As a consumer you believe you have choices, correct? You believe that, “hey, I can spend my money where I want and that is how I exert my influence,” right? Well, to a degree. Without rehashing the last 10+ years of mortgage history, since this is a blog post and not a history text book, I will condense, as best I can, the issues at hand and what is at stake. We believe the public wants choice, it wants competition because competition breeds excellence; it lowers costs and is fundamentally what our country is about.
Yet, even today, as we continue to tend to our financial wounds on a national level (and this, days after JPMorganChase lost $2 billion) the moves that Congress is taking, aimed at helping you, the consumer, will in the end crush competition, eliminate channels of distribution (the broker) and, ultimately harm the consumer and simultaneously increase the “too big to fail” banks. It’s is borderline ridiculous to sit here, know what people want to happen and watch as the exact opposite unfolds.
Mortgage brokers have recently gotten a bad rap, and if you were in the industry you had to stand by and compete with many of these jokers, but as time has passed and we have continued ahead much of the riff raff has left the business. Increases in licensing requirements in addition to other positive changes have helped bring this about. Yet, newly formed governmental regulation agencies, which probably have the best intentions, fail to know their history and their proposed rules could spell the end of the mortgage broker channel of distribution. That is all a broker is. A broker does not create the lending program.
You know, the one that back in the day said, “send me a 580 FICO borrower with ZERO percent down and Stated Income,” yeah brokers didn’t create that program BANKS do, yet somehow the broker gets blamed for it. It’s like blaming 7/11 for lung cancer because they sold cigarettes. A broker is just another choice to access capital for the consumer, another channel of distribution. If they are eliminated from the consumer’s choices, then consumer will only be able to get loans from the “Big Boys.” HA! Have fun with that! 90+ days and no one has a clue what they are doing over there.
Don’t believe me? Please do your loan at INSERT BIG BANK HERE and once you’ve lost your patience hopefully we’ll still be an option if regulation hasn’t removed us from the equation.