Countrywide

garydufley

Hi


Im a FTB, I've had one aapointment with countrywide via sutton and kersh and I'm thinking of using contrywide's services, from finding a house, to the offer and through to completion rather than just mortgage arrangement







I've found a couple of older reviews casting a bit of doubt on them, but I just wondered if anyone had any recents experiences in dealing with them


thanks

ACG

Countrywide are a corporate estate agents.
Their customer is the person selling the house, their LEGAL responsibility is to get as much for the house as possible. So by using their broker, you are telling them how much you can borrow (not great when it comes to negotiating a purchase price).

Added to the fact, they get more commission the higher the selling price and the higher the mortgage amount.

Their solicitors are typically far more expensive and not particularly good.


No first hand experience of them, but plenty of reasons why not to use them.

[Deleted User]

I used to work for Countrywide and if it helps here are the reasons i left:

Links to estate agency were too strong. They wanted to know about my clients, i refused and we butted heads a lot

Fees were too high. £249 on application and £250 on completion if its still the same. Get a proper independent broker and you will see this is on the high side for a standard residential case. I left cause they wouldnt let me do a deal for a longstanding client.

Worked off a panel of 14 lenders but could go off to any other lender if couldnt find what was needed on the panel. I moved to a firm that has 57 lenders and they are all treated the same so dont need sign off to use anyone. If i cant get a deal with the lenders i have then i go to any other lender and get approval from network (never been refused).

The company was dying a death (have a look at the share price).

The insurances were so expensive compared to other brokers

Dont have access to new challenger lenders. TSB, M&S, Sainsbury to name a few


The broker you found was probably very nice but the scope of offering is limited by their internal processes and the fees are too high.

Get a broker who charges on offer (or is free). At that point they have actually done their job. I hated charging on application. Ignore the 'whole of market' things as loads of people call themselves that when they arent. I use Marks and Spencers and dont call myself whole of market. The guy up the high street cant use them or hsbc and calls himself whole of market. Bit of a joke really.


The most important aspect is to find a broker you can trust. If thats this one then great. Reviews are based on the person so generally ignore them.
You'll be missing some good lenders and paying more than you need upfront if you go to countrywide though

[Deleted User]

I will also add, I did a great job for every client I had in that company and I never betrayed their trust once. You might get someone who has the same backbone but to be honest, most have left the company in the last few years to go elsewhere and what remains tends to be either people brand new to the industry (they allow people to do mortgages without full cemap in place) or people who are institutionalised to the corporate estate agency world

SonOf

Deleted_User, don't worry. A lot of mortgage advisers, FAs and IFAs started out working for salesforces. The sensible and ethical ones move on to become independent. However, you should never regret the time you did with these. They are great for new advisers and you get to make your mistakes with Countrywide (or other salesforce companies) covering the cost. Once you are qualified and experienced, you can move on to better things.

The OP should use a local independent/whole of market broker. Not the estate salesforce broker.

garydufley

Thanks all

My thinking was that its a fairly straightforward mortgage, then it will probably be with one of the bigger lenders therefore they (should?) have access to the best rates by the volume of business that they put through them

Its interesting about the offer, I suppose I was thinking that it would be in my interest as they charge me a fixed fee but it stands to sense that they will get commission on the overall amount so the offer that they advice me to put in for a property may be higher than it needs to be

he did tell me that I could choose another solicitor, although if it wasn't one of theirss then it may not be a streamline in terms of service

I wasnt entirely clear whether I could instruct another surveyor or whether I was stuck with theirs

back to the drawing board methinks. although I don't have a problem paying for good advice and something that will save me time/money in the long run

he did point out that they may not be the cheapest, but it may be good value. although If Im not getting the best rate that I could, it will work out expensive for years

[Deleted User]

You are describing package selling. If you aren't sure you can shop around that means it hasn't been explained to you correctly.
'it won't be as streamlined if you don't use my solicitor'.... Sales talk, not advice. That's the difference here
The number 1 goal for a advisor at a corporate company is to sell you other services (target at countrywide is around 40% of all mortgages to have legals with it).

When you target like that it drives behaviour that is not in the interest of the client. And that is why a non corporate advisor will alway be more impartial. They don't have a sales manager checking they are getting as much as possible from you.

If it is a straight forward mortgage then it will go to the one with best rate.
Why take the chance you aren't getting the best deal.
Ask the broker for a list of lenders they use and see how forthcoming they are.
Majority of brokers will have this to hand without any real hassle. I give one to every client in our first meeting.