Broker, Bank or DIY?

Lord_e55ex

Hi all

Like most people on the MSE forums, I try to be shrewd with money. I am a first time buyer and gone through a Mortgage in Principle and passed no problem.

My only question to you all, is how many of you hunt for the perfect deal? currently I am putting my trust in Santander, but I know many others that only use brokers or look for deals online.

Anyway, just a open question. There are so many deals out there, I'm sure there isn't much between the best ones.

G_M

Mortgage question?

sirbackbite

Hi,


My partner and I are both FTBers and have chosen to go with a Mortgage Broker - one recommended to us by a friend. We both hunted around online for a decent deal but our broker has found us a deal that is cheaper than anything we were able to find.
Is it the absolute cheapest deal available to us anywhere? Probably not - but we don't think it is far off and getting someone to do the hunting for us was certainly easier than doing it ourselves.
More importantly to us, we are getting the assistance of an expert in the application process. Someone who can remove a little of that uncertainty that plagues the first time buyer.
To us, the "perfect deal" ended up involving something more intangible that the absolute financial figures.
I am sure the more experienced buyer would say that a broker wasn't necessary but to us he has been invaluable.


That is our twopenn'orth anyway!

Elfinpie

I have previously owned two houses and went direct both times (1996 & 2005). However, this time we are using a broker, the way banks criteria are nowadays I wouldn’t go any other way. I think the fee you pay for their knowledge, contacts and ‘hand-holding’ is worth every penny.

buggy_boy

Never look to your bank only for a mortgage, there are loads of comparison sites... I have always managed to find my own best deals but it can take hours and hours to research... I would highly recommend an independent whole of market broker (not independent whole of market is important), they will know when new deals might be coming out, they will know which mortgages you are most likely to get... You should never have to pay the mortgage broker, they may be able to find a cheaper deal...

The difference between going with your bank or getting the best deal can make thousands of pounds of difference so really important.

ACG

buggy_boy wrote: »

You should never have to pay the mortgage broker,

I disagree with this. When I started out, I was a fee free broker. My average gross commission was around £400.

There is on average 10 hours work, so £40 an hour.
Once you pay out compliance costs, insurance, marketing, stationary, IT systems (back office, sourcing/research), FCA fees etc I soon realised that I would need to be running around like a headless chicken to pay the bills and myself. Which then meant when problems did arise, I was not around to stamp them out before they snowballed.

I have shared this example a few times, but last year I spoke to a person from this site. He went to another broker who applied to Natwest and was declined, the broker then went to another adverse/quirky lender and was also declined.

I picked it up and went straight to Natwest and had it accepted and offered without any problems. If you have anything quirky, an experienced broker can be the difference between getting accepted and not...The other broker was fee free.

I am not saying fee charging brokers are any better than fee free brokers, but my fee far outweighed going down the adverse route for this customer. Fee charging brokers can afford to spend more time on a case because they are earning more per case.

That is my opinion anyway having been on both sides of the fence.

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To answer the main question, there is no definitive answer. Some people I end up applying to who they bank with, other people I apply to other lenders and other people I end up applying to lenders they can either not access directly or never in a month of sundays would they ever have come across. Some people will be perfectly fine doing it themselves, I am under no illusions that not everyone will need or want a broker and I have never said anything otherwise (despite my job).