Mortgage broker - ask me anything

K_S

Emac30 said:

We put our application in with Santander on 13/11/20. We have been back and forth with them providing them with all sort of paperwork that they have requested.  They then  went on to say that because my partners credit file still showed a balance on his credit cards they couldn’t offer us the full amount we need. The cards are actually closed but hadn’t updated when they did a check. They apparently said to our broker that if we can provide the closing statements and letters from the card companies to prove it they would offer the full amount. So we did this and waited 14 days more for them to even look at our application again. They have now said that because one of my partners payslips from September has a furlough payment they won’t give us the full amount. They’ve had this payslip since the beginning so have gone back on what they said. We’ve now submitted my partners December payslip (he’s had no furlough since the September payslip) but have been put back in a queue. Can this be escalated for someone higher to look at so that we don’t keep getting put back in the queue every time?  Our broker seems happy to just keep on going but our buyers and sellers are getting nervous.

@emac30 Whether your broker can escalate it effectively will depend on how helpful their BDM is and what kind of relationship they have with the broker/firm. But otherwise everything in your post is about par for the course given the current workload at most chart topping mainstream lenders.

Peppermint90

jrrrrj said:

Peppermint90 said:

Hi all,
How long does it take to receive mortgage offer through post? 
I was informed of my offer a week ago...but still havn't received it through post....should i chase it up with Halifax? 

Mine took about 8 days and it took 14 to get to my solicitor. My broker emailed me a copy of it the day that they had it and when it arrived in the post, other than the signature sheet on the back page which was missing from the email version, it was identical.

Thank you. I have now received it, like you, exactly 8 days after email confirmation. 

pac-man

Hi, I’m nearing the end of a lengthy divorce. My partner is going to start his divorce process in Feb which will obviously take a while to sort. My income is less than his, although I shall have about 140k to put down as a deposit on the new home we are buying together. We’re keen to buy, as the landlord wants to sell. We don’t want to add my partner to the mortgage as his ex wife may then have a hold over ‘my’ money. He pays me a contribution to the rent and bills. Can this be taken in to account as income when I’m applying for a mortgage in my own right? 

K_S

pac-man said:

He pays me a contribution to the rent and bills. Can this be taken in to account as income when I’m applying for a mortgage in my own right? 

@pac-man Unfortunately not. If you want to take his income into consideration without having his name on the deeds, there may be other options such as Joint Borrower Sole Propreiter mortgages, though his affordability will be negatively affected by any other mortgage that he is part of.

Kernower

Hi,
Just a general query. It appears that my broker is offering me a deal that appears to be more expensive than what I could get directly off the lender’s website.

Is this a regular occurence with brokers?

Same lender, same advance, same term but 0.55% lower rate, £60 a month cheaper.

What benefits am I getting by going via the broker?

Thanks.

K_S

Kernower said:

Hi,
Just a general query. It appears that my broker is offering me a deal that appears to be more expensive than what I could get directly off the lender’s website.
Is this a regular occurence with brokers?
Same lender, same advance, same term but 0.55% lower rate, £60 a month cheaper.
What benefits am I getting by going via the broker?
Thanks.

@kernower No. This most definitely is NOT a regular occurence with brokers. It's most likely a misunderstanding or not comparing like for like (eg: one product with fee and the other no fee, etc). If you can tell me what exactly are the two products that you are comparing, I might be able to throw some light on it.

Or else, just ask the broker the same question of why it looks like you get a significantly better deal going direct to the lender.

Kernower

K_S said:

Kernower said:

Hi,
Just a general query. It appears that my broker is offering me a deal that appears to be more expensive than what I could get directly off the lender’s website.
Is this a regular occurence with brokers?
Same lender, same advance, same term but 0.55% lower rate, £60 a month cheaper.
What benefits am I getting by going via the broker?
Thanks.

@kernower No. This most definitely is NOT a regular occurence with brokers. It's most likely a misunderstanding or not comparing like for like (eg: one product with fee and the other no fee, etc). If you can tell me what exactly are the two products that you are comparing, I might be able to throw some light on it.

Or else, just ask the broker the same question of why it looks like you get a significantly better deal going direct to the lender.

Thank you for the response.
Broker offered £160k over 18 yrs on a 5 yr fix from Nationwide with no lender fee (but a broker’s fee) at 1.99% for £882 a month with Nationwide.

Directly on Nationwide the same advance, period, fix with a lender fee comes to 1.44% and £841 a month.
Granted I would have to pay a lender’s fee of £999, but if I hadn’t gone via the Broker (who takes a fee also) I would have a mortgage that costs £1,400 less over the 5 yr period.  Both deals revert back to the same SVR.

