Mortgage committment letter for new build ?

homer_j wrote:

I am afraid not, 3 weeks ago the forum worked in a fairly straight forward way -

1 - Somebody posted their query
2 - A response was posted to answer that query
3 - OP was satisfied or knew what they needed to do to try and find resolve to their query.

Over the last 2/3 weeks, more and more posts seems to be going off topic and people have become more interested in putting personal agenda and point scoring over responding and answering a query.

Admittedly, I too have had some involvement in these posts and I believe that I have reached a mutual respect with Emma in terms of that we seem to both have the interest of the consumer at heart.

I have got past the blame game or naming and shaming but I think that it is the consumer and 99% of people that use the mortgage forum thread are losing out due to all of this.

MortgageMamma is quite right in saying that we as brokers have been posting less, me personally it is because I have been a lot busier but I have also become a little tiresome of it all.

I am not saying that Emma & Co should not have their say in this forum but going back to what I was saying at the start of this post - this forum has always happily worked with people posting a question and get an answer that they need.

These answers do not come from brokers/professionals alone. They come from various people and everbody has their opinion. The only time this becomes a problem is when people start bombarding the boards/threads with information that to be honest is off topic and/or not really important to the people that use this forum on a day to day basis.

This said, I appreciate that Emma and Co (sorry, I am not saying this in a bad way, just the only way I can collectively call the group you are involved with) have been looking at some interesting points, not all that I agree with but some, which may become something of public interest and awareness. Once the research has been done and reports prepared, I am sure Martin would welcome a read of this and if felt that his site would benefit from this then look to work co-operatively with the group of people to help promote that. After all he is the champion of the consumer.

This post is not intended to cause upset or devalue anybodys opinion but can we bring some normality back to the board and mutual respect without the point scoring, abusing other forum members and bringing posts off topic to make a point that relates to another thread?

I was passing by and saw this and I must admit I was very dissatisfied with everything I read and was curious too so we looked more while I am sitting ehre arguing with my son-in-law who by the way is a real fan of Martin Lewis and more savvy than me in the modern financial world and he is nornally more right than wrong which gives me sleepless nights. I can see your point in relation to how the board is to be used and has been used and see how after reading what seems like a thousand posts how this has detoured. I also see EmmaHarris viewpoint too and feel she has misread how this board is to be used. For my twopenneths for what is worth though I also see what she is trying to do, even my big headed son-in-law wasn't aware of much of what she said and he understood more than me, maybe I will get an hours sleep tonight knowing that eh didnt know it all. To summarise this, we do think she is trying to get a real point over but maybe just going around it the wrong way which has raised your suspicions but her intentions dont seem to be bad. She has two main areas of concern in tow main threads so I dont take up on or understand how that is bombarding the forum when you count how many threads there are. Anger seems to have got the better of some and there have been some undesireble replies in part. We noticed that she answered questions and others then still asked the same even some who were not even participating in the threads. She is young and I am not patronising Emma and you seem very eager to help. Your very bright too. Your comments above in relation to the whole research we cannot disagree upon as there are valid issues being raised in her posts. Normally at this point I get scolded for interfering and any advice I give my daughters whether good or bad still wont be taken but I would suggest for the sake of the sanctity and preserving the high profle of the forum that she shoudl be encouraged and helped but in a more friendly and mentoring way from the more elders of this forum. If I am right she will repsond accordngly with a more friendly approach taking your points that you have come to a sort of agreement of mutual respect anyway. If she doesnt then its not worth the hassle and the forum mebers can chuck her out. I'd be surprised if she didnt repsond poistivly to this. I ams ure we all agree she is gutsy and bullish. Okay thats my twopenneths worth but I ahve another problem with Amex that I need to sort out.

Where is Nurse Ratchet when you really need her ?
Seek professional medical help. Stay in touch with family and friends.
J_B.

would that be manchester & monarchy

Until you come to places like these youu dont appreciate how many problems people have, mine notwithstanding. Not much I can argue with there Roy5085 sounds reasonable and will do as youu suggest tonight and give my opinion for what it is worth.

Roy5085 wrote:

Good morning Homer, Mortgagemamma and Tominclover,

There seems to be some more sensible posts from you both above concerning what now looks like an escalating row brweing up between people on this forum. I welcome your words and thoughts and agree with you that it is tiresome for everyone. The fun does seem to have reduced a little and I am wondering why also. Please accept my assurances that we try and conduct ourselves always in a business like and respectful manner whereever we are. There have been natural and long term relationships built here and it shows through with the general banter between people. It also comes across as 'clicky' especially when consideration needs to be given to fair & reasonable.

To be honest, the clickyness is probably an assumption made by you gained from the immediate defensive stances taken by the existing froum members. I believe this happened because people thought you were spamming the site and also that we have never ever met anybody like Emma who can post, post after post without breath and time for response. I am glad to say that this seems to have calmed down a little.

The brokers on here are seen by some as people who act like us and them but I think in the main, people respect the fact that we bring value and help to people when they need it. I believe that Emma has in a couple of posts suggested that we are on here for commercial purposes, which doesnt help foster good relations. Once again, I am not trying to attack Emma, just trying to evidence why some "backs may have got up".

