Choosing How To Borrow

Should You Use a Mortgage Broker or a Bank in Florida?

5.0 from 28 verified Google reviews Melbourne, FL · family-owned since 1999 NMLS #353790

The honest answer depends on your file, and for plenty of people it is the bank. If yours is straightforward — steady W-2 income, an ordinary house, credit you are not worried about — many lenders are built for exactly that, and the bank you already use is a reasonable place to start. If something about it is unusual — self-employment, a condo, a VA file — the case for a broker gets concrete: you fill out one application with us and we take it to several lenders, instead of taking one company's answer and starting over. Nobody can tell you in advance which route ends up better for you; you find that out by reading Loan Estimates dated the same day. We are a broker, so read this knowing we have a stake in the answer.

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There are three kinds of shop, not two

A depository bank or credit union takes deposits and lends its own money. It generally underwrites in house, and the products it offers are generally its own. A non-depository lender, sometimes called a mortgage bank, also funds its own loans but takes no deposits, and often sells the loan after closing.

A mortgage broker does neither. We do not lend our own money, and we do not approve, underwrite or fund anything. We take your application and submit it to lenders in our network. The lender underwrites, and the lender decides.

How a broker gets paid, and where you can see it

Federal rules limit how a broker is paid, and the limits are yours to use. Our compensation cannot be based on your interest rate — 12 CFR 1026.36(d)(1) — so our pay does not rise if your rate does. The rule does permit compensation set as a percentage of the loan amount, which is a different thing from your rate; ask which arrangement applies on your file. On any one loan we are paid either by you or by the lender, never both, under 1026.36(d)(2). Either way, the compensation paid to us is disclosed in writing on your Closing Disclosure with our name beside it, under 1026.38(f)(1); if you are the one paying it, it also appears in the Origination Charges on your Loan Estimate. Ask early which applies to your file and where you will see it. That is a general description of the rules, not legal advice.

That line exists because the rule reaches compensation paid to a third-party loan originator, which is what we are. It is not a scorecard for measuring a broker against a company selling you its own product.

We do not quote rates, fees or compensation figures on this site. Those depend on the lender and on your file, and a number here would be a guess.

When a bank is the better choice

These are real, and we say so when they apply.

You already bank there and the relationship counts for something. Some institutions offer benefits to customers who hold deposits or investments with them. Ask yours what applies to you, in writing.

The loan would sit on the bank's own books. A portfolio product is held by the institution that created it, and unless that institution also works with brokers, a broker cannot bring it to you. It tends to come up on jumbo files, unusual properties, land and construction.

You want fewer parties in it. A broker is an extra organization on the file, and two organizations means at least one handoff. Handoffs are where things get dropped. We work at that seam, but it is there.

When a broker is the better choice

The common thread: the answer varies by lender, and we can ask several.

Your income does not arrive as a pay stub. Business expenses you deduct reduce the net income on your return, and net income is generally what agency guidelines look to when qualifying self-employment income. Some non-cash deductions, depreciation among them, are added back in the lender's cash flow analysis. Others are not. In our experience that gap, between what a business takes in and what the return shows, is a common reason a self-employed file needs a closer look.

You are paid on a 1099. Income reported on Schedule C is generally underwritten as self-employment income rather than as wages, however steady the work is. What generally drives that is ownership and how the income is reported, not consistency. Some 1099 income can be treated as non-self-employed income where the lender's program allows it and specific conditions are met, so it is worth asking rather than assuming. Programs that read income differently vary by lender and by file, and some sit outside agency guidelines entirely.

You are buying a condo. The building is under review alongside you, and lenders and loan programs do not all review projects the same way.

It is a VA file. The VA sets the program, and lenders commonly add overlays that are not identical from one to the next. Being eligible and finding the lender that will actually do the loan are two questions, not one.

What a Florida file actually turns on

Homeowners insurance is part of what a lender counts in assessing affordability, so a quote can change what you qualify for even though your income did not move. Near the coast and on older roofs, quotes can vary widely by carrier. Get them early.

