Dis/advantage of talking to multiple brokers?

pjapk

I'm looking to buy a new property (currently a homeowner with 2yrs left on current mortgage).

I potentially have some special requirements as I'm a Ltd company contractor with funds in the company (that I'm considering using as deposit) rather than savings in the bank so I'm aware not all mortgage providers work in this marketplace.

However, whilst I'm trying to figure out which broker to go with I thought I might as well have the initial/free chat with the first one I had offered to me after talking to an Estate Agent, but it's occurred to me that if I talked to multiple brokers (and provided my proof of income etc. to see what they could get for me by way of mortgage offers) does it cause an appreciable hit on my (excellent) credit rating?

If "going too far" (oo-er!) with multiple brokers is a bad thing, then how do you choose a broker without that "first date" experience?

amnblog

Only deal with one Broker.

Conversations are fine but only progress to providing written information to one party. Otherwise it could all end in tears. You do not want multiple searches or even sometimes applications.

Finding the right Broker for you is a separate issue.

ACG

Brokers should not really be doing credit checks on you until you give permission and are ready to proceed. They should be discussing your situation, getting a copy of your credit report(s) and completing a factfind and giving you an idea of what is available.

If you are not relaxed and confident with broker 1, then look for another and so on until you are happy you have found "the one" - but do not get them all doing work. It can cause problems. Things can be interpreted differently and brokers will have more experience with certain lenders over others. So you could find that 2 brokers submit the same case to the same lender but some of the answers differ - what happens when the lenders system does a fraud check? It is going to stand out like a sore thumb.

I have a great example with this sort of thing, we have a customer (from this site as it happens), he spoke to a broker who did a DIP with Natwest, it was declined. The broker then took the case to an adverse lender. Less than 2 weeks later, we picked up the case and did a DIP with Natwest and managed to get it accepted - we have a good relationship with them and have had training on how to get the most from the system. There was no fraud and the case went ahead, but clearly some of the questions were answered differently for us to be able to get the case agreed.

pjapk

Thanks both for the advice, will stick to initial chats until I find someone I feel comfortable with then.

csgohan4

avoid EA brokers, they are not always whole of the market and they will peddle more services to you as well. They work on commission basis and may not go for a product in your interest but their pocket