Originally Posted by vtec to vvel

I'm dually licensed as a real estate agent and a mortgage loan originator, and worked as both up until recently, and the following is my opinion.

Think of when you go finance a car. Some people get "pre-approved" by their bank and walk into the dealership with that. That "pre-approval" they have is specifically by THEIR bank and THEIR terms/rates/pricing/etc. The dealer financing team has access to a variety of lenders, in which they could look for a lender that offers better terms/rates/pricing/etc. than what the buyer had originally been offered by their bank. So in this example, the dealer financing team could be considered a brokerage.

Let's say you went to your bank to inquire about a mortgage loan. Chances are, the bank will give you THEIR best rates and pricing internally, whereas a brokerage should have access to different pricing platforms and should be able to shop across the market for the best rates and pricing, whether looking in-house or at other lenders.

I would always advise clients to weigh out their options and shop around, as there are pro's and con's to both a bank and a brokerage. But the biggest piece of advice I always offered was to research the person that is working on their loan. Loan officers that work at a bank may or may NOT be individually licensed since they could be covered under the bank's charter license, and may only have the knowledge/experience for only the products their bank offers, whereas loan officers that work for a brokerage typically have to be individually licensed, and offers a variety of loan products.

On the other hand, being individually licensed does not equate to knowledge/experience. For example, there are many licensed drivers in FL, but half of them don't know how to drive and shouldn't be. Same principle could be said about loan officers/originators.