Condominiums are where the choice actually matters. A condo loan puts two things under review at once: you, and the building. A project's eligibility is reviewed separately from your own credit, so a strong file does not by itself fix a project that misses an agency standard, and a project problem is generally not something a borrower can cure.

Both the agency rules and Florida's own trace back to the June 2021 collapse of Champlain Towers South in Surfside. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac issued new condominium requirements later that year, effective in 2022, and Florida enacted milestone inspections and structural integrity reserve studies in 2022, amended in most legislative sessions since. This area changes every year, so confirm the current version rather than relying on any summary, including this one. In general terms, describing the statutes rather than giving legal advice: both reach buildings of three habitable stories or more, so shorter buildings sit outside these two state requirements — local governments can impose building recertification requirements of their own, so ask rather than assume a shorter building has no inspection obligation at all. The milestone inspection under Fla. Stat. § 553.899 is performed by a Florida-licensed architect or engineer, due by the end of the year the building turns 30 and every ten years after that, and a local enforcement agency can require it at 25 where local conditions warrant.

The reserve study under Fla. Stat. § 718.112 has no building-age trigger, and associations that already existed when the requirement took effect were given a statutory deadline to complete a first one that has already passed, with limited relief added in 2025. Ask the association for its study and the date it was completed. Reserves for the components a required study covers generally can no longer be voted down as they once could, though the 2025 amendments left some room. Check the association's adopted budget.

Florida law also requires a seller of a condominium unit to give a buyer the inspector-prepared summary of the milestone report, where one applies, and the association's most recent reserve study, or a statement that none has been completed. Ask for both early. A project review will generally want them, and "none has been done" is itself worth knowing before you are under contract. Send us the building name before you write the offer and we will check the current standard against it.

Two questions that work on a broker, a bank or a direct lender

These work on anyone. Use them on us too.

How many lenders will you realistically submit this to? If you are talking to a broker and the honest answer is one, you are getting a bank experience with an extra party in it.

When will I get a written Loan Estimate? Under federal rules, once a lender has six things from you — your name, your income, your Social Security number, the property address, an estimate of the property's value, and the loan amount you are asking for — that is an application, and a Loan Estimate must be delivered or placed in the mail no later than three business days later. You do not have to hand over verifying documents first. That is a general description of the rule, not legal advice.

Our stake in this, stated plainly

Homesite Mortgage Corporation is a Florida-licensed mortgage broker, NMLS #353790, family-owned in Melbourne since 1999. We do not lend our own money, and we do not approve, underwrite or fund loans — the lender does. We are licensed in Florida only. We benefit when someone chooses a broker, which is exactly why this page has a section on when a bank is the better call.

We cannot tell you which route suits your file without seeing it. Prequalification is not preapproval, and neither is a commitment to lend. Send us what you have been offered and we will tell you whether we think it is worth us competing for. Sometimes the answer is that your bank has something we cannot match.

Common Questions

Questions We Get Asked

Is a mortgage broker cheaper than a bank?

Not automatically, in either direction, and anyone who answers that with a rule instead of a comparison is selling you something. A broker can put one file in front of several lenders, which matters most when the file does not fit one institution neatly. A bank may hold a portfolio product, or a benefit tied to your existing relationship, that a broker may not be able to reach. The only reliable way to find out is to get written Loan Estimates and read them side by side, using documents dated the same day, because pricing moves. Be skeptical of us on this too — we are a broker.

Do I pay a mortgage broker directly, or does the lender?

