Most mortgage brokers have access to a similar Panel of Lenders. Some brokers have less access and the banks generally only deal with their own products.
There are many ways to rate a lender. Most people start with interest rates. As rates change all the time we have come up with a way of comparing lenders by attitude towards interest rates:
Interest Rate Assessment
Interest rate aggressive - this would be a lender who is offering a loan interest rate that is below the rest of the pack.
Interest rate aggressive short term - as per interest rate aggressive but the discount is not for the life of the loan.
Interest rate main stream - using Jan 2012 this is around 6.65%.