Mortgage broker - ask me anything

K_S

chrmc said:

We have an application in with NatWest at the moment and the Underwriters have came back with a few queries, they want to see evidence of my bonus which is fair enough but they've also asked us to explain some transactions on our bank statements such as Amazon Prime £7.99 p/m, a payment to River Island £80 (which was a christmas present) and a car parking charge (I pre-pay £50 of parking for work every other month).

It seems very picky to me and getting us a bit nervous, is this a bad sign?

@chrmc Can't really give an opinion on whether or not it's a bad sign. But yes, asking about a fashion purchase of £80 and an Amazon Prime sub is unusual, at least for intermediary applications.

It could just be a trainee underwriter or a newly outsourced one still learning the ropes.

The £25/month commute parking is the only outgoing that I'd expect them to factor into affordability but unless you're absolutely on the limit on borrowing, that shouldn't have a material impact.

nanos

Applied for a remortgage with Halifax at the end of last week. 

Got an email from the mortgage advisor saying that they had reduced the value of the property by 10%. Should say that the value we gave was obtained by asking an estate agent who had a look at our property. The agent told us that they'd "comfortably" sell it for the price they said (but then they would say that), and that the only reason they gave the number was because they know banks are down valuing "left, right, and centre" at the moment. A cash buyer would probably pay 25% more.

Mortgage advisor is saying we could either appeal the valuation, or apply elsewhere. He seems to be keen to apply elsewhere (Santander), but I'm wondering if that's just because we don't pay him, so he doesn't want to spend more time on the Halifax application.

Some more facts

 - The value Halifax valued at is only 10% more than we paid for the place 5 years ago (this is in NW Kent, and I'm aware we may have overpaid, but genuinely don't think so at all - still believe it's an amazing property for the size and location).
 - It was a "desktop valuation"
 - Our house in unusual for other houses in the area due to a large conservatory and small extension.
 - I'm primarily concerned about the 2nd credit search on my record, as I intend to buy a new car in 3-12 months.
 - we are attempting to borrow extra to (part-)finance a loft conversion.

What would be your suggestion? Appeal or apply elsewhere?

Thank you!

K_S

nanos said:

Applied for a remortgage with Halifax at the end of last week. 

Got an email from the mortgage advisor saying that they had reduced the value of the property by 10%. Should say that the value we gave was obtained by asking an estate agent who had a look at our property. The agent told us that they'd "comfortably" sell it for the price they said (but then they would say that), and that the only reason they gave the number was because they know banks are down valuing "left, right, and centre" at the moment. A cash buyer would probably pay 25% more.

Mortgage advisor is saying we could either appeal the valuation, or apply elsewhere. He seems to be keen to apply elsewhere (Santander), but I'm wondering if that's just because we don't pay him, so he doesn't want to spend more time on the Halifax application.

Some more facts

 - The value Halifax valued at is only 10% more than we paid for the place 5 years ago (this is in NW Kent, and I'm aware we may have overpaid).
 - It was a "desktop valuation"
 - Our house in unusual for other houses in the area due to a large conservatory and small extension.
 - I'm primarily concerned about the 2nd credit search on my record, as I intend to buy a new car in 3-12 months.
 - we are attempting to borrow extra to (part-)finance a loft conversion.

What would be your suggestion? Appeal or apply elsewhere?

Thank you!

@nanos I can't suggest a specific course of action but hopefully the rest of this post will help you decide.

Whenever I have a down-val for a remo (or a purchase whether the client really wants the property), the most common next step is usually to apply to a different lender that uses a different surveyor panel and hope for a better result.

Statistically, down-val appeals very rarely work and usually end up as a waste of time. Of course your case could be one of those rare exceptions.

By itself, a second hard check is vanishingly unlikely to have an adverse impact on a credit app 3+ months in the future.

nanos

K_S said:

@nanos I can't suggest a specific course of action but hopefully the rest of this post will help you decide.

Amazing. Thanks so much for that insight!

dma14384

Does anybody know of any companies that would be willing to offer a mortgage to 3 sisters looking to buy a property together? Are there any who will use the income of all 3 applicants to calculate the maximum loan value?

K_S

dma14384 said:

Does anybody know of any companies that would be willing to offer a mortgage to 3 sisters looking to buy a property together? Are there any who will use the income of all 3 applicants to calculate the maximum loan value?

@dma14384 Subject to meeting criteria specific to that lender, there are a handful that will consider 3 applicants and their incomes for affordability. Off of the top of my head Skipton is one among a few others.

bubby08

Hi K_S I am aiming for a remortgage on a mortgage less property. My earnings come from a company I am shareholder of my dividends have gone up over the last year, but I a plan to only use an my earnings of e years ago as the basis for my application. Do you have an ideas of what income and expenditure I will need to demonstrate?

thank you.

K_S

bubby08 said:

Hi K_S I am aiming for a remortgage on a mortgage less property. My earnings come from a company I am shareholder of my dividends have gone up over the last year, but I a plan to only use an my earnings of e years ago as the basis for my application. Do you have an ideas of what income and expenditure I will need to demonstrate?

thank you.

@bubby08 Sorry I don't understand your question. Looks like you may have mistyped the sentence in bold.

bubby08

Apologies auto correct went a bit crazy!

Hi K_S I am aiming for a remortgage on a mortgage-less property. My earnings come from basic salary and company dividends, however my dividends have gone up over the last year or so, but I only plan to use my earning figures from a couple of years ago as these are the figures I have returns for. 

Do you have an ideas of what income and expenditure I will need to demonstrate or they will be looking for on my statements?

thanks in advance 

onejontwo

Hi, we are thinking of moving house this year to a different area but as I remember last time we moved 20+ years ago we firstly found a house we liked got into negotiation with the sellers then put our house on the market. Whereas my daughter recently moved house but was told she had to put her house on the market BEFORE she could actually view other houses, which worked out that she accepted an offer on her house before she had actually found a place to move to. As her house moving journey was the opposite of ours where do stand today ie. view first os sell first? Thanks in anticipation.