As part of my property investing series research which I've been writing since last month, I am trying to reach out to as many groups of people involved in the end to end chain process of a property purchase.

This includes the likes of subject matter experts, agents, mortgage advisors and property portals such as 99.co and property guru.

Last week, I contacted one of the leading mortgage advisory brokers in Singapore, Redbrick Mortgage Advisory, as an anonymous to understand better the services and professional service level they provide.

But before that, let's first understand the role of a mortgage broker.

Property purchase is easily the biggest, if not one of the biggest financial commitments you will ever likely to make in your lifetime.

When purchasing a property either for your stay or investment, most people usually choose to service their purchase using financing options such as mortgage loans over the next 30 years or so.

Seeking an unbiased independent mortgage advisor such as Redbrick is therefore crucial because they have advisors on the ground who are subject matter experts who will recommend the best financing options available out there.

Not only that, but you also get personalized attention and flexibility to call them day or night to get their advice on the concerns you have.

For all the attention and guidance you will get, the best catch is there are no additional costs that you have to incur for their services.

This is in contrast to countries like Australia where the Hayne royal commissioner is proposing changes to the remuneration of brokers from a commission to a fixed fee for their subject matter advice.

If the abovementioned is true and it is that good then why aren't more people using their services?

If you were to ask me, my guess is most people are still skeptical about the role of a mortgage broker in Singapore and struggle to understand how they can add value to the service.

For one, mortgage brokers are essentially middlemen between banks and borrowers, and since the commissions they get are standard across the industry, they are likely to be more independent and unbiased when providing advice to their clients.

That means a comparison across all the packages from the different banks and you can choose the best of the lots based on your specific requirement.

Mortgage brokerage such as Redbrick also provides one-stop shopping for all the services you might need.

This includes the likes of a residential or commercial property loan, bridging loan or even the options to evaluate the alternative of cash out equity financing loan which you can read about my story here.

In addition to that, they also provide a more personalized experience that can be customized according to your needs. They can carve out solutions to your problems or even provide better alternative options that you didn't originally think of that you can now consider.

While going directly to banks for loan packages sounds more straightforward, the bank loan officer serving is more likely to sell products that are favorable to the bank and might not go the extra mile to help you solve the problems you have on hand.

This can, of course, vary from experience, but that's just the general impression I get when I talked to both side of the parties (I've used them both from my personal experience).

Why Choose Redbrick?

Being the curious person I am, I tried to complete the relevant information that Redbrick provides on their website to check out and compare the loans across the different banks.

To my surprise, I received a call from one of their consultants within 5 minutes of completing the form (I wasn't expecting them to call me immediately) on my registered phone number.

I had previously studied some of the different home loan packages available across the different banks and had a good understanding of them myself but still wanted to use this opportunity to get a subject matter expert second opinion.

For instance, I had known beforehand that some of DBS home loan package uses FHR8 (Fixed Deposit Rate), while some of Maybank home loan package uses SRFR (Singapore Residential Financing Rate). Since these are board rates which the banks control, they are likely to be less favorable to borrowers in the event of a declining interest rate environment.

The consultant I called in was very patient in explaining all the different packages the banks are offering and the pros and cons of each of the package. She was knowledgeable in the products that she was handling.

I was rather impressed with the service level that she provided.

But I wasn't sure if every consultant was this competent or if I was mere lucky on that day.

Being the once again curious person that I am, I submitted a second request to them.

Similar to the first case, a different consultant gave me a call within 5 minutes. This time around, I arranged for a face to face visit at my home. She arrived at my location in less than an hour after the call.

Again, the service standard was very high and efficient. She was very knowledgeable about all the different packages and provided me with alternatives that I didn't manage to explore by myself previously.

Final Thoughts

I was impressed with Redbrick service standards that I contacted their Managing Director, Eugene Huang and we met over lunch where he generously shared his perspective on the property sectors and how his business model works.

During our meeting together, I was also briefed on how the company is training its consultants to maintain a high level of service standards consistently.

This explains why the two consultants I had was delivering consistent standards throughout the session.

It didn't occur to me in the past that using an independent mortgage advisory could give me favorable objectives and different perspective to look at things from another angle.

If you are thinking of taking a new home loan for your new home purchase or looking into refinancing your existing loan or even thinking about unlocking the equity value of your home loan, why not give them a try by visiting their website here.

It doesn't cost you a single cost extra to engage their services but who knows you may come out like a winner.

P.S: This post is a collaboration with Redbrick Mortgage Advisory and I'll get a cut out of the service commission if you engage but all stated opinions are based on my own experience using their services and are solely mine.