How to find a good Mortgage Broker?

Yes, very true @Jess Peletier

 

@Taku, I concur with @D.T. – experience/understanding yes, number not so important.

 

Every time you're a little stressed, some of it rubs off on the broker. I can assure you that regardless of how many properties a broker might or might not own, they understand how stressful the process is because they've seen the problem before and much, much worse.

It's not the process of buying the house that's stressing you out, it's the process of applying for the loan, which is something any broker worth the name has been through many times. The broker has walked the path in the shoes you're wearing a hundred times, it's actually the client who's borrowing them for a bit, not the other way around.

For stress and empathy reasons, the number of properties a broker owns personally is irrelevant. I do think it's useful that a broker has some personal experiences if they're dealing with investors, being able to share their own experiences is important.

I don't know that the number of properties matters that much. A brokers personal finances are usually very different from most of their clients, it's often the anecdotal experiences in dealing with IPs that can make a difference.

A lot of the more interesting stories I've got are actually clients stories, my own investing experience is fairly boring (which is probably a good thing). I've been an investor for 16 years, only had one eviction, 2 tenants not get their bond back and the longest vacancy period was 5 weeks, most are less than 2. I also own substantially more properties than most of the people I see but substantially less than a few clients.

It could be argued that my lack of personal investment challenges is because I've been fortunate to learn from my clients mistakes rather than my own. It's often these nuggets that get passed on.

 

This is a great breakdown @Peter_Tersteeg. Thanks for the feedback.

 

I think it helps brokers get it and relate to their customers, but it comes to individual personal skills i think.

When i think of what different customer segments want, i think the investor segment appreciate their broker having skin in the game and knowing the market. I get asked daily for my opinions on market cycles, prices, etc etc - just the stuff investors love talking about.

With different customer segments, having multiple properties doesn't mean anything or help at all. Some people just want one home and to pay it off as soon as possible. The advice and how its provided (personal skills), provided to an investor will be very different to this segment.

Cheers,
Redom

 

A broker does not need to have bundles of investment properties, especially in resi, if they have plenty of money there would be better ways to invest than whacking it all down on resi.

What you need a broker to do, is do the best to get you the finance, they do need to understand investing somewhat, but really it is about getting the finance you need & them understanding those that they go to for the money.

Some people are way too slow though, and if they ignore e-mails, phone calls and make mistakes that cost you, then they are not ideal. Many also do not know that much about those they get the money from or other options.

I would say use a forum member, even though to date I have not taken a loan with any, so don't ask me which one