Independent Mortgage Advisors

Miss_Marple_2

dunstonh wrote: »

All advisers have a free consultation. That is normal. That is not advice. You will also note that they get you to select the mortgage. A mortgage adviser recommends the mortgage. It does not get you to select it.

They did recommend a mortgage for me, but obviously I had to select things such as the fixed term etc, so maybe the wording is a bit odd on their website - certainly they did recommend a product for me and did all the searching of products to find the best fit.

As I said, I don't really know about these things, and they led me through the process very well ( as I'm sure most brokers would have done).

The other thing I remember her saying is that she was salaried, so she was not paid by the number of mortgages sold and that they also searched direct deals and would recmmend those, if they were the best ones ( though obviously they couldn't apply for you)

I'm not sure if that makes them independent or not.

Itismehonest

So, a consultation, even under our circumstances as a vendor, would be free? That would be quite something in this day & age

Let_Us_See

In my experience it is very difficult to have a consultation and not provide advice.

Not sure what other points you are trying to make?

kingstreet

Itismehonest wrote: »

So, a consultation, even under our circumstances as a vendor, would be free? That would be quite something in this day & age

It depends on what you want.

If you want a forensic analysis of your current mortgage going back ten years, you aren't going to get that free.

If you want to talk about your borrowing options and likely costs, that would normally be free. Are you saying you would have no intention of placing your business through the broker? If you are, you should give the broker the opportunity to charge you a fee, or decline to assist under those circumstances.

Let_Us_See

Itismehonest wrote: »

So, a consultation, even under our circumstances as a vendor, would be free? That would be quite something in this day & age

In my experience the vast majority of brokers/advisers offer a free consultation and only charge a fee (if that is their business model) when instructed by client to act on their behalf.

dunstonh

Yes - as Let Us See said, the advice was free and I did not need to go ahead with them with an application, but when I decided to go ahead with them making the application for me, I paid £199. The commission was paid to the broker - I could have had it paid to me, but then I would have paid an additional fee to the broker.

Just so I can understand their process, did you get a written report recommending a specific lender and terms after providing them with copy statements, payslips etc at that stage? (not talking about a list of providers based on a sample of questions).

I cant see how a business model that provides "free advice" could survive long term as you would use them for advice. They then take on the advice liability but you could then go direct and avoid the fee and they end up with no fee, no commission but liability for the advice issued.

My guess, and it is just that, is that they provide basic information to begin with. Not advice. A concepts and ideas and information rather than advice. Advice would start at the application stage.

Itismehonest

kingstreet wrote: »

It depends on what you want.

If you want a forensic analysis of your current mortgage going back ten years, you aren't going to get that free.

If you want to talk about your borrowing options and likely costs, that would normally be free. Are you saying you would have no intention of placing your business through the broker? If you are, you should give the broker the opportunity to charge you a fee, or decline to assist under those circumstances.

I'm not buying, haven't had a mortgage in decades & don't need one.

I need advice on what lenders are most likely to look kindly on when prospective buyers ask for a mortgage on our property. Apparently, at the moment it would be a cash buyer only situation because of it's planning restrictions where part of the property is residential & part ex-commercial. We are hoping, with the suggestions made by the Planning people, to be able to change the use of some of the commercial but we want to make sure we'd choose the right option. It's complicated to fully explain on here.

Let_Us_See

Dunstonh don't confuse providing advice with making a specific mortgage scheme recommendation. The two are vastly different.

Senior_Paper_Monitor

As I see it - the OP wants 'professional advice' to effectively 'pre-package' his property in terms of layout/use and identify which lenders would consider such a deal, so that the potential vendors can overcome likely financing problems.

Did something similar for a vendor a while back with a split commercial/residential . Unregulated advice process (no different to painting his living room or consultancy on how to run his business). If faced with that description of requirement I would guess that most brokers would want something in the region of £300 (a typical broker fee) to assist.

kingstreet

If the property will be marketed through an estate agent, why not get them to do some work for their money?

They'll be trying to stitch up the potential purchaser with every service under the sun, why can't their advisor be in on this?

I used to do it when I was an EA advisor.