First time buyer - i think we have been given the wrong advice - help needed

joanne86_2

We are currently in the process of buying our first house and have sought mortage advice with an advisor at the estate agents.

He sorted us out with a mortgage and we have just read through the paper work and we feel he has misold it to us.

1. He never said that there were going to be any addtional fees or explained how expensivee it was going to be to set up.

2. The fees we are looking at are around £1500 to complete the mortage which we think are ridicoulisy high.

3. Only showed us two types of fixed mortgages at the time of consultation. Is this right?

We have rang around the banks and found one that not only has cheaper arragement fees but also a cheaper interest rate (5.99% rather than 6.99%).

We are realy confused as to what to do now.

Do we stick with the advisor at the estate agents and get ripped off for two years or do we act now and cancel this one and go with the bank outselves.

What implications will this have if we do move and where do we start?? Shoud we speak to our solicitors first?

Any advice will be great as we are worried that this may be out of our hands soon.


Help!

Thanks

Matt1982

So do you have a mortgage offer now? who is the currently mortgage offer with?

what is the purchase price? what deposit do you?

When ringing round the banks have they said you qualify for the 5.99%?

Conrad

The advisor sounds awful. They should have gone through all costs in detail using the Key Features Document.

I'd say run a mile, and also I have a hunch they'll be trying to flog you thier insurance which might not be as cheap as elsewhere. If someone WANTS insurance I will arrange, but only with the cheapest providers such as AVIVA, and I never 'sell' it.

joanne86_2

Yes we have a mortgage offer with the Halifax via this advisor.

The purchase price is 84k and we have a 10% deposit.

Yes the banks have said we qualify for the 5.99%. We have only spoke to them on the phone and have not sat down with any of them as we only statred ringing around yesterday. Not sure if this is what we need to do?

Nope - he didnt go through a key features document.

Your right - he also tried to sell us the home insurance which we said we would go away and think about but he has automatically put this through on the documentation. As he said that we would not find it cheaper anywhere else!!!

Do you think we should stop this going through asap with this guy????

redpete

It is generally considered that a mortgage advisor associated with an Estate Agent is not the best place to get the best advice. Assuming that you reject the offer from the Estate Agent's advisor they might try to tell you that you are risking your purchase - this is against the regulations and could lead to a complaint to their regulator.

You need to read through the mortgage advice on this site, start here.

You should look for a "Whole of Market" mortgage advisor, i.e. one that is not tied to particular mortgage providers. I've found London & County to be good if you're happy dealing over the phone. A good one will ask the right questions to understand what type of mortgage would best suit you. This will depend on how much deposit you have, your incomes, how long you want the mortgage to last, your other commitments, whether you want the certainty of fixed rates or are prepared to take some risks with trackers, if you're prepared to look for a remortgage every 2 or 3 years.

Fees will vary widely, £1500 is not unusual but maybe at the high end. You need to consider the total cost (fees and interest) over a period, say 3 years. Again a good advisor will do this for you.