Top 10 Mortgage Brokerages in Guelph
Mortgage brokers are licensed professionals who have access to multiple lenders and can find you the best mortgage rates available in the market. A good mortgage broker can help you save thousands of dollars in mortgage interest. Mortgage brokers receive a commission from the lenders, so their service to borrowers is free of charge. Listed below are some of the top brokerages servicing the residents of Guelph. We will first look at some national brokerages that offer an online application, followed by local brokerages you can easily reach in person.
Quick Picks
- Butler Mortgage: Butler Mortgage is a brokerage with over two decades of experience and tracks rates from over 350 lending institutions. The brokerage offers an up-front rate guarantee, as well as an after-approval rate guarantee to ensure that their clients always get the lowest rate.
- nesto: The digital lending platform offers a seamless online mortgage experience along with some of the best rates. The brokerage’s mortgage rate with a 150-day lock-in period offers the longest lock-in period in Canada.
- Guelph Mortgage Architects: The brokerage has a team of 14 mortgage agents and has access to rates from over 50 Canadian lenders. Apart from residential mortgages, the brokerage can also help with land-only mortgages and commercial mortgages.
Top Mortgage Brokers in Guelph
Guelph Online Brokerages with Competitive Rates
Butler Mortgage is a renowned broker that is active in Ontario, British Columbia, and Alberta. The brokerage was founded over two decades ago and is headquartered in Toronto. The nearest offices for the residents of Guelph are those in Oakville and Toronto. Alternatively, the brokerage offers an online application for borrowers to apply remotely. Borrowers can also call the brokerage’s toll-free number to speak to an agent.
According to Butler Mortgage, the brokerage is able to offer the best rates in the market as it tracks rates from over 350 lenders. They work with a range of lenders, including banks, credit unions, and private lenders, enabling them to offer mortgage services to borrowers with all kinds of credit. Butler’s mortgages come with features such as prepayment options, portability, assumability, and convertibility.
Butler Mortgage backs its low rate claim with an up-front rate guarantee that suggests that it will match or beat a lower rate offered to clients by another brokerage. The brokerage offers an after-approval rate guarantee as well. This guarantee suggests that the brokerage keeps scanning the market for a lower rate for you even after a lender has approved you. If they come across a rate that is at least 0.1% lower than the rate you are approved for, they request your lender to adjust your rate. In the event that your lender refuses to do so, you can switch to the lender offering the lower rate.
Meanwhile, Butler Mortgage’s RateGuard Approval ensures that your rate is locked-in for 120 days and does not increase if the rates in the market go up during this time. However, if the rates in the market go down during the lock-in period, you will automatically get a new lower rate.
Some of the mortgage services offered by the brokerage are:
- New Purchases
- Pre-Approval
- Refinance
- Renewal
- Investment Property
- Vacation/Second Home
- Purchase Plus Improvement
- Construction Mortgages
- HELOC
- Self-Employed Solutions
- Credit Repair
- Mortgages for Newcomers to Canada
Citadel is a well-established brokerage with seven offices in seven different provinces in Canada. The brokerage was founded in 2018 and has won several awards since then, including the Excellence Award for Digital Innovation at the 2023 Canadian Mortgage Awards. The brokerage offers a simple digital application that allows you to apply from anywhere within minutes. Borrowers from Guelph who prefer to apply in person can visit Citadel’s office located in Toronto.
Citadel offers a prequalification tool on its website that can prequalify borrowers within 60 seconds. Citadel Mortgages offer mortgage services such as:
- Purchase, Refinance, Transfer Mortgages
- Private Mortgages
- HELOC
- Equity Lending
- Second Mortgages,
Additionally, Citadel also offers an all-in-one mortgage solution. This solution combines debt and savings into a single account, helping borrowers pay off their mortgages faster and become debt free sooner.
Citadel Mortgage’s lending partners include banks, credit unions, and private lenders. This allows the brokerage to offer mortgages to borrowers with all kinds of credit, and the brokerage specializes in assisting borrowers with bad credit. The brokerage often offers limited-time incentives to borrowers, such as cashback, complimentary hotel stays, and AIR MILES.
Pine is a digital lending platform introduced in Canada in 2021. The intention behind the platform is to make the mortgage process faster and easier using technology. The online application offered by Pine takes less than 10 minutes to complete, and all the supporting documentation is also submitted through an online customer portal. No branch visits are required at any time during the process. If you want to speak to an advisor at any time, you can do so over the phone, through email, or over an online chat.
If you are looking to get preapproved, Pine can help you get a mortgage pre-approval within 24 hours.
Pine’s mortgage rates are always among the best rates available in Canada, as can be seen from WOWA’s mortgage rates table, which shows rates from over 50 lenders and brokers. Meanwhile, you can save more with incentives such as cashback offered by the brokerage from time to time.
Neo Mortgage is the latest offering by the popular Canadian fintech Neo Financial. The digital platform aims to provide an efficient and easy mortgage process that saves you a lot of time and effort. The process is fully online, and no branch visits are required. The application can be completed in as little as 10 minutes, and the supporting documents are also submitted through a secure online portal.
