Michael,
We aren’t all the same, sorry
I am in the industry and will not disagree with part of what you say.
In ANY commission based industry, any product, commissions breed fraud.
There were plenty of morons doing loans that screwed people beyond even your wildest dreams. The borrowers were taken, hook line and sinker. There are fewer still doing that today, but they are still out there. Often it was from a relative, friend or neighbor. I am not going to defend them in any way. Some people are losing their houses today because of the loans that they are in.
To me, providing a mortgage is a service. YOU may know what you want or at least think that you know what you want. Many that stand to make money from a borrower may know less than they do, but they know where their commission comes from.
I give people the best rates that I can and tell people what my service is going to cost them. I don’t care if they want an ARM, interest only, 30 YR or 40 Yr fixed, none of it changes my fee or what I net.
Most people are overwhelmed and stressed out throughout the process. I can solve that. Even if it costs them a few thousand dollars to get straight honest advice about a $500,000 transaction, it is worth it to them. It may not even cost that.
Retail banks have wholesale rates and retail rates. When you walk in a branch, you get retail.
If you are dealing with a scummy loan person, they will add fees to a wholesale rate that can make their prices beyond stupid. When you are deling with someone who is fair, you may easily get a better deal from the broker side.
Most people have no clue what they are facing when they are looking for a loan. I will guess that 8 of 10 will try to screw them in some way, either by rate, fees, term etc.
Most succeed.
Most borrowers with tough situations were simply turned down by banks, just like the old days. They wanted a loan.
Many major lenders didn’t do subprime loans on the retail side.
Having someone who tells you the truth and keeps you out of a prepay when you don’t need to be in one is worth a small fortune. Some people are trusting the largest financial decision of their life to an hourly employee that works for the bank, not for the client, or a young kid in a boiler room with a crappy credit score who has never signed loan docs in their lives and may never.
Personally, I spend more time explaining things than I should. I want people to understand what their options are, so they can decide what is right for them,and it could save them tens of thousands of dollars over the life of their loan, or avoid a pitfall.
I have seen people pay $10,000 or more in prepayment penalties that they should have never been in.
YES, I charge for what I do, it’s more than fair in the industry. If someone wants to go at it alone, that’s their choice. I can’t guarantee anyone that I can get them the cheapest rate on earth, but nobody can honestly say that.
I look out for those that work with me.
If they care, they will learn something from me too.
I’ve had dozens of rentals and signed more loan docs than most and can give people some help that most others can’t.
If you just want to shop rates and think that you have beat the system, maybe you have and maybe you haven’t.
Maybe you are sharper than the average borrower.
I’m not even going to ask what you do for a living and how you justify what you get paid for what you do.
I wouldn’t expect to ever get a call from someone with your attitude, and that’s OK with me.
I don’t know why I wasted my time writing this, I’m sure that you don’t believe I’m any different.
