William H Brown / Sequence Broker ? Help !

JuicyJossy

Hi
I was wondering if someone would be able to help me.
My partner and I are first time buyers, we started looking for mortgages by going to Nationwide but they told us we wouldn't be able to borrow what we were looking for as I am on a 0 hour contract (bank) so it was just based on my partners wage (full-time).
We decided to start looking at properties and I phoned William H Brown (Sequence Homes) to book a viewing and while I was on the phone it was suggest to me that I see their mortgage advisor. So we did.
I have to admit, she was brilliant, explained a lot and said she would try her hardest to get us the best deal. She phoned shortly after our meeting to say she had managed to get Halifax to give us a decision in principle of £90k which is just what we needed !
However I googled William H Brown mortgage advisors and 99% of the reviews I came across were bad and now I'm concerned.
She will charge £399 but not until a mortgage is agreed so we can still get out of it. My main concern is insurance, she said she can help us sort it all out through their company etc but she didn't give us an idea of how much it would cost per month.

Does anyone have any experience with William H Brown/Sequence good or bad ?

Does anyone know whether I could get the same amount from Halifax without going through the broker ?

I hope I've been clear. I have no idea about mortgages etc.

Thanks for any help !:D

ACG

When people write reviews its typically bad ones. You never feel the need to go and vent your happiness at a company do you, but when a company annoys you, you feel the need to tell everyone.
Those complaints may be a small fraction of their customers?

You can go direct to halifax, im assuming the same deal will be available.

As for insurance, it all depends on your age, health, occupation, amount of cover etc etc. If you tell her you have a budget then they will find the best deal they can for that budget.

The majority of my clients tend to have a budget of around £25-50...i cant usually cover everything for that budget but at the same time having some cover is better than none. I do occasionally have clients who have budgets of £100+ and want to be as financially protected as they can be and others who refuse to take any cover at all... generally speaking (this may not be the case with your broker) you will find brokers offer better and cheaper cover than you would get from a bank.

dunstonh

However I googled William H Brown mortgage advisors and 99% of the reviews I came across were bad and now I'm concerned.

There is a general negatively towards estate agent advisers. They tend to be tied to one insurer (L&G being frequent) which makes their insurance expensive. They tend to be aggressive in sales methods. If you had asked us before you started we would tell you not to use one. However, it would be equally unfair to tar all with the same brush. There will be estate agent advisers who do a perfectly good job within their confines.

Buying insurance via a bank be even more expensive. Out of the frying pan into the fire.

JuicyJossy

Thanks for the help !

holly_hobby

Arranging any supplementary insurances via your broker should not, and is not a requirment of they arrranging your mortgage - 2 separate transactions. (although they will hope they persuade you to use them, due to the commission element)

The only compulsory insurance there will be in this pch, is buildings insurance, and that's a requirment of the lender, NOT your adviser - and you may of course shop round for that.

Other insurances, such as life cover, income protection etc, are decisions for you to make, source and effect within your budget and requirements - whether you use the adviser to facilitate this is your choice, but it is not a compulsory requirement of they placing the mortgage.

Hope this helps

Holly