After working through over a thousand mortgages, I have to remind myself that what feels familiar to me may be entirely new to the person I’m helping.
I know where we are in the process and what’s likely to come next. They may be doing this for the first time.
That matters to how we communicate throughout their journey.
Experience gives us the ability to anticipate what’s ahead. Part of our responsibility is helping clients find their footing as we go.
Start Before There’s Something to Worry About
Early conversations set the tone for everything that follows. Alongside discussing the mortgage itself, there’s value in giving clients a sense of the path ahead: what we’ll need from them, where decisions will happen and which parts may take time.
As a Kelowna mortgage broker, I want someone to feel comfortable asking a question before it becomes a worry they’ve been carrying for three days. Making room for questions early helps establish that relationship.
Let the Conversation Move With the File
What a client needs from us changes along the way. At the beginning, they may be trying to understand what’s possible. During document collection, they need to understand what’s required and why. When a lender’s offer arrives, the conversation shifts to the terms and anything still outstanding. As closing approaches, responsibilities and timing become more immediate. A great first conversation can’t do all of that work. Communication needs to develop alongside the decisions the client is making.
Pay Attention to the Space Between Steps
The transitions are easy to overlook when you know the process well. We finish one piece and move on to the next, while the client may still be trying to understand what the last piece meant.
An approval, for example, can sound like the finish line. If there are conditions still to satisfy, that needs to be understood. A client can be excited about progress and clear about what remains unfinished at the same time.
That’s where our familiarity should help us recognise the explanation someone else may need.
Build It Into a Business You Can Sustain
Every broker has to find a way of communicating that works within their business and their life. A solo practice will handle things differently from a team. The approach also needs to hold up during a busy week, when relying on memory or squeezing every conversation into the evening becomes harder.
It’s worth looking at how communication fits into the everyday running of your business. Who is responsible at each stage? Does the client know who can help? Are the expectations we’ve set realistic? Those answers will look different across businesses, but they deserve deliberate thought.
Use Your Experience to Make the Path Clearer
The longer we do this work, the more steps we can mentally skip. Our clients don’t have that same shortcut. Clear, consistent and honest communication helps them move through a significant decision with an understanding of what’s happening.
That’s a standard worth building a business around, whether the mortgage in front of you is your tenth, your hundredth or your thousandth. It may still be their first.
