Mortgage advisor

nathan.derringer

Hi all,

I am currently trying to buy my first property, i am looking for any advice or recommendations for decent free mortgage advisors. Would i be best off going into a bank for advice? If so, which one? Or does anyone have any recommendations of somewhere better to go?

Thanks,
Nathan

ACG

A bank will only offer you products from their bank. An advisor will be able to look at the market.

General rules of thumb are to avoid estate agent based brokers.
Most local brokers charge a fee (I used to be fee free but found I had to be running around like a headless chicken to make a wage, we started to charge to allow us more time with each customer and we are around to sort out problems). There are people like L&C who are fee free but their reviews on here and places like Trustpilot are hit and miss.

Appreciate it is your money I am trying to spend here, but you are purchasing probably the most expensive thing you will ever own... for the sake of £200-500 it seems like a false economy. Even the most straight forward of cases on paper can have problems.

Rambosmum

London and Country (also known as L&C) are free, whole of market brokers. They operate completely on telephone/ email but are very knowledgeable and were great at answering our stupid ftb questions.


Estate agents will try and get you in to see their broker - they will get commission for this, and the broker will have a choice of around 7 - 13 banks (so hardly any).


You want a whole of market broker.

GDB2222

nathan.derringer wrote: »

Hi all,

I am currently trying to buy my first property, i am looking for any advice or recommendations for decent free mortgage advisors. Would i be best off going into a bank for advice? If so, which one? Or does anyone have any recommendations of somewhere better to go?

Thanks,
Nathan

I don't see how an adviser can really be free. You mean an adviser who is remunerated by commission only. Fingers crossed he'll get the best deal for you, rather than him.

By the way, do advisers have access to better deals than the comparison websites?

sal_III

A good MB is well worth it's fee. Mine was £500 on successful application, for this I got:

- Available on the phone/e-mail 24x7 even during Easter to answer my stupid FTB questions and fears, even the ones not related to the mortgage itself.
- Managed to untangle an unholy mess I did with my HTB application in no time.
- Same day DIP
- No frills DIP/Application based on my day rate with just a hand full of documents to prove income
- Excellent 2 year fixed rate for my circumstances
- All done via e-mail phone, no visit to a Lender branch/office

kingstreet

Unless you got an out and out crook who was selling sub-prime instead of high street, the difference in commission between the likes of Barclays, Santander, Nationwide, Halifax etc is minimal.

To have a long-term career in mortgage broking you make sure the borrower gets the best deal and then they go and tell all their friends how great you are and you get more business and earn more that way.

steampowered

I found L&C very helpful when I took out my first mortgage. I would recommend them. It was free to me as they are paid by the bank.

They knew the 'quirks' of each bank. As I had some unusual circumstances at the time they knew which banks to avoid and which would be fine. For example they knew that if you just started a new job 3 months ago there is an issue for some banks but not for others.

When I came to remortgage, I didn't use a broker and just applied direct to the cheapest mortgage available on MSE's best-buy finder (https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/mortgages/best-buys/).

stea7

Hi, I used Xact Mortgages (based in Solihull) and they've been great. Recommended to my brother in law who is using them too and he has had a good experience too - fee free!

diggingdude

Last year when i was applying for a mortgage i used a local fee free broker. He was useless, couldn't get me a mortgage as just moved jobs (seems like a pretty poor excuse). After he said i couldn't get a mortgage I went away, thought for a couple of days, spoke to Halifax and was offered one at a decent rate. I didn't go through in the end but it said all i needed to know about fee free brokers

kingstreet

We charge £250 and more often than not £0 because business is introduced from builders.

We provide the same level of service in each case.