Countrywide mortgage services

tortoiseshellcat

Hi does anyone have any experience of the above and/or recommendations.

I only ask because we have had an initial meeting with a guy from this company, he said they charge a one off fee of £250 if they arrange a mortgage for us but looking on their website the mortgage lenders also charge a fee. Please don't think I'm totally naive we just want to know the best place to go to get a mortgage in principle before viewing any houses. Should we try two different brokers or just one?

We want to get the best deal as FTB with large deposit.

Thanks in anticipation of any advice.

kingstreet

Direct lenders.

Whole of market brokers.

They will give you a complete view of the options open to you.

The last place you should be looking is a firm with a limited panel of lenders, a single insurance tie, charges you a fee, gets referrral fees for survey business and conveyancing and tries very hard to make sure it gets every one of those income streams in every case.

ValHaller

I would have nothing to do with a mortgage broker associated with an Estate Agent. Although there is supposed to be a chinese wall in place between the brokers and the negotiators, it will feel far more comfortable going with kingstreet's suggestions. The risk is thta the broker grasses you up with the negotiator by letting the negotiator know how much you are good for.

kingstreet

That too.

I cannot see one discernible benefit in using Countrywide, or their ilk.

There may be a few local agents up and down the country who farm-out their mortgage enquiries to whole market and independent brokers and they are a completely different story.

tortoiseshellcat

Thanks for your replies, oh no it doesn't sound like we've made a very good choice, we were lead to believe he was totally independent as new to all this. Thing is we're not sure if we can get a mortgage in joint names as my fianc! has a debt management plan, I can get one but my salary won't allow me to borrow much and as we live in Surrey and need to stay here for work we are a little limited.

Dave_Ham

2 major considerations for you. Firstly do not let the Estate Agents advisor near this case, as they will let the sellers know you are not a safe bet as soon as they hear about the DMP.

Secondly, they are not likely to be experienced enough to even place it..

I suggest you get copies of your Experian, Equifax and Call Credit files to a broker.

Given your situation, I would imagine to achieve a mortgage you may need to pay more than the £250 they have quoted as a blind rack rate case.

Your deposit is likely to make this possible, depending upon the % deposit and the state of the credit files for your fiance.

plane_boy2000

We used countrywide about 10 years ago. They also told us they were completely independent and whole of market (which I found out afterwards was a lie).

Funnily enough the guy left countrywide and became independent and gave us a call a year or so later. Interesting listening to him telling me all the tales of how bad they were to work for and how restrictive he found it not always being able to offer the best products.

ellay25

Conversely, I didn't want to use the Countrywide broker as he was connected to the estate agents.

So I went through a broker contact of a friend of mine who then did lots of work and assured me I would get a mortgage no problem and told me the approximate amount.

I found a house I wanted, negotiated an amazing deal, went through with mortgage application - rejected. As I needed a 90/10 my options were limited.

I went through London & County (good out of hours service as works pretty hectic) just to sense check where I stood in the market and the very helpful broker there tried, assured me I "should" easily be able to get a mortgage. Failed again.

I called the estate agent to say that I would likely have to pull out, that for some reason my mortgage applications were failing at the final hurdle and would only offer me 85/15 deals - meaning I was so close yet so far away.

The estate agent suggested I do one appointment with the Countrywide in house broker and I was open to it - trying to show I hadn't messed the vendor around and wasn't misleading.

Funnily enough - the guy was extremely helpful and honest. Knew his way around the figures and practicalities much better than the previous two brokers I had used. And guess what - one of their providers - high street bank - had a 90/10 deal for me. I was accepted. Still a long way to go before completion but I'm absolutely over the moon.

My advice would be not to use a broker connected to estate agents to discuss budgets, financial worries, etc with as they could easily report back to agents/vendors. However, when I had agreed sale price and no affordable issues, the countrywide guy has so far got me over the line when an independent and London & County couldn't.

ValHaller

ellay25 wrote: »

However, when I had agreed sale price and no affordable issues, the countrywide guy has so far got me over the line when an independent and London & County couldn't.

In the circumstances, this was right for you - and you were protected from the worst abuse by having an agreed sale price. But if countrywide managed to do it for you, it must have been a poor show on the part of the others.