One or the other on any given file, never both — federal rules do not permit both on the same transaction (12 CFR 1026.36(d)(2)). Whichever applies, the compensation paid to us is disclosed in writing on your Closing Disclosure with our name beside it (12 CFR 1026.38(f)(1)), and if you are the one paying it, it also appears in the Origination Charges on your Loan Estimate. Ask early which arrangement applies to your file and where you will see it, rather than meeting it for the first time at the closing table. Worth knowing as well: our compensation cannot be based on your interest rate (12 CFR 1026.36(d)(1)), so it does not go up if your rate does. The rule does permit compensation set as a percentage of the loan amount, which is separate from your rate. This is a general description of the rules, not legal advice.

If a broker shops several lenders, does my credit get pulled several times?

Not with us, in the ordinary case. You fill out one application here, we work from one credit report, and we take your file to several lenders. Some lenders do require their own pull, and a credit report has a limited shelf life, so if that comes up on your file we will tell you before it happens rather than after. Separately, credit scoring models give mortgage shopping special treatment: credit scoring models generally treat multiple mortgage credit checks made within a short shopping window as a single inquiry for scoring purposes. The exact window depends on which scoring model is used: newer FICO versions use 45 days, older ones 14, and mortgage lending often runs on older models. The practical advice is to do your shopping in a tight stretch rather than spread over months. The grouping applies to mortgage inquiries with other mortgage inquiries, not a mortgage plus a car loan.

Will a seller take a preapproval from a broker as seriously as one from a bank?

In our experience what carries weight with a listing agent is how verified the letter is and whether they can reach the person who wrote it, more than the name at the top of it. A fully underwritten preapproval, where a lender has reviewed your actual documentation rather than what you told them, generally carries more weight than a basic prequalification letter, whoever issued it. Neither a prequalification nor a preapproval is a commitment to lend, and both stay subject to final underwriting.

I am buying a Florida condo. Does the broker-or-bank choice matter more there?

It can, because lenders and loan programs do not all review projects the same way. "Warrantable" is industry shorthand rather than agency language: Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac say eligible or ineligible project, decided through a review the lender performs that weighs the association's finances and reserves, the ownership and occupancy mix, delinquent assessments, the condition of the buildings, special assessments, litigation touching safety or habitability, and insurance. The agencies set those thresholds and update them periodically, and the lender applies them, not us. FHA and VA run their own condominium approvals, so standing under one program does not decide standing under another. One mechanism is worth knowing about: Fannie Mae treats a project as ineligible where a structural or mechanical inspection report from the past three years shows unaddressed critical repairs, and it stays ineligible until those repairs are completed and documented; Freddie Mac published parallel requirements. A phase two milestone inspection is not automatically a critical-repair finding — phase two follows substantial deterioration identified in phase one, and what happens next depends on what the report concludes and what the association has done about it. What we cannot tell you in advance is how a particular lender will read a particular report.

My bank said no. Does that mean I do not qualify anywhere?

Not necessarily. It is one company's answer under one set of guidelines and overlays. Often it comes down to program fit — how self-employment income reads on a tax return, a building that particular lender will not lend in, a single item outside one company's guidelines. Ask them in writing why, because that reason tells the next person where to look. We cannot promise you a different outcome, and nobody honest can. The question is still worth asking before you treat the first answer as the answer.

How do I check whether the loan officer I am talking to is licensed?

Look the company and the person up at nmlsconsumeraccess.org, the public NMLS registry. It shows current status for both, and whether the individual is state-licensed or federally registered. That difference is worth understanding: in general terms under the federal SAFE Act framework, originators at a mortgage broker or a non-depository lender are generally state-licensed, which involves a national test, pre-licensing coursework and continuing education, while originators employed by a depository institution are generally federally registered instead, under a different set of requirements. That is a general description, not legal advice, and it is not a judgment about anyone — plenty of bank originators are very good at this. Homesite Mortgage Corporation is NMLS #353790; Tom Culpepper is #353539, Tracy Cody is #886861, and Brandon Culpepper is #1577726. Do this for every mortgage company you talk to, not just us.

If you want a second read on what you have been offered, call 321-751-4403 or start a prequalification — there is no hard credit pull to begin. If a bank is the better fit for your file, we will tell you that.

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