Larger reverse mortgages available to seniors in 2005

New survey rates brokers' gripes with lendersMortgagePress.comSurvey,Campbell Communications,Statistics,Mortgage Brokers "Poor sales rep service" and "missed closing dates" are the biggest reasons why mortgage brokers change lenders for their customers, according to a new national survey of mortgage brokers conducted by Campbell Communications. Another major complaint from brokers, according to survey respondents, is "tardy responses to e-mails and voice messages." However, problems such as "unexpected or higher costs at closing" and "HUD-1 closing charges provided late" were described as minor factors by brokers surveyed. These issues were targets of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's controversial Guaranteed Mortgage Packages (GMPs) proposal in RESPRO reform, tabled in 2003. More than 800 mortgage brokers were surveyed on their relationships with specific lenders, probing the areas of dissatisfaction with products, as well as services. "Poor sales rep service" emerged as the number one reason, with 64 percent of respondents, why brokers stopped using a specific lender. "Missed-closing-dates/slow-underwriting" was the second most popular reason why brokers dropped a lender, with 62 percent of respondents pointing to this problem. Sub-prime lenders were singled out for a number of offenses. Of the eight lenders in the top quartile of dissatisfaction for "conflict over appraised values," five were sub-prime lenders. Likewise, five of the eight lenders in the top quartile for "conflict over automated fraud checking" were predominantly sub-prime lenders. In contrast, large prime lenders were often dropped because the "lender directly solicits customers for refinances." "Lenders can use this data to determine why brokers are dissatisfied and, more importantly, if they should do anything about it," commented Tom Popik, principal of Geosegment Systems and designer of the survey instrument. "In some cases, the survey results flow from a deliberate decision by the lender, such as the decision to solicit customers for refinances. In other cases, lenders are needlessly alienating their mortgage broker customers." The research, the first national tracking survey of mortgage brokers, was sponsored by Inside Mortgage Finance. The findings are presented in a new report, "How Mortgage Brokers View Relationships With Lenders." For more information, visit www.campbellsurveys.com.