1st American Mortgage asked:


Ask Denver mortgage loan providers what would-be borrowers want to know and the answer is simple. Those who are shopping for mortgage loans in Denver want to know what their rate would be for a Denver mortgage.

But for the average mortgage lender, the answer is hard to come up with at a moment’s notice. There are no two borrowers who are exactly alike, so no two Denver mortgages would be exactly alike. There are many factors in the Denver mortgage quote equation, like:

• The type of properties for needed Denver mortgages

• The applicant’s credit score for Denver mortgages

• The future plans of a borrower applying for a Denver mortgage

• Whether the Denver mortgage loan quote is needed

for a first home or subsequent home

•The size of a mortgage loan and whether the Denver property will need a jumbo loan (more than $417,000)

• Other debt obligations of the applicant for Denver mortgage loan

• Applicants income for Denver mortgage loan quote

With these factors, a mortgage lender in Denver will find the best product for mortgage loans in Denver. To get the best rate for the borrower looking for a Denver mortgage quote, the mortgage lender in Denver will look at all of their products to see how they can best obtain the Denver mortgage loan quote and which of the Denver mortgages they have available will be most affordable for a customer.

Getting Beyond the Denver Mortgage Quote Rate

In addition to the mortgage loan rates in Denver, there are other factors that can impact the affordability and final amounts owed for Denver mortgages. These need to be carefully considered. Some mortgage lenders in Denver will offer good, low rates for Denver mortgages but have high fees and closing costs that makes up for the difference. Denver is not immune to such dealings in Denver mortgages. Be sure to ask about closing costs and other fees for Denver mortgages early in the process. These kinds of mortgage lenders in Denver want a borrower to get to the “point of no return” before they realize how high the true cost of the lower Denver mortgage quote can be.

How to Assess a Good Mortgage Lender in Denver

What a borrower should aim for is the best mortgage loan in Denver with the best total package including reasonable rates, closing costs, and frees, along with excellent customer service from the lender. A borrower should expect a mortgage lender in Denver to provide good service that is helpful, informative and, most importantly, professional in providing a Denver mortgage loan quote. A borrower should be able to ask questions they want about the Denver mortgage, product, the borrower’s Denver mortgage quote, or any other nformation about options and terms. When a borrower asks, they should get a professional and detailed answer. A borrower should never leave a conversation about the Denver mortgage loan quote wondering to what they are agreeing or feeling disrespected. If they do feel that way, then they should go elsewhere for a mortgage loan in Denver.

Marcel Ford asked:


Collateralized Mortgage Obligations (CMOs) sometimes referred to as Real Estate Mortgage Investment Conduits (REMICs), are one of few innovative investment methods available in today’s investment world. CMOs offer relative safety, regular payments and notable yield advantages over other better known fixed-income securities of comparable credit quality.

A wide variety of CMO securities with different cash flow and expected maturity characteristics have been designed to meet specific investment objectives. While CMOs offer advantages to investors, they also carry certain risks which will be further explained in this document. To determine if CMOs fit within your investment portfolio, you should first understand the distinctive features of these securities.

CMOs were first introduced in 1983. The Tax Reform Act of 1986 allowed CMOs to be issues in the form of REMICs, creating certain tax and accounting advantages for issuers and for certain large institutional and foreign investors. Today, almost all CMOs are issued in REMIC form. Remember that throughout this CMO explanation, REMICs and CMOs are interchangeable.

THE BUILDING BLOCKS OF CMOS Mortgage Loans and Mortgage Pass-Throughs When a CMO is created, it begins with a mortgage loan extended by a financial institution (such as a savings and loan, commercial bank or mortgage company) to finance a borrower’s home or other real estate. The homeowner usually pays the mortgage loan in monthly installments composed of both interest and “principal”. Over the duration of the mortgage loan, the interest component of payments in the early years gradually declines as the principal component increases. To obtain funds to generate more loans, lenders either “pool” groups of loans with similar characteristics to create securities or sell the loans to issuers of mortgage securities. The securities most commonly created from pools of mortgage loans are “mortgage pass-through securities” (MBS) or “participation certificates” (PCs). MBS represent a direct ownership interest in a pool of mortgage loans. As the homeowners whose loans are in the pool make their mortgage loan payments, the money is distributed on a pro rata basis to the holders of the securities. Several factors can affect the homeowners’ payments.

