5 Questions to Ask a Broker Before You Sign Anything

Choosing a broker is often treated as a formality — but it’s worth a few minutes of genuine due diligence before you commit, particularly for anything beyond a straightforward home loan. Here are five questions worth asking upfront.

1. “How many clients in my profession have you worked with recently?”

Experience with medical professionals specifically — not just general home loan or business lending experience — is the difference between a broker who knows which lenders handle irregular income or practice ownership well, and one who’s applying a generic template to your situation. Ask for a rough number, not just a vague “quite a few.”

2. “Which lenders on your panel offer specific policies for my profession?”

A broker’s value comes partly from panel breadth — how many lenders they can access — but more importantly from knowing which of those lenders have policies that suit your specific situation. If a broker can’t name specific lenders or policies relevant to you, that’s worth noting.

3. “How are you paid, and are there any fees I’d pay directly?”

Most brokers are paid via commission from the lender, but it’s reasonable to ask directly, along with whether any fees apply that you’d pay out of pocket. A broker should be able to explain this clearly and without hesitation.

4. “What happens if my situation doesn’t fit standard lending policy?”

This question tends to reveal a lot. A broker experienced with more complex situations — new practice ownership, recent career changes, mixed income sources — should be able to describe how they’d approach it, rather than giving a generic “it depends” without further detail.

5. “Can you walk me through a similar situation you’ve helped with before?”

Without needing specific client names or confidential details, an experienced broker should be able to describe the shape of a similar deal they’ve worked on — what made it work, what the challenges were. Vague or evasive answers here are worth paying attention to.

What to do with the answers

There’s no single “correct” answer to any of these — what matters is whether the broker’s answers feel specific and grounded in real experience, versus generic and rehearsed. Comparing answers across two or three brokers can make the difference much clearer than talking to just one.

The bottom line

A good broker relationship, particularly for something as significant as a practice purchase or a larger home loan, is worth a bit of upfront scrutiny. These five questions are a reasonable starting point for a first conversation — and how a broker answers them often tells you as much as the answers themselves.