I’d like to respond to the interesting article by Melanie Bien, director of communications at Private Finance, who was certainly beating the drum for her company’s business model. The question is was it balanced or fair?

In my opinion not even close. Melanie’s assertion that mortgage brokers in estate agency chains do not have access to the most competitive rates in the market is not borne out.

One assumes Melanie has forgotten to take into account the exclusive products that large organisations are able to obtain on a regular basis, or that group lender relationships cater for reviews to take place to overturn rejected cases.

As to service and product knowledge, our company brands such as Reed Rains estate agents have access to direct lender underwriters who are on hand to place mortgages within 24hrs, I would assume other corporate estate agents have the same access. Within LSL property services we run monthly mortgage workshops attended by the lenders along with running separate sales training days. Again this is standard practice in the corporate world.

These workshops generate mortgage and sales expertise, so age – young or old – therefore becomes irrelevant.

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I have worked previously for corporate estate agents and run their financial services operations for many years. I currently put advisers in independent estate agents as part of my role as MD of Linear so I feel reasonably well qualified to give a balanced view.

The answer is there is a place for every business model, and it is important the public have choice. More importantly, there are simply not enough brokers and advisers to go around.

From a recruitment point of view I can honestly, say the best people to recruit are those who are working as corporate mortgage brokers – they are well trained fully understand their legal responsibilities, have a work ethic (as in knowing what a full day looks like) and are not looking to nip off and play golf when the sun comes out.

If I was a client in a contract race, every day of the week I would back a corporate mortgage broker to get the deal done with a lender, as clout counts – as does building lender relationships at group level.

I deal with many independent estate agents and every one wants an in-house mortgage broker. My quote for the day is “don’t bite the hand that feeds you.”

Without those brokers selling at the sharp end that you have dismissed so readily many of our jobs would not exist.

To read Melanie Bien’s blog, click here