When you walk into your bank, you get one lender's rates, one lender's rules, and one person whose job is to sell that bank's products, because that's the only shelf they're allowed to shop from.
A broker can offer you access to dozens of lenders, including monoline lenders you've probably never heard of because they don't have storefronts or mega ad budgets, and compares your file against all of them at once.
Does it cost anything?
In the vast majority of cases: no. Brokers are paid a finder's fee by the lender who had the best deal for you after your mortgage funds, the same way a realtor is paid by the seller's side of a deal. You get the comparison shopping without paying for it separately. One case where a broker will charge a fee is if alternative or private lending is required.
What you actually get
Beyond rate, a broker looks at prepayment privileges, portability if you might move, penalty structure if you might break the mortgage early, and which lender's underwriting style actually fits your income situation, whether that's salaried, self-employed, or a mix of both. Two mortgages can have the same rate and be very different products once you read past the headline number.
You also get someone in your corner if something in the file gets complicated: a lender asking for an unusual document, a condition that needs explaining, a timeline that's getting tight before possession day. That's the part that doesn't show up in a rate comparison but matters most when you're mid-transaction.
The honest version
A broker isn't automatically better in every single scenario. But for most people, having someone compare the whole market instead of one shelf is worth the five minutes it takes to ask. If you've never worked with a broker and want to see what it actually looks like, reach out through karalenius.ca.