Estate Agent Mortgage Advisors..

ferry

I recently had a conversation with a Mortgages Consultant thats based with an Estate Agent.

Basically he wants to charge me £199 for a 'finders fee' for seeking out the best re-mortgage for me.
I never asked him if he was whole of market.Can I assume he is as he'll be charging me a fee and does it matter that he's based in house...also does £199 sound reasonable for this kind of service..

Thanks for the advice.

Terry

KTF

There are plenty of whole of market advisors that wont charge a fee so dont assume that the person you are dealing with is whole of market.

Shop around is my advice.

Treetops_4

I believe most of them are "whole of market" as far as the mortgages are concerned, but they are sometimes tied to an insurance company i.e. for the endowment/home insurance etc side. Would still check though.

You can look for deals yourself by using "which" or money supermarket so that should give you an idea of whats good. They will get paid a commission for doing your re-mortgage as well as your fee, but sometimes brokers get access to other deals not available on the open market.

I did this once and before I paid I had an initial consultation and they gave me some possible deals without disclosing the name of the lender. I recognised them from my own research so I knew there was nothing better available and went through with one of the deals on my own. There is a small possibility that if you go direct to a mortgage company, as they are not paying out commission you could get a better deal than the brokers so just ask!! The worst they can say is no!

Good Luck

MortgageMamma

I'd recommend avoiding paying the fee especially if your mortgage is only a small amount. you could instruct a couple of whole of market mortgage brokers to see what the best is each of them can offer you, but remember to advise them not to credit check you as too many searches can ruin your credit rating

su3

I work in an estate agents and our mortgage advice is free. The mortgage consultant is paid by the estate agency and can compare across the whole of the market. She can then use a panel of over twenty lenders who traditionally give very good deals for our large agency. I think it is important to know how your mortgage advisor is paid, commission or salary or both and how many lenders they can actually use and whether they can tell you if one of those is the best you can get across whole of market.

Do not feel pressurised to sign anything there and then, make sure you understand what you have been told, take it home and read it thoroughly and then if you are happy go back ask any questions that you may have and then sign if you want to do so.

herbiesjp

Best way to find out if the are whole of market is to look at the Initial Disclosure Document that they should give you. It will highlight how they get paid, what lenders they have access to amongst other things

HTH

UK007BullDog

Most estate agents are tied advisers or work off a panel through some mortgage network. same goes also for brokers who work through networks. very few are truly independent whole of market. paying a fee does not mean anything.

ferry

Many thanks as usual to all responses.

Can anyone please summarise the questions I should ask to ensure I would be getting the best deals fron this guy ..

Terry

KTF

1. Is he whole of market.

2. Is there a 'no fee' option available.

hokkers999

su3 wrote: »

I work in an estate agents and our mortgage advice is free. The mortgage consultant is paid by the estate agency and can compare across the whole of the market. She can then use a panel of over twenty lenders who traditionally give very good deals for our large agency. I think it is important to know how your mortgage advisor is paid, commission or salary or both and how many lenders they can actually use and whether they can tell you if one of those is the best you can get across whole of market.

Do not feel pressurised to sign anything there and then, make sure you understand what you have been told, take it home and read it thoroughly and then if you are happy go back ask any questions that you may have and then sign if you want to do so.

Errr...fundamental disconnect there. It's EITHER whole of market OR a panel. Think the key phrase there is "good deals for our large agency", the panels been picked to pay the highest proc fees. Tsk Tsk.

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Mr_helpful

hokkers999 wrote: »

Errr...fundamental disconnect there. It's EITHER whole of market OR a panel. Think the key phrase there is "good deals for our large agency", the panels been picked to pay the highest proc fees. Tsk Tsk.

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No true actually. If the panel is representative of the whole market they can call themselves whole of market even though clearly they are not. This is not their fault but the blinding stupidity of the FSA's attempt to simplify disclosure for the customer.
They cannot be independent unless they are whole of market and OFFER a PURE fees only option ie any proc fe obtained will be refunded in full to the client As long as they offer the option of the pure fees they can also be NO FEES