The benefits of a mortgage broker?

HelpWhereIcan

To me this is very simple.

If the deal is the same, the fees are the same and the payments are the same there are many benefits to be gained from using a mortgage broker. These have been covered many times before, ranging from convenience to access to redress if the advice is wrong, and I do not intend to go into it all again here.

Getting fixated on the fact someone is receiving commission is as pointless as getting upset that Currys buy a laptop at one price and sell it you at another which may or may not be higher than the price ebuyer will sell it to you for. What matters is the cost you pay and the service you receive for it.

If the service is not what you want or expect then you have the option to look elsewhere but a personal, indemnified service is - as Martin says - worth much more than a few pounds in fees in my opinion.

A broker who relies on commission only (as L&C do) will only look at and advise on the deals available from lenders who pay a commission so you have to do your own homework on the rest. Worse than this are the brokers who have a panel of lenders which, even if it is classed as 'Whole of Market' still will not look at some lenders which would be available direct or through a broker with no panel restrictions.

The only way you get true, unbiased advice which looks at every deal is to pay a fee to a true independent who will look at all deals from all sources and refund/offset any commission they receive from any lender. Brokers who charge a fee and take commission muddy the waters to the detriment of everyone inmho.

To get to the point, Your Move do charge a fee on top of any commission they receive. http://www.your-move.co.uk/mortgages/contact-us Their site says

"For mortgage advice our initial consultation is free, but there will be a mortgage application fee. The precise amount will depend upon your circumstances and will not exceed £399. A minimum fee of £299 applies"

You would normally expect a statement saying

"We will refund to you any commission we receive from the mortgage lender when your mortgage completes."

if they did not.

Your Move have a panel of lenders and will not look outside that (go 'off panel') unless they have to. They do not look at non commission paying lenders/deals so you also have to do your own research on these.

If the OP is happy the Abbey (Santander) deal is right for them, is able and willing to do all the legwork and wants to do it all themself it is money saving for them to go direct. If the Your Move adviser has not explained their service well enough for them to understand the benefit of paying a fee then the OP can be expected to question what value they are getting.

If you go direct make sure you really have done all your homework. Moneysupermarket is an awful place to do it with their paid for listings and featured deals.

Somewhere like www.moneyfacts.co.uk or the Money Advice Service are better.

Neither is a replacement for truly independent, indemnified advice but if you are happy making the choice yourself and don't want/need anyone to do all the chasing etc they are a good place to start.

ruggedtoast

flopstocks wrote: »

Can't I use money supermarket to find the best deal, and then contact the lender direct? Surely this would erase the commission fees.

The commission isnt really the issue. Not all deals or lenders will appear on comparison websites. Often there are so many similar ones as to appear baffling, and it isnt easy to filter things like upfront fees, backloaded fees, portability, early redemption penalties, reversion to SVR or trackers, or even just how likely the lender would be to accept you.

If you know exactly what you want and have a decent credit background then you maybe dont need a broker. Otherwise people find them helpful.

sazandy25

Have you considered cashback mortgages??? Not sure if they are any good, but if you sure you will find the best deal, might as well get cashback.

Never used them but have looked and deals seem ok, just something that may be worth looking at.

koexelek

flopstocks wrote: »

Can't I use money supermarket to find the best deal, and then contact the lender direct? Surely this would erase the commission fees.

You can often get a better deal direct from the lender these days, rather than doing it via a broker.
It's know as "dual pricing".
Some lenders have branch deals and broker deals. As you'd expect, they tend to keep the best stuff for themselves.

zengirl

We are lookng to buy a house for the first time and I am good at research. I have done quite a bit of research on mortgages and found some good deals. I think I could probably get a fair-goodish mortgage deal. However we have decided to go with a broker (someone from this site!) and this is because getting a mortgage is going to be the single most important and largest financial arrangement we will ever do in our lives, and we don't want a fair-goodish mortgage deal, we want the best for our circumstances.

I think a broker will know more than me about mortgages (he'd better! :rotfl:) and will have access to much more information, knowledge, tricks, tips, ideas etc - it's his job! We are also very happy to pay for a good service if that's what's needed. I don't expect to get any other top quality goods for free!

I would rather someone who knows what he's talking about else decided what's best in the case of getting a mortage because it's just too much money, too important, to go by my own guesswork or research, even if it's not that bad.

I want the very best deal we can squeeze out to fit out finances, and now that we have decided on using a broker it feels like a weight has been liffted from our shoulders. We are really pleased with our decision and look forward to gettinga good mortgage deal without the stress and worry that would be invoveld if I did it on my own.

flopstocks

You have all raised fair points and it does make sense to go to a broker.

I have also contacted HSBC direct as they do a lifetime tracker, no fees and it tracks at 2.59% above the base rate. This is a better deal than I mentioned before, they will be ringing me back on Friday to confirm my application.