The Lady with the Dog wants a Mortgage

     Several  years ago, I got an email from a prospective client. She said she was a single mother with 3 kids and a well behaved dog. She was looking for a home in a small town. I told her that I would be happy to help her get into the home of her dreams but I would need to know more about her. She asked me what homes I had that would accommodate her family. It was at that moment that I realized that she didn’t know what a mortgage broker does. She thought that I was a realtor. I also realized now that she had rented her whole life and stating that her dog was well-behaved was important when renting so she thought that banks would not provide mortgages to people with dogs who would mess up the house.

   That is when I started asking people who called me , “Why did you call me and do you know what a mortgage broker does?” The responses I got were interesting. I often was told that a family member told them that they needed to call a mortgage broker. They followed this advice even if they did not know what brokers do. This isn’t a surprise, as a recent survey showed that 76% of new home buyers sought advice from family members while 70% consulted a mortgage broker. (source: CMHC 2015 First-time home buyers survey)

   This reminds me of the TV commercial where a man is told by his doctor over the phone that he can perform his own open heart surgery and he says “Shouldn’t you do this?” , the idea being leave the complicated stuff to the experts. People still refer to family members who may have bought a home 20 years ago rather than consulting with a professional who does mortgages 40 hours a week. I think this all comes back to the fact that the general public does not really know what we do. They have heard that we can help people with bad credit get into a home but they do not realize what we can do for the rest of the people we work with.

   People are at different stages in their lives. Some have kids about to go to university, others are nearing retirement and want to pay off their mortgages as quickly as possible. I ran into someone the other day who had just had twins. Twice the fun but also twice the expenses. He needed to lower his mortgage payments to free up his cash flow for his suddenly larger than expected family.

   Mortgage brokers ask more questions than the banks. We want to know where you are in life and what is coming up in the next few years so that we can advise you on the way to finance your home. 

Contact me before you start your spring home search at 403-836-1201 or visit my website