Trusted Advisor Series P1 – The Flawless Interview

Wouldn’t you agree that an important part of being a trusted advisor is ensuring a smooth mortgage closing by conducting an airtight interview at the outset of the mortgage application?

When you are first interviewing a client for a mortgage, the more that you can learn from them about their short and long term financial goals, the better positioned you will be to establish your role as their trusted advisor.

Of course, when a client submits a mortgage application you ask the standard questions to see if they qualify for a mortgage as a borrower – but what about questions that relate to the property being financed? A home, for most people, is the single largest investment that they will ever make and having a mortgage fall apart is not only expensive to all involved in the transaction, it can also be a crushing blow to someone who was about to purchase the home of their dreams or use home equity to finance something important.

In the example of a refinance mortgage, some questions to consider:

• When did you buy your home and what did you pay for it? This can help you identify discrepancies in value.
• When did you take out your mortgage and what was the amount financed? This can help you to identify discrepancies in mortgage balances.

Many times your customer omits information because they simply don’t know or don’t remember. You can impress your client by leveraging tools that provide you with information on demand. You may decide to avoid some personal questions and simply run some searches at the point of application to identify correct home ownership information, accurate mortgage balances and property value. This can be a win-win-win for you and your client:

• If there is a problem with a deal you and your client avoid the time and expense of going through the whole mortgage process only to have the deal not close.
• You may determine that you have a good deal as presented and be positioned to present your client with final numbers.
• You may identify that there is more equity than you initially thought and be positioned to offer the client more money or other financial products.

What about their mortgage terms: how fast do they want to be out of debt? If the client is getting a second mortgage is there a vision to see it combined with a first mortgage in the future – and what does the client need to do as it relates to their credit and finances to get there?

Any way you look at it, the tighter your interview the better the advisor that you can be because you can position your client to arrange the right type of financing for them, at the right terms, and most importantly, set the right expectations at the outset so that the client gets the mortgage they are promised.

Leveraging the right questions with specific tools makes you more competitive, raising your competitive advantage.

For more about how Purview For Mortgage Brokers can help you conduct a flawless interview, please call us today at 1.855.787.8439.