Unless you live under a rock (like I do), you’ve probably heard the term “mortgage broker” get thrown around. You may have heard good things, and you may have heard bad things.
Regardless, a mortgage broker is essentially a middleman between the borrower/homeowner and the bank or mortgage lender. They work directly with both the consumer and the bank to help borrowers qualify for a mortgage, whether it be a purchase mortgage or a refinance.
Borrower/Homeowner <— Mortgage Broker —> Bank/Mortgage Lender
As you can see from my rather rudimentary, yet fairly time consuming diagram above, the mortgage broker acts as a liaison between two important entities. The borrower/homeowner end is the retail side, while the bank/lender end is the wholesale side.