How do Mortgage Professionals REALLY feel about working with Realtors®?

The question of whether or not Realtors® are helpful to mortgage professionals has been a long running debate in the industry. Some mortgage professionals see Realtors® as being detrimental while others have come around to seeing them as being an important part of their job. While everyone will have their own opinions, ultimately it comes down to what works best for each situation.

The following article will go over both sides of this debate and the pros and cons of working with Realtors® in order to give a clear picture of how significant they can be when it comes to providing good customer service for your clients. In the end, every mortgage professional is going to have their own preferences when it comes to how they want to work with a Realtor®. The key, then, is to know when a Realtor® could help you and your client and when it might be better to simply avoid them.

The first point made by those who feel that working with a Realtor® is not necessary but can actually be harmful focuses on the fact that Realtors® do not actually work for the client. As they are paid by the seller, Realtors® will put their relationship with them before anything else and this could cause issues when it comes to providing good service for your clients.

“Realtors® get paid if sellers get sold; agents get paid when buyers buy,” writes Ryan at Mortgage News Daily. “That gives real estate agents every incentive to help their clients find homes that meet their needs, even if it means the buyer’s financial situation leaves him with nothing to apply toward a down payment.”

Ryan goes on to give some actual examples of Realtors® purposely steering buyers away from loans that would be beneficial for them just because they don’t want to create competition for their business. He also points out that Realtors® are not required to provide you with documents like pay stubs, tax returns, and bank statements making it much harder for you to do your job well.

On the other side of this argument, there are those who feel that working with a Realtor® can actually be beneficial and that it is unnecessary to avoid them just because they will not always do what you want.

“Realtors® bring lenders and borrowers together – period,” writes Peter at Quicken Loans. “How do we make the most money? By partnering with Realtors®! Why would we not want to partner with as many Realtors® as possible? Why would we want to limit our options of winning referrals?”

Peter goes on to list the many benefits that working with a Realtor® can bring such as knowing local market conditions and being able to keep you updated when it comes to interest rates. He also mentions that there are plenty of bad loan officers out there who could potentially lose your client’s business if they do not provide them with all of the pertinent information. Working with a Realtor®, he feels, is the best way for you to avoid this problem.

While there are certainly drawbacks to working with a Realtor® when it comes to providing good customer service for your clients, ultimately their presence in the closing process can be very beneficial. The key, then, is to know when they are worth the extra effort and when it would be better to avoid them in order to improve your service.

“Depending on your relationship with the Realtor® and their level of experience, you may find that a Realtor® is adding more value than not at all,” writes Ryan at Mortgage News Daily. “However, with the increased use of technology that allows for easier sharing of documents and data, mortgage professionals are finding that they can work with Realtors® more efficiently without having to provide them as much information.”

When working with a Realtor® seems like it would be beneficial for your client, make sure that you aren’t focusing too much on your desire to keep them out of the process and more on how they can help improve your results. Remember, if you do not deliver what they need for their clients, Realtors® will go elsewhere and this could be bad news for you in the long run.

“A good Realtor® will partner with you in closing the deal,” writes Peter at Quicken Loans. “A bad Realtor® will make your life miserable, cost you money in lost deals, and can even result in lawsuits.”

When working with a Realtor®, always remember that they are looking out for their client’s interests first and foremost. Your job is to ensure that they are constantly receiving the information that they need in order to do their job well and then go beyond this by constantly asking them if there is anything more you can do for them. This will allow you to provide your clients with the best possible service without worrying about competition coming from Realtors® or making costly mistakes because of technology.

This article is a good reminder that it’s important to look out for your client’s best interests, not yours. There are plenty of great Realtors® out there who will be more than happy to work with you in order to ensure that their clients are being properly taken care of by the lending process. If you have any questions about whether or not they should be included in your next closing, just remember that ultimately you need to do what is best for your client and you can use any other information as a “tie breaker.”

Ultimately, the entire mortgage process is about ensuring that clients receive the best service possible. This means providing them with all of the information they require at all times. However, it can be worth considering whether or not a Realtor® would be able to better do this for your client than you yourself could.

When this is the case, working with a Realtor® during the closing process can be very beneficial as they will likely have a greater level of expertise when it comes to knowing what information your client needs on a moment’s notice. This makes your job easier as you can simply provide them with all of this information and focus on doing more for your clients in other ways.