Turnaround times festering issue

Lenders are offering brokers false promises in answer to a very big gripe.

Lender wait times are increasingly frustrating for brokers concerned the issue has yet to be adequately addressed.
 
 “Whenever I get together with mortgage brokers at awards, or meetings, we always discuss lender wait times for underwriting,” Ranjit Dhillon of Centum Mortgage Smart Inc. told MortgageBrokerNews.ca. “The response we get from the BDMs is that they are flooded with business and that they’re working on the system that should improve wait times to the point where they approve the deals right away. We hear these excuses but I haven’t seen much change in the last few years.”
 
A recent MortgageBrokerNews.ca poll revealed 65 per cent of brokers believe monolines offer faster turnaround times on deals, compared to 35 per cent who says bank deals result in less waiting time.

While frustrations are mounting, some lenders are making improvements.
 
“The biggest change I’ve seen is in TD’s underwriting; they would definitely approve or decline within 24 hours,” Dhillon said. “Industrial Alliance was four days behind but now they’ve come to turn things around in 48 hours. Canadiana is quick – they get back within 24 hours.”
 
Last year’s Brokers on Lenders issue revealed brokers gave an average score of 3.7 out of a possible five. The top seven were monoline lenders.
 
Still, strides still need to be made, according to Dhillon, especially because brokers are losing deals while waiting for lenders to approve or decline deals.
 
“Most waste five or six days before declining or approving and now we brokers are competing with the banks who can approve the deal right away,” Dhillon said “On the same good clients we have to wait two or three days and we can lose a client just because of the delays.”