Mortgage Broker or Loan Officer

When you're looking to get a mortgage loan, you may work with a loan officer or you may choose to work with a mortgage broker. Since a new home is the outcome of the work of both mortgage broker and loan officer, it's understandable to confuse them. Yet it will be important to know the ways they differ so you have clear expectations of them during your mortgage application process.

Mortgage Brokers

A mortgage broker is a person or company that works as an independent agent for both the mortgage loan applicant and the lender. A mortgage broker coordinates things between you and your lender, which can be one of the following: a credit union, bank, trust company, finance company, mortgage corporation or even an individual investor. Acting as a facilitator between you and your lender, your mortgage broker can match you with a bank, trust company, credit union, mortgage corporation, finance company or even an individual investor. A mortgage broker will look at your numbers to determine which lender is the right fit for your loan needs. You deliver your loan application to your broker, who offers it to one or more lenders. Your mortgage broker then assists your work with the lender of choice until closing. The broker gets a commission from the borrower upon closing.

About Mortgage Bankers

The most important difference between a mortgage broker and a loan officer is that the latter works for a lending institution (a bank, credit union, or others) to promote and process loans solely from that institution. Although a mortgage banker may promote quite a range of loan programs, they are all products from that one lender.

A mortgage banker (also known as an "account executive" or "loan representative") acts on behalf of the borrower to the lending institution. The loan officer will guide the borrower through the selection, processing and loan closing. Lenders give their loan officers a salary or commission.