Broker or bank?

boo81

Myself and my husband want to move house and see if we can get a new mortgage, my husband and I have a slightly complicated history between us and have always felt dealing with a bank in person is easier as you can explain and they have offered us advise and ways round things in the past, but of course we cant get a whole of market point of view where better offers may be available. Is there any advantage to using the banks?

We are a bit scared, currently have a mortgage for £93K and with with combined increase in house price and money paid we have about £25K equity and we want a house ideally around £140K - does this sound like a big ask?

We want to start a family but need more room as currently only have a 1 bed.

Thanks in anticipation

GMS

What do you mean by complicated history?

Why not speak to your current lender and/or bank, then speak to a broker too. That way you have looked at many more options.

Dave_the_Ginger_Cat

If you've a long standing relationship with your bank, then suggest you talk to them.

Many brokers do offer personal appointments, and if you can get a personal recommendation, all the better. They'll have a broader view of the market and which lenders might suit your circumstances.

I hope whichever route you go down, that it becomes less scary - they'll look at the facts, understand your circumstances, and try to work out what might suit you.

HTH

pledgeX

I'm only a FTB but the experience I've had with my mortgage broker has been a good one. He didnt save us any money (we found the same rate as well), but he didn't cost us either, and he helped us out a lot when our mortgage application was turned down on a 'technicality' which we got over-turned quite quickly thanks to him.

I think the advantage of a bank is that you can go to them direct and in theory you'd expect it to be slightly quicker as you cut out the middle man. But if you've got a 'complicated history' then I think it might be better to go to a broker and sit down and talk about it.

As for whether it's affordable, that totally depends on how much you earn. If you got 25k for a deposit that would be just over 15% deposit on a 140k house which is do-able, although you wont get the best rates. But whether you can afford that depends entirely on how much you earn. As you want to start a family I'd recommend you have a large buffer as you probably don't have an accurate idea of how much little ones cost!

No offense at all intended here, merely a complete guess, but if you're only in a 1 bed place now, and haven't got any money saved up for a deposit apart from what you get from selling your house, I'd say you're not raking in the cash and therefore I'd be very careful about budgetting. I may have this all wrong so please don't take this the wrong way, I have no idea what your circumstances are!

Good luck!

kingstreet

boo81 wrote: »

We want to start a family

Base all your calculations and outgoings on three of you and only one income.

Conrad

Go direct to lenders if you have a relatively straight forward case, as many direct deals are chaper. Brokers are only required for more complex cases. No point paying higher non direct rates afterall.

pledgeX

Conrad wrote: »

Go direct to lenders if you have a relatively straight forward case, as many direct deals are chaper. Brokers are only required for more complex cases. No point paying higher non direct rates afterall.

I disagree. I didn't pay a higher rate through my broker than I would have done by going directly to the bank. I would also disagree about the complex cases. Our case was straightforward. FTB, all the money in place and ready, knew what deal we wanted and what type of mortgage etc. But then the survey came back and the mortgage was declined on a 'technicality' that I wouldn't have known before applying for the mortgage, which he helped overcome which I can guarantee was a lot easier than doing that ourselves.

However, if you don't have any recommendations on a a broker, I'd think about going direct, and if they charge a fee, I'd definitely go straight to the bank.

D55

Can you elaborate on "technicality" pls ?

pledgeX

D55 wrote: »

Can you elaborate on "technicality" pls ?

Nationwide don't give out mortgage to timber framed houses build before 1970. Our surveyor put down 1969 so we were turned down. Turns out he wasn't sure whether it was '69 or '70, so just put down '69. (Multiple house were built down this street at this time over a 2-3 year period).

Broker did some chasing to both the surveyor and nationwide and all parties agreed that as it's not certain, the surveyor changed the report to be '70 and Nationwide were happy and gave us the mortgage.

Might not be classed as a technicality but couldn't think of another word to describe it!