Mortgage broker - ask me anything

22225

Hello broker, please help me. About 3 weeks ago I asked a local broker to help me get a mortgage for our next house move. I've had to do lots and lots of chasing. Finally today he sent it off and I got a text from Nationwide saying they had received and the product was reserved. The interest rate that we went for was a ten year fix at 2.24%. He gave us a short phone call and said 'oh yes and add the product fee to the loan '. I said why, because I thought accepted wisdom was not to do that. He then told us it was more cost effective.
But now I'm very worried because I did done googling and it seems like there is a higher interest rate if you dont pay the fee up front?! He knows we can afford to pay the fees up front because he has gone thru all our details and knows we have lots of cash for all the sundries. I wouldn't have gone for the higher interest rate, I agreed 2.24% with him. Please tell me I am worrying about nothing. I could've paid the fee upfront no problem. What can I do? Plesse advise!!! The general rates for nationwide appear to go up tomorrow but mynissue is that there seems to be 2dufferent rates for paying the fee upfront or not.

https://www.nationwide-intermediary.co.uk/news/2022/may/selected-reprice

K_S

MrBounce said:

I have a few BTL apps submitted to remortgage some rental property with releasing some equity with Virgin Money. .. 

The apps were put in before the easter weekend, 2 of the valuations were done 2 weeks and a 3rd last weds... (All seperate apps).

The valuations are free, but do Virgin only instruct if they are happy with the app? Just concerned it's taking a while and don't want to have to keep disturbing the tenants to allow access if it doesn't go through with them..

@mrbounce Afaik, like most other mainstream lenders, Virgin does not wait for underwriting to complete before instructing a valuation. This is off of the top of my head so I might well be wrong.

K_S

22225 said:

Hello broker, please help me. About 3 weeks ago I asked a local broker to help me get a mortgage for our next house move. I've had to do lots and lots of chasing. Finally today he sent it off and I got a text from Nationwide saying they had received and the product was reserved. The interest rate that we went for was a ten year fix at 2.24%. He gave us a short phone call and said 'oh yes and add the product fee to the loan '. I said why, because I thought accepted wisdom was not to do that. He then told us it was more cost effective.
But now I'm very worried because I did done googling and it seems like there is a higher interest rate if you dont pay the fee up front?! He knows we can afford to pay the fees up front because he has gone thru all our details and knows we have lots of cash for all the sundries. I wouldn't have gone for the higher interest rate, I agreed 2.24% with him. Please tell me I am worrying about nothing. I could've paid the fee upfront no problem. What can I do? Plesse advise!!! The general rates for nationwide appear to go up tomorrow but mynissue is that there seems to be 2dufferent rates for paying the fee upfront or not.

https://www.nationwide-intermediary.co.uk/news/2022/may/selected-reprice

@22225 I'm not exactly sure what your concern is. The rate for a specific product is the same irrespective of whether you pay the product fee upfront or add it to the mortgage.

It’s often a good idea to add the fees (usually £999 for Nationwide) to your mortgage loan, so you don’t lose any money if the mortgage doesn’t go through to completion (for whatever reason). If you don't want to pay any interest on the fees added to the loan, just make an overpayment of £999 on day 1 of the mortgage.

snowqueen555

I have taken up a second zero hours job and plan to earn extra money towards getting a place. The amount will fluctuate quite a  bit between £100-£500, I'm wondering if this income could be taken into account to increase the amount I am able to borrow as a FTB, and how much of a multiplier it would be.

What is the best way to get a mortgage, would a broker be able to help me out?

northrider

I applied for mortgage with Barclays and putting 10% deposit. My credit score is excellent and they did the Hard search on the application. I passed affordability. A week later valuation on the house was done and declined based on house was on busy road and opposite to supermarket and petrol station? Is that even a valid reason for rejection? House is in good condition.

K_S

northrider said:

I applied for mortgage with Barclays and putting 10% deposit. My credit score is excellent and they did the Hard search on the application. I passed affordability. A week later valuation on the house was done and declined based on house was on busy road and opposite to supermarket and petrol station? Is that even a valid reason for rejection? House is in good condition.

@northrider As I'm sure you are aware, valuations are completely separate to underwriting, affordability, etc.

Valuations are often subjective and the reason you've given does not sound out of the ordinary, especially given that it's opposite to high-footfall commercial buildings that are open for long hours. Just because Barclays has declined it doesn't necessarily mean that all mainstream lenders will take the same approach.

Ideally, your broker could have run the commercial aspect past Barclays to see what they say prior to placing the case. If it's a no-go with Barclays, do make sure they do so with the next lender.

crispy99

If you saw this on my credit file what would you think?

1.

Thames Water - 
start date 12/10/2015
Date satisfied 09/01/2019
date updated 09/01/2019
default balance £301
current balance £0
satisfied. 

