is there such a thing as a free Mortgage broker?

ACG

I have done the fee free model, its not something I would do again. I had to have far more cases on the go and my god was it stressful. I now have much more time on my hands to have a laugh with my clients, give them the reassurances a lot are after and more importantly I am around.

A case went tits up on Thursday morning, by thursday afternoon we had corrected it. A client sent me an email at 10am, by 10.15 they had their answer, I would not have been able to do that had I been fee free. That means the case that went tits up on Thursday, may not have been resolved until Friday or possibly today - thats a lot of stress on the client.

Its all about what you want, there is a saying you can have any 2 of the following:
Cheap,
Quick,
Good.

Cheap and quick will not good,
Cheap and good will not be quick,
Quick and good will not be cheap.
Its very fitting for all walks of life which includes mortgage advice.

I am not here to say fee free is the wrong way by any means, if people are happy to work for commission only thats their perogative and who can blame people for wanting to take them up on it, but you need a lot of business to make it work.

tw76237

The Broker I used recently would have been free of charge but the mortgage I've ended up getting was slightly under their sort of threshold for free service. I paid £99 and am completely happy with them as it wasn't a straight forward application.

Some of the estate agents tried to get us to use their in house brokers but the charges were ridiculous, £500 in one instance!

MortgageMamma

£500 is not an unreasonable charge, particularly in the south of England where that charge would be considered cheap.

Back in 2006-8 I was fee free but I became ill with the workload, I had no time for my kids or extended family. I think one of the misconceptions about using a broker is that the job is done once a client walks out of the office or hang up the phone. A straightforward case can take up to 10 hours, something more complex a lot longer. Then factor in business running costs inc utilities etc.

If you took up 20 hours for an accountant/solicitor or investment adviser you would pay a large fee. For less hours you would pay a smaller fee. In an ideal world brokers would charge by the hour as other professionals do but it has not as yet become commonplace. As it stands we have to hazard a guess as to how many hours a case will take and ensure our fee covers it. Some of the time we get surprises when we see credit reports, or the earnings are not as stated or there is a problem with the property or a chain collapses and we have to start all over again from scratch with research, advice, application if case cannot be "rescued". Even with fee charging brokers sometimes we are left out of pocket by unexpected turns of events. Occupational hazard. That's why brokers who value themselves and their sanity charge fees.

David_White

MortgageMamma wrote: »

Some of the time we get surprises when we see credit reports,

The amount of times someone has mentioned "just a few missed payments" to me and they've actually got a handful of defaults/CCJ's is too many to recall.

ACG

I dont do applications without seeing th credit reports now. About 70% of the time people with no credit issues have issues. Its just easier to get the reports.

£500 is ridiculous?!?!?! Even Which? charges £499.

MortgageMamma

David_White wrote: »

The amount of times someone has mentioned "just a few missed payments" to me and they've actually got a handful of defaults/CCJ's is too many to recall.

Yup! - I don't do any work for a client until I have a signed fee agreement, DIP agreement and credit report in front of me. Its a total waste of time even looking at it until you have a credit report. I learned this the hard way when I was fee free. If you don't insist on certain things before starting work you tend to get a lot of fools who live in cloud cuckoo land, and drift from one lender/broker to the next lying about their credit history not realising they are digging themselves into a deeper hole which could potentially leave them untouchable!

MerrilyA

You can get a fee free mortgage broker but you get what you pay for. If you get an adequate mortgage broker they can save you thousands in the long run by getting a good mortgage that works for your circumstance.

I'd say don't be too worried about cost but rather service offered and what benefits are being offered.

cjm888

I used L & C who are fee free and got a better rate than going direct with the lender.
I am very happy with the service. They do try and up-sell other products but that's to be expected.

My personal view if I had to pay a broker and I would do it myself.

nmjams

Thanks for all your replies.

I phoned a few brokers earlier, fees seem to vary quite a bit, anything from £179 - £500.

I managed to find one that didn't charge any fees and he emailed me a form to fill in.
I have an appointment with a fee paying broker who has been recommended, i can then compare what kind of mortgages they have to offer.

amnblog

Please do not waste the time of one of these brokers.

It is not a beauty contest and both are likely to have access to similar products.

Pick one and go with them - otherwise you are wasting their time, and possibly damaging your own situation.