One veteran mortgage originator gives tips on how brokers can compete with and beat all-cash buyers
While some major housing markets have seen an increase in housing inventory, other areas of the country are still seeing housing shortages, keeping home prices elevated.
Combine those elevated prices with an affluent customer base, and you have brokers and mortgage originators trying to compete with all-cash offers on properties. One industry veteran believes you can compete and beat those offers.
Kirk Todd (pictured top), branch manager and senior loan originator at Choice Mortgage Group, said it starts with your reputation, both in the community and with real estate agents.
“One of the things that gives us an advantage is we've got credibility with other real estate agents,” Todd told Mortgage Professional America. “If they find a pre-approval coming across from Kirk Todd, or someone else who's demonstrated success, that stands a better chance of being accepted.”
Even in an area like a Seacoast community in New Hampshire, Todd is seeing inventories start to increase, which is also helping potential buyers.
“If you go to certain areas, like where our home offices are in Florida, market prices are dropping,” Todd said. “They've overbuilt those areas. In the Carolinas, we see the same thing. It’s a totally different environment there. Here, it's a lack of inventory. It seems like it's getting a little better. I'm starting to see more houses come on the market, which is a positive for our buyers.”
Remote work boom
Todd’s office is in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, located between Portland, Maine, and Boston. It’s an area that boomed when remote work skyrocketed during the pandemic. Additionally, the state of New Hampshire does not have a state income tax.
With those factors combined with the picturesque nature of the area, buyers flooded the market, which drove prices up considerably.
“There are a lot of people settling in our area,” Todd said. “What that has done is to drive the price of housing through the roof. We have a lot of people who will move here for economic reasons. But it has made it a challenge for many of our buyers to get offers accepted because there's been a lot of wealth moving into the community.”
Because it is a desirable area, any property that goes on the market is likely to have multiple offers, and many of those will be all-cash offers. Todd stresses that in these situations, brokers and lenders must be efficient in getting clients prequalified so they can compete with those cash offers.
“When you have a property that goes up that’s desirable, you might have 10, 15, 20 offers on it,” he said. “Those who need financing can be excluded from that, because cash offers tend to prevail. What we've had to do is combat that by being very efficient. We're very much proactive about making sure our clients are preapproved. We try to remove all the barriers from the financing to make them compete with cash offers.”
Building relationships
A recent deal Todd completed gives an example of how brokers can put their clients in a position to win against cash offers.
“I had a client earlier this year that was offering on a property in Dover, New Hampshire,” he said. “The reason my client was able to compete with other offers is that we told them they'd have a solid preapproval going in. They'd have a full loan commitment with an appraisal in seven days and closing in 15, and that’s what won the deal.”
It’s not just relationships with real estate agents that help you in a tough housing market. Being a counselor to your homebuyer not only helps them with the current deal, but keeps you in mind when they’re ready for another purchase or refinance.
CFPB’s 3% broker compensation cap is squeezing both brokers and homebuyers—Brendan McKay, Chief Advocacy Officer & Co-founder of the Broker Action Coalition, explains why reform is critical, not outright rescission.https://t.co/HNODXJMT9c
— Mortgage Professional America Magazine (@MPAMagazineUS) August 27, 2025
“I spend as much time counseling clients on how to get offers accepted as I do on mortgage products,” Todd said. “I always made it a point of trying to go to my actual clients' closings, either purchase or refinance, but especially purchase. With real estate agents, most of them are busy.
“If I can sit down, if I can spend half an hour, an hour with them in an office during a closing, it's just a way to celebrate together and get to be with someone in person. And hopefully they'll remember, remember a little bit about me.”
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