Pestering Mortgage Broker?

NervousHomeowner

My partner and I are FTBs. Three weeks ago we put in an offer on a 2 bed flat and had it accepted immediately. So far everything is going smoothly - pretty much everything has been done on the solicitor's end and they've even got the contracts through from the vendors solicitors but I'm starting to feel like the mortgage application is slowing everything down and I'm wondering if I'm just being impatient or if I'm right to be getting frustrated. Is three weeks (four weeks on Monday) to put together a mortgage application normal?

The estate agents are also starting to put pressure on us a little bit, because our valuation and home buyers are being done by the lender's surveyors and can't be carried out until the mortgage application has been submitted.

Also, I called the broker yesterday and he told me our application will be put through today or tomorrow. I am thinking of calling him today to double check that it has gone through, as I feel he is starting to become less communicative now that he has our business. Is it a terrible idea to contact him now or am I right in doing this?

Blondygirl

Personally I'd be pestering him. Our broker has been great, I orginally contacted him by email with the in's & out. He then obtained a DIP for us based on what we said & his reccommendation after discussing with me over the phone. We then arranged for him to meet us to do the full application & collect all the documentation that the mortgage company may ask for so he had it all so ensuring no delays. The time in between getting the dip & doing the full application was just under a week but only because we didn't need to do it quickly as was waiting for the vendor to purchase somewhere. On the evening we met to go through the full application he left us at around 8pm & by 11pm we had a text from the mortgage company saying our application had been received & product reserved. Since then he's been keeping an eye on it all the time & advising us what stage it's at.

So if I was you i'd be on to him:D

NervousHomeowner

Wow, I wish I had your mortgage broker!

Your post has confirmed my suspicions that he's taking a bit of a while now so i'll give him a call and get on at him! I shall admit, our mortgage was a little complicated (Had to get my mum as a guarantor) but I do feel like he could have done everything in one go to get it finished quickly. Instead, he's had to visit us twice to get everything. My mum even came to visit so she could bring everything he needed but he wouldn't meet with her because he said he didn't have the documents ready.

He's really friendly but maybe I should have gone with the other broker

grifferz

I wouldn't be concerned about phoning him on the day he said he would put it through to check that he had.

As an aside, we are in the process of buying a property and so far our mortgage broker has been the only person in the entire process that has been at all helpful or proactive or seeming to genuinely be on our side.

Our search started in December 2012, we didn't get an offer accepted until this April but throughout that whole time he has answered many questions, given much advice and even at one point phoned me on a Saturday afternoon.

By contrast every other person (vendors, estate agents, our solicitors, the surveyors, ...) have been somewhat disappointing.

Having never done this before I don't know if we have been lucky with the broker, unlucky with everything else or what, I just know that we feel like the choice of broker is the only choice we have been happy with so far!

You say about having things done in one go: we did find that the lender (Nationwide in our case) kept coming back with more and different documentation that they would need, so it meant that the process of the application was spread over about a week. Each time he would email us with "They've decided that now.." so I'm happy to believe it wasn't just him being slow.

For example Nationwide took a couple of days to decide they weren't going to accept our bank statements printed from online banking because they didn't have a web address clearly visible on them! Apparently when you use "print view" in the browser it doesn't include the address. Going back and printing them out again without using "print view" left the address on, and then they were happy.

When you're dealing with that level of silliness perhaps it isn't entirely your broker..

kingstreet

TBH it's pretty common that lenders won't accept online statements without the "URL bar" printed on them to identify them as genuine.

On the substantive issue of the thread, it's up to the broker to provide a "roadmap" of what is going to happen, when and if anything deviates, to explain what has changed and why.

One tip many brokers should take is to inform clients regularly, even if there's nothing to inform them of since the last update. If you are going longer than a couple of days without communicating with your client, that's too long.

NervousHomeowner

grifferz wrote: »

You say about having things done in one go: we did find that the lender (Nationwide in our case) kept coming back with more and different documentation that they would need, so it meant that the process of the application was spread over about a week. Each time he would email us with "They've decided that now.." so I'm happy to believe it wasn't just him being slow.

For example Nationwide took a couple of days to decide they weren't going to accept our bank statements printed from online banking because they didn't have a web address clearly visible on them! Apparently when you use "print view" in the browser it doesn't include the address. Going back and printing them out again without using "print view" left the address on, and then they were happy.

When you're dealing with that level of silliness perhaps it isn't entirely your broker..

Thanks for your reply I don't think it is the lenders coming back with odd things as our application hasn't even got to the lenders yet. I just don't see why it all couldn't have been done in one go up to this stage. For example, if he'd have told me when we first instructed him that we'd need specific documents, I would have got them ready then. Instead, he went through the paperwork with us, got us to sign an agreement that the info was correct, then a week later informed us we needed certain documents. If he'd have told me before that meeting that I needed certain documents, I could have had them ready for our meeting and we'd have cut out a whole week and a half.

