A 20-year NYC real estate veteran shares what agents talk about on the office floor
Even with the advances in lead generation software, a strong referral network still remains one of a mortgage broker’s greatest assets. When the market is challenging, that network becomes even more important.
Despite the news from Freddie Mac on Thursday that the 30-year fixed mortgage rate fell slightly to 6.67%, the combination of elevated rates relative to expectations and affordability challenges is slowing business for many brokers.
The referral relationship between a mortgage broker and a real estate agent runs on trust. An agent who recommends a broker to a client is putting their own reputation on the line, and vice versa.
In big-city markets like New York City, where transactions can be complex, that trust is harder to earn and easier to lose. The brokers who have built lasting referral relationships with top agents have typically figured out what those agents actually need, and it is not just a rate.
Understanding that dynamic from the agent's side is a critical piece of intelligence for mortgage brokers. One 20-year veteran of the New York market shared what she and her colleagues talk about when it comes to brokers, and what helps build originators into reliable referral partners.
Kevelyn Guzman (pictured top), regional vice president at Coldwell Banker Warburg in New York, said the relationship brokers are trying to build with agents mirrors the one agents are trying to build with their clients.
"Our agents like to trust their mortgage brokers," Guzman told Mortgage Professional America. "If they're going to recommend you, they really want to know that you're going to do the best job for their clients."
What agents want from brokers
Guzman said the feedback she hears most consistently from agents comes down to one habit. The brokers who stay in touch with something useful to say are the ones who get recommended.
"When mortgage brokers connect with our agents, send them updated information, and are constantly updating them, they will forward that to their clients," she said. "Send them that piece of information that they will find valuable that they can pass on to their clients. I think that's key."
Communication between customers, agents and brokers allows everyone to stay in the loop during the mortgage transaction. It’s why Guzman and her colleagues love to get those messages from brokers with even the smallest updates.
"I hear it on the floor all the time," she said. "They love to hear from mortgage brokers. They love seeing what comes in because it's more information they get to pass on to their clients."
How AI impacts that relationship
You can’t escape artificial intelligence, and that includes in the dynamic between a broker, an agent, and a customer. However, while some in the industry are concerned that AI could damage that referral bond, Guzman believes the opposite is true.
Guzman said technology has changed the buyer dynamic in ways that reinforce the value of the agent-broker relationship rather than undermining it. Buyers today arrive with more information than ever and more questions to go with it.
"There's so much with technology today, there's so much at their fingertips that at any given moment, if you say to them your apartment is valued at X, Y and Z, they will go into ChatGPT and get either the same information or they'll question whether or not you missed something," she said. "However, it will never replace what mortgage brokers and agents currently do. Because there are many factors that AI can't pick up on."
She gave a specific example. An apartment that sold at a certain price because of a motivated seller or a pending assessment is invisible to AI, and the pricing context it returns is incomplete as a result.
The same logic applies neighborhood by neighborhood. What is happening on the Upper West Side is not what is happening in the Financial District, and the texture of those micro-markets requires accumulated local knowledge that only a broker or agent can provide.
Guzman said the brokers who understand this are in a strong position. The judgment, the local knowledge, and the ability to give a client the real story are things technology cannot replicate.
"AI won't know the specific details,” she said. “And so I always say to people, ‘AI is great. It's so good that we have the technology, but it will never replace a human.’ It has definitely strengthened those relationships because you still need that human component."
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