• What should we do about the elephant in the room? It’s not a popular question, but if a lender were to create a good tool, would you consider paying for it?

As a lender, we can’t ask for quid pro quo. I can’t sell you the Smith lead and then expect to get the Smith loan. It’s not ethical, and it violates RESPA. All lenders provide nontargeted, free services to brokers with the hope that we’ll generate overall increased business from it. We want to provide these services, but we can’t spend the money if it doesn’t help our business.

Consider the lenders who developed online underwriting services and offer free credit reports. Many are planning to change to requesting the broker’s copy of the credit report to complete the file. Lenders withdrew the free service because it was too costly and not helping the bottom line.

If lenders can’t be assured that we’re going to get more business from our investment — providing brokers with the materials and services they desire — can we offset that by asking you to pay to access the tool, if it were useful?

So brokers, here’s the $64,000 question that keeps me up at night: What can we do to help you? After Sept. 10, complete a survey at www.NewCentury.com/tellgreg (ed. note: This survey is now closed), and I’ll share your responses in a future Scotsman Guide to provide clarity between brokers and lenders. 

Greg Schroeder is executive vice president of marketing for New Century Mortgage Corp. He has been in the nonprime-lending industry since 1987 and has authored a variety of articles for industry publications. He can be reached at (949) 250-5175 or gschroed@ncen.com. The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of Greg Schroeder, not those of New Century Mortgage Corp.

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