Brokers often contact lenders to confirm guidelines before placing a mortgage. That frequently involves waiting for a lender rep to call or email back.

The problem is that waiting isn’t always an option. At the very least, waiting is frustrating—especially when a mortgage deal is time sensitive.

MCAP’s new Deal Run help line addresses that problem, and makes us wonder why all lenders don’t offer a comparable service.

Brokers usually have dedicated business development managers (BDMs) to get questions answered. But when BDMs don’t pick up the phone, it sometimes takes 2-24 hours to get a response. That can be the difference between sealing a deal, meeting a conditions removal deadline or closing on time.

When brokers have a question about MCAP’s Eclipse mortgage, however, MCAP’s VP Sales, Gino Tieri, says: “They’re guaranteed to get a live person when they call during the hours of operation.”

MCAP’s Director of Business Development, Megan McDonald, developed the concept. She says “Brokers kept telling us that they liked reaching a live person every time they called.”

Imagine that.

MCAP’s Deal Run is thus a simple but long-overdue solution to a common problem. In fact, it’s so simple we feel odd in suggesting it’s somehow novel (which it’s not).

Then again, there’s no disputing that live help is a service differentiator among lenders today. Every lender in the business could use a help desk, but most either haven’t given them enough thought or deem them too expensive.

We’d argue that it’s too costly not to have one. You can staff a whole desk for 3-4 days or more with the revenue lost from a single broker taking a deal elsewhere.

Moreover, some lenders could afford to take a few BDMs off the street to man a help desk. Most brokers don’t need lunch meetings or routine sales visits. They need accessible information to support their day-to-day businesses.

Lenders can meet this demand by staffing a centralized support desk and providing brokers with live phone and online chat assistance. It can be supplemented with a well-organized, searchable broker website that includes all lending guidelines (which cuts the odds of brokers calling in with simple questions).

Our props to MCAP for implementing such an obviously helpful broker resource. Other lenders have tried help desks in the past and yanked them prematurely. MCAP’s version will hopefully be permanent.
https://canadianmortgagetrends.com/.a/6a00d8341c74cb53ef0162fc1bb1f0970d-pi

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Sidebar: If you know of other lenders with broker help desks, let us know. They deserve applause too.

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Rob McLister, CMT