Lenders should send out more underwriters and less BDMs, claims packager

“…In fact, we’ve had this with a couple of lenders, they’ve said: ‘Where do you want us to spend our money? On BDMs who talk about product guides and things like that, or an underwriter that actually knows the criteria?’

“And we say: ‘Everyday, we’d rather have an underwriter, a decision maker.’”

He added that BDMs should be trained to know more about underwriting.

“To be fair, in our world, they’re pretty good, they know their stuff and some of them are pretty good at what they do, obviously.

“But I think it’s more the fact that you can actually sit face to face with an underwriter who’s got a mandate, and you say: ‘What do you think about this deal?’

“And then they, ultimately, make the decision on whether they want to lend or not.”

Phil revealed that, in the past year, Complete FS had been able to get underwriters in its office and believed that this was beneficial to its brokers.

He claimed that InterBay Commercial sends underwriters to visit Complete’s offices three days a week and, during this time, they will look at cases and underwrite deals.

Phil said that this was where it could add “massive value” to its brokers and why Complete had been so successful over the past 26 years.