We are as much aware of Martin Lewis as most of the public and you are. It takes guts as only one chararteristic to challenge the norm and to take on the entities and institutions and I am confident he will agree that sometimes that can be a lonely place to be. There is a huge public trust built up and hence consumers will visit this forum and it follows, they will expect to be dealt with fairly, openly, respecfully and be provided with knowledagble and expert opinions regarding thier personal circumstances and this is where you come in.

Yes the brokers/IFA's and other knowledgable people on the forum like Ian W and EdInvestor do make very worthy contributions and this is reflected in their thanks count. (Which reminds me, where have they gone!) This is exactly how the forum operates best and why it has built up such a good reputation among consumers. It has not benefited the consumer by the constant posting about subjects that the general public will not be aware about and I do not think it is fair that they were presented this in this manner. I am not saying that they shouldnt be made aware, it is just that you and your group have clearly spent a lot of effort and time on the subject of the subprime markets and securtisation, however, your findings are not complete at this stage.

I cant speak for Martin but I believe that from how he has brought similar kinds of awareness to consumers for a lot of topics, he has always been seen to have researched and gained the facts in full before releasing the information on the unsuspecting public. This has resulted in the information being delivered in a more balanced and polished way to what has been potrayed by the posts as a whole. This is why I suggested that you should probably leave the topic alone for debate until the research has been carried out, the results are in and counted and Martin has said that this information that is supporting to his goals and objectives in providing the consumer with relevant knowledge and power to benefit them.

In my organsiations I have many friends but they know however that if there is mark oversteped or standards drop in anyway where reputations are on the line then I will advise accordingly, whether they like to hear these views or not. There comes a time when the custodians of the overall main aims and principles of the [and in this case the forum] entity or organisation are securly safeguarded and maintained and it is to this point I welcome the 3 posts above.

No further comment required here I do not think.

I would like to ask you a favour please. Would you both take a step back and review this thread as from a visitors or outside viewpoint:- HERE

I have read this thread and understand the points being made by Garry and follow his logic. I do believe though this topic went way out of hand because of the initial comment made by Garry in terms of it not having any substance on face value. Clearly when his website came to light, it took deviation away from the FOS's effectiveness and opened up interpretation of relationships and whether endowments should have been sold or not. The post was hijacked and this maybe should have been put to under a seperate topic/thread by a Moderator to be discussed. I think people have been unfailry victimised here too.

Homer I take on board your comments above and would welcome your honest and unbiased views in regard to those comments, such as going off topic, personal agenda's, personal point scoring. I choose this one but it can in my mind be any.

Who in your mind is attacking who?
Who has tried to keep to the topic in hand and who has not?
Who has ignored requests to keep the topic going?
Who has been provoking?
Who has been disrespecful?
What other agendas do you find and by who?
Do you feel there is clandstine collusion anywhere?
Do you feel that any questions that have been asked have been answered?
Do you find anywhere where absusive name-calling has transpired or indeed find any purposful discreditation tactics taking place?
Do you see any intimidation?

If Emma (or myself) have in anyway through your review come across as or insitigated any unfair, unreasonable, impolite or been disrepectful then of course we will learn from that and change as I believe like you and your reasonable comments above that a sense of decorum must now prevail.

To be honest, I havent got the time to really go into all of the above, I just wanted to try and get people to draw a line under it all and to try and move forward. If you are in agreement that the forum works best following the 3 points of posting a question, getting an answer for the question and going away to do whatever needs doing then I cannot see anymore arguments happening. I have thought about emailing Martin to see if there is anything further that can be done within reason to protect threads from exploding into off topic conversation (which is ironic as this post has). Of course it is a public forum and it cannot be monitored 24/7.

There are many approaches we could have made towards our aims and I think now that these have been made very clear and open and as you have mentioend above Homer and I think Mortgagemamma and Andrew has too, reached a mutual respect in that you all including Emma and myself by the way have the consumers interests at heart and nothing more and nothing less. I as I am sure you do too, also have the best interest of this forum and standards to be maintained.

I believe this is right, the disagreements have been in the way it has been done, however, I believe slowly these are being ironed out.

You merntioned in your post above that there is some issues that you don't agree with in regard to post made about sub prime and I would welcome and respect your feedback on these as EdInvestor has done and I am sure this would be in the best interests of consumers long term. I agree that this thread has lost its impetutus and is now too long but if again a reasonable review was carried out I think the main reasons for this would become very clear.

My disagreement with the post was the fact that information that you had with regards to HML and what appeared to be assumptions to what they did and how the operated were not true. I know the company very well and people that work for them. These are people at all levels.

I believe that there was a lot of sweeping comments and statements and whilst we could probably talk all day about this, I did not agree with the presentation and introduction of this topic to the consumer. To me it created more questions than answers and confusion. The fact that 66% of the posts (not my calcs) were by one person trying to put their views accross was viewed by many as spamming and this probably took away what could have been a nice topic to introduce to consumers. This is why I am suggesting you get the report together, present it to Martin and allow him the opportunity to run it as part of his site. I do not think I am being unfair in saying this? No doubt when it is finished and produced, there will be much commentary to the agreement of it but at least we know it will be delivered in such a way where it can be fairly debated - with the facts clear and present in front of us.