About Chet Hearn
A bank offers you its own loans. A broker shops several lenders and brings you what they will actually do on your file. Here is what that difference looks like in practice — and when it matters most.
The Actual Difference
Most people have two options, and the distinction is simpler than the marketing suggests but matters more than they expect. It comes down to who is choosing among what. Chet is a past director of Houston Community Bank, so none of what follows is a swipe at banks — it is a description of two different jobs.
Direct Lender or Bank
Mortgage Broker
Seven Practical Reasons
A bank or direct lender decides whether you fit one of its own programs. As a broker, Chet works with multiple wholesale lenders and compares what each will actually do on your file, then brings you the options.
Lenders add their own requirements on top of program guidelines — those extras are called overlays, and they vary a lot between lenders. When a file has a wrinkle, having several to choose from often decides whether it works at all.
You work with Chet from the first call through closing, not a queue of departments handing your file along. When you have a question, you already know who to ask.
Gathering documents, pulling credit, verifying income and employment, and packaging the file for underwriting — that work happens on Chet’s side rather than yours.
Applying separately to multiple lenders means repeating the same process and paperwork each time. Chet takes your information once and takes it to the lenders that fit.
Application, pre-approval, submission, processing, underwriting, approval, closing. Chet keeps you — and your real estate agent — current on where things stand, rather than leaving you to guess.
Chet is paid when your loan closes, not before. That puts him on the same side of the table as you, working toward the same outcome.
“I struggled with the decision to either utilize a local broker or a direct lender for my home loan and am very happy I went with Chet.”
Ask before you commit to anything. No cost, no obligation, and no pressure to move forward.
NMLS Consumer Access
