First timers - Need an advisor

Beaded_Lady

Hi myself and the OH are looking at getting a mortgage and had an advisor reccomended to us by a friend, sadly after giving him our details we have heard little else.

So basically we need a new independant mortgage advisor, but we do not know who we should look to as we have no other reccomendations and as we have read some do not advise on the whole market despite saying otherwise.

Any advice?

Amitoocautious

Why don't you use Moneysavingexpert.com. We used a mortgage advisor initially but i actually got a better rate myself by doing it myself. As long as you take the time to understand its really easy and IMO i dont know why so many people insist on using brokers

Phirefly

I thought I could do it myself until I saw the complex mathematics involved in calculating the best value mortgage bearing in mind the myriad of factors. Mortgage brokers have sophisticated software which often proves that the best value product over time isn't necessarily the lowest rate.

For example there were several lower rates on the market when we took out our mortgage, but several factors including a cashback lump sum meant a seemingly less attractive rate was actually a better deal for us over time.

They get mixed reviews round here, but in March this year I used London & Country, a fee free whole of market broker. I found the service extremely efficient and professional, and no matter where I looked, I just couldn't find a better product than the one they recommended. And the service didn't cost me anything.

PasturesNew

Maybe you didn't hear because he felt you weren't able to get a mortgage ... and he only gets paid if you get one.

What sort of income/spend figures are we talking here?
How much deposit do you have?

Beaded_Lady

PasturesNew wrote: »

Maybe you didn't hear because he felt you weren't able to get a mortgage ... and he only gets paid if you get one.

What sort of income/spend figures are we talking here?
How much deposit do you have?

We didn't hear anything because firstly he passed us onto a woman who claimed she had left us messages, we then left several messages again via email and phone but had no reply.

Our combined income is around 25k per annum, we are looking at getting between £110k and £120k, and are willing to placed a deposit of around 5k.

So I'm sure you can see our figures are nothing out of the norm.

epz_2

Phirefly wrote: »

I thought I could do it myself until I saw the complex mathematics involved in calculating the best value mortgage bearing in mind the myriad of factors. Mortgage brokers have sophisticated software which often proves that the best value product over time isn't necessarily the lowest rate.

if you think

(interest rate* X period X ammount) + fees - cashback = ammount payable

is complex math then you really do need a broker, i can work that much out pretty much in my head.

* a very minor simplification using the banks rather than a function of the years interest rate but excell has a function and at my level its yardly worth bothering about.

epz_2

Beaded_Lady wrote: »

We didn't hear anything because firstly he passed us onto a woman who claimed she had left us messages, we then left several messages again via email and phone but had no reply.

Our combined income is around 25k per annum, we are looking at getting between £110k and £120k, and are willing to placed a deposit of around 5k.

So I'm sure you can see our figures are nothing out of the norm.

you would probably get a better rate if you could scrape together 1-2 grand more deposit, it will open up the market to 95% ltv mortgages rather than the 100% ones which are getting a bit harder to come buy these days.

Beaded_Lady

epz wrote: »

you would probably get a better rate if you could scrape together 1-2 grand more deposit, it will open up the market to 95% ltv mortgages rather than the 100% ones which are getting a bit harder to come buy these days.

:rotfl:Hence the need for an advisor, this could be easily obtained if required.

Doozergirl

epz wrote: »

if you think

(interest rate* X period X ammount) + fees - cashback = ammount payable

is complex math then you really do need a broker, i can work that much out pretty much in my head.

* a very minor simplification using the banks rather than a function of the years interest rate but excell has a function and at my level its yardly worth bothering about.

I'd much rather drink coffee and let my broker explain the best options than create an Excel spreadsheets of number! There's too many options and no money saved doing it yourself, so why bother?

I'd also rather let the commission go to someone working hard for a living selling the right product - ie. a choice of all of them, including the best one for me.

clutton_2

i can recommend an excellent fee-free broker who will give you best whole-market advice - brokers often get deals which are not available to the public that is why i use a broker, not to mention all the time and effort he saves me in form filling etc. if you PM me your email address i will send you his details.

Beaded_Lady

can you please tell me what the difference is between a fee & commision based broker as we were told to go with a commission based one but on the thread we have had two suggestions for a fee based one