Typically, the homeowner will “prepay” the mortgage loan by selling the property, refinancing the mortgage or otherwise paying off the loan in part or whole. Most mortgage pass-through securities are based on fixed-rate mortgage loans with an original maturity of 30 years, but experience shows that most of these mortgage loans will be paid off much earlier. While the creation of MBS greatly increased the secondary market for mortgage loans by pooling them and selling interests in the pool, the structure of such securities has inherent limitations. MBSs only appeal to investors with a certain investment horizon – on average, 10-12 years.

CMOs were developed to offer investors a wider range of investment time frames and greater cash-flow certainty than had previously been available with MBS. The CMO issuer assembles a package of these MBS and uses them as collateral for a multiclass security offering. The different classes of securities in a CMO offering are known as tranches, from the French word for slice. The CMO structure enables the issuer to direct the principal and interest cash flow generated by the collateral to the different tranches in a prescribed manner, as defined in the offering’s prospectus, to meet different investment objectives.

THE HIGH CREDIT QUALITY OF CMOS The Government National Mortgage Association (GNMA, or Ginnie Mae) an agency of the U.S. government, along with U.S. government-sponsored enterprises (GSE) such as the Federal National Mortgage Association (FNMA, or Fannie Mae) or the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation (FHLMC, or Freddie Mac), guarantee most MBSs. Ginnie Mae is a government-owned corporation within the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have federal charters and are subject to some oversight by the federal government, but are publicly owned by stockholders.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac issue and guarantee pass-through securities. Ginnie Mae only adds its guarantee to privately issued pass-throughs backed by government issued (FHA and VA) mortgages. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have issues CMOs for quite some time; the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) began to issue CMOs in 1992, and Ginnie Mae initiates its own CMO program which began in 1994. Securities guaranteed or guaranteed and issues by these entities are known generically as “agency” mortgage securities. The agency guarantees enhance their credit quality for investors. In addition, the mortgages backing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac mortgage securities must meet strict quality criteria. Those backing GNMA pass-throughs are underwritten in accordance with the rules and regulations of the FHA and the VA, which insure them against default.

The extent of the agency guarantee depends on the entity making it. Ginnie Mae, for example, guarantees the timely payment of principal and interest on all of its mortgage securities, and its guarantee is backed by the “full faith and credit” of the U.S. government. Holders of Ginnie Mae mortgage securities are therefore assured of receiving payments promptly each month, regardless of whether the underlying homeowners make their payments. They are guaranteed to receive the full return of face-value principal even if the underlying borrowers default on their loans. Mortgage securities issued by the VA carry the same full faith and credit U.S. government guarantees.

Fannie Mae guarantees timely payment of both principal and interest on its mortgage securities whether or not the payments have been collected from the borrowers. Freddie Mac also guarantees timely payment of both principal and interest on its Gold PCs and CMOs. Some older series of Freddie Mac PCs guarantee timely payment of interest, but only the eventual payment of principal. Although neither Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac securities carry the additional full faith and credit U.S. government guarantee, the credit markets consider the credit on these securities to be equivalent to that of securities rated triple-A or better.

Some private institutions, such as subsidiaries of investment bank, financial institutions and home-builders, also issue mortgage securities. When issuing CMOs, they often use agency mortgage pass-through securities as collateral; however, their collateral may include different or specialized types of mortgage loans and/or pools, letters of credit and other types of credit enhancements. These private-labeled CMOs are the sole obligation of their issuer. To the extent that private-label CMOs use agency mortgage pass-through securities as collateral, their agency collateral carries the respective agency’s guarantees. Private-label CMOs are assigned credit ratings by independent credit agencies based on their structure, issuer, collateral and any guarantees or outside factors. Many carry the highest AAA credit rating.

As an additional investor protection, the CMO issuer typically segregates the CMO collateral or deposits it in the care of the trustee, who holds it for the exclusive benefit of the CMO bondholders.

A DIFFERENT SORT OF BOND Prepayment Rates and Average Lives Although CMOs entitle investors to payments of principal and interest, they differ from corporate bonds and Treasury securities in significant ways. Corporate and Treasury bonds are issued with stated maturities. The purchase of a bond from an investor is essentially a loan to the issuer in the amount of the principal, or face amount, of the bond for a prescribed period of time in return for a specified annual rate of interest. The bondholder receives interest, generally in semiannual payments, until the bond is redeemed.

