Playbook, mortgage broker
What a broker charges, and what a lender charges, kept apart
Two different prices hide inside the same question here. One is what the broker charges, which is fixed, publishable and the thing every enquirer wants settled before they engage. The other is the rate, which belongs to a lender, changes on no notice and is the single most perishable thing a broker could put in front of an assistant. Getting the first right and keeping the second out of the index is most of the work on this page.
Why this is not the general answer
The handling pattern for pricing questions holds across every trade. What follows is the part that does not.
- The number the visitor is asking about is not the business's own price, it is a lender's, and it can be withdrawn between the morning the page was written and the afternoon the question is asked.
- A stale rate does not read as an out of date page, it tells somebody a better product exists than does, and they act on that before anyone corrects it.
- Financial promotion rules in most regulated markets attach conditions to quoting a rate, including requirements about accompanying information, so a headline figure repeated without its context is the failure those rules describe.
- The broker's own fee is a disclosure obligation in most markets and is entirely fixed, which makes it the half of the question that should be answered fully and confidently.
How it arrives
- what rate can i get
- do you charge a broker fee
- when is your fee payable
- is your fee refundable if the mortgage falls through
- are you paid by the lender as well
- what are the current fixed rates
What has to be indexed for this to work
| Your fee structure and exactly when a fee becomes payable | Whether you charge, how much, whether it is taken at application or on offer, whether it is refundable if the case does not complete, and how lender procuration fees sit alongside it. This is the question every enquirer wants settled first and it never goes stale. |
|---|---|
| One maintained page for anything rate related | If you publish rates at all, keep them on a single page you update rather than in an uploaded document, and word the page so it states plainly that products change frequently and must be confirmed. Uploaded rate material is the version that goes out of date silently. |
| What actually determines the rate somebody is offered | Loan to value, product type, term, fee bearing or fee free, credit profile, property type. Explaining the levers is durable content, unlike the numbers, and it answers the question behind the question. |
| Which lenders you can access and on what basis | Whether you are whole of market or work from a panel, and what that means for the products available. Enquirers comparing brokers ask this, and it is a fixed fact about your permissions rather than about the market. |
The reply
Our own fee is set out on the fees page, including when it becomes payable and what happens if the case does not complete, and we also receive a procuration fee from the lender, which is disclosed to you in writing. On the rate itself I am not going to quote a figure, because products change frequently and a number from a page could easily be withdrawn by the time you apply. What drives the rate you are offered is the loan to value, the term and the product type, and an adviser can confirm what is actually available today.
It answers the fee question completely, since that is the part that is fixed and the part disclosure duties bear on. It refuses the rate with a reason the visitor recognises as true rather than as caution, which is why it does not feel like stonewalling. Naming the levers gives them something real to take away and sets up the call without asking for it twice.
Where it stops
The trigger. The visitor asks what rate they specifically would get, or supplies a deposit, a property value or an income in order to get a number.
I am not able to quote a rate, because products change frequently and what you would be offered depends on the lender and your circumstances. Leave your name and email and an adviser will confirm what is actually available.
It stops answering before it guesses, says who will pick it up, and asks for the one thing that makes a reply possible. Nothing about it reads as a dead end.
Never say this here
Out of bounds
- Never quote a rate, or say what rates are around at the moment.
- Never say a product is still available, since availability changes without notice.
- Never repeat a headline rate without the conditions that were published alongside it.
- Never suggest a fee will be waived or discounted.
Questions
- Can we index our rate table?
- You can, and it is the one thing we would advise against. If you must, keep it on a single maintained page rather than an uploaded document, and write the page so the assistant repeats that products change and have to be confirmed. An uploaded table has no way of telling anyone it is old.
- Does refusing the rate lose the enquiry?
- Less often than a wrong rate does. The visitor typing that question is usually deciding whether to talk to a broker at all, and a reply that settles your fee and explains what moves a rate does more for that decision than a number they will find quoted differently everywhere else.
- What about the fee, can it be specific?
- It should be. Your fee is your own published fact and disclosure duties in most markets push you to be clear about it up front, so index it with the timing and the refund position and let the assistant quote it directly.
Keep reading
- Everything for a mortgage brokerProcess, documents and fees are safe to automate. Rates go stale fast and affordability cannot be answered generically.
- Handling pricing questions in generalPublished price versus the price for this buyer. Bands, ranges and from pricing, and why a firm number for unscoped work is the damaging failure.
- Getting an initial call arranged without touching the calendarThe assistant cannot take a slot. It can remove every reason somebody hesitates to book one, then hand a warm enquiry to an adviser.
- The document list that decides how fast a mortgage case runsPayslips, accounts, bank statements and deposit evidence, with the periods each has to cover. The most durable material on a broker's site.
- Erasure requests, and the records a broker may still have to keepMortgage enquiries leave unusually sensitive records in several places. What the assistant explains about erasure, and what it must not promise.
Try it on your own material
Upload a document or point it at your site, paste one line of HTML, then ask it something only your business could answer.