Martins View On Using Mortgage Brokers...

lauren_hb

I had a look on google it seemed the same ones cropped up that were also on vouchedfor and unbiased. I expected more results from google actually, I don't live in a tiny place or anything!

lauren_hb

Also when I've looked at qualifications for mortgage brokers what should I be looking for?
Some I've looked at say IPS CeMAP certificate in mortgage advice and practice
Others say CII certificate in mortgage advice.
What do I want them to have?

ACG

Just have a chat with one or 2 and see if you have confidence in them.

CII or IFS are both the same qualification, just by different governing bodies. So either is fine, but you will find they all have one or the other asit is compulsary.

lauren_hb

Thanks very much for your advice.

cahillg81

Hi Lauren,

I started another thread earlier to ask other brokers on here if any of them used Vouchedfor or any of the other sites as I wanted to know if they would provide any value to me as a Self Emloyed broker.

What has been stated above ACG is spot on in that brokers pay for these services and I know with Vouchedfor you invite the clients to leave a review so these can be controlled somewhat assuming you send the invites to the correct clients.

My advice and I tell the people I speak to daily is always ask for referrals, i do this in every line of work i undertake. I seek opinions so even although you may not know someone who has bought a house recently ask friends or family who have maybe re-mortaged lately? Use social media?

In Martin's post in 2006 he posed two questions:

1) are you whole of market (some brokers use the term whole of market but that doesn't necessarily mean they can deal with every lender - they can do things off panel they may not get a procuration fee or they may be part of a mortgage club that doesn't have every lender on their books. Ordinarily so long as a broker has the likes of Accord/Bank of Ireland/Barclays/Clydesdale/Halifax/HSBC/NatWest/ Nationwide/ Platform/Skipton/Santander (to name but a few you can pretty much guarantee they will be sourcing you one of if not the best deal in the market place)

2) do you take a fee - Martin says look for a roker who doesn't take a fee - personally I take a fee and I think mines is under market value but I have an agreement that provides lots of leads so its the rough with the smooth - I would personally guard against dealing with someone who wasnt taking a fee. In my experience of working on the other side i used to find the cases submitted from brokers not charging for their service was of a poorer quality. I won't name any names but if you search a few threads on here you will get an idea of really bad fee free advisors.

My golden rules when advising people are:

1) Is your advice fully impartial
2) If you have a fee is anything paid up front (If so I'd say you could move them to theside)
3) What guarantees do you provide me - personally I don't take a fee until the official mortgage offer - that means my clients know i am still working for them all the way through.
4) Did it feel right - by that i mean how did the convrsation go I will turn people away if I don't get the right feeling from the initial meeting. I will also ask potential clients not to use me if they didn't feel we clicked initially.
5) Was the advisor/broker interested in me and my family or did it feel like I was just a number?

I use the above for trying to generate business and I fit it all into my intial conversation with clients - i appreciate it that probably doesn't come across as well in an e-mail.

But it's more or less a more expanded version of what ACG said. I just wanted to put more meat around it for you.

csgohan4

I got mine from this forum and worked well. Personal preference how you find yours.

lauren_hb

cahillg81 wrote: »

Hi Lauren,

I started another thread earlier to ask other brokers on here if any of them used Vouchedfor or any of the other sites as I wanted to know if they would provide any value to me as a Self Emloyed broker.

What has been stated above ACG is spot on in that brokers pay for these services and I know with Vouchedfor you invite the clients to leave a review so these can be controlled somewhat assuming you send the invites to the correct clients.

My advice and I tell the people I speak to daily is always ask for referrals, i do this in every line of work i undertake. I seek opinions so even although you may not know someone who has bought a house recently ask friends or family who have maybe re-mortaged lately? Use social media?

In Martin's post in 2006 he posed two questions:

1) are you whole of market (some brokers use the term whole of market but that doesn't necessarily mean they can deal with every lender - they can do things off panel they may not get a procuration fee or they may be part of a mortgage club that doesn't have every lender on their books. Ordinarily so long as a broker has the likes of Accord/Bank of Ireland/Barclays/Clydesdale/Halifax/HSBC/NatWest/ Nationwide/ Platform/Skipton/Santander (to name but a few you can pretty much guarantee they will be sourcing you one of if not the best deal in the market place)

2) do you take a fee - Martin says look for a roker who doesn't take a fee - personally I take a fee and I think mines is under market value but I have an agreement that provides lots of leads so its the rough with the smooth - I would personally guard against dealing with someone who wasnt taking a fee. In my experience of working on the other side i used to find the cases submitted from brokers not charging for their service was of a poorer quality. I won't name any names but if you search a few threads on here you will get an idea of really bad fee free advisors.

My golden rules when advising people are:

1) Is your advice fully impartial
2) If you have a fee is anything paid up front (If so I'd say you could move them to theside)
3) What guarantees do you provide me - personally I don't take a fee until the official mortgage offer - that means my clients know i am still working for them all the way through.
4) Did it feel right - by that i mean how did the convrsation go I will turn people away if I don't get the right feeling from the initial meeting. I will also ask potential clients not to use me if they didn't feel we clicked initially.
5) Was the advisor/broker interested in me and my family or did it feel like I was just a number?