When the bond matures, or is called by the issuer, the issuer returns face value of the bond to the investor in a single principal payment. With a CMO, the ultimate borrower is the homeowner who takes who takes on a mortgage loan. Because the homeowner’s monthly payments include both interest and principal, the mortgage security investor’s principal is returned over the life of the security, or amortized rather than repaid in a single lump sum at maturity.

CMOs provide monthly or quarterly payments to investors which include varying amounts of both principal and interest. As the principal is repaid (or prepaid), the interest payments become smaller because they are based on a lower amount of outstanding principal. A mortgage security “matures” when the investor receives the final principal payment. Most CMO tranches have a stated maturity based on the last date on which the principal from the collateral could be paid in full. This date is theoretical, because it assumes no prepayments on the underlying mortgage loans. Mortgage securities are more often discussed in terms of their average life rather than their stated maturity date. Technically, the average life is defined on the average time to receipt of each dollar of principal, weighted by the amount of each principal payment.

In simpler terms, the average life is the average time that the principal dollar in the pool is expected to be outstanding, based on certain assumptions about prepayment speeds.

Tristan Hunt asked:


1% Mortgage Refinance loans, you’ve probably seen 100 different advertisements, but how is it possible? There is really only one big secret to 1% mortgages: 1% minimum payments are below the interest payable on the loan. Once we’ve addressed this feature, most of the other facets of 1% mortgages are relatively logical. 1% mortgages, which now come in dozens of varieties with start rates from below 1% (some even starting at 0% for a few months after refinance) up to 4% or more, offer astonishingly low payments. Some of them offer fixed rates for 30 or even 40 years, some of them are adjustable from the day you take them out, all of these are basically “1% mortgages” and are extremely popular amongst homeowners today. 1% mortgages and their offspring are being used for debt consolidation, cash flow management, investments, and for tax purposes, and they are being used a lot.

A full 40% of home loans originated in 2005 and 2006 are estimated to be from the 1% mortgage family, with multiple payment options. By its proponents, the success of the 1% mortgage has been hailed as a new era of affordability and flexibility, of an extremely sharp financial tool once available only to the very rich now available to every family in the country. Its opponents tend to think that the 1% mortgage is a bit too sharp for the average homeowner to handle, they fear “Average Joes” could conceivably cut themselves. Despite their division, one thing is certain, the popularity of the 1% mortgage is driven by the relentless pursuit of the American dream. There are more homeowners in the United States today than in any other period in history, and many of those who own homes have only been able to accomplish home ownership, which was once a lifelong achievement, in their early 20′s and 30′s, largely because of the extended availability of these 1% mortgages to normal borrowers.

How much less expensive is a 1% mortgage payment option versus the comparable 30 Year Fixed traditional principal and interest payment?

For a $500,000.00 Mortgage:

1% Minimum Payment: $1200.00

Normal Loan Payment: $3000.00

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Cash Flow / Savings: $1800.00

It’s easy to see why the 1% mortgage refinance is so heavily marketed as a way to cut your mortgage payment in half. In the above example, the 1% mortgage minimum payment option is 60% less than a typical, traditional principal & interest loan payment. 1% mortgage minimum payments are usually 50% lower than even the highly lauded Interest Only payment mortgages, and most loans in the 1% mortgage family include the ability to pay more than just 1% if need be.

So How Does it Work?

In fact, 1% mortgages are more than just the 1% start rate. They have a fully indexed rate as well, which is the true amount of interest due each month. When making a 1% mortgage minimum payment, the borrower is not paying all of the interest due, which is seen by some as a good thing and some as a bad thing. Let’s examine some of the commonly perceived benefits and caveats of 1% mortgages:

Commonly Perceived Benefits of the 1% Mortgage Family:

1. Extremely Low Monthly Minimum Payment: As we’ve seen in our example, the minimum payment option is less than half of the typical traditional mortgage payment.

2. Flexibility to Control Your Own Money: Unlike a traditional mortgage, which requires a payment to principal each month, 1% mortgages allow borrowers to take the power into their own hands to make principal payments when they want to, e.g after a bonus or a particularly good year.

