Getting multiple Mortgage Rate Quotes

[Kavvy]

Good day,

I apologize if this should be in one of the sub forums, or is a FATA.

I will be looking for a mortgage in 2015. Is there any issue with contacting multiple brokers + my home bank? I have been told it hurts your credit, but I am wondering if that is only a threat so I don't shop around beyond the advertised rates.

Thanks as always.

[CaptainYooh]

I am almost certain asking for multiple mortgage quotes wouldn't hurt your credit rating.

Shopping around for best rate is fine; the reality is – they are all VERY closely competitive at any given moment. If you don't believe that your own bank would give you the best rate, get a broker to do it for you. They'll do all the rate shopping for you. There are a couple here at CP, I am sure.

[OMG!WTF!]

Inquiries do show up on your credit report and they definitely affect your score. As well it paints a narrative that you are someone who, for whatever reason, is looking for a bunch of credit or may be having trouble finding credit. It's not a myth or empty threat at all. Be careful when allowing commercial inquiries.

However, a broker will pull one credit bureau and use it to apply to several different institutions. So you don't really need to hire several different brokers. Get a good one and trust that he/she will find you the best deal.

[Calgary14]

Originally Posted by Kavvy

Good day,

I apologize if this should be in one of the sub forums, or is a FATA.

I will be looking for a mortgage in 2015. Is there any issue with contacting multiple brokers + my home bank? I have been told it hurts your credit, but I am wondering if that is only a threat so I don't shop around beyond the advertised rates.

Thanks as always.

Why not just shop rates online and see what you can get? A credit inquiry will affect your credit score and the more there are, the worse it is. Any mortgage broker should be able to shop rates from multiple lenders to find the best one

[snowshoe]

we used a mortgage broker as he's got access to multiple sources for your mortgage and he just taps your credit the 1 time to view it. msg me if you would like hs contact info. He's pretty awesome and others that I've sent to him ended up using his services after talking with him

[Kavvy]

Thank you all.

So dumb question, why can't I just go to a broker and a bank and say - don't poll my credit. Assume I have good credit and give me a rate. The rate would be dependent on my credit being what I say it is.

After I am done shopping around, I pick a rate, they check my credit, if it agrees to what I said it was, I hold them to that rate.

[calgarygeologist]

I actually used two mortgage brokers and I contacted a treasury bank when I was shopping for my mortgage. I actually didn't intend on using two brokers. I had done a pre approval with the broker I previously used and when our offer was accepted I emailed her and she asked for the offer sheet and various stuff. After four days of not hearing from her and not being able to reach her I found another broker to do the work for me. He worked much harder and kept in constant communication. He had two options for me in under 48 hours and we accepted one of them. The night before our conditions were to be waived my initial broker sent me an offer from Scotia Bank. It was a much less competitive rates (laughable actually.) She wasn't too happy when I told her I already accepted a different offer and the reasons for that decision.

[OMG!WTF!]

If you don't need a mortgage and are just curious, phone a broker and he/she will give you a range of good, better, best rates depending mostly on your credit but without actually pulling your credit report. There may be some special rates or mortgage sales happening they can tell you about. But no one is interested in working on your deal if there is no deal.

If you've actually bought a place then there's no reason to withhold your credit information. You need to get it done.

If your purchase depends on how much mortgage money you can get, then you need a pre approval which will require your credit information.

[FlamesAddiction]

Originally Posted by calgarygeologist

I actually used two mortgage brokers and I contacted a treasury bank when I was shopping for my mortgage. I actually didn't intend on using two brokers. I had done a pre approval with the broker I previously used and when our offer was accepted I emailed her and she asked for the offer sheet and various stuff. After four days of not hearing from her and not being able to reach her I found another broker to do the work for me. He worked much harder and kept in constant communication. He had two options for me in under 48 hours and we accepted one of them. The night before our conditions were to be waived my initial broker sent me an offer from Scotia Bank. It was a much less competitive rates (laughable actually.) She wasn't too happy when I told her I already accepted a different offer and the reasons for that decision.

The exact same thing happened to me. The first one I tried using was unresponsive for a few days. Not even a return phone call to tell me they were working on it. I went to another one, and they were much better. Then the first one was all snarky after I told them I went somewhere else... and like you said, got a much better rate.

Maybe for some brokers, it is not a big deal to wait a few days to call back, but when you are the one buying the home (especially when it is your first time), the process is stressful and requires a lot of hand holding.

[kevman]

Go to ratehub.ca

Find the rate/terms you like

Start your search there

If you have good credit and get approved for the advertised rates your search is over

Easy.

[GreenLantern]

One way I also looked at it is the guy who is drawing up your papers at the bank is some 40k salary employee (unless he posts on CP then he makes 100+) who doesn't see any benefits from signing you up (at least from my research there are no perks), where as the Mortgage Broker actually draws a commission from the lender, so they will work hard to get your business and keep you happy.

But at the end of the day if you have good credit you are fine going anywhere, however if you know that you have bad or no credit, I would go for the broker.

This is just my personal advice I am nowhere near involved in this field of work, just recently went through the process.

[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.

[MillerTime GFG]

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.

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.

[FlamesAddiction]

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.

I think brokers just have a longer list of potential mortgagers that most ordinary people do not even know about. Banks aren't the only ones that finance mortgages. For example, I got my mortgage through a broker but this is the company that actually financed it: http://www.computershare.com/ca-en/b...ecurities.aspx

I certainly wouldn't have known to include them when I was shopping around, but their rate was way better than any bank at the time.

[Kavvy]

Is there any concern with getting your mortgage through a broker with a no-name bank?

Big names (i.e. Royal, or even as small as First Calgary) make people comfortable. If a "Mr Loans" has a good rate you get through a broker, should you be wary?

[Hevishot]

Originally Posted by Kavvy

Is there any concern with getting your mortgage through a broker with a no-name bank?

Big names (i.e. Royal, or even as small as First Calgary) make people comfortable. If a "Mr Loans" has a good rate you get through a broker, should you be wary?

I heard this guy has the best rates going

[MillerTime GFG]

Originally Posted by Kavvy

Is there any concern with getting your mortgage through a broker with a no-name bank?

Big names (i.e. Royal, or even as small as First Calgary) make people comfortable. If a "Mr Loans" has a good rate you get through a broker, should you be wary?

The "no-name" banks may not do the same mortgage volumes in a calendar year as the big 5, but they're still funding billions. While brokers may have access to over 50 lenders, they will send 90% of their business to just a handful of them. They may not be household names to you, but they are by no means 'no-names', they just don't have bricks and mortar, nor the advertising dollars of the big banks.

[bizaro86]

Originally Posted by Kavvy

Is there any concern with getting your mortgage through a broker with a no-name bank?

Big names (i.e. Royal, or even as small as First Calgary) make people comfortable. If a "Mr Loans" has a good rate you get through a broker, should you be wary?

You get the money upfront and then they trust you to pay it back, so anyone should be fine. Assuming you read terms and conditions and everything is good there.

[robaur]

Wait 6 months before you get a mortgage.....the Bank of Canada will likely end up cutting rates.

[daredevil]

Just my two cents... Sometimes brokers will get you the best rate, but don't always place you in the best product given your individual situation.

Make sure you are careful analyzing all the "features" of the product.

Don't get stuck in a no frills product in case you are pretty confident you will be remaining in it for the whole term.

Also, not saying all brokers are like this, but some are more concerned about making their sale and commission and less about helping you. It's easy to default to best rate...but doesn't always mean it's the best fit.