Questions you should be asking your mortgage broker
Your Australian mortgage broker will act as the intermediary between you and the company lending you the money for the purchase of your home.
They assist with all the paperwork, answer any question you may have and negotiate the best deals on the market on your behalf by leveraging their knowledge, resources and contacts.
Home loans are more complicated than they seem
Being in the market for a mortgage isn’t as simple as estate agents and TV adverts will have you think You might feel that the only variable is the interest rate that you'll be paying but the truth is, there’s far more to home loans than that. Don’t fall into the trap of being overly confident about the procedure and the time it takes to get this your mortgage approved and out of the way either… because soon you’ll be shouting at poor customer service consultants for mistakes and misunderstandings, that you in actual fact could have prevented had you conducted research before applying!
Choosing a mortgage broker in Australia
First thing's first, you will need to appoint a broker that you feel confident will deal with all your mortgage application needs to your satisfaction. If you haven’t applied for one before, it might be a good idea to get advice from friends or family. Once you’re satisfied you’ve made the best choice, you can ring up the broker and schedule a date and time for a sit down to discuss the way forward in getting your first mortgage! Remember you should always take notes on what to ask your mortgage broker so that you can bring these up during your meeting or put them down in an email.
Are mortgage brokers in it for the money?
Mortgage brokers get paid commission to originate bonds by the lending institutions after a client has accepted a bond and can sometimes get greedy and go about focusing on the bank or smaller lender that offers them the highest commission. On the other hand you can simply insist that the broker provide you with the loan offer or decline letters from each major lender. This will allow you to compare the offers and rates yourself. A broker can and will always do a better job than you since they are able to access all home loan products and will most likely have direct access to the various home loan departments.
Taking all the above into consideration, we have put together a list of questions that you can ask your mortgage broker to find complete comfort in choosing them for the job!
Questions to ask your mortgage broker
- What is your experience as a mortgage broker, how long have you been in this game?
- What are the benefits I’ll be getting by using you or any broker for that matter over the decision to just approach the bank directly?
- What factors lead you to decide on the best-suited loan type for me?
- Do you have a brokerage fee in place for processing my loan and if so, what is it?
- How many different lenders do you approach to get quotations for my loan?
- Are there certain lenders that give your firm better pricing and rates than others?
- What deposit am I looking at putting down in order to get a decent mortgage loan approved?
- Are there any fees that I could incur when taking out a home loan? If so, how do I go about finding out what those fees are?
- Which lenders offer repayment holidays?
- Can I include my bond origination fees or transfer fees in my loan?
- With mortgages, what is a comparison rate?
- What features can I expect to be included in my new mortgage loan?
- What information do I need to get together in the lines of paperwork and do you require original documents or will a copy suffice? If copies will do, do they need to be certified?
- What are the procedures that I need to follow going forward once we get the ball rolling?
- Can I choose to fix my interest rate in at a later stage? What is the recommended way to select the interest rate type on mortgage loans and why?
- How long will it take for the finance to clear once we have approved the loan?
- Which lenders and lending options will allow me to make additional home loan repayments?