I only need £20,000 -

Seanymph

I have spoken with a broker (five days ago I sent the forms back and nothing heard yet!)....

I thought I'd take out a mortgage against my house, he said on the phone I may be better off with a secured loan.

But he hasn't come back to me anyway (perhaps not worth his while?).

Can someone on here give me some guidance as to how I would be best to raise these funds?

And maybe point me at somewhere that would want to be useful? Would I be better off just going to my bank? That doesn't seem very MSE to me.

kingstreet

What's the purpose of the loan?

Are you employed/self-employed with an income?

Is your credit history good?

Is the property suitable security for a mortgage?

These and many other answers will determine if a mortgage or secured loan are possible.

The amount you require will see a broker earn about £70, so expect to pay a fee on top for advice on how best to proceed.

Many mortgage lenders have a £25k minimum loan, but some (particularly smaller building societies) will offer less, however, if this is a remortgage of an unencumbered property, many will shy away because such a mortgage falls within the Consumer Credit Act and they will wish to avoid.

You may wish to consider borrowing £25k using a penalty-free product and repaying £5k after completion to avoid this.

Mortgage rate will be a lot lower than rate for secured loan, so have a look at the difference and this should give you some idea of which is the best route.

Talk to other brokers, particularly whole-market, but expect to pay a fee.

ACG

Getting a mortgage of £20k isnt impossible to do, depending on the fees involved a secured loan may be cheaper/easier/quicker... but it may not (just to sit on the fence there).

Just to give you an idea - a £20k Mortgage would generate about £70 in commission... if you went to a fee free broker as bad as it sounds its probably not worth their time (although the right thing would have been to just tell you that). I would fully expect to pay a fee on this.

If you can find a lender on the high street yourself who are doing a fee free deal then i would be very tempted to look at that. Because of the very low amount, fees will have a bigger impact on the overall cost than if it were a bigger mortgage.

Seanymph

thank you both.

The purpose of the loan is to put a roof on our french barn.

I am both employed AND self employed - I complete an annual return. Last year I declared only about 9,500 but my employment only started at the end of the year. I have just received a rise and am on 18,000 for one job (but was only 11,000 until this month), 1440 for another - and self employed another couple of thousand a year.

my credit history I imagine will be ok - I went over my overdraft in August whilst on holiday, rectified it the day I got back (2 days over my overdraft). I don't owe anything on my credit cards or have any debt or loans.

I assume the property is fine for a mortgage (brick and tile, I bought it for £215,000 two years or so ago).

I have received his quotation - but the fees alone for the broker and santander come to over a thousand pounds.

NOT a cheap way to get my new roof!

I'll ask him to run it again at £25,000.

Is it possible to extend mortgages? My husband has a mortgage of 60k (bit less now I suppose) on his house - can we just up that do you know?

getmore4less

for building work flexible arrangements work well.

if you have another place look at offset.

borrow more than you think you need just in case.