Competing for renewals: Brokers weigh in

Industry players have their say, following a story about competing with lenders at renewal time for client business

Industry players have their say, following a story about competing with lenders at renewal time for client business.

“Sad part is for the broker is that most of them do not have a CRM program and so have no idea when things are up for renewal,” broker Len Lane wrote in the MortgageBrokerNew.ca forum. “Personally we start at six months ourselves to make the client aware that they should talk to us before auto-signing the renewal. We have a very high success rate in converting clients if it’s in their best interest.”

The comments poured in, following a story about lenders competing for broker clients at renewal time.

“What we do is bring business to lenders, obviously, and what they’ve been doing is at renewal time is offering (clients) rates we couldn’t possibly match,” a broker, who spoke with MortgageBrokerNews.ca on condition of anonymity, said. “They offered rate guarantees for seven months. The most we can get is 120 days. So they were pricing us right out of business.”

Many, it seems, argue it’s the lender’s prerogative to target referral business.

To combat this, one player believes brokers should build stronger relationships with clients that go deeper than just talking about and advising on mortgages.

“If brokers were more than just a mortgage broker they would have a relationship with the client where the client would always seek the advice of the broker when it comes to money not just mortgages,” Michael Yasny, president of Money Consultants, wrote. “If this relationship is in place, it will not matter if the bank has offered the client a renewal that they think is fair.”