I feel like the confused.com guy!

boy_3

Exactly, I agree completely here. Forums can help you get over that jargon and should be used to get that aim for you (soak up all you can from wonderful posters) and then decide using a professional. Not the other way around.

MortgageMamma

boy wrote:

I don't understand this security issue here. Here I go. My basic is 80K. I have savings around 50K. I am an FTB. I have a kid and a lovely wife. I am the only earner at the moment and renting for the sake of flexibility. But, now looking to buy to settle down as I think I can afford it and have reasonable savings towards a deposit. Not looking to keep with the Jones's. So, looking for something 150-200K range houses. Ask me more private questions and I am happy to post here.
So, do you know who I am now? See if you can be a security threat to me now?
I don't think so. These are the fair details for a mortgage decision and should help somebody who wants to relate to the similar situation (from experience or expertise, either one. doesn't have to be just expertise). So, why tell the guy to go see an adviser. See if you can relate with him and give him options which he can take further with somebody. That's the whole point of forums.

PS: MM, I think you should not need your disclaimer sig, as nobody is taking you as a professional here. They take you as somebody who can help and give options, which you very good at and I really appreciate that.

Hi Boy. thanks for your comments. before saying anything further, I am going to email you a copy of a mortgage factfind. This is a form we use to collate information about our clients and to assess their affordability. You will see from that the depth of questions that need to be asked, and that some of it is not suitable for a public forum. I am not doing this to prove a point to anyone, just so you can see for yourself the information that will need to be presented if you want to take advice.

If you would like advice on your personal mortgage dilema please just ask and I will do all I can to help you, publicly on the forum if you like. I don't have my signature on to prove anything to anyone, it is there for my own purposes, as financial advice is a claims minefield and specific /personal recommendations and advice really cannot be given on the merits of a public forum. The disclaimer is so anything I say on here is taken as a personal comment not professional advice. Also, the middle part of my signature is there to help people recognise that this site is not a regulated financial enviroment and that unless they take professional advice, they have no recourse if things go wrong.

Hope this clears things up between us and now you can understand why a line has to be drawn somewhere when commenting on the best option for posters on the forum.

Joe_Bloggs

On some other forums the phrase 'what is best' is banned because there is no one right answer for everybody. There is general consumer advice regarding mortgages from FSA here. Andrew and Payless have guides to confusing terminology and general help for first time buyers here.
From the consumers point of view, house buying is an emotional and stressful business. No FTB knows the all the pertinent questions to ask of the wide range of professionals that they get to interact with, including broker, solicitor, estate agent, surveyor. Feelings fade away when the deed is done. The mortgage deal lingers on and on.

Trying to buy a property is not risk free. You risk time wasting vendors and upfront fees that will not be refunded if the deal falls through on some technicality.
J_B.

boy_3

MortgageMamma wrote:

Hi Boy. thanks for your comments. before saying anything further, I am going to email you a copy of a mortgage factfind. This is a form we use to collate information about our clients and to assess their affordability. You will see from that the depth of questions that need to be asked, and that some of it is not suitable for a public forum.

I appreciate your answer. But, AGAIN I do not see why you can't ask for details here if you want. Here is a sample factfind form that you are talking about:
http://www.mortgages-direct-uk.com/factfind.htm

Other than first section (identity details), i can fill everything for you and you wouldn't know who I am.

I know you shouldn't be giving out advice for free when this is your profession as well. But, this happens a lot in my profession and it doesn't stop me getting paid. It just increases my value when my customers come to me with some knowledge in hand.

zag2me

I get bored of people touting for business on these boards, if you want to help then post. If you are going to post "go see a mortgage broker" in every thread, dont bother.

Your advice is invaluable, but posting "go see a broker" everytime is pointless. Cut it out please

MortgageMamma

boy wrote:

I appreciate your answer. But, AGAIN I do not see why you can't ask for details here if you want. Here is a sample factfind form that you are talking about:
http://www.mortgages-direct-uk.com/factfind.htm

Other than first section (identity details), i can fill everything for you and you wouldn't know who I am.

I know you shouldn't be giving out advice for free when this is your profession as well. But, this happens a lot in my profession and it doesn't stop me getting paid. It just increases my value when my customers come to me with some knowledge in hand.

