Brokers v Bank lenders

Obviously there is bias here as I am a mortgage broker. Generally speaking though brokers add a more personal touch to borrowing as opposed to your local bank manager - who should realistically be called sales managers nowadays - who often don't know lending or stay in their positions long enough to build a rapport with their clients. Brokers tend to work 24/7 and are not restricted by a 9 to 5 mentality and their advice is unbiased, or it should be if you've found the right one. Home loan alchemy i.e. putting a loan together with a wide range of ingredients can only be done by someone who is not restricted to one core group of loan products. A mortgage broker has access to multiple lenders and their products. Putting together a gold home loan product cannot be done when you only have lead to choose from.

Financial climate change

It would seem of late that the major lenders have decided to return to the good old bad days by amending their lending policies. Why? Because their lending share is dropping due to the policies introduced, post GFC, to reflect tighter credit assessment. And now that the innocent public believes that all is well with our economy the banks are returning to the heady days of 95% borrowing practices.

Every single individual who borrows should acknowledge that decisions have consequences and to ensure that those consequences are made part of the 'info-ing' up that the lender should provide to their client/s.

Caveat emptor - let the buyer beware!

Variable rate V Fixed rate

Do you know how to minimise your exposure to interest rate increases?