Construction financing broker or bank: advantages/disadvantages etc

that's how it looks...

besides, banks nowadays often make 2 pricing
once in the branch
once through external parties (brokers etc.) and since this is often a "competitive market" (the broker can directly compare with other banks) the conditions here are often better than on-site.

and as already mentioned:
if you do it in the branch:
then you have to include the following costs in the conditions
- maintenance of the branch
- maintenance of the employee (who costs money even if they don’t generate sales)
- etc.

if the broker basically prepares everything and forwards it to the bank, then it is often checked by other employees who do nothing else but check creditworthiness/property evaluation, and then they approve it, contracts are created.

thus the bank’s workload is much lower = they can calculate with lower costs = better interest rate!
(not always, but very often)

Whereas I can always recommend taking both routes. In our case, the 5 brokers I commissioned did not have the MBS in their portfolio. After a personal conversation with the bank advisor, I then got an interest rate there that was about 0.2% cheaper than the best offer from the brokers.

But it can also go differently: If you put a comparison offer on the table, the local branch bank can follow suit and offer the same interest rate. That went smoothly for me. No one was upset, it was handled professionally.

No matter what happens, the bank employee is just an intermediary, you won't see them again later, no matter which path you take.

Since we are currently in the middle of the financing request or obtaining offers, I can compare quite well.

I contacted my house bank directly and a few other banks in the area. Now the result was sobering. There was one advisor who did not listen and was absolutely determined to sell me a solution with a building savings contract. Then another one who took notes and also tried to implement it, but the bank’s interest rates are so awfully high that unfortunately I have to pass.

In a panic, see Swap 10 years this week, I turned to a broker. And behold, it works. He listens, is accommodating, implements what you want. No building savings contract or anything like that. I want to pay off in 21 years, so I don’t need a building savings contract with a 20-year commitment. I am therefore fully satisfied with the broker and can only recommend proceeding this way.

Everything is supposed to be finalized next week, let’s see.

I also did it through an intermediary. He was super nice and committed and is still reachable at any time. I had also inquired at my main bank, but the promised callback came only a week later, and I didn’t have that much time in January with rapidly rising interest rates. I had already inquired through the intermediary by then. And I also called a Volksbank to quickly check if they would match the price, but I was only told that they were not a bank for price comparisons.

I can only recommend the intermediary; otherwise, you will very likely pay too much for the loan.