What is a mortgage broker?
A mortgage broker is a person who will help you to find a mortgage by doing the leg work for you. Mortgage brokers can save you time, and sometimes, they can find you a better rate than you can find on your own. Mortgage brokers represent a large number of financial institutions and they are compensated by the financial institutions when you are approved for a mortgage. So, the services they provide to you are free.
Will a mortgage broker find you the best rate?
Although, ideally, you would expect to get the best possible mortgage interest rate when you hire a mortgage broker, this is not always the case. For instance, when my husband and I were ready to purchase our second home, we got in touch with a local mortgage broker. She took our information over the phone and was able to provide us with an interest rate in less than two hours. She was very efficient and we were satisfied with the rate. But, as circumstances would have it, we ended up doing a little leg work of our own, and we were able to get an even better rate. This really surprised me as I had expected that the mortgage broker would have provided us with the lowest rate available.