Finding a good local advisor

Darlinbud

Can anyone suggests ways to find a good local mortgage advisor?

I prefer to talk to people face to face so am looking for someone local who we can go and see (or who might come to us!!)

Have search on internet and can find companies, but how do I know which to choose? No friends or family are able to recommend one ...

Also after searching on the internet I am unsure what is a fair fee? I have been quoted from free to £2000!

Any other advise gratefully recieved!!
Thanks

Mrs_Bumble

Ask friends, family, work colleagues for recommendations as that is usually the best way.

dunstonh

Also after searching on the internet I am unsure what is a fair fee? I have been quoted from free to £2000!

If you want to go fee based then you have to make sure that the adviser is independent and not whole of market. This means they will access every mortgage provider and not just those who pay commission and if they do pay commission then that offsets the fee.

Some mortgage advisers charge a fee and keep the commission and will only look at commission payers.

Basically you have three options you should look at

1 - Independent (fee based and true whole of market - no commission kept)
2 - Whole of market but will only look at commission payers. No fee paid
3 - Whole of market but will only look at commission payers. small fee paid (in areas where house prices are low and commission will be low)

There are some advisers out there that are greedy and will keep the commission and charge a really big fee (like £2000). They should be avoided.

Darlinbud

Thank you both,
Mrs Bumble, have asked friends/family etc but no one has used an advisor for many years so no recommendations there!

Are there any question I should ask, or anything else I can use to get an idea of how good they will be?

I think we would rather go with an independent advisor and pay a fee - is there a bit of a rough guide to what is a reasonable fee (I understand this will change area to area, but just an idea)

Many thanks

Mrs_Bumble

Sorry there is no rough guide to what a reasonable fee is, every broker is a business in their own right and will set a fee at what they need to cover overheads etc. If you have a figure in your head that you are happy to pay for this advice, stick to that.

What about work colleagues? Do you have an intranet message board at work can you post on their for help searching for a good broker?

koexelek

dunstonh wrote: »

There are some advisers out there that are greedy and will keep the commission and charge a really big fee (like £2000). They should be avoided.

You would not need to do many cases per month based on those terms :eek: