By Vernon Clement Jones, Mortgage Broker News
“For ease of use” some road reps are casually calling themselves “mortgage brokers who work for banks” to better "explain" their role to clients, one told MortgageBrokerNews.ca, arguing the practice is harmless.
“I don’t think it’s a big deal,” an Ottawa mortgage specialist recently quoted in a major Canadian newspaper told MortgageBrokerNews.ca. “What I do, to make it easier for the client to understand, is tell them that I’m a 'mortgage broker' who works for a bank. They don’t necessarily understand what a mortgage specialist or mortgage development manager is, so using ‘mortgage broker’ makes it easier for them to understand what it is I do.”
That September news article also refers to the mortgage specialist as a "broker."
The road rep, speaking on condition of anonymity, is among the growing number of specialists winning the kind of media attention all mortgage professionals covet as an increasingly complex housing market has reporters scrambling for expert commentary.
But mortgage specialists are largely using the term “broker” to better describe themselves to potential clients rather than as a tool to win greater media coverage, said one Monday.
The fact is some of their Realtor-referral partners are doing the same, using their websites to describe those road reps as “mortgage brokers.” Ostensibly, that is for the same ease-of-use reasons.
These latest examples come as CREA moves to downgrade its outlook for the Canadian real estate market, with the growth in home sales and prices slowing.
While new mortgage rules are largely responsible for the slowdown, they’ve also increased consumer need for mortgage advice, say industry veterans, worried unlicensed road reps borrowing the broker name unfairly position themselves to win some of that new business.
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