How to Grill a Mortgage Broker

PixelPound

We are trying to find a local broker to sort us a mortgage and its not straight forward as we are needing a specialist. Having looked via unbiased.co.uk I called three who seemed to have the correct options selected to be able to cater for our requirements but got wildly different answers. One says that a high street lender like Nationwide will be okay, another says it might be a high risk lender, and the third says no way with our situation.
So how do I choose the right one - maybe there are specific questions I need to ask?

My situation is
- Partner went voluntary bankrupt Jan 2009, automatically settled after 1 year.
- Combined wage of £29k, £15K deposit for £66K house (so £51K loan required) should b okay on affordability
- No defaults, missed payments etc.

We had initially used L&C who suggested Halifax, but we failed on credit scoring, so have decided to go through a local whole of market broker route. With such a wide variation in the reaction we have had so far how do we choose?
We don't necessarily want to go with one who assumes we should be fine with a high street lender if we can't be, but is one who says we stand no chance right? Unbiased had all three as dealing with "sub prime" mortgages, but strange to get a wide reaction.

None of them seemed interested in our credit reports - I assume brokers don't have this info to hand and if we failed with Halifax on credit scoring (a point I make to each), shouldn't they be insisting to look at the reports first?

amnblog

The bankruptcy is a red herring.


Will be a problem with some Lenders, but not in itself with Halifax, Nationwide and some other High Street lenders.


Anyone not asking for the credit reports and looking at them first is an idiot - avoid.


(BTW I prefer my mortgage brokers fried)

ACG

There is a high street lender or 2 who will consider this.

If they fail then you may need an adverse lender. But the adverse lenders credit check (not score) so trying the high street is unlikely to have a negative effect on the adverse lenders.