3. Separate Cash Flow from Equity: While many personal finance pundits laud the benefits of building home equity, the reality is that investing home equity yields a 0% return on investment on a month to month basis. In the above example, paying the traditional principal and interest payment forces the borrower to invest $1800 more each month in their home, money which is locked up entirely in the equity of the home. Home Equity is illiquid, meaning all this money locked in equity cannot be accessed unless the home is sold or refinanced. The bank won’t cut a check each month for the borrower’s home equity in a traditional loan. With a 1% mortgage minimum payment, that $1800 difference in payments is money in the borrower’s pocket, to invest or spend at their discretion. By deferring interest using a 1% mortgage, the borrower has full access to money that normally would be locked up until they sold the property. That $1800 per month adds up to over $100,000.00 in cash over 5 years on a 1% mortgage, and it’s available every time your paycheck does not get used up paying a huge traditional mortgage payment each month.

4. Maximize Debt Consolidation: Using a 1% mortgage refinance to pay off all of your other creditors, such as credit card companies and high interest rate lenders, means that you can save even more money than with a 1% mortgage refinance alone. Since you aren’t throwing high interest money at your creditors each month, the cash which you save by making the 1% mortgage payment actually goes into your pocket, your savings, your investments, or wherever you need it most. That’s ultimate control. Let’s say that in our $500,000 1% mortgage example above, we rolled in $30,000 of credit card and other high interest debt that have a monthly minimum payment requirement of $1,000. By using a 1% mortgage refinance to pay off those debts, total monthly savings using the earlier example would be over $2800 per month, $1000 from the debt consolidation plus $1800 from the difference between the traditional loan payment at 6% and the 1% mortgage minimum payment.

5. Turn Equity into a Tax Deduction: First, the 1% mortgage payment is 100% interest and therefore should be 100% tax deductible in most cases. Secondly, One of the most attractive benefits of 1% mortgages is the additional tax deduction available on deferred interest. What this means is that borrowers can realize a tax deduction on interest they did not have to lay out the cash for, and choose the time at which this deduction is realized, which can be a huge savings upon liquidity or refinance. For real estate investors, this is a huge advantage as it can often wash out the capital gains consequences of selling a property. Disclaimer: We do not dispense tax advice, and you should consider consulting a CPA.

6. Easy Qualification: Normally, to qualify for low payment mortgages, borrowers are required to have exceptional credit. However, 1% mortgage refinance loans are routinely available to borrowers with credit scores as low as 620, and if they are borrowing less than 80% of the value of their home, scores can even be in the 500s provided there are no late mortgage payments reported on their credit file. The borrower’s income can be stated, and sometimes no income or employment documentation is required at all.

7. Enhanced Protection from Foreclosure: Because the minimum payment option is so low, the cash savings each month so high, and the loan is so flexible, the 1% mortgage family offers homeowners a low minimum payment option which they have a much higher likelihood of paying should they suffer an interruption of income or become disabled.

8. Biweekly Payments: A popular way to maximize the benefits of the 1% mortgage refinance is to elect to make biweekly payments (which are available on select 1% mortgages). This optimizes the loan to coincide with most borrower’s payment cycles and reduces any possible negative effects of deferring interest.

Commonly Perceived Caveats of the 1% Mortgage Family:

1. Artificially Low Payments: Because the minimum payments are so low compared to traditional mortgages, many pundits fear that people who would normally not qualify for home ownership can now own a home. The fear is that new or “low income” homeowners could “get in over their heads” by buying more house than they can truly afford. Ultimately, it is up to the borrower to decide how much they can afford.

2. Deferred Interest: Often referred to as negative amortization, this concern is commonly cited by journalists as a “negative” because the loan balance may increase over time if the minimum payment is always selected. However, this perspective does ignore the advantages of dramatically increased cash flow in the borrower’s pocket each month and the tax benefits of deferring interest. Of course, the borrower can choose for themselves whether they want to spend their money paying interest to the bank or if they would rather put the difference into their own pockets.

3. Depreciation: If the value of the borrower’s home falls dramatically, and other factors force the borrower to sell the home while the value is low, the borrower may wind up owing more than the home is worth. This is a valid risk over short periods of time for all types of mortgages, not just 1% mortgages. Even a traditional principal and interest mortgage does not pay off enough principal over the first 5 years of its life to offset a dramatic short term decline in home values. The risk of property values declining is a real risk of owning property, period. However, history tells us that residential real estate appreciates consistently over any given ten year period in the past 50 years.

4. Too Easy To Qualify: This may not seem to be a disadvantage to most borrowers looking to purchase or refinance a home, but there are those who believe that borrowers should be forced to document significantly more income and assets to qualify for these types of loans. A lot of this sentiment is an outgrowth of antiquated conceptions of 1% mortgages as a “Rich Man’s Mortgage”, which used to require significant net worth to obtain, and some of it is attributable to equally antiquated “one size fits all” notions about mortgages. Your perspective will likely depend on whether or not you are in a position to provide extensive documentation of your income and assets in support of your loan application.

