Trainee Mortgage Advisor

bade

Hi all,
Am in the process of changing career hopefully into finance.
Whilst applying for jobs I applied for trainee mortgage advisor through an agency and was contacted by them saying they've sent my CV out to their clients and one is interested in me but I need to do cemap 1. The agencies training wing do the course (coincidence?) and they emailed over the details. Its quite expensive through them. So im tempted to get the qualification myself and get back to them in 3 weeks time. Have a degree and plenty of time to study for it, so my questions are.
1.Do you feel the agency is just selling their course? ie no jobs
2.How much are resit exams?
3.Any advice from anyone whos recently passed cemap 1?

feisty1

Why are you planning to be a Mortgage Advisor & not a Financial Advisor? I have never favoured mortgage only qualifications.......simply... for the majority of people a mortgage is possibly the largest financial commitment they will ever have, so being able to take a holistic approach to their finances should be more beneficial for the client than limited advice.

Also most Mortgage Advisors main income stream currently is business they're referring to FA's. So why limit yourself?

dunstonh

1.Do you feel the agency is just selling their course? ie no jobs

You wont get a look in without cemap. Far too many people have it and far too few jobs going.

2.How much are resit exams?

I would guess the same cost.

Graeme7777

Hi,

I think you may find that the self-study option (i.e. you get the study materials directly from the examination body, IFS) is a lot cheaper than paying a firm to teach you the syllabus. I've not written the CEMAP 1 but I've seen the curriculum and you probably don't need to pay someone to teach it to you.

Also, if you've not done so already you may want to read what the mortgage advisors on here have to say about the industry. It seems that quite a few advisors have already left the industry because they are directly affected by the shortgage of credit available, and also because, in these tough times, lenders are trying to woo borrowers to deal with them directly, thus saving the commission they would otherwise have to pay an intermediary.

Good luck whatever you decide to do!

feisty1

Graeme7777 wrote: »

thus saving the commission they would otherwise have to pay an intermediary.quote]

It is actually more cost effective for lenders to use intermediaries, however lenders happen to have more staff than work at the moment hence the reason dual pricing occurs and then it looks like intermediaries are being cut out of the loop......but intermediaries in actual fact are the lenders biggest customer.........

bade

My plan at the moment is to register with if school and have already purchased some study guides and mock exam materials from ebay. Hopefully these will be enough. Estimated study time for cemap 1 is listed as 40-60hrs. Quite achieveable in 2 weeks I feel. Im not planning to go free lance but to work for a bank, building society etc for a few years before working for an estate agents or mortgage brokerage company. Anyone on here completed cemap 1 recently?

_Andy_

There is a glut of fully CEMAP'd advisors on the market. Now is not a good time to be venturing into the mortgage or financial services market.