And again, there were issues with him getting info from my mum. He told us he didn't have the documents ready so couldn't take her info but in the end he just asked completely standard stuff that was plugged into a standard application form (e.g. date of birth, previous addresses, bank details etc.) so he could have got that information from her early on in the process but instead chose to wait.

It just seems like poor management of the process. He must have known off the bat that we'd need those documents (Nothing strange was asked for, just the usual proof of identification, bank statements etc.) so why didn't he just tell me when we first instructed him?

kingstreet wrote: »

On the substantive issue of the thread, it's up to the broker to provide a "roadmap" of what is going to happen, when and if anything deviates, to explain what has changed and why.

One tip many brokers should take is to inform clients regularly, even if there's nothing to inform them of since the last update. If you are going longer than a couple of days without communicating with your client, that's too long.

We haven't really had any explanation of how things were to proceed but when we first talked to him, we asked how long he thought our application would take and were told that he hoped to push it through in 2 weeks. However, we're now at week 4 and it's still not done.

I feel that he communicated well at the start (In fact, that's one of the reasons we went for him because he was very 'on the ball' and contacted us regularly) but recently, I have had trouble getting hold of him (Called on Monday & was told he'd call me back, he never did so I called again and was told he was now out of the office for the rest of the day. Called him about 45 minutes ago, was told he'd call me right back, still haven't heard anything from him). This week I have found myself calling him more and more to get info because he isn't communicating as much. My mum sent some important documents to him in the post for identification purposes and he didn't even call me to let me know they had arrived, I had to find out myself.

Sorry, that was a bit of a rant! I'm just feeling like he doesn't care now he's got our business and it's frustrating.

NervousHomeowner

Okay, just heard from our mortgage broker. I'm even more grumpy now!

When I called yesterday, I was told our application would be being sent off today/tomorrow. However, having just spoken to our broker it now transpires that he's not quite finished and has more stuff for us to sign, so he wants to arrange another meeting so we can sign these extra papers. To top it off he's also just tried to flog us their life insurance, instead of providing us with quotes (Because I'm sure we can get it cheaper elsewhere) like we had previously requested.

I understand mortgages are complicated and I knew it would take a while when we applied, especially because ours is slightly more complicated than usual. However, I'm getting fed up with things popping up out of nowhere, when we should have been told about them previously. I don't see how I can prepare and make everything go smoothly our end if we aren't being told about important things until the very last minute.

ajayre

Speak to Adam Lane at London and Country brokers - he was quick and efficient for us. From DIP to putting in the application was one day because he said that mortgage products can be withdrawn without notice all the time.

I sent all documents as a set of PDFs in one go.

Andy

NervousHomeowner

ajayre wrote: »

Speak to Adam Lane at London and Country brokers - he was quick and efficient for us. From DIP to putting in the application was one day because he said that mortgage products can be withdrawn without notice all the time.

I sent all documents as a set of PDFs in one go.

Andy

Hi Andy, thanks for the recommendation! If our application hasn't gone through by the end of this week, I will take your advice and give them a call! I'm about fed up with it now, really wishing I'd gone for the mortgage guy who waived all his fees for us and was ready to put our application through ASAP

Racml34

I have to say our IFA was fantastic. Called and emailed us regularly with updates, went out if his way when he needed to see us in person, seeing us in the evening and weekends. We had an issue with retention on our mortgage and he took most of the stress out if it as he was so efficient and reassured us at every stage. Although he gave us quotes for insurances he made it clear we were under no pressure to buy from him and in one case actually recommended we get our own quotes too. I am convinced that if not for him our purchase would have taken a lot longer as he continually chased the lender etc.

If you're feeling like this now then maybe tell him how worried you are? He should be there to help you not adding to the stress

chappers

Yep get a new broker, you say it has taken your broker 4 weeks to get as far as submitting an application.
Don't hang around with this joker as I fear you will only have more trouble down the line.
My last mortgage for a home move took just over 2 weeks from meeting the IFA to full offer. As ajayre said mortgage products change constantly and you broker should be submitting the application on line with documents to follow.
My advice ditch him and definitely don't take out any insurance from him without getting other quotes first, insurance is a bit of a minefield,.
We took out some life cover about 4 years ago through our bank as it turned out to be over £20 a month cheaper than our existing for the same cover, just out of interest this year I looked on confused.com and found the same level of cover with the same insurer(aviva) for a further £12 a month less. I even phoned aviva to check it was the same and they confirmed that and so i cancelled the policy and reapplied on line.