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Any old mortgage for a client just won’t do for Steven Lang. Asking the right questions can prevent problems and get clients the right product for their circumstances

YOU CAN know what your client wants – but how can you know what they need in order to give them the right mortgage and give yourself a competitive advantage? For Steven Lang, it is important to “truly understand the borrower’s or client’s needs and how they match up with us,” he says. Lenders and agents have a role to play – not as gatekeepers, but as guides for their clients and borrowers. They can help a client see the big picture and guide them from what they may want to what they can realistically afford.

With close to 30 years of experience in the mortgage industry, VWR Capital stands by its broker-centric products and services, and is known for transparent, low lending fees. VWR specializes in first and second mortgages in residential urban markets. It is dedicated to being the number-one residential private mortgage lender in Canada.

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“If you want a $1.5 million home and the borrower is making $45,000 a year fixed income, they’re not getting a mortgage with us, typically”

Steven Lang, VWR Capital

“What’s the end goal?” asks Lang, national sales manager at VWR Capital, a private mortgage lender based in Langley, BC. “How can [they] pay for this? How are they going to afford this house?” Being firm up-front can save clients, and everyone else involved in the mortgage industry, a lot of grief down the road, Lang says. “If you want a $1.5 million home and the borrower is making $45,000 a year fixed income, they’re not getting a mortgage with us, typically,” he says. “Private equity lenders don’t have income confirmation; however, we need to know the story. We need to know the ability to pay. We need to know an exit strategy. When we talk to the broker, if there are no notes on the file, it becomes difficult, because you make up the story in your head yourself, which is full of assumptions.”

He has seen competitor business development managers (BDMs) listen to a pitch and reply, “Oh, sounds great. Send it in. We’ll get it done.” At which he shakes his head. “No, you didn’t even ask any questions. You just smile and nod and send it in and it becomes somebody else’s problem to decline it. That is not how we operate here.”

Knowing more about a borrower’s story can help a lender find a solution, too. A self-employed person may have trouble documenting income, but do they have the ability to pay? Digging deep can let someone like Lang see where there are more options. “We can work with them, right? We know what’s going to happen,” he says. “That’s why it is super important, in the beginning, that we deal with the right broker for the right clients, and that we have a great touchpoint, so that we can continue to build our trust with each other as a brokerage.”

At VWR, the business development managers are aware of every guideline and policy procedure and have all the information they need, “so they can make a decision before the deal comes in, without wasting people’s time.” One way of tailoring a financing arrangement to meet the needs of a client is by discussing whether to have a closed- or an open-term mortgage.

Building trust and relationships is key and can save aggravation down the road.

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Published 1 May 2023

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“[Some competitor BDMs] just smile and nod and send [an application] in and it becomes somebody else’s problem to decline it. That is not how we operate here”

Steven Lang, VWR Capital

Set your own broker fee

No income qualification

No minimum Beacon Score

First, second, and third residential mortgages

Renewal rates are only $200

Easy access and quick service standards

What Sets VWR Apart

Lang sees this approach to customers catching on. For example, a new mandatory private lending course in Ontario includes a section on getting documented proof of an exit strategy. Borrowers demonstrating an ability to pay is a practice that not all lenders have exercised in the past, he says.

“We have a lot of people who want an open-term because of their exit strategy,” he says. “There can be so many variables at play – someone moving overseas in the next six months, someone looking to see where interest rates are a year from now, a client wanting to renew and be assured of a renewal if the mortgage is paid as agreed. These are examples of where this up-front, open-versus-closed-term conversation can take you” he says.

“The borrowers are the ones who are calling and questioning us, as they don’t know what type of deal they’ve been put in,” says Lang. “It’s so important; everything goes smoothly from the start when the client is put in the right situation.” He encourages phone calls and emails, keeping the lines of communication open. It means that, one way or another, the deals will come in. Because of the help that was offered this time, that client is more likely to think of your company when they next need assistance, “because we spent the time with them.”

Pratheesan Rathnapala 416-629-2219 pratheesan@vwrcapital.com

Paula Hutton 780-370-7430 paula@vwrcapital.com

Jennifer Peters 604-803-7430 jennifer@vwrcapital.com

Ontario

Prairies

British Columbia

Meet VWR’s Regional BDMs

Set your own broker fee

No income qualification

No minimum Beacon Score

First, second, and third residential mortgages

Renewal rates are only $200

Easy access and quick service standards

What Sets VWR Apart

Jennifer Peters 604-803-7430 jennifer@vwrcapital.com

British Columbia

Paula Hutton 780-370-7430 paula@vwrcapital.com

Prairies

Pratheesan Rathnapala 416-629-2219 pratheesan@vwrcapital.com

Ontario

Meet VWR’s Regional BDMs

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