Many of the criticisms of 1% mortgages revolve around the adjustable rate variety of these mortgages, which like all adjustable rate mortgages go up and down with the rest of the market. However, in most 1% mortgages, the minimum payment stays fixed and can go up or down only 7.5% per year. So if your payment in Year 1 is $1000.00 , in Year 2 it can go no higher than $1075.00. Because the rate on the loan can change more or less than the minimum payment, which is extremely low, the loan can result in the deferral of interest if only the minimum payment is made. Many of the amortization issues which are seen by critics of 1% Mortgages as their key detractor have been recently resolved by the introduction of fixed rate minimum payment loans to the 1% mortgage family.

Fixed rate 1% mortgage variations, the latest additions to the 1% mortgage family, have fixed interest rates from 3 to 30 years or more. The minimum payment option is generally available for the first 5, 10, 15 or in some cases 20 years of the mortgage, at which point the 1% mortgage payment recasts or readjusts to the interest only payment or the full principal & interest payment. During the fixed period, the loan payment and interest rates of fixed 1% mortgages are utterly predictable and can be defined down to the penny. Many borrowers who would prefer a fixed rate can benefit significantly from the 30 year fixed 1% mortgage, which actually carries a minimum payment of 1.95% and a fixed rates in the 6% to 7% range for 30 years.

While there are those in the journalism community who believe that 1% mortgages have too much power for your average homeowner, ultimately the decision is in the homeowner’s hands. Make a high payment to the bank each month, or put the money in their pockets. And homeowners seem evenly divided, as refinances into loans from the 1% mortgage category are projected to represent over 50% of all refinances in 2007. Traditional mortgages are not a one size fits all solution, and neither are 1% mortgages, but with low minimum payment options, excellent debt consolidation capabilities, significant cash flow and tax advantages made possible by deferring interest, and flexibility to control your finances or insulate yourself from interruptions in income or disability, 1% mortgages continue to post significant growth across the country. Whether or not a 1% mortgage refinance is right for you should be determined by performing a detailed analysis of your personal financial situation with a home loan professional who has extensive experience with 1% mortgage products. As always, we welcome your calls and emails.

The House Team Of Mortgage Intellingence asked:


Real estate has been an outstanding investment in most parts of Canada in the past few years. Home valuations are continuing to rise and have broken through the peak of their 1989 “bubble” in many areas of the country. That’s good news for Canada’s 7.5 million home owners, who are enjoying an average increase of $43,000 in real estate wealth since the upward trend took hold in 1998.

The hot housing market is being fuelled by mortgage rates which are the lowest they’ve been in almost 50 years. First-time home buyers are finding the rates attractive, and home buyers are lining up to purchase their first home or to upgrade to their dream homes. Housing statistics have been capturing headlines for months and the boom is noticeable on key economic indicators.

But the news isn’t just about rising valuations or Canadians moving into their new homes. Quietly in the background, there is a significant trend to refinancing. Canadians who have built up the equity in their home over the last few years are borrowing against that equity in record numbers. According to a report from a major bank, since 2001, Canadian households have taken out approximately $20 billion in cash out of their homes through mortgage refinancing and home equity loans.

We might thank the Ontario mortgage industry for the surprising resilience of the North American economy. In the past two years, the North American economy has endured numerous economic fallouts but consumer confidence remains reasonably strong – at least partly because homeowners have seen some of their losses offset by an increase in their real estate wealth. We find that we are sitting on (and sleeping in) the best-performing investment we own. And even if they have no plans to sell, homeowners have found that the return on their investment is still as good as cash in the bank.

That cash has been a key economic stimulus both here and in the U.S., where the trend is even more pronounced. As Canadians look beyond the view of a home as primarily shelter, mortgages become a valuable resource – and homeowners aren’t necessarily waiting for renewal time to cash out some of their gains.

So where is the money going? The equity being pulled out is often being used to pay down other more expensive debt. Credit card interest rates are shockingly high and – as a nation – our credit card and other consumer debt is continuing to grow. And much of the money is being used for increased spending. There has never been a better time to borrow against home equity to build the kitchen of your dreams, add a new wing, embark on the landscaping project you’ve wanted for years, enjoy the vacation you’ve always dreamed of, or help with the high cost of post secondary education. However, as always, never let your enthusiasm for the opportunity to spend get in the way of good common sense about debt management.

