Mortgage broker - ask me anything

K_S

CurlyJules said:

Are there remortgaging deals for a couple who earns in different currencies (Euro and GBP)? Currently with a Building Society but we have both been banking for 30+ years with Natwest and their offer is not really "competitive". Thanks in advance.

@curlyjules Like NatWest does, there are a few mainstream lenders who may consider non-GBP income for affordability purposes. If they do, then you're looking at the exact same products as someone with GBP income, there's no difference in the offer.

I don't know exactly you define 'competitive', but in most mainstream lenders are rarely too far off each other on remortgage rates at most LTV bands, its a very competitive market.

Ryan1994

Hi,

I was wondering if changing employment is going to be a show stopper? The house has been delayed by over 6 months now which has meant we have changed lenders, and have a new offer with Santander which is valid until end of July. Job offer has not been accepted yet. Different industry although a similar role (e.g. management) with the same basic salary. Moving to a large telecoms company. We are at the stage of exchanging of contracts with the potential completion in the next 1-2 months. Any experience with Santander would be great, I know we will need a letter confirming position and salary, but anything else to ask for?

Thanks!

jimpwarsop

Hi Sarah.

What would be the best mortgage for my daughter  please?

Purchase price around £240000

Income £35000 (NHS)

Deposit £100000.

Outstanding student loan, about £5k.

No other loans, no credit cards, nothing on finance.

K_S

Ryan1994 said:

Hi,

I was wondering if changing employment is going to be a show stopper? The house has been delayed by over 6 months now which has meant we have changed lenders, and have a new offer with Santander which is valid until end of July. Job offer has not been accepted yet. Different industry although a similar role (e.g. management) with the same basic salary. Moving to a large telecoms company. We are at the stage of exchanging of contracts with the potential completion in the next 1-2 months. Any experience with Santander would be great, I know we will need a letter confirming position and salary, but anything else to ask for?

Thanks!

@ryan1994 Off of the top of my head, Santander don't consider future employment but will do on day 1 of a new job.

Not sure what the mechanics of this will be for a post-offer direct application but as long as the pay isn't going down, and the new job is a perm PAYE contract, I wouldn't expect it to be a showstopper. 

In the very unlikely event that it was to be a no-go with Santander, I can't imagine it being too hard to get a different mainstream lender based on the future job once you have a contract.

For the avoidance of doubt, this is just a general comment based on the very limited info in your post. You need to get the assurance you require before exchanging contracts.

jkcool

The mortgage rates in the illustration provided by my fee paid mortgage advisor is much higher than the rates offered by Natwest on the website.  Can I ask my mortage broker to go back to Natwest and change the rates ? 

Rates on Natwest website is 2.06% for 15% down. The quote from the broker is 2.26%.  Why is it so ?

stek2008

Bit of a random one.

Long story short we made the mistake of going through a well-known broker for a mortgage application...

They applied with NatWest for us who ticked off all our financial docs and arranged a valuation.
Valuation led to us being asked for a specialist damp/timber survey which we supplied and it highlighted £1500ish of work needed (surveyor was independent but from survey a damp specialist estimated). 
Natwest valued the house at zero until works are done (not possible as the house being sold by the executor of the estate who won't arrange works). 

We've disposed of the broker's services as they had this zero valuation info from NatWest for nearly a week without telling us, were ghosting calls and not responding to emails. Generally lost confidence...

We now have a new broker who's put an application to Santander last week (valuation was done Thursday so fingers crossed for some news soon).

The NatWest application is presumably still open - will this pending/stalled application with NatWest just get closed at some point? Can I contact NatWest directly to ask them to close it down if it was started by a broker? 

K_S

jkcool said:

The mortgage rates in the illustration provided by my fee paid mortgage advisor is much higher than the rates offered by Natwest on the website.  Can I ask my mortage broker to go back to Natwest and change the rates ? 

Rates on Natwest website is 2.06% for 15% down. The quote from the broker is 2.26%.  Why is it so ?

@jkcool You should definitely ask. But there's no reason to offer you a lower rate than what you (and the property you are buying) are eligible for, and nothing for the broker to gain from doing that.

It's either a mistake on their part or (more likely) you aren't comparing like for like. For example, I can see that NatWest offers a 2.05% 85% LTV 5-year fix, but it's a 'Green' product, so only available if the property has an A or B rating on the EPC.

Hope it gets sorted out, good luck!

K_S

stek2008 said:

Bit of a random one.

Long story short we made the mistake of going through a well-known broker for a mortgage application...

They applied with NatWest for us who ticked off all our financial docs and arranged a valuation.
Valuation led to us being asked for a specialist damp/timber survey which we supplied and it highlighted £1500ish of work needed (surveyor was independent but from survey a damp specialist estimated). 
Natwest valued the house at zero until works are done (not possible as the house being sold by the executor of the estate who won't arrange works). 

We've disposed of the broker's services as they had this zero valuation info from NatWest for nearly a week without telling us, were ghosting calls and not responding to emails. Generally lost confidence...

We now have a new broker who's put an application to Santander last week (valuation was done Thursday so fingers crossed for some news soon).

The NatWest application is presumably still open - will this pending/stalled application with NatWest just get closed at some point? Can I contact NatWest directly to ask them to close it down if it was started by a broker? 

@stek2008 Yes, it should get closed at some point, either when the broker cancels the app or the lender timelines for a response elapse. If the applicant called, I'm pretty sure the lender will cancel it at their request.

If your valuation happened on Thursday, Santander should have the report back by now sitting in a queue to be picked up. However (unlike a lot of other lenders) they're usually happy to tell you whether it came back at the purchase price or not without any further details. Good luck, hope it comes back fine!

stek2008

K_S said:

@stek2008 Yes, it should get closed at some point, either when the broker cancels the app or the lender timelines for a response elapse. If the applicant called, I'm pretty sure the lender will cancel it at their request.

If your valuation happened on Thursday, Santander should have the report back by now sitting in a queue to be picked up. However (unlike a lot of other lenders) they're usually happy to tell you whether it came back at the purchase price or not without any further details. Good luck, hope it comes back fine!

Thanks K_S, 

I'll try calling them - can't be any harder work than getting sense out of the first broker firm.

I'm paranoid to the extreme after the NatWest experience. 
Not helped this evening by my gf having read an article saying that Santander is restricting LTV to 75% for self-employed people. If they class me as self-employed (I have some PAYE income from a second job, but the majority as dividend/salary as a Ltd co. director) then we're in trouble. 

jkcool

K_S said:

jkcool said:

The mortgage rates in the illustration provided by my fee paid mortgage advisor is much higher than the rates offered by Natwest on the website.  Can I ask my mortage broker to go back to Natwest and change the rates ? 

Rates on Natwest website is 2.06% for 15% down. The quote from the broker is 2.26%.  Why is it so ?

@jkcool You should definitely ask. But there's no reason to offer you a lower rate than what you (and the property you are buying) are eligible for, and nothing for the broker to gain from doing that.

It's either a mistake on their part or (more likely) you aren't comparing like for like. For example, I can see that NatWest offers a 2.05% 85% LTV 5-year fix, but it's a 'Green' product, so only available if the property has an A or B rating on the EPC.

Hope it gets sorted out, good luck!

Thank you for the reply. When I checked the website, Natwest offers 2.06% for a 5 year fixed for an 85% LTV on non-green product. The requirement on this rate does not say that the property should be A or B.  Hope my mortgage broker should be able to correct it. 

Is there any case where lenders will bump up the rates ?