Mortgage broker - ask me anything

warwick2001

Advice from mortgage advisor please:

I am currently looking to move house. I earn £41k a year, have a single credit card with £7k on it, and am looking to port my existing mortgage (£65k), and borrow an additional £100k. I have had a conversation with Cumberland Building Society, they did their affordability checks, and I have passed all of those, and so am expecting/hoping to get the mortgage application approved.

However, I have heard that gambling payments can effect the decision. Over the last couple of months, cos of lockdown boredom and a few big horse events (Cheltenham, Epson Derby most recently Ascot) I have gambled approx. £300 in the last 3 months, mostly through small payments to the company i.e. £5 here, £10 there. So although overall it is a fairly small amount (and obviously I can afford this), there are approx. 20 payments. Question is do you think it'll look like I am making loads of payments and I'm a risk, or will it be the overall amount I've spent that's considered?

Many thanks

Mortgage_groundhogday

Would be grateful for some advice from a mortgae expert please.
I started an online mortgage application with Nationwide , where my income was incorrectly keyed in and now NW are unable to correct. Every time I contact them, the advisors say it all looks fine from their end, however I cannot progress it online without starting a new application.
Meanwhile , I have discovered some mortgage rates from FirstDirect - they don't come through mortgage comparison sites as they are not available to brokers, so they are not promoted by anyone except the lender. They not only offer  good rates, lower prodcut fees, but also uncapped overpayment opportunities. Are they as good as it seems or is there a catch?

K_S

Mortgage_groundhogday said:

Would be grateful for some advice from a mortgae expert please.
I started an online mortgage application with Nationwide , where my income was incorrectly keyed in and now NW are unable to correct. Every time I contact them, the advisors say it all looks fine from their end, however I cannot progress it online without starting a new application.
Meanwhile , I have discovered some mortgage rates from FirstDirect - they don't come through mortgage comparison sites as they are not available to brokers, so they are not promoted by anyone except the lender. They not only offer  good rates, lower prodcut fees, but also uncapped overpayment opportunities. Are they as good as it seems or is there a catch?

@mortgage_groundhogday Apologies, can't comment on FD as I've never used them. They are a regulated lender like any other and an arm of HSBC. As long as their illustration shows the features and cost you're looking for, there's no reason to believe that it's not as good as it seems.

Beetlebug1983

Hi, 

We have finally completed on the purchase of our 2nd home, the mortgage is with NatWest.  It's a bit of a faffy story, so to cut a faffy story short someone in NatWest deleted (lapsed was the term they used) our mortgage application.  We were about to exchange and the Sol was going to request the funds.  We weren't notified by Natwest, it was by pure luck we called them with a query only to discover someone had deleted the mortgage!   The stress it caused was unbelievable - do we have a leg o stand on with ac complaint.  You may not be able to answer this, just after an opinion. 

Many thanks
Emma.   

K_S

Beetlebug1983 said:

Hi, 

We have finally completed on the purchase of our 2nd home, the mortgage is with NatWest.  It's a bit of a faffy story, so to cut a faffy story short someone in NatWest deleted (lapsed was the term they used) our mortgage application.  We were about to exchange and the Sol was going to request the funds.  We weren't notified by Natwest, it was by pure luck we called them with a query only to discover someone had deleted the mortgage!   The stress it caused was unbelievable - do we have a leg o stand on with ac complaint.  You may not be able to answer this, just after an opinion. 

Many thanks
Emma.   

@beetlebug1983 I guess it depends on why it was "deleted" or lapsed? Did it expire (usually 6 months after offer was issued), did you communicate with NatWest about anything prior to the offer being pulled/deleted?

tootoo

Hello, sorry if this has been previously answered (I’m sure it has, but I can’t find it!)
could you help me in terms of how to increase my affordability on paper? Husband is self employed, I’m a low earner whilst studying for a degree. We have approximately 75% equity in our current house - low mortgage. 

I have a next account and credit card (cleared) is it worth keeping them to show I don’t use or close to show the potential credit isn’t there? I’ve heard conflicting reports.

Thank you.

K_S

tootoo said:

Hello, sorry if this has been previously answered (I’m sure it has, but I can’t find it!)
could you help me in terms of how to increase my affordability on paper? Husband is self employed, I’m a low earner whilst studying for a degree. We have approximately 75% equity in our current house - low mortgage. 

I have a next account and credit card (cleared) is it worth keeping them to show I don’t use or close to show the potential credit isn’t there? I’ve heard conflicting reports.

Thank you.

@tootoo Affordability (as per lender calcs, and may differ from lender to lender) is largely a black and white exercise, based on the following -

- Income

- Monthly committed outgoings (childcare, school fees, service charge (for flats), dependents, etc) that you cannot cut down on

- Monthly credit commitments (for loans, that will be the actual monthly payments, for credit cards it will be a set percentage somewhere around 3-4% (depending on the lender) of the outstanding balance

- Lender loan to income caps: Even within one lender, these may vary depending on the case particulars

- LTV: Lenders might have different loan to income caps based on LTV as well

In my experience, whether you keep an unused line of credit open or closed is unlikely to have a material impact on your chances (by this I mean the "credit-scoring" that most lenders do for each application. Though if you forced me to choose, I would rather keep one final credit card open than have no credit cards at all on my report.

starsandcircles

I'm sure this will have been asked somewhere, but here goes-

When should I see a mortgage advisor?

I got a AIP with my bank, I did it online.
I'm going to view two properties this week.
Now thinking about it, it makes more sense to see a mortgage advisor and more than likely get a better mortgage deal.

Do I do that before viewing these properties?  or when I've found one I want to put in an offer on?

Thanks.

K_S

starsandcircles said:

I'm sure this will have been asked somewhere, but here goes-

When should I see a mortgage advisor?

I got a AIP with my bank, I did it online.
I'm going to view two properties this week.
Now thinking about it, it makes more sense to see a mortgage advisor and more than likely get a better mortgage deal.

Do I do that before viewing these properties?  or when I've found one I want to put in an offer on?

Thanks.

@starsandcircles Tbh, there isn't a huge difference in the "deals" that are available direct vs through a broker. So if your requirements are straightforward, your circumstances are standard and you're chasing the best rate, you may well get the same/similar deal by yourself.

As for timing, 6/10 of my clients get in touch prior to starting viewings, 2/10 at a point where they want to check if they can put in X offer, and 2/10 after their offer is accepted.

Pompom2021

Hello, I am hoping you might be able to help with my query! We are currently in the final stages of purchasing our first home and have just been sent everything through from the solicitor so think we are nearly there with completion. We have been sent on a form from our mortgage provider that have asked for details for our building insurance but we were going to wait until we were in to purchase this. Is this a necessary to provide before the exchange?

Also, I had a quick query on our mortgage valuation. I have asked our mortgage advisor and he said it was correct but I just wanted to get a second opinion please! In total, our house has 3 WC's, and two bathrooms; one of the two bathrooms is an en-suite but does have a bath/shower. However on our valuation, they have put a total of 2 WC's and one bathroom. Our mortgage advisor said that this was because en-suite's are not counted as a bathroom but just a WC and then the 2nd WC would be our downstairs toilet, which would leave 1 main bathroom; therefore 2 WC's and 1 bathroom. Is this correct?

Thank you any help would be appreciated!