Lina Smith asked:


Mortgage Brokers In Australia most people go to mortgage brokers to get access to a greater range of mortgage options, for better service and for the mortgage broker’s ability to negotiate with lenders. A mortgage broker offers loans from a panel of financial institutions, including banks and non-banks. In Australia there are literally hundreds of lenders with many options, that were traditionally available in the past and competition amongst lenders for customers is fierce with new home loan products available every day. Using a mortgage broker is now an essential part of sourcing the market for the right home loan. In plain terms, mortgage brokers evaluate your situation against the 20 or 30 lenders on their panel for the best deal. Specialised mortgage lenders offer competitive products to first home buyers, self employed and business people, retirees, new Australians and immigrants, previous bankrupts and people with a bad or poor credit history. One of the great advantages of using a good mortgage broker is that they have access to many of these lenders and their products. The mortgage broker should be able to provide you with the cheapest home loan to the most competitive home loan in the current financial market. The mortgage broker should be able to provide you with at least three options of which lender suits you best. The mortgage broker should be able to explain in detail each home loan product he/she is offering and why they have chosen these home loan options for you. The options the mortgage broker provided is from the information that you have provided to them. This will show if the mortgage broker has done their homework correctly. Mortgage Brokers usually run their own businesses. Lenders work with mortgage brokers because they effectively give the lender a bigger “shop front” without carrying a traditional employee or “bricks and mortar” overhead. Some lenders like Citibank, ING, Macquarie Bank and Heritage have few or no branches and partly rely on mortgage brokers to represent their products. Other lenders like CBA, Westpac, ANZ, NAB and St George have their own branch networks, but simply extend their access to Customers through the mortgage broker network. The lender pays the broker fees or commissions for your business. Just as if you were dealing with a bank manager or lender, these fees do not change the interest rate you pay on a home loan. To be sure you are being recommended to the right lender, just ask your mortgage broker to show you all the lenders on their panel, and what your loan options would be, against each lender’s criteria. What a Broker should do for you When you first meet with a broker, they should always start by asking you to explain your entire finance situation, including future plans. Little things can make a big difference to making sure you get the right home loan for your situation now and with flexibility for future changes. Have your key documents on hand to refer to when meeting with the broker so you can give the most accurate details to ensure you get the right home loan. Your Mortgage Broker should: Discuss and confirm loan scenarios and options in writing Explain all documents of the loan application and assist in completing the loan application Explain the loan process, from start of the application to closing Explain all associated costs, fees and disbursements of the loan application Communicate with you throughout the loan process Follow up the lender for you from application through conditional and on to unconditional approval Negotiate with their lender or lenders to achieve the best deal How do I know a mortgage broker is any good? Establish the right mortgage broker for you and check his/hers experience and qualifications. A good mortgage broker will be committed to the industry’s code of practice. It is vital to ensure you’re getting the best loan for your needs. Below is a checklist that will help you know if your mortgage broker is a good person For residential loans, all of the mortgage broker’s services should be free – remember mortgage broker’s are paid commissions from the lenders The right mortgage broker will take the time to really understand your entire finance situation, both now and into the future Your mortgage broker should have a range of home loans from a wide variety of lenders, for example, banks and non-banks, conforming and non-conforming lenders Check that your mortgage broker is not just an agent for one lender Check the qualifications and experience of your mortgage broker, even ask for references from previous borrowers Is the mortgage broker a member of MFAA – Mortgage & Finance Association of Australia / FBAA – Finance Brokers Association Australia Ensure your mortgage broker discloses all commission and payments received by the lenders Ask your mortgage broker to show you how the loans they offer compare to your own situation (on a computer). Good mortgage brokers should have the appropriate software and be able to clearly outline options requested by you Ask your mortgage broker how they comply with the Privacy Act to ensure security of your personal and financial details Your mortgage broker should have appropriate insurances (for example Public Indemnity Insurance Cover) A good mortgage broker should be able to explain the most complex loans in simple plain English In conclusion you would like to have trust in the Mortgage Broker that you will use. It is important that you take your “gut instinct” when you are choosing a Mortgage Broker. You want to make sure that you like the person and ensure that the Mortgage Broker will do the ring thing for you. It does not hurt to ask the Mortgage Broker for testimonials (what other customer have said about them)