Written by: Benjienen Toledo
Mortgage consultants are specialists who are well versed with the mortgage loan process and have access to hundreds of mortgage loan packages across many banks. Mortgage consultants provide advice to property buyers to get the best home loans as well as helping home owners to refinance their existing home loans.
Mortgage Consultant Saves You Time
Generally, there are two ways you can approach a Bank to find out more about their mortgage product and the process flow. Firstly, you can choose to walk into a bank branch and have a face-to-face discussion with a bank officer. However, most of the time, the branch officers are Relationship Managers / Personal Bankers, who are more well-versed in insurance and investment products instead of specialising in mortgage products.
The branch officers may or may not be able to give you the appropriate advice and in fact, there were cases whereby wrong advice was given. This resulted in customers unable to proceed with their property purchases, wasting their option fee and causing many frustrations.
Secondly, you can choose to call the Bank’s hotline, amidst the numerous options you have to choose to get to the correct department, and not forgetting the long waiting time on the phone. Often, these cause much frustration for customers and most of the time, the officers on the hotline will take down your message and request for their mortgage specialists to return your call within the next few working days, or sometimes you may not even get a callback.
In addition, you may need to repeat the above processes of walking into different banks’ branches or calling different banks’ hotline, just to get information on what are the different mortgage packages that each bank is offering. As a guide, it is often recommended to get a quote from at least three different banks, do a comparison and see which package most suit your mortgage needs.
Mortgage Consultants are specialised in the mortgage field and will be able to guide you through the entire mortgage process.
Besides, mortgage consultants have a tie-up with most banks and will be able to advise you on the product offerings from different banks. Hence, instead of spending more time to approach different banks and run the risk of getting wrong advice from officers who are not specialised in mortgage, you may consider engaging a mortgage consultant’s professional advice.
Mortgage Consultant Provides Unbiased Recommendation
Although the banks are tightly regulated by government regulations, each bank has their own internal policies and approving criteria. A mortgage consultant has experience dealing with different banks and will be in a better position to advise you which bank may be more appropriate based on your scenario. Besides, if you approach the bank, more than often, they will promote their package as the ‘best package’ in the industry. Hence, it is recommended to get at least three quotes from different banks to compare, but it may also confuse you as different banks use different terminologies and have different product features that you may not fully understand.
For instance, one of the more popular packages right now is mortgage rates pegged to banks’ fixed deposit rates. However, when you take a more in-depth look, different banks are pegging to different Fixed Deposit rates, i.e. some banks are pegged to 8-month or 14-month or 36-month Fixed Deposit rates.
So, what are the difference between these benchmark rates and how does it affect you? An experienced mortgage consultant will be able to provide you with an unbiased recommendation.
Mortgage consultants are independent and do not represent a single bank. They have a partnership with several banks and understand the different product offerings thoroughly.
Often, a mortgage loan is your biggest commitment in life, and there is no single mortgage plan that is one-size-fits-all. A professional mortgage consultant aims to understand your mortgage need upfront and provide an unbiased recommendation to suit your need.
Mortgage Consultant Saves You Money
Mortgage consultant has access to multiple banks’ packages, of which some banks may have certain promotional packages that were not published to the public (to avoid a “price war” among competitors). Besides, mortgage consultant may also be able to get “bulk discount rates” from the banks due to the bulk volume of business generated.
Mortgage Advisory Service is Free of Charge
By now, you should be convinced of the advantages of engaging a mortgage consultant as compared to approaching a bank directly. Best of all, there are no fees involved for a Mortgage Advisory Service. Mortgage consultant has a partnership agreement with the banks for being a part of their distribution channel. It’s free, so feel free to engage a mortgage consultant!
If you have any enquiries, drop us a message in the chatbox at the bottom, right-hand corner of the screen.
References: Yahoo Finance 2017, Which Mortgage, Investopedia, iCompareLoan
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