First time buyer with Which? Mortgage advisiors.

AlistairM

Hello MSE'ers


This is my first post and sorry it's quite a long one

I wanted to share my tale of woe so far with trying to buy a home.


I thought it'd be useful to use a broker because we've never done this before and it'd be nice to have advice and guidance through it all.

I decided to use Which? as they have a good reputation and there were lots of positive reviews on their website.

They decided that we could afford a £280K with a £200K loan and £80K deposit, we booked our rate based on a =>25% deposit with Nationwide with an AIP and went house hunting.

Found a nice detached house in a village called Brantham on the market for £285K.

We put in an offer for £280K, it was accepted and we were moved on to another advisor with Which? as the person we delt with was leaving.


The valuation was done on a Thursday 27th and we went on holiday on the Monday following, for a week expecting an offer letter have arrived when we came back.

Through the holiday we had no contact from Which or Nationwide so expected no problems.

Came home and had no offer letter, tried calling our broker at Which? several times but no answer.

Called Nationwide and asked why the letter hadn't come and they said there were multiple issues with the application.

1. They had held it because I had a salary exchange line on all my payslips which they wanted to know what it was (my pension)

2. They had been told that the deposit was a split of savings and a gift and needed proof of this. It wasn't it was an inheritance and there was a covering letter from our solicitor.

3. The house had been valued at £265K so they wouldn't loan us the required amount for the house.


I called up the seller and told them about the valuation and they eventually agreed to reduce the price to £275K.


We love the house so we did some maths and decided we could afford it by changing our deposit to exactly 25% of £265K (£66,250) and a mortgage of £198,750 (75%) and use the spare deposit money to overpay £10k. We also have booked our own surveyor to do a homebuyers report to see what he comes up with.

I called the broker midday and talked it over with him and he agreed it would be fine. So I asked him to urgently call the bank and amend the mortgage details so I could tell the seller before he put it back up for sale.

The Broker didn’t call me back so I called up the bank late in the afternoon and asked them if they had been contacted. They said they hadn’t, I then went through the amendments with them and they said it was all fine. Whilst on the phone to them I asked them if they had told the brokers about the valuation shortfall and other issues and they confirmed that they had a week ago.


I emailed the broker listing all the problems which I’ll list again here.

• They hadn’t contacted me to tell me about the problems with the payslips or proof of deposit.
• They didn’t tell me about the shortfall of the valuation.
• He hadn’t contacted Nationwide when I told him it was urgent.

He replied later that he had told them at 5pm and had a record of doing so and that I should take it up with them, but seemingly ignored the other questions.


As things were moving again I decided not to make an issue of it and got a text from Nationwide that our formal mortgage had been issued. So I just waited for the letter to arrive.

The letter arrived yesterday and it was wrong.
It was an offer for a £200K mortgage on the house and at a higher rate of interest than we had booked. I emailed the broker as it was outside office hours to see what was going on.
I called Nationwide this morning and they agreed that it was wrong but they had been waiting for a reply from the broker about the changes to the mortgage details since the 11th and couldn’t proceed without it. I asked who they had down as the broker and it listed our previous Which? Advisor who had left and not our current one.
I tried calling the broker several times but couldn’t get through so I emailed him to tell them what had happened and ask what was going on but 5 hours later no reply.

So that’s where I am right now. I knew buying a house was stressful but I didn’t think it would be this bad!
The simplest things are going wrong, I’m wishing I’d never used a broker now as they have actually slowed down the process and I’m paying them for the privilege.

Anyone else have experience like this, or used Which?

dunstonh

I thought it'd be useful to use a broker because we've never done this before and it'd be nice to have advice and guidance through it all.

In which case, a local broker would probably have been better than a call centre based one. Call centre brokers are fine on the easy stuff but they have a factory line of customers to deal with and that can cause problems when things are not running smoothly.

A local broker who can pop round or you have their mobile number is a much easier contact. Plus, they have a much greater interest in getting your mortgage sorted as they only get paid when the mortgage is advanced. Unlike employees on a phone line working 9-5. (brokers are used to getting calls on Saturdays and Sundays and well into the evening.

he simplest things are going wrong, I’m wishing I’d never used a broker now as they have actually slowed down the process and I’m paying them for the privilege.

Your problem was not using a real broker but a factory line service. It's a common trend across call centre services.

KayTM

Our experience was entirely different from dunstonh's. We used a "real" broker. On the day our offer was accepted, we instructed him to proceed with the full application. We heard nothing back about the progress. We were inexperienced at this and initially accepted it as being normal. We started chasing after a couple of weeks. Then, after four weeks of futile chasing, we realised we were going nowhere with this broker.

Therefore, we started a new application ourselves. Different lender, different deal. All much better. And the offer came through in a couple of weeks. Every case is different. That's just our experience, and if we were to go through this again, I would definitely DIY and, if necessary, just go through the lender's factory line adviser.

That may not be the right choice for everyone.

Good luck!

AlistairM

Thanks for the advice! Even the contrary stuff :P I just saw Which?'s name and assumed from their reputation and reviews I was safe.


I got a reply from him now after ringing up other people in the company and pleading, he says as the house price has changed, the deal we booked became invalid and it needs to be reprocessed which will take a maximum of 3 days.


Not sure why the thought didn't occur to them last week when we initially did this.


Will be glad when this is all over, will be glad to get out of renting a flat, the neighbours are so noisy!

marksoton

This is exactly why i chose a local broker.

Not only are they whole of market but certainly the one i used knew the local market and its nuances. Whilst professional the odd raised eyebrow also told me their opinion of certain EA's etc..

Invaluable IMO ( And highly accurate as it turns out)

AlistairM

I'll keep it in mind for next time, not that I anticipate moving ever again.


Too traumatic!

csgohan4

I am surprised at ?Which mortgage advisors. They were on my short list before I went with someone on MSE, who were not local but on the end of the phone when ever I needed as well as email after 5pm especially.

I guess you live and learn.

johannalf88

On the other hand we are using a local broker who seems to forget about us as soon as we stop emailing and calling- that's when he answers and replies to emails. They usually receive a fee, but they have a fee free referal from friends (that's a mouthful!) so wondering if that's why.

We asked him on Monday to submit the application, he said he would do it that night, emailed 5pm Tuesday asking if it was done, he said oh did you want me to submit?! Also said at first meeting that he would send over information the next day, took a whole week to get it, and that was only because we chased, he forgot he was supposed to send us the details. When speaking /emailing / meeting him everything seems fine, then he just forgets about us it appears. giving him the benefit of the doubt as he cant be like this normally and stay in his job surely.

KayTM

He probably can be like that normally and stay in his job - assuming he's always getting new clients from the major chain of estate agents who recommends him. Then he can cherry pick the easiest deals and pretty much ignore the others unless he can be bothered when he has a couple of minutes to spare a few weeks down the line.

I doubt if we have/had the same broker. It's probably that there's a type. And that type give brokers a bad name. The brokers who frequent MSE seem to be a lot more proactive than the ones we're describing.

dunstonh

Spot the bot posting which took an existing post, put it through a language converter and reposted it.

KayTM

Yeah, I noticed that too. And it's made 11 posts already. Someone has some cleaning up to do.

But that's what happens on unmoderated forums...

Nothing is free, some forums earn from advertising and/or affiliations. Others charge for membership. But one might hope that a forum, especially one bringing in money, could pay to have it professionally moderated. Agh, shouldn't have said that.