Why go through the referral process with a lender?

Yes, it might be easier to go to a lender you use for everything, but will it be the best outcome for your client?

In a world where nothing seems to be straight forward anymore, especially with your clients' situations, the need to actually speak to lenders becomes more important.

With around 90% of cases coming through brokers* it is clear that consumers need help, guidance and your expertise to get them through the mortgage maze.

Consumer duty also requires financial services to act in the best interests of their customers, setting higher and clearer standards. It now needs a more manual touch where all the client’s circumstances are considered rather than a one box fits all approach.

Here are some ways to do this:

Know your BDM’s

Brokers who have a good relationship with their BDM’s often get the most difficult of cases through. This is because the BDM knows their lenders criteria and what good looks like. They will know what criteria they have flexibility on and what is a hard no.

A lot of lenders have referral committees made up of the Underwriting and Senior management teams where the more unusual cases are looked at. Provide the whole story up front, details that may not seem important could give more weight to the case...background investments, Pensions, future income and plans with the property to name a few.

This could result in a case you thought had nowhere to go finding a home.

Criteria sourcing

You now have access to plenty of criteria sourcing systems and the Mortgage Club helpdesks to use. These will give you a good indication of who would consider the case. This will cut down the time of having to call every lender you can think of and point you in the direction of some you may not of even have heard of!

Case packaging

Get it right first time! Check the lenders submission requirements and make sure you provide everything they need. If the client can't provide something for whatever reason speak to the lender, find out if this will be a problem and see what else you can provide.

A well packaged case means nothing gets held up, the case passes through to underwriting swiftly and everyone is happy. Lenders love a well packaged case so we can spend our time seeing how we can help the client and not chasing outstanding bank statements or ID!

All of the above along with your help and guidance will help get your clients the outcome they want. Any questions please give me a call on 07506 906525. 

*Source: https://www.iress.com/about/media-centre/2021/09/significant-growth-in-lender-intermediated-distribution-iress-mortgage-efficiency-survey/