use a mortgage advisor or not?

cypher007

been to see a few, but at the back of my head is this voice saying if I use one im wasting money.

opinions4u

If you are knowledgeable enough to DIY, then DIY.

But a couple of hundred quid could easily save you a lot of hassle, save you time and find you a product/lender you may have overlooked.

kingstreet

If you are talking about a limited-panel advisor from a national estate agency chain, you may be getting the worst of all worlds;-

- charged a fee
- limited lender panel
- sold poor quality/expensive conveyancing service
- tied to one insurer for life, health and home insurance
- sold survey service.

If you are getting whole market advice and add to that with your own research on direct-to-lender deals the broker can't access, you'll get a full picture of your options.

If you have a less than straightforward case, I'd suggest the broker route will save you time, hassle and money.

Badgerette27

My whole of market broker has been worth his weight in gold!

ACG

It really depends on you and your circumstances.

If i (as a broker) find you a rate that saves you £20 a month over 2 years thats £480. If i charged a fee of £250 then your in pocket.

But aside from that, its not just the rate, your paying for a service so its the fact that you dont have to do anything once you have given the broker your documents.

But, if your happy to do it yourself and your situation is straight forward enough then there is nothing stopping you doing it on your own.

thenewbee

Use L&C they're free!

sjb2016

For us, we just completed our first purchase last week. My partner owns a house, but it was transferred to her from her parents so never did the mortgage process.

We both found the £250 fee for our advisor worth it in the end. After our first, free consultation we were kind of like, "why would we pay him now, he's answered our questions and even emailed us some products that would work well for us?" Indeed, I asked him that question (more or less). He said that some people take his answers and suggestions and go direct, that's just a risk of being an advisor.

He answered all our question quickly (even at 10pm), came to our house on a Sunday to collect documents, explained in detail what was happening at each stage and contacted estate agents and solicitors when needed. Really couldn't have asked for a better service.

I had rung London and Country before deciding to go with our MA, and although the bloke was nice, he seemed clueless and uninterested. Of course, I hear some rave reviews out L&C. Having said all that, assuming we remortgage after our fix is up, I don't know that I'd use an MA as I now know how things work.

amnblog

Cypher

Please bear in mind that if your proceed without a broker, you proceed without advice

Anything you miss, overlook, or do not fully understand is your problem.

Why anyone would think it sensible to take on a debt of hundreds of thousands of pounds without advice is quite simply unfathomable to me.

StarGrabber

We're using L&C. It's not a done deal yet (approved subject to valuation, which was done yesterday) but I have to say, so far, they've been fantastic.

I did speak to another guy from L&C initially and he wasn't particularly great but the gentleman who's been taking us through the process has been marvellous - a little hard to get hold of at times but we've received updates at every stage and they've been very supportive.

I'm so glad we didn't do this alone.

Miss_Marple_2

I was a nervous FTB and using a broker gave me a lot more confidence -they dealt with everything, explained everything and got a good deal.

If there is ever a next time, I will definitely be using a broker again. Made the whole process seem easy. Worth their weight in gold, I think

ElJefe

We have recently moved into our first house, yippee!! We went with London and Country and I would definitely not recommend them again. We decided to go with them because they were free and completely impartial, and recommended by MSE. However, I wish we had paid to use our local broker who was more knowledgeable, approachable and had more experience. I know many of you will have positive feedback of L&C, but it is worth being aware that not everyone has had a positive experience.

Very briefly: We were buying a 3 bed end terrace Victorian house. Conservatory on the back. The house was a bit of a shambles due to an elderly owner letting it fall into disrepair. However, this was a brilliant opportunity for us to be creative, nothing major was wrong with the house. Following the survey, the valuer recommended a boiler and electrical and timber and damp survey. Fair enough, no problem. But there was a more serious concern about the the fact that the kitchen was located in both the main body of the house, and the conservatory, which was being used as an extension. (I.e. no separating door).

Lack of and mis-communication meant that we were told that the lender would only lend us 75% LTV, rather than 85%. (We were at breaking point financially, and could only just afford 85%). On top of this, they insisted on a £5000 retention until building and planning regs were given for this structure and the survey work was completed. However, the structure/conservatory was over 10 years old, did not have any planning and/or building reg permissions, and probably constructed under permitted development rights anyway. But what happened was we went round and round in circles even though we told L&C/The lender that there were no permission available, they stuck to their guns and told us that was our only option. In all our frustrations, even our estate agent was recommending moving the kitchen (at considerable cost) to the dining area. It all got horribly complicated. Suffice to say, having chatted with the valuer, someone had got the wrong end of the stick. All that was needed was a quote from a local plumber to relocate the sink bank into the main house. (As this is where a sink should be, rather than in a conservatory). Having sorted the quote, the valuer signed it off quick sharp, and we got our mortgage offer! Hoo-ray.

Initial conditions from lender:
75% LTV, £5000 retention, proof of planning/building regs

End result:
85% LTV, no retention, no proof of planning, just a quote to move sink back into original house.

L&C should have been asking those questions, rather than me. And if we had known L&C were not going to fight our corner well enough, we would have gone with someone else. I believe we wasted a month with all the phone-calls/emails going back and forth. I managed to resolved the problem in a few days.

My specific issues are;

1. Our "adviser" was always telling us that he couldn't actually advise us. (This is what we thought his role was!) We were NOT looking for him to tell us what to do. We WERE looking for some detailed knowledge and perhaps a recommendation based on our personal circumstances. We knew the decision was ours to make, but felt uninformed and unsupported by L&C. It was almost like we were going through the whole process ourselves and that L&C were just a post box for our messages.

2. Our adviser and case worker were difficult to get hold of. Often leaving messages and waiting several days for a call back. Not good when you're a first time buyer and feeling very stressed about the whole thing.

3. Lack of knowledge. L&C were fine when it came to recommending financial products. However, they didn't seem to have a thorough understanding of the problems being raised. Every time we asked a question we waited anything from a day to a week to hear the answer. Part of that problem lies with the lender. But the other part lies with L&C, who merely sent emails to the lender which were either ignored or never answered properly. A few persistent phone-calls could have sorted that out.


Thanks for listening.