Fair-ish point but what do you want a recommendation for a product or generic advice?

won't ever recommend a specific deal without giving full throrough advice and getting to know my client or in this case a poster on a forum. (an FSA requirement, look that one up), - O this is not a regulated environment and technically I could not be penalised for doing this BUT it would be unprofessional of me to do this.

Also, why should all the other posters be bored to death with all the niggly little details surrounding one persons advice issue on a public forum when they could receive the same advice on a personal basis without thousands of people knowing for free?

Plenty of people on here PM me for personal advice which I generally give FREELY to them without EVER requesting they become actual clients. if they choose to become a client then that is up to them, but you have to understand that not everybody will want to discuss such personal matters publicly.

There is no end to this so we will have to agree to different, but my intention is to offer generic advice and recommendations to mse'rs and not product recommendations.

MortgageMamma

zag2me wrote:

I get bored of people touting for business on these boards, if you want to help then post. If you are going to post "go see a mortgage broker" in every thread, dont bother.

Your advice is invaluable, but posting "go see a broker" everytime is pointless. Cut it out please

And I get bored with people like you repeating what has already been said numerous times by somebody else too. I also get extremely hacked off when I've been giving my advice on this board for free for months and arrogant people like you come along and try and pick a fight with me for doing good.

MortgageMamma

maf20 wrote:

I am ever so grateful for all the good advice that comes through this site. However, I'm finding it very difficult to heed some of the adivce and make 'the right' decision. If anyone can help, our situation in the main is thus:

Mortgage term remaining: 20.5 years
Amount: 82k
Provider: HSBC
Rate: 5.5 variable tracker (no tie ins)
Joint take home per month: 3k
regularly save: £100 per month
current savings: 2k
Highish outgoings: an additional £650 to the norm (private nursery)


Totally open to ongoing great advice, but just struggling slightly with some options:

One Account
Offset
discounted
etc,....

Any advice would be really appreciated

Thanks

MAF20, how are you getting on?

maf20

Careful_girl wrote:

Just a few thoughts from the worried woman scared about damp on her survey.
To step back somewhat and to appreciate where the forum is and its role maybe clearer when viewed as part of Martin's site. Many posters come on the forums as an extension to the excellent information offered by Martin. In my opinion a free market economy can only work effectively when the customer has information about products and prices.
Although there is an entertainment factor to the forums, they serve to give more information and this to be discussed. In my own case the search engines Martin has links to had not been successful in finding me the mortgage I needed (although they had in the past). I thus decided to investigate my options further via the forums. I was advised by a plethora of posters to get a broker. I did not have time to investigate mortgages further and needed experience and expertise. I took the advice and am very happy with the result (Thank you Andrew Smith for all your excellent work). There are many posters who are in a similar predicament.
As for the others who are asking pertinent questions and those of us fascinated by the financial world, let the discussion commence. I agree wholeheartedly that financial literacy is far too low. However I am not sure that the discussions about mortage problems impacts very much on this.
I agree that it is a shame when OPs do not get a chance to discuss their queries with others and that some are very quick to send them packing with a broker. Then there are those who take advantage and keep asking questions as if the brokers were working for them.
I hope the moneysaving from getting a good mortgage based upon the excellent knowledge on the site continues.
CG.

This is all I am after. I appreciate that Mortgages and other aspects of financial management are second nature to a lot of people within these forums; to me they're not. Everyone has a keen interest in something, and is also an expert in something. I can adivse you wholly on the engagement of a scrum and take you through the minute detail of how a tight head prop should engage compared with a loose head prop.....It doesn't mean that I know all about mortgages. Sometimes, you've just got to put your opinions out there and let people decide what's best for them. Isn't this what IFA is all about?

If we all start retracting and not coming up with hard and fast opinions, we will all become a nation of wanderers; not really knowing where to go and how to get there. Let's be specific!

We're all adults, we can take advice or leave it (surely). If I went to an IFA and he/she said 'I'm not too sure which is the one for you' I'd leave like a shot! I posted my details onto the forum in the hope that several people would reply in the same matter of fact way.

Not getting stressed, just looking for clean cut, hard and fast, matter of fact, specific advice; I'm a grown lad, if I don't like it, I won't cry!

Cheers

maf20

MortgageMamma wrote:

MAF20, how are you getting on?

Just hoping that someone may come into this and say:

'These are three you could consider'

That'd be nice

Thanks for your support!