks for two key reasons, speed to market and to deliver volume. An example where a lender wants to launch a new product. A network can put that product on the map very quickly and successfully as it knows exactly what sells well though its membership base. Lenders are obviously not providing these extra ‘bells and whistles’ for nothing. In return, the deals they make with networks mean they can guarantee large amounts of business from these loans in return.
It’s a quid pro quo situation. Networks that offer these deals can negotiate the lower fees, bigger cash-back sums or simply lower pay rates on these loans. But to ensure consumers get value, they must still compare these loans against the rest of the market and, if there is a better deal out there, either negotiate with the lender or seek access to the better deal.
But simply supplying regular exclusives is not enough for networks to keep their place in the food chain between brokers and lenders. Networks have to go much further if they hope to win the loyalty of mortgage brokers.
Providing access to market leading products (including exclusives), highly competitive fees, robust back office support and a professional and reliable service are other factors by which networks can differentiate themselves. Not to mention compliance support, of course. That’s why a good network should be continually rolling out new exclusives for members and reassessing its overall package and delivery to both AR’s and DA’s.
The exclusive mortgage deal is therefore as important to everyone in the mortgage process from the lender to the network, broker and ultimately consumer as an exclusive story is for a journalist, their readers and of course the publisher.
