Anyone used estate agent mortgage brokers?

SephirothX

I had an offer accepted on a property today and I was going to apply for my mortgage this evening to get the ball rolling but the estate agent told me I should wait until after my appointment at their office on Saturday.

They have a mortgage advisor and say they have access to exclusive deals but there is a £500 fee to apply for a mortgage via their advisor. I really have no desire to do this unless they can offer me a deal that is better than anything I can find when taking into account the fee.

So are agency exclusive deals usually any good? The estate agent is a large national chain.

I have been comparing mortgage deals myself using the MSE comparison tool but the reality is I don't what to look for on there. Like is the mortgage with the best MSE total cost the best deal or the one with the lowest interest rate? IE which column should I be ordering by? I normally order by MSR total cost. I plan to over pay a lot so I'm not sure.

I want to go to the estate agents on Saturday armed with as much information as possible.

What do you people advise?

markfj

I have used one before,

My opinion is go there, if it's not a major inconvenience, see if they can better your current mortgage you wanted to apply for, if not, tell them that you have a better deal

I find its normal practise now, having about completed on my 3rd place, the last 2 both agents wanted us to see their in house mortgage advisor, its annoying but we got a decent deal through one and it was quicker, the 2nd one going through now we could get a better deal elsewhere, so we went elsewhere

-taff

Don't bother.

Find yourself a whole of market broker, you'll probably get better deals if you have a fair deposit [ 10% ].
We did. And they were also better than any of the deals offered by our respective banks/building societies.
Our broker cost us £350, and I believe it was money well spent.

SephirothX

I was planning to get a mortgage with HSBC as that's who my DIP is with, but they increased their interests rates last week and are no longer one of the best deals around.

I don't know if I have time to go see another broker, depends how quickly I need to be starting the application process. I wanted to get moving as soon as possible.

Seeing the estate agent advisor on Saturday isn't an inconvenience but I just don't want 90 minutes of hard sell tactics trying to get me to sign up to one of their deals followed by every insurance policy they can think of. I have to see the estate agent regardless to prove my income/show ID but 90 minutes sounds crazy.

Any idea on my question regarding the MSE comparison tool?

markfj

To be honest, neither of the in house brokers i spoke to had hard sell techniques but my last one, was a waste of time

If you have a mortgage in principle already, perhaps you could try Which Mortgage brokers, who I used myself, and have been very helpful.

Not sure myself on the MSE tool, I think its better to speak to brokers and compare on the spot, some allow overpayments for free, others charge etc

SephirothX

My colleagues have given me info on a couple of brokers they've used but I haven't visited one because I figured I could find the best mortgage deal myself online using the MSE tool. I have a 35% deposit, excellent credit rating and I'm not stretching my finances so I'm pretty confident that I could get a mortgage from just about any bank/building society of my choosing.

Realistically an appointment with a broker wouldn't be until next week if I made one tomorrow and I don't know if that's delaying too much in the vendor's eyes. In reality it's the estate agent that's delaying me by insisting I should see their broker before making an application because my plan was to research the best deal tonight and make an application.

I'm hoping to complete by mid February otherwise I'll likely have to move out of my rented flat before I can move into the house. I'm already cutting it close so the less delay the better.

From what I can see on the MSE tool the mortgages with the best interest rates have awful up front fees whereas the cheapest cost per year mortgages have 0 fees. From what I can gather it balances out because that £1500 application fee you're saving is taken in interest over time and it's £1500 less in over payments you can make.

SephirothX

My research tells me that if your mortgage isn't large (mine will be £94k) then you're better off with no up front fees and a slightly higher interest rate.

Yorkshire and Chelsea building societies appear to be the current joint best deals for my situation.

I'm going for a 5 year fix because interest rates look like they are starting to rise

wjr4

Lots of independent mortgage brokers can do the work without you having to see them. The one I work with is able to do it all via telephone and emails.

muhandis

It depends on what you mean by estate agent mortgage broker.

1. They could be a whole of market independent broker who gets referrals from the estate agent (Like L&C's arrangement with the The Property Franchise Group (Martin & Co, Whitegates, CJ Hole, Parkers and Ellis & Co.))

2. It could be a whole of market independent broker firm that is a different organisation but in the same group of companies as the estate agent (Foxtons and Alexander Hall for example)

3. It could be a vanilla in-house broker who is not whole of market and only has access to a few lenders.

1 and 2 I'd personally be fine with. Would not use 3 simply because they wouldn't have access to the whole market.

SephirothX wrote: »

I had an offer accepted on a property today and I was going to apply for my mortgage this evening to get the ball rolling but the estate agent told me I should wait until after my appointment at their office on Saturday.

They have a mortgage advisor and say they have access to exclusive deals but there is a £500 fee to apply for a mortgage via their advisor. I really have no desire to do this unless they can offer me a deal that is better than anything I can find when taking into account the fee.

So are agency exclusive deals usually any good? The estate agent is a large national chain.

I have been comparing mortgage deals myself using the MSE comparison tool but the reality is I don't what to look for on there. Like is the mortgage with the best MSE total cost the best deal or the one with the lowest interest rate? IE which column should I be ordering by? I normally order by MSR total cost. I plan to over pay a lot so I'm not sure.

I want to go to the estate agents on Saturday armed with as much information as possible.

What do you people advise?

Malmo

Some independent brokers can come to your home for an appointment, if you wanted face to face contact.

However, your circumstances don't appear to be too complicated and you may be better off going it alone, unless you think you need the assistance and hand holding & facilitation that a good broker can provide.

amnblog

Malmo wrote: »

come to your home for an appointment

So 20thC Malmo