Upfront Mortgages in Michigan

The time for finger pointing in regards to the sub-prime crisis is past. The dust is still settling and a lot of the blame is being laid firmly at the feet of the mortgage originators who originated a lot of these bad loans. I am not one of those originators (I have never done a sub-prime loan in my life), but I am guilty by association. I have spent a lot of energy privately railing against the questionable practices of my peers, and the lenders who funded these loans. I realized that this was not doing anyone any good. But how could I separate myself from my peers? I believe that an honest mortgage broker (as opposed to a bank) is a boon to the informed consumer. Most of us are honest folks.  I know all of my co-workers are. Unfortunately brokers are getting a lot of bad press.  I like being a broker, but am becoming concerned about our increasingly poor image.  Then I read about the Upfront Mortgage Brokers Association (UMB) in an article at CNN.com.

Upfront mortgage brokers view their job a little bit differently than most mortgage originators. Most mortgage originators refer to themselves as sales people, with products to offer. The truth of the matter is that we are service providers. The UMBA founder, Dr Jack Guttentag, says it best in an article at bankrate.com

While it seems perfectly evident to an outsider that mortgage brokers are service providers, they don't see themselves in that way. In their own eyes, they are loan providers, meaning merchants.

It is an important distinction. Service providers tell their clients what their fee is before any services are rendered, but merchants don't. "Wal-Mart doesn't tell you how much they make on your coat," says the broker. "Why should I tell you how much I make on your loan?"

The illogic of this -- brokers don't actually buy or sell anything -- doesn't faze the broker because logic has nothing to do with it. What matters is that brokers can make more money as loan providers who don't reveal their compensation than as service providers who do.

I came across that article while doing research about the UMBA. That clinched it for me; I joined. I joined because I realized that the best way to help a customer is to make the process transparent. And the best way to be transparent is to join the UMBA.

In this blog I hope to give consumers the information they need to get the mortgage that is right for them.