How is everyone finding the mortgage world at the minute?

ACG

Ive not been on here as much recently as we have been busy.  Today is the first day I have had an early finish in about 2 months and its 4pm, so not exactly an early dart. 

I honestly cant remember a time in the last 10 years where we have been this busy! 

The worrying part is that every application, even the simple applications seem to be hitting the sides, when we do get an application going through without hitting any problems or delays, it seems to be the exception and more through luck than judgement. We are definitely seeing a difference in lenders, some seem to be going about their business as normal and others seem to be on a go slow and lets be as awkward as we possibly can. That is obviously good where speed is important as we able to have a conversation about time frames with customers and take that into account more than we could a month or 2 back. I was quite forgiving in the early days, but we are now 6 months into this virus and lenders should really be getting better and stepping up. I cant help but think they should either be pulling products or increasing their rates to stem the flow of business not bringing out 90% products (I am sure the other brokers know who I am talking about). 

Brokers/those of you with applications in, how are you all finding it? I know I dont want to name any lenders specifically as there are risks involved with doing that but I am interested to hear on who people are finding good/bad at the minute. 

I am not just here to help out, I also learn from other peoples experiences from this site. 

amnblog

Yes, ACG.
It's painful. But it often is 2009/2012/2017.
We have the double hit of a surge in applications built up over six months with Lenders still not working at 50% of normal levels.
Lender communication, which could resolve a lot of this, has been poor. The valuation market is near meltdown.
The message is for Brokers to stay calm, and borrowers to be patient, it won't change any time soon.

haras_n0sirrah

I am just having to tell clients who aren't with a quick lender that realistically it won't get looked at for 2-3 weeks. Are they happy to wait for the cheapest lender in full knowledge that it will be the slow boat to china or are they prepared to pay a bit more for the express train. By giving customers the choice then if they choose the cheapest rate/slowest lender they have been forwarned.
Most clients are understanding. Some aren't but it really is out of our hands. I have cases going through with no questions still taking 6 weeks
Biggest bug bear - estate agents. Some of them do not seem to have their finger on the pulse at all and are telling clients they want them to have their offer in 2 weeks. This is unfair to both us and the client

sm77j

We are into week 10 with Platform. Straight forward application - 85% LTV, joint ownership, Full-time employed income (and both in the same job for 5 years+) really didn't expect it to take this long! So as an applicant it's been frustrating and I'm praying for an offer by next week. Solicitors searches etc all finished so hopefully we won't be waiting too much longer once the offer comes through. 

shakAFC

Very stressful not knowing what’s going on lol! The wait is terrifying! My application went in 5 working days ago and the valuation has been booked for tomorrow.

My broker says it’s the busiest they’ve ever been in 12 years.

ACG

sm77j said:

We are into week 10 with Platform. Straight forward application - 85% LTV, joint ownership, Full-time employed income (and both in the same job for 5 years+) really didn't expect it to take this long! So as an applicant it's been frustrating and I'm praying for an offer by next week. Solicitors searches etc all finished so hopefully we won't be waiting too much longer once the offer comes through. 

Funny you should mention Platform :-P

Cscott139

I am really busy at the moment which is great but as everything is taking much longer than normal it is very frustrating. I am just being honest with my customers and letting them know that it will take a good few weeks to get any updates and most are being pretty understanding. I am having some cases where the valuation is taking 4 weeks to book in and after waiting one of them got cancelled and re-arranged as the valuer was ill. Another 3 week wait.....the joys!

sofsar

mine got declined on 27th with NatWest due to affordability (I have 2 jobs, 1 is furloughed agency work which finished recently so will go back to work as 0 hours , hubby self employed who claimed the grant) so broker asked if they could offer what they could but they didn’t reply to broker so I asked NatWest 3 times this week. 2 times they mentioned it’s with underwriting team to recheck and today they said my fees have been requested to refund me and status is still declined so that’s 2 weeks waisted there. 

I will be resubmitting my application over weekend with Barclays or Leeds. 

Worried like mad ! 

bell2020

We have been waiting 2 weeks just for  DIP from Vida!!! They came back 2 days ago asking if we could provide 5% cash deposit (we have over £100k gifted equity deposit) and haven't heard anything since. Driving me insane waiting 😩😭

hannah2283

Had an absolute nightmare with HSBC. Then Santander took 9 working days from application to offer. Guess I got lucky on the second attempt. 

Gem_M90

I've just been declined by Halifax underwriters for a 2nd time based on affordability and my broker has no idea why. They're appealing it however he said in 16 years he's never had to appeal an application to Halifax that passed all the initial affordability checks. 
Would be grateful to hear if any other brokers are experiencing similar and the outcomes. I've posted my story 
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6189259/broker-advice-on-declined-by-halifax#latest