[RANDY P]

Between sold loans (FNMA investor, whatever) a bank and broker are pretty close, the broker having the ability to lower / work for less at will, wheras a guy in a bank only sees a published rate sheet and has to charge that -

If you're lucky enough to find a broker that isn't into playing silly games like

"we need an upfront deposit to app you" -

which in most cases requires the deposit to be put into a seperate trust account (I know of few if any brokers which maintain one - therefore the request for one is illegal - not to mention it's fully refundable since it's against federal law to collect up front fees and not return them as a MB in the event the deal isn't consumated - under any terms)

You can find a broker who can close an easy file, quickly and for cheap if there's no headaches involved. Fully documentable income, good assets and credit and a reasonable guy will work for next to nothing. I would if I knew the borrower was easy to qualify and he's shopping, why not?

However, if the bank is sitting on the paper - like B of A's AACORN loan program it's next to impossible for a broker to compete since they have no money to lend and collect interest on. Those are the programs to seek out. If I was a borrower i'd strongly consider those assuming that decent credit and fully documentable income was to be considered.

Anyone else, would probably be better served by a decent broker. I would've laughed at that monkey asking for a "deposit" up front...

rjp