1st Time Buyer

NYST

Hi guys

I'm looking to buy my first house with my girlfriend for around £125,000. We are able to afford a 15% deposit. I've looked around for the best deals online, and have had several meetings with countrywide mortgage services.

My main issues are whether to continue with them or not. It seems to be that they are one of the biggest british mortgage brokers, but I'm not sure whether I should use them with regards to the legal/solicitors side of things, or whether to try and do these independently. Is it generally considered that doing everything through them is like a 'package' holiday, whereby you pay slightly more for the convienience of doing everything in a 'one stop shop', or they actually one of the better companies in the field to use.

The other consideration is whether to go directly to a bank. The countrywide broker says about having to then sort out solicitors, chasing them up etc, but I don't know whether he is just trying to get business, or whether this is generally a problem when buying a house, particularly a 1st when you have no experience.

In a worst case scenario, he says total fees will come to about £1200 for everything, but says this includes a potential £400 valuation, which would normally be free and would be highly likely to be a lot less. Solicitors fees make up the majority of the rest of it, with other small things added in to make the total, e.g. land registry. He seems genuinely like he is trying to help us, but I would expect nothing else as at the end of the day, they are salesman trying to get business.

Any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks

jockosjungle

I'd avoid CW mortgage advisers, they gave us a similar hard sell. They don't really check that many mortgage companies and the spiel that he can get you a better deal than you could get is frankly a lie, the best deals aren't available to any MA, let alone a CW one. If you want to see a MA, see a proper one that looks at the whole of the market.

The solicitors, etc. cost you more, and yes there is the convenience of it all I suppose. But all that is happening is that you are adding a middle man to the equation. Instead of you chasing up your solicitor, you are chasing a MA and then they are chasing the solicitor.

Personally I am not a fan of in house jobs, if you buy a property from a countrywide agent, then your MA will tell them what you are willing to pay, demand to put offers in on them for you.

There is nothing they can do, that you cannot do yourself, you can do more as you can look at mortgages from HSBC and other lenders that he will not do

Their sales pitch to us, was to lock us in a room for an hour while they gave us the hard sell. We only went in to enquire at a house advert we couldn't see properly. To this day I never did find out about the house.

R

BeccaBell

If you have the time there is no harm in shopping around for the best mortgage deal. Most banks and building society's don't use brokers so they cant necessarily give you the best deal. It is very nice to have someone to hold your hand through the process when you haven't done it before but a FA at a bank can do this too for free! You can always take peoples advise as it doesnt cost anything to talk to them but remember if the mortgage broker works with the EA be cautious. I am an FTB too and I lost out on a property because the EA's broker let the EA know how much we could borrow so they held out for more money and we had to walk away. Property eventually moved agents and a week of being on with the new agents for less than we had offered!
Have a search on the forums for advice, If you feel as though you are in a bit of a rush I understand how tempting it can be to let once person sort it all out for you!
Good luck!

G_M

The mortgage, the conveyancing and the property selection are independant activities.

there is no real benefit in 'bundling' together the broker/lender, solicitor and estate agent.

More important is to get competant people doing each and/or the best price.