Home buyers are turning to mortgage brokers to negotiate their home loans at record rates, but they risk being given a bad deal if they do not ensure their broker is up-to-date with mortgage and housing markets.

Mortgage brokers are signing up more than 70 per cent of new residential home loans – the highest percentage ever. However, simultaneously, many brokers are taking on work only as a side hustle.

Figures from the Mortgage and Finance Association of Australia show that 22 per cent of the mortgage industry’s 19,000 brokers did not write a single loan between October 2022 and March 2023.

One of the most important questions anyone thinking of engaging a mortgage broker can ask is about their experience.Credit: Wolter Peeters

These brokers have not written a loan for months and have likely fallen behind on what is happening in the mortgage market.

Rob Lees, the principal of Mortgage Choice, Blaxland and Penrith, says one of the most important questions anyone thinking of engaging a mortgage broker can ask is whether mortgage broking is their main occupation and how much experience they have.

It is not only financial planners and accountants who could be part-time brokers but also those working any occupation, including those completely unrelated to financial services.

Brokers, including part-timers, will be part of an aggregator network, operating under the aggregator’s credit licence rather than working purely on their own.

The way mortgage brokers are paid is that the lender pays the broker a fee or commission if the mortgage successfully completes – though some brokers will also charge a fee to the client.

QOSHE - Thinking about using a mortgage broker? Here’s one thing you should always ask - John Collett
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Thinking about using a mortgage broker? Here’s one thing you should always ask

15 1
09.04.2024

Home buyers are turning to mortgage brokers to negotiate their home loans at record rates, but they risk being given a bad deal if they do not ensure their broker is up-to-date with mortgage and housing markets.

Mortgage brokers are signing up more than 70 per cent of new residential home loans – the highest percentage ever. However, simultaneously, many brokers are taking on work only as a side........

© The Sydney Morning Herald


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