I appreciate that the broker has searched the whole of market and believes that this os the best product, but I had presumed that the most appropriate deal would come from products that weren’t available directly to Joe Public.

Therefore, I presume that I could go with the lender directly but end up paying the product fee and the broker’s fee (as they’ve made a recommendation). Which still provides a saving on the overall cost of the mortgage.

JamesC3

Hi,
Looking at getting our first mortgage this year via HTB. My wife has one remaining default on her file. Details are below:

I have received a letter from Link Financial today advising that they would accept a £2,032 payment towards a £2,903 balance. A 30% discount.

This has a default date of February 2016. I argued it, as all of our other defaults – that went on to a DMP – had default dates of late 2014/early 2015. Anyway, they have said they won’t be changing that.

We are currently trying our hardest to save a deposit for a house. This is the only debt left. I’m hoping that via the help to Buy scheme we will be in a position to have a deposit by August.

My question is, this debt will be on my wife’s credit report for 13 more months. If I pay the £2,032 offer, how much better will it look when trying to find a mortgage? I understand paying off the £2,903 would be even better, but I’m just wondering if I should just pay off the £2,032 balance?

Any thoughts appreciated.

James

K_S

@Kernower Setting aside the broker fee to start with - From what I understand, the broker recommended a 5 year no-fee fix (1.99%) which would cost approx £52,920 over the 5 year term (£882x60). The alternative 5 year fix is 1.44% with a 999 mortgage fee, so a total cost of approx £51,459 (£841x60 + 999). Both products are available to the broker.

On the face of it, it looks like your broker recommended the more expensive product of the two Nationwide 5-year fixes for the borrowing amount you are looking at. You'll have to ask them why as a reason isn't evident to me (unless I'm missing something obvious!). There's no difference in proc fee (commission from the lender), etc. so there's no incentive for the broker to push one over the other.

To address your second point, brokers don't always have access to deals that aren't available directly, especially for mainstream lenders like Nationwide. Idenitfying the "best rate" in the market doesn't really need a broker, you can do it yourself using the MSE mortgage finder.

Whether the fee that the broker is charging is fair or not is something that you need to decide. If you think it isn't good value, you could walk away and apply directly. When I used to work at a London firm which charged a £500 application fee, it would happen once in a while. As a broker, it can be annoying but I never lost any sleep over it, it's just how things work sometimes If you haven't been able to demonstrate the value of a broker to your client right through to the KFI/recommendation stage, then you can't really blame them for being reluctant to pay a broker fee. And some less-ethical customers never intended to pay the fee (just wanted someone to do the legwork and name a lender and product) so there's that as well, nothing you can do about it.

Kernower said:

K_S said:

Kernower said:

Hi,
Just a general query. It appears that my broker is offering me a deal that appears to be more expensive than what I could get directly off the lender’s website.
Is this a regular occurence with brokers?
Same lender, same advance, same term but 0.55% lower rate, £60 a month cheaper.
What benefits am I getting by going via the broker?
Thanks.

@kernower No. This most definitely is NOT a regular occurence with brokers. It's most likely a misunderstanding or not comparing like for like (eg: one product with fee and the other no fee, etc). If you can tell me what exactly are the two products that you are comparing, I might be able to throw some light on it.

Or else, just ask the broker the same question of why it looks like you get a significantly better deal going direct to the lender.

Thank you for the response.
Broker offered £160k over 18 yrs on a 5 yr fix from Nationwide with no lender fee (but a broker’s fee) at 1.99% for £882 a month with Nationwide.

Directly on Nationwide the same advance, period, fix with a lender fee comes to 1.44% and £841 a month.
Granted I would have to pay a lender’s fee of £999, but if I hadn’t gone via the Broker (who takes a fee also) I would have a mortgage that costs £1,400 less over the 5 yr period.  Both deals revert back to the same SVR.

I appreciate that the broker has searched the whole of market and believes that this os the best product, but I had presumed that the most appropriate deal would come from products that weren’t available directly to Joe Public.

Therefore, I presume that I could go with the lender directly but end up paying the product fee and the broker’s fee (as they’ve made a recommendation). Which still provides a saving on the overall cost of the mortgage.

JRSKR

Hi! Are you aware of any red flags when trying to get a Nationwide mortgage? We’re FTBs; asking for a mortgage 1.75 x our combined salary; 10% deposit (could go higher with deposit if required). 

I had a credit card that was close to limit for last three months which has now been paid off in full. 

No missed payments from either of us. 

I’ve heard Nationwide are one of the more strict lenders. 

D.I.P. was approved and they’ve so far only asked for partner’s payslip and proof of deposit. 

Just wondering how “clean” one would need to be to relax at this point. 

Thanks.