I use the above for trying to generate business and I fit it all into my intial conversation with clients - i appreciate it that probably doesn't come across as well in an e-mail.

But it's more or less a more expanded version of what ACG said. I just wanted to put more meat around it for you.

Thank you for going in to such detail! Feel a bit more confident in what to do now. I've tried asking on social media and seems most people used an in house one from the estate agents which I defiantly don't want to do!
Will do our research in the meantime whilst we're making sure we've got everything together and paperwork organised a broker may want to see.

hosk

There can be significant disadvantages to using a mortgage broker.

(a) By using a mortgage broker you are inserting a 3rd party between you and the lender. You will not be able to contact the lender directly with any queries you may have and you will need to rely on the broker's staff to do all that for you. If you try to contact the lender during the application process they will not discuss your case with you and they will simply refer you back to the broker.

(b) Brokerages have their own resource demands, objectives and priorities so you cannot expect an instant response to your queries of the lender - like you would get if you went directly to the lender - and there will typically be a 2 working days time-lag between asking a question of the lender (via the broker) and receiving a response. Essentially the pace of progressing your mortgage application will be dictated by your mortgage broker.

In my recent experience the broker was taking over a week to process queries between me and the lender. This caused considerable stress as we were up against a tight deadline set by the property developers. Eventually we managed to get a contact at the lender to provide us with the information we needed and they told us that the broker had not contacted them to ask for it - even though the broker told me on three separate occasions that they had requested it and were waiting for a response from the lender.

(c) The main lenders have invested millions of pounds in their customer facing and back office processes with the specific intention of supporting direct business. They will often provide better interest rates and other financial incentives to customers who do not use brokers. An example is HSBC who are currently advertising their best-in-class deals to direct customers only.

(d) Using a broker does not necessarily mean you will get the best deal and there are lots of free comparison websites out there to find the best mortgage deals for you, including this one. You don't necessarily need a broker to tell you what the best deals are.
NB The deal I got came with £500 cash-back. I later learned that if I had gone direct I would have got £1000 cash-back and the same interest rate :mad:

ACG

hosk wrote: »

There can be significant disadvantages to using a mortgage broker.

(a) By using a mortgage broker you are inserting a 3rd party between you and the lender. You will not be able to contact the lender directly with any queries you may have and you will need to rely on the broker's staff to do all that for you. If you try to contact the lender during the application process they will not discuss your case with you and they will simply refer you back to the broker.
Some lenders will speak to you about your case,
but why would you do that? Call centre staff at lenders are no where near as good as an experienced broker. You are paying for a broker who knows your situation inside out. Why would you want to speak to someone who does not know you from adam?

(b) Brokerages have their own resource demands, objectives and priorities so you cannot expect an instant response to your queries of the lender - like you would get if you went directly to the lender - and there will typically be a 2 working days time-lag between asking a question of the lender (via the broker) and receiving a response. Essentially the pace of progressing your mortgage application will be dictated by your mortgage broker.

In my recent experience the broker was taking over a week to process queries between me and the lender. This caused considerable stress as we were up against a tight deadline set by the property developers. Eventually we managed to get a contact at the lender to provide us with the information we needed and they told us that the broker had not contacted them to ask for it - even though the broker told me on three separate occasions that they had requested it and were waiting for a response from the lender.
It sounds like your broker was lacking. I know my clients cases inside out, I tell them about time frames and during that period there will be no news. I take on a limited amount of business so that I am available 95% of the week should they need me.
(c) The main lenders have invested millions of pounds in their customer facing and back office processes with the specific intention of supporting direct business. They will often provide better interest rates and other financial incentives to customers who do not use brokers. An example is HSBC who are currently advertising their best-in-class deals to direct customers only.
Thats not correct. It is not incorrect, but there is not a definitive answer for this. HSBC only work with a limited number of brokers. But there are lenders where I can get better deals (significantly better deals) than if you went direct. You will probably also find the process far quicker through a broker 9 times out of 10. Banks are big institutions and have a lot more compliance to go through. I can have a 45 minute appointment with a customer, a 10-15 minute follow up call and they would not need to do anything else until their offer is issued. A lender could not get close to that.

(d) Using a broker does not necessarily mean you will get the best deal and there are lots of free comparison websites out there to find the best mortgage deals for you, including this one. You don't necessarily need a broker to tell you what the best deals are.
NB The deal I got came with £500 cash-back. I later learned that if I had gone direct I would have got £1000 cash-back and the same interest rate :mad:

Fully agree with this. A broker is not always best and neither is going direct. You seem to keep suggesting a broker can not get you the best deal, but you are assuming the best deal for everyone is lowest rate/biggest cashback etc. It sounds like you have had a bad experience and so in your eyes brokers are useless. In my opinion a brokers job is to help you get the best deal (that can be cheapest, quickest, easiest, most flexible,
individual underwriting etc.

kingstreet

As the OP (hosk) was in my sector, newbuild, I'd be interested in finding out if a warehouse-type broker was used as these tend to be favoured by the bigger builders; or a smaller one like us which prides itself on its speed and service.