Mortgage broker or the bank?

[mortgage broker]

It depends on the quality of the person you are dealing with, there are some bankers who give great advise and can sometimes work much better and faster than a broker.

Apart from the deal in terms of pricing; advice is where the real value lies, it can be the difference between attaining your goals or realising your nightmares.

[Alliee]

Choose your lender based on the best loan terms they offer. Find out about expected time-frame. You can also ask real estate agent friends who have recently bought a home for lender and broker referrals.

Using a local bank can be a plus as their staff generally understand the specifics of local properties, but a distant lender who doesn't will delay closing until questions are answered. On the other hand, Mortgage brokers can often find a lender who will make loans that a bank refuses.

[Scott Miller]

Being a broker it's no surprise I would prefer people to use a broker.

The difficulty is once a person's story is told to a lender it is almost impossible to re-tell it, even if it is simply a misunderstanding by the assessor assessing the deal. When using a broker you are assured of the lender receiving an application in the jargon the lenders use and it's submitted to an area of that lender that ONLY deals with mortgages. Assessors in broker units only assess applications, they do not cross-sell insurance, offer credit cards, etc. so you (the customer) get the most qualified personal in the lenders workforce assessing your application, unlike some of the assessors at branch level.

Hope this helps.

Scott.

[AlanaChch]

You are most welcome. I know how is it like when you first start off. Mate of mine started off with Kiwibank but they put on a high equity fee and very reluctant to borrow for her 2nd rental. She ended up going to BNZ instead. Very happy since. My experience with Kiwibank is not great either as in investor. On the other hand, they are great for first home buyer. Wouldn't mind being proved wrong.

Arpoo i totally agree with your comment. When i was buying my first property (to live in) none of the brokers could help me but Kiwibank was more than happy to give me a home loan. There was a different story with the second property (rental) when Kiwibank refused straight away but broker was really helpful and after going to three banks managed to get me a loan with ANZ. The third property was with ANZ but for the forth i am going to go to a broker again. So i think using both, a bank and a broker is a good idea.

[NovInvestor]

One thing I like about going through brokers is that bank contacts can get changed, ie promoted or move to another bank, hence you lose that connection and have to look for another contact, or you have graduated from residential to business, or from business to commercial banking, hence your old contact is no longer at the lending level you require.

With a broker, they aren't going anywhere in a hurry, so you save a lot of time looking and trialing different bank contacts.