The Broker Blues Thread

betmunch

Oh good, I was concerned it was the first sign of madness!

kingstreet

I must confess I'm getting a little jaded with this place.

A few well thought-out stickies on regularly recurring issues with an FAQ would be a good idea.

Although TBH, members seem to think they should have a tailored/bespoke answer to every question, however trivial and the search facility seems greatly underused.

I also don't have the required level of clairvoyance to try to second-guess why a lender/broker/solicitor has said/asked/requested what it has and do often have to play with a straight bat such questions...

kingstreet

Got a client who has been messing about for several months over whether to buy or not. She came via our connection with a builder, but decided not to proceed with them.

She's been back in touch today to say she's found somewhere else. Asked us to contact selling agent to confirm mortgageability and asked if we would charge for this.

I went back and re-attached our TOB explaining what we charge and when.

Got another email back asking if this means she has to commit to a mortgage through us before we would contact the agents. I made it clear if she wants to use us fine, but don't expect to get us to do all the legwork then decide to use another broker or go direct.

I look forward to receiving our signed terms of business before I'll be doing anything else on the case.

betmunch

I had that recently, did a ton of legwork then found out the client went to L&C to save on the £200 broker fee.

I think from now on I might have to get a bit tougher stating if I am vouching for you with an EA then I will need to be instructed to do the mortgage.

Luckily the EA knows me very well so doesnt blame me when the client cant proceed due to L&C messing up the application!

ACG

I have a fee agreement which kicks in as soon as I disclose who the lender is.

I let them know the rate/fees etc, if they are happy I disclose the lender and if they pull out after that point I have a nominal fee to cover the time/expenses, admittedly I have only ever enforced it once.

Most of the time I would rather just let people off in the hope they will come back to me next time/recommend me to friends and family - in fairness it does usually work like that.

amnblog

Many brokers now seem to be charging a proportion of their fee upfront.

Surely that avoids the problems you suggest?

kingstreet

We charge £250 and it's all payable on application.

We submit the application and invoice the client. TBH most of the time, the case has been offered within the seven days they have to settle up.

amnblog

Does signing your terms prevent them 'letting you do all the work, then going somewhere else'?

kingstreet

Can anyone explain to me why it takes so flaming long for the application summary to become available on the Nationwide online document store?

I submitted the case about 16:30 and I still can't download the app for the client file... :mad:

kingstreet

amnblog wrote: »

Does signing your terms prevent them 'letting you do all the work, then going somewhere else'?

Not really.

I was using it to concentrate the mind!