Quote:
Originally Posted by squiggs96
I bought a house in 2008 using a mortgage broker. He was fine and got me a decent product. Since then I've purchased three places and I don't see the need for a broker. They aren't getting you a better rate with the bank than you could get yourself. I've found some are restrictive as RBC and CIBC (I might be wrong about this bank) have their own in house brokers and won't pay outside brokers a fee. Thus, the outside brokers you go to won't give you a product from these banks. Brokers aren't able to negotiate extras into deals with banks like TD either.
If you have the time, just contact the banks directly and deal with this yourself. If you don't have the time or patience, then a broker can do this for you. Being that most applications can be done online, and you are filling out the same stuff the broker will ask for, I recommend skipping brokers.
I am in no way saying there aren't good brokers. I'm saying for people with decent credit and employment history, they are unnecessary.
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As to the bolded part...that's not necessarily true. Banks will quite often quote bogus rates (posted) in hopes you will accept without doing your due-diligence. If you are savvy enough, you can of course negotiate the rate on your own behalf, but you have no way of knowing how low they'll go. For example:
Scotia offers you a 5 year fixed at 3.09%. You say "balderdash, you can do better". They come back and say they can do 3.04% because you're such a valued customer. You sign and walk out of the bank with your head held high. Little did you know, they could have actually done even better if you asked again.
So the problem with negotiating on your own behalf is, do you know how far you can actually negotiate that rate? Brokers get rate sheets every day and know exactly how low that rate can go.
You are correct about RBC and CIBC. They are not in the broker channel, so brokers cannot send business there. Same goes for BMO, HSBC, First Calgary, etc. Scotia/TD/ATB are in the broker channel, and there is definitely room to negotiate with them, as a broker.
This not to mention the fact that brokers have access to dozens of lenders outside of the 'big banks', and that's generally where you will find the best rates/products.