According to Neo Mortgage, their low mortgage rates save thousands of dollars for their clients. Neo Mortgage’s 5-year fixed and 5-year variable mortgage rates are usually among the top five rates on WOWA’s mortgage rates table. This suggests that the brokerage indeed offers some of the lowest rates in Canada.
The brokerage’s website features five lending partners at present, while the brokerage is working towards expanding that list. Neo Mortgage encourages borrowers with an imperfect credit score to apply with them; however, the brokerage does not guarantee their approval.
Launched in 2018, nesto is an online mortgage platform that started with the aim of digitizing the mortgage process. Bringing technology to the lending space has made the mortgage experience much simpler. The brokerage does not have any branches, and the entire process is completed online. The digital application can be completed through nesto’s website from anywhere within minutes. The supporting documents are also submitted online. If a borrower needs advice, they may consult an agent over a phone call or through email. nesto’s agents are compensated with a fixed salary as opposed to a commission. This is to ensure that they stay unbiased while offering advice to clients.
The brokerage suggests that the rates it offers are the absolute minimum rates provided by banks, also known as ‘floor rates.’. nesto backs this claim with a low-rate guarantee and compensates its clients with $500 at closing if it fails to deliver on its lowest-rate promise.
The brokerage also offers some special mortgage products. A key mortgage rate offered by nesto is the rate with a 150-day lock-in period, exceeding the traditional 120-day lock-in period. This is the longest lock-in period available in Canada. Meanwhile, the brokerage also offers a cash-back mortgage that lets borrowers get 1% cash back on the mortgage amount, up to a maximum of $9,250 for a 5-year term. This may be helpful for borrowers in need of cash for renovations, repairs, or to buy furniture.
There are currently three financing options available offered by nesto:
- New Mortgage
- Mortgage Renewal
- Mortgage Refinance
It should also be noted that nesto has strict lending guidelines, and borrowers need to meet their minimum credit criteria to get approved.
Local Guelph Mortgage Brokerages
Part of the Mortgage Architects broker network, Guelph Mortgage Architects offers brokering services in Guelph, Kitchener, Waterloo, Cambridge, Milton, Fergus, Greater Toronto Hamilton Area (GTHA), and other surrounding areas. The brokerage has access to mortgage products offered by over 50 lenders, and they offer many kinds of mortgage products, including mortgages for bad credit, land-only mortgages, mortgages for self-employed and debt consolidation. The brokerage has a team of 14 mortgage professionals who can be reached in person, over the phone, or through email. The latest rates are available on the brokerage’s website, and the website lets you apply online as well.
Originally founded as Champion Mortgage Inc., the brokerage teamed up with Calgary-based Axiom Mortgage Solutions in 2021 to become Axiom Mortgage Solutions - Guelph. Borrowers can get started by connecting with one of the 12 agents directly or filling out the online application. Like many digital brokers, the brokerage has an online portal for uploading documents, comparing different mortgage products, and signing all the financing documents. In fact, you can add your real estate agent and lawyer to the portal to make the collaboration easier.
Diamond Mortgage Group is a Guelph-based brokerage offering many mortgage products, including home renovation loans, investment property mortgages, and commercial mortgages. The brokerage offers giveaways such as game tickets from time to time. The brokerage has a team of eight mortgage professionals and works with over 50 lending institutions. Borrowers can apply online through the brokerage’s website or contact them by phone, email, or through online inquiry.
The Mortgage Centre Guelph is a part of The Mortgage Centre broker network that has over 250 locations across Canada. Borrowers can book an appointment through the brokerage’s website or drop them an email. Borrowers can also download the My Mortgage Centre (MCC) mobile app on their phones and use the tools available on the app to plan their mortgages. The mortgage solutions offered by the brokerage include mortgages for rural properties, divorce/separation solutions, new-to-Canada mortgages, second mortgages, and more.
Mortgage Broker Networks in Canada
In Canada, many independent brokerages operate as franchises of mortgage broker networks. Due to the volume of their business, mortgage broker networks are often able to negotiate better rates with lenders. Additionally, the brokers in the networks have access to tools and resources provided by the network. Some broker networks are also part of larger financial groups. For example, Mortgage Intelligence, Invis, and Verico are all part of the M3 Financial Group.
With over 400 offices and a team of over 3,000 mortgage experts in Canada, Dominion Lending Centres is among the largest broker networks in the country. The network has more than 90 lending partners. The network brokers have access to numerous tools and resources provided by the network. In addition, the network organizes training sessions for the brokers to help them stay up-to-date with industry standards. The network also has its own mobile application called ‘My Mortgage Toolbox.’
About Mortgage Brokers in Ontario
Mortgage brokers in Canada are licensed professionals who are required to complete relevant courses in their province of residence before obtaining a license. The regulatory body for brokers in Ontario is the Financial Services Regulatory Authority of Ontario (FSRA), which is responsible for issuing mortgage broker licenses in the province. To become a mortgage broker in Ontario, an individual must complete an FSRA-approved course and its examination.
The course to be completed is offered by Mortgage Professionals Canada (MPC) and is known as the Ontario Mortgage Broker Education Program (OMBEP). The course has two phases, the first phase is online, and the second one is in-person. Before applying for the mortgage broker license, the applicant must hold a mortgage agent license for at least 24 months in the immediate 36-month period before application.