How to find a good mortgage broker

marmitemum

I’ve been advised below for my daighter and son in law to try a broker for their first mortgage but am a bit wary as how do you know if they’re reputable? Is there any way of knowing who’s okay and who isn’t? Any professional organisation memberships to look out for?

YHM

The majority of good independent brokers, grow their business on reputation and word of mouth referrals. Ask people local to you and I'm sure one will pop up.

There isn't a professional organisation per se, but just make sure they are independent, have access to the whole market and have a good reputation, and you should be fine.

Candyapple

The general consensus on here is to go with a broker. I would say yes this is good advice - if you have any problem areas or credit history problems or are self-employed.

If your daughter & son-in-law are employed, have decent salaries, good sized deposit and no real credit issues (from your other thread it sounds like it), they'd be a vanilla application (as in should be no problems) and I would actually say if they can be bothered, to do their own research and apply directly on their own and don't bother with a broker.

I recently applied with a broker and my honest opinion, it wasn't worth it. I ended up doing all the chasing and finding things out myself and had to liaise with the bank directly. Essentially all the broker did was submit the paperwork - which I could have quite easily done myself. Granted not all brokers are as useless - however in my experience, if you have a vanilla application - do it yourself. It's really not as scary as they make out.

Halifax also currently have a £1000 incentive for first time buyers:
https://www.halifax.co.uk/mortgages/

You should get your daughter and SIL to run their figures through the online calculators and see what the results are.

Have a play around here:
https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/mortgages/best-buys/

ACG

Have a chat with one or 2, see how you get on.
It can be a stressful time so it is important everyone gets on and there is trust there.

As above, as for recommendations, take a look on google.

General rule of thumb is to avoid estate agent brokers (mainly those who work for the large corporate firms). If they are paying fees to the broker, make sure they are only charged based on results (ie offer or completion).

marmitemum

I am not keen on just Googling - to me that is just taking a stab in the dark, and could be as reliable as doing research using Wikipedia

Candyapple

Here is a list of paperwork your daughter and SIL should have ready to make sure they are as prepared as can be:

1. Passport scan
2. P60
3. 3 months worth of payslips
4. 3 months worth of ISA/savings statements

Also get them to check their credit files to make sure everything is correct. The free versions to check your credit files are below:
Experian: https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/creditclub
Equifax: https://www.clearscore.com
Call Credit: https://www.noddle.co.uk

marmitemum

Candyapple, my daughter has the payslips but my son in law is applying based on his salary for a job that he starts end August - he has this in writing. I was told on here that there are lenders who will offer against a future salary,

dunstonh

Statistically, small local firms have the lowest level of complaints and the lowest uphold rate at the FOS for advised distribution channels.

Estate agents (except small local independents) are best avoided. Awful reputation.

National firms tend to be tied on insurance to one provider and its more of a sales process than an advice process. Local firms that have been around a while tend to be the most reliable.

csgohan4

no harm in trying the brokers on the message boards, I got mine from here and pleased with the service I got.

But generally free brokers provide a service as good as you pay for e.g L+C, if you have no adverse credit and straight forward then they might be OK for you, any issues your going to be stuck and neglected as they base their business in the bulk