to choose the right mortgage lender for you,

how to choose the best one

and what questions you should ask.

That's coming right up.

- [Narrator] Welcome to "Homebuyer's School."

Brought to you by Brookfield Residential.

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- Hi everyone, I'm Karl.

Welcome to another "Homebuyer's School" video.

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tactics and tips from home buying experts.

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Today, I'm joined by Mujtaba Syed,

Mortgage Specialist with the Bank of Montreal.

The question we're going to answer today is,

how do you find the right mortgage lender?

So, Mo, there's a whole bunch of,

either the banks or different lenders,

how do I go about finding the right one?

- The best thing to do is,

do your research online.

There's so much information online.

Finding out exactly, reading a review's

to me is a really good one, right?

Looking at real-life experiences

with real-life people to find out

how they were dealt with,

if their questions were answered.

Asking people that you trust.

You might have family members

that have some really positive experiences.

You could always talk to real estate agents.

They might have one that they worked very closely with

or even, let's say, builders.

All of these are great avenues

to look for someone.

What I would always do is do your own research.

You will be with that lender

for longterm where you might have needs in the future.

You might needs within that mortgage term

that you might need help with.

You want that person to be accessible to you,

not only for the initial transaction.

Someone that gives you everything

in a package that you're looking for.

Has the best terms and conditions

plus the best interest rate.

A lot of lenders now offer cash incentives

which they can do as well for you.

Example, for loyalty, if you bring your mortgage over,

they can give you a gift

or they can give you a welcome

to the bank program, look into that.

A lot of different scenarios to look into

to see what fits your needs the most

when you're looking at a bank or a lender.

- When you talk about research,

what kind of research do you mean?

Like, yes, Google Reviews and so on,

anything deeper than that?

- Google Reviews would be a really, really good one.

At the end of the day,

it just look and see what other products

that you might be looking for in the future.

There's so many different details

that you can go into.

Almost every lender provides more than just one service.

They offer many services 'cause these things affect you

on a day-to-day basis, right?

These are everyday transactions that you use

and they could just be the difference

between someone who's so close

between lender A and lender B,

that there's not a lot differentiating them

but it could just be that slight thing

that you wanna be able to choose over whatever.

A lot of the time,

just use how you feel about a lender,

about the specific person.

Go with a gut feelings and say,

hey, I'd feel more comfortable

with this person than with this bank

than I would with the other bank.

Then use that as well as a guiding thing.

There's never a wrong way to do it either.

- From that point, right,

you're gonna have to have this relationship

with this lender for the next,

if your amortization is 25 years,

that's 25 years with this same individual or bank, right?

- Not necessarily, amortization can be 25 years

but usually, we do it at a term.

Your relationship with the lender starts

and ends with that term.

You can extend that term

at the time of renewal if you want to.

For example, let's say, with the initial lender,

you went with a five year term

and then after the five year term,

you decide, hey, I'll stick with them

for another five years.

Now you've been with someone for 10 years

but you might not wanna stick

with them for five years

and maybe decide to go to a different bank.

Then you will start a new relationship

with a new different bank.

It is a longterm thing.

Find a specialist or a lender or a broker

that you're comfortable with.

See how comfortable you're dealing

with them in the longterm.

- How often do you find clients actually change

from lender to lender after their term?

Usually, just probably easier just keep staying

with the same lender, right?

- It kinda depends, I would say it's 50/50.

Nothing wrong with shopping around

and seeing what's out there.

A lot of homeowners,

they switch or upgrade their home,

every two and a half years.

These are just stats.

When you change, you can stay with the same bank

or you might switch to a new bank.

Banks are always looking for ideas

for people to switch.

They might come out with a specific marketing program

that fits perfectly for you.

'Cause that's what banks want.

Banks do want you to switch

and they wanna fight for your business.

At renewal time, I would encourage it.

So you know at the end of the day,

your bank is still fighting for you from day one,

as they are from, let's say, five years from today,

because they know there are other banks fighting

for the same type of business or your business.

- Are you finding that some lenders

are more specialized in a specific

home buyer type?

For example, first time home buyers

versus second home buyers

or luxury buyers or the type of mortgages,

like a variable versus fixed,

or is it more about the relationship with the lender?

- I think most banks are very much and very similar.

There's only a very few differentialities

between a certain lender.

The reason why they do that is because

they wanna be able to cater

to everyone in the market.

Now, you might find an individual

that works for a certain lender

who might have experiences

that someone might not have

but other banks might have other people

that cater towards that too.

Every lender has a certain policy that they use.

Kinda go hand-in-hand.

'Cause keep in mind,

in Canada, banks are regulated.

All banks kinda have to go through the same thing

and that makes it a lot easier for you to choose

is because we're all going to be regulated the same

and have very similar products.

I do feel like that is one of the strengths

that we have in Canada.

Our banking system is a lot stronger

than most of the other places,

is because we do have some regulations in place

to kinda safeguard the clients like yourself.

- What are some of the best questions

to ask when you're actually interviewing your lender?

- Product knowledge is a really big one.

Ask them a questions that you've done your research on

and ask them questions about insurance,

the approval process and stuff

and you feel like, hey, is there any gaps

that you're missing?

If you feel like, hey, you're not as comfortable

because you feel like there's a product knowledge gap,

maybe see a different bank at that time.

Ask them about terms and conditions about your mortgage,

stuff that's hidden inside your mortgage,

you wanna find those things.

Interest rates, talk about renewals,

talk about the approval process.

Talk about what you might need to bring.

Some lenders might have different criterias

for documentation, some might have other ones.

All of that stuff is going to make a big difference

in what you're looking for, for sure.

- Great, do you have anything else to add

in terms of choosing the right lender?

- Do your homework, get out there,

talk to a few, don't settle on one.

I would recommend minimum two or three.

Finding out what's gonna fit best for you

and looking at terms and conditions are so important.

I can't stress this enough.

Rates are not the only thing

when it comes down to a mortgage.

More important than rates are terms and conditions.

Prepayment privileges, let's say,

a mortgage cash account that we have

that other lenders don't offer that.

That could literally make or break a deal

between a deal is because a certain type

of incentive that is inside the mortgage

that other places don't have.

Research is very, very key.

- The question of the day I have for you is,

how did you go about choosing your mortgage lender

and do you have any tips and advice?

And if you actually had a bad experience,

can you let us know why you had

that bad experience and so other viewers may avoid it?

Let us know in the comment section below.

If you wanna know more

about the actual mortgage approval process,

we've got a great video series here

as well as other videos

on mortgages here as well.

Don't forget to Subscribe

to keep learning from the experts

and I'll catch you in our next video.

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