Big lender or 'unknown' through broker?

Sammy5

kingstreet wrote: »

If you've already applied and paid for a valuation, then do a change of property/product with your current advisor on your current Halifax application, you will pay for a new valuation, but on completion, valuation promise will kick in and your first valuation fee will be refunded.

Don't forget to take that into account, if it applies to you.

Thanks, but how would I go about changing the property/product and would they let me do that? This is my first application with Halifax and I've have paid the valuation fee already. I'm paying more by going through them, but I'm not massively unhappy about it, although I'd obviously rather pay less...

Sammy5

amnblog wrote: »

Sammy,


You appear to have been dragged in the meat machine that the Estate Agents run to generate profit from sales. They want the sale done at the best price possible and that is the focus. If their mortgage broker does not get you the lending quickly (and sell you as many additional products as possible), they wont be considered of much use to the agency. We offer see your interests ignored as a result.


You have also experienced the problems of going direct to the Lender where a little knowledge is a dangerous thing and you do not get what you went in for. You have yet to experience the joy of the application process direct to Lender.


Hence the reason the recommendation here is to not go direct but to use a mortgage broker, but not one within the estate agency.

Thanks and yes, I realise that I have paid more by doing this, but I have done so knowingly because ultimately I was tired of going back and forth, the estate agents being on my back to get it sorted and being lied to by that broker from the estate agent. If time allowed and I'd been able to go to another broker then I might've considered that, but I've become increasingly distrustful to be quite honest! So I made a mental note of the best deals which the broker could find (fully aware that many would not actually lend the amount required) and got the best deal I could find direct at short notice... it's just a shame I didn't fit the FTB criteria, because that obviously made quite a big difference in the end, without the £500 cashback. It wasn't a terrible deal in the grand scheme of things, just not a great one and I'm sure I could've done better if I'd trusted the broker. I've not completely written off the £500 I paid to the broker... I can't say that I didn't get any value from it, because I at least came out of it understanding a lot more about mortgages & knowing what a reasonably good deal looked like right now, so I have purchased information (albeit at a high price and I probably could've found it out myself with time). When it comes time to remortgage, I'm fairly sure I can go back and get some more information on the state of the mortgage market. So the way I see it is that it's not great, but it could be worse...

kingstreet

Sammy5 wrote: »

Thanks, but how would I go about changing the property/product and would they let me do that? This is my first application with Halifax and I've have paid the valuation fee already. I'm paying more by going through them, but I'm not massively unhappy about it, although I'd obviously rather pay less...

If it's your first application, it doesn't apply unless this one falls through.

As I said, if you've already applied and had a valuation done, then pulled out of purchasing that property, you then do a change of property and the first valuation fee is refunded on completion of the purchase of the second property.

http://www.halifax-intermediaries.co.uk/pdf/valuation-fee-promise-factsheet.pdf

Sammy5

kingstreet wrote: »

If it's your first application, it doesn't apply unless this one falls through.

As I said, if you've already applied and had a valuation done, then pulled out of purchasing that property, you then do a change of property and the first valuation fee is refunded on completion of the purchase of the second property.

http://www.halifax-intermediaries.co.uk/pdf/valuation-fee-promise-factsheet.pdf

Ah right, in that case I can't then, as my first application was through The Leeds. Which reminds me, they still owe me my CHAPS fee back!