Fees???

Neutrinno

Rachel_Pierson wrote: »

Plenty of fee-free deals available at the moment. It's common right now to find deals where the Product Fees, Valuation Fees, Legal Fees and other less-tangible Imaginary Fees dreamt up by the lender such as "Completion Fees" are non-existent. Are there reasons you're expecting to have to pay these yourself? What kind of Loan-To-Value (the amount you can pay as a deposit as a percentage of the total mortgage) are you looking at?

If you're paying your broker, there's something wrong in that arrangement. It's the mortgage provider that should pay them for a referral. Often brokers don't find the best deals as a consequence, as the broker's interests and yours aren't therefore aligned. (They're incentivised to refer you to the mortgage lender that pays them the most commission, not necessarily the one that might save you the most money.) Why not just use a comparison website and apply to lenders directly?

Honestly, this is probably the worst and most ill informed piece of advice I have come across on these boards. Rachel please don't post such nonsense to people which can affect them successfully arranging such a large piece of finance.

Not only is this not possible as we are heavily regulated by the FCA and have to evidence and explain everything we do (and would be shutdown immediately if we were found to practice in such a way), but using a broker has many benefits compared to just applying directly. It can be quicker, less stressful, we handle the application process, find the most suitable lender and product etc etc.

Rachel_Pierson

Neutrinno wrote: »

Honestly, this is probably the worst and most ill informed piece of advice I have come across on these boards. Rachel please don't post such nonsense to people which can affect them successfully arranging such a large piece of finance.

Not only is this not possible as we are heavily regulated by the FCA and have to evidence and explain everything we do (and would be shutdown immediately if we were found to practice in such a way), but using a broker has many benefits compared to just applying directly. It can be quicker, less stressful, we handle the application process, find the most suitable lender and product etc etc.

Any other Mortgage Brokers want to chip in this opinion? Or can we just take it as read you all think consumers paying you is a good thing?

Neutrinno

Rachel_Pierson wrote: »

Any other Mortgage Brokers want to chip in this opinion? Or can we just take it as read you all think consumers paying you is a good thing?

I'm sure every other person in the world is not in the same position as you funny enough Rachel. So I'm sure plenty of people find using a broker useful. People who don't have the time to go through meeting after meeting in a branch, would like someone who they just pick up the phone and speak to , deal with the lender and solicitors, may have complex income or poor credit, don't want the stress etc. I guess that's why we are getting so much business and people happy to pay our fees

P.S. You seem to contradict yourself; in another thread you said "No, you're right. Banks always obey the rules." Yet you seem happy in this instance to take the banks advice on a mortgage, but not a brokers who's job it is to get you the most suitable deal? :rotfl:

downhillfast

Rachel_Pierson wrote: »

Any other Mortgage Brokers want to chip in this opinion? Or can we just take it as read you all think consumers paying you is a good thing?

I'm NOT a mortgage broker but I have absolutely no problem in paying a fee to one for professional mortgage advice when it is not appropriate to approach lenders direct due to tricky financial issues.

In fact, by charging a fee it gives me additional confidence that they are going to match me to the RIGHT lender rather than the one that will net them the biggest commission if they were solely reliant on commissions for their pay - although I believe there is strict regulation in place to guard against this anyway.

fewcloudy

Rachel_Pierson wrote: »

If you're paying your broker, there's something wrong in that arrangement. It's the mortgage provider that should pay them for a referral. Often brokers don't find the best deals as a consequence, as the broker's interests and yours aren't therefore aligned. (They're incentivised to refer you to the mortgage lender that pays them the most commission, not necessarily the one that might save you the most money.) Why not just use a comparison website and apply to lenders directly?

Well I'm not a mortgage broker but I can still recognise a complete load of garbage when I see it! What are you on about?
As it happens, my broker does not charge me a fee, and does indeed receive commission. So what? He wouldn't have lasted long if he arranged for customers to receive a worse product, just so he could get a tiny bit more commission! He got me my current mortgage. Worth his weight in gold.
You also say "Why not just use a comparison site and apply to lenders direct?"
The fact that you are advising someone to do that, even thought they have informed us that they have a default from 2012 is just really bad advice on so many levels.
And we haven't even touched on the support and reassurance side of things...


fc

amnblog

fewcloudy wrote: »

Well I'm not a mortgage broker but I can still recognise a complete load of garbage when I see it! What are you on about?

Just when you thought the 'clown problem' was last month's news Cloudy.

wjr4

wantahouse wrote: »

I'm so confused with fees associated with house buying!!
I know we need to have the deposit, broker ,survey and valuation fees ready to go. But what about stamp duty, solicitors fees etc when are they payable???

Can anyone give me a timeline of when fees are paid through the house buying process???

- have the deposit ready & survey money (this is not a valuation that the mortgage company does) before you apply for a mortgage. However, we did not send the deposit until just before exchange.
- we added the valuation fee to the mortgage (our choice - but would have been better to pay this separately).
- solicitor - we paid approx. £300 for the initial searches when we first appointed them (the day after our decision in principle was accepted). The remainder was due a couple of days before completion.
- survey - this was paid 5-10 working days after we applied to our full mortgage application via an independent surveyor who had knowledge of the local area.
- stamp duty was payable to the solicitor a few days before completion.

csgohan4

Rachel_Pierson wrote: »

Hold the front page! Mortgage Broker thinks that borrowers paying them fees is reasonable shocker!

In my first mortgage, I took advice from several Brokers. I ended up finding a better deal directly on the internet myself. And that was back in 2001. I've searched on my own every time I've remortgaged since. Others' mileage may vary, but in my experience a broker has never saved me money.

Things have changed since haven't they. Say your self employed or have defaults or DMP. Good luck getting a mortgage without a Broker knowing who is the right lender for you.

If you have no problems in your credit or are straight forward and don't mind doing everything a broker had to do for you, such countless 2 hour interviews over the phone, attending branches to hand documentation in, then go for it.

By my broker was money well spent. First phone call for fact finding, second phone call was the offer, simples, no hassle of taking time off work or sneaking off for phone calls.

I am also sure you are aware remortgage and getting a mortgage for the first time are very much different things right?

Also not every lender was available via a broker, it's only recent HSBC has been available but only through some brokers. They were the more competitive rates and direct only.

David_White

Rachel_Pierson wrote: »

Often brokers don't find the best deals as a consequence, as the broker's interests and yours aren't therefore aligned. (They're incentivised to refer you to the mortgage lender that pays them the most commission, not necessarily the one that might save you the most money.)

This is absolute garbage.

Rachel_Pierson

csgohan4 wrote: »

....Also not every lender was available via a broker, it's only recent HSBC has been available but only through some brokers. They were the more competitive rates and direct only.

Kind of proves my point, no?