How do you vet a mortgage agent?

Question

I am a first time home buyer and investor in Ontario, Canada looking for a good mortgage agent but I want to know what questions to ask the agent to determine if they are suitable for me?

Chris Mason · Answer

Ask what you want, their ability to answer in a way that is useful and meaningful to you will speak for itself.

If you want to "pre-vet," there's only one major online review platform that has no "pay to play" function. You can't obfuscate bad reviews, you can't only show good ones, nothing like that, no matter the price you are willing to pay. And that would be Google business reviews.

In America, it's both common and easy for each individual mortgage agent to have their own personal listing as a "business" on Google. And since company policies don't impact the ability of a consumer to create such a listing, company policies aren't relevant ("I'm not on google because of company policy" is not a valid reason/excuse). And if they'd rather hind behind a big company's overall reviews (so they get the upside of the good they do, but the bad is diffused among the entire company -- capitalism for the good, socialism for the bad), that in itself is telling.

Zach Wain · Answer

I am not sure about lending in Canada, but the same basics should apply.  First, get a referral if possible.  Ask your realtor, financial advisor, etc.  They should prescreen all of their referral partners.  Look online for reviews.  And, have a conversation and see how it goes.  Then talk to 1-2 other mortgage people and see who is the clear winner.  Usually, you can tell when you are talking to a pro.