Default date N/A

2. 

Thames Water 
start date 12/10/2015
date satisfied 09/01/2019
date updated 14/04/2019
default balance £0
current balance £0
satisfied 
default date 09/09/2016

It looks like I have 2 accounts for the same debt. I believe the amount was written off and a new entry was made. I’ve tried tirelessly to pay this balance of £301 to thames water but it’s an old account on a completely different system and are refusing to take payment, 10
hours in the last weeks trying to achieve anything with them so far.

darlington has requested an email/letter confirming that this has been paid and credit file will be updated. They both show setttled and current balance of zero, but the default balance is showing £301. 

What would you do? This is it, the only thing between me and a mortgage offer, very last stage. 

K_S

crispy99 said:

If you saw this on my credit file what would you think?

1.

Thames Water - 
start date 12/10/2015
Date satisfied 09/01/2019
date updated 09/01/2019
default balance £301
current balance £0
satisfied. 

Default date N/A

2. 

Thames Water 
start date 12/10/2015
date satisfied 09/01/2019
date updated 14/04/2019
default balance £0
current balance £0
satisfied 
default date 09/09/2016

It looks like I have 2 accounts for the same debt. I believe the amount was written off and a new entry was made. I’ve tried tirelessly to pay this balance of £301 to thames water but it’s an old account on a completely different system and are refusing to take payment, 10
hours in the last weeks trying to achieve anything with them so far.

darlington has requested an email/letter confirming that this has been paid and credit file will be updated. They both show setttled and current balance of zero, but the default balance is showing £301. 

What would you do? This is it, the only thing between me and a mortgage offer, very last stage. 

@crispy99 Based on the limited info in your post, I'm not sure what Darlington expect you to do given that it's showing as satisfied with a nil balance. What is your broker suggesting?

crispy99

K_S said:

crispy99 said:

If you saw this on my credit file what would you think?

1.

Thames Water - 
start date 12/10/2015
Date satisfied 09/01/2019
date updated 09/01/2019
default balance £301
current balance £0
satisfied. 

Default date N/A

2. 

Thames Water 
start date 12/10/2015
date satisfied 09/01/2019
date updated 14/04/2019
default balance £0
current balance £0
satisfied 
default date 09/09/2016

It looks like I have 2 accounts for the same debt. I believe the amount was written off and a new entry was made. I’ve tried tirelessly to pay this balance of £301 to thames water but it’s an old account on a completely different system and are refusing to take payment, 10
hours in the last weeks trying to achieve anything with them so far.

darlington has requested an email/letter confirming that this has been paid and credit file will be updated. They both show setttled and current balance of zero, but the default balance is showing £301. 

What would you do? This is it, the only thing between me and a mortgage offer, very last stage. 

@crispy99 Based on the limited info in your post, I'm not sure what Darlington expect you to do given that it's showing as satisfied with a nil balance. What is your broker suggesting?

Thank you for you reply, my broker is suggesting asking thames water for an email to confirm this but that’s honestly harder than it sounds. I’ve been escalating this problem with Thames water for the last 3 weeks. I’ve had the debt unwritten off I guess and a bill of only £249 sent to me, they can’t figure out why it was ever £301. Still won’t let me pay it though, happy to just pay the £301 but don’t think it will have any effect on my account. 

I feel like the underwriter sees the default balance as £301 is still owed even though current balance is £0. I doubled checked this info on checkmyfile and confirms both entry’s as zero and satisfied. 

K_S

crispy99 said:

K_S said:

crispy99 said:

If you saw this on my credit file what would you think?

1.

Thames Water - 
start date 12/10/2015
Date satisfied 09/01/2019
date updated 09/01/2019
default balance £301
current balance £0
satisfied. 

Default date N/A

2. 

Thames Water 
start date 12/10/2015
date satisfied 09/01/2019
date updated 14/04/2019
default balance £0
current balance £0
satisfied 
default date 09/09/2016

It looks like I have 2 accounts for the same debt. I believe the amount was written off and a new entry was made. I’ve tried tirelessly to pay this balance of £301 to thames water but it’s an old account on a completely different system and are refusing to take payment, 10
hours in the last weeks trying to achieve anything with them so far.

darlington has requested an email/letter confirming that this has been paid and credit file will be updated. They both show setttled and current balance of zero, but the default balance is showing £301. 

What would you do? This is it, the only thing between me and a mortgage offer, very last stage. 

@crispy99 Based on the limited info in your post, I'm not sure what Darlington expect you to do given that it's showing as satisfied with a nil balance. What is your broker suggesting?

Thank you for you reply, my broker is suggesting asking thames water for an email to confirm this but that’s honestly harder than it sounds. I’ve been escalating this problem with Thames water for the last 3 weeks. I’ve had the debt unwritten off I guess and a bill of only £249 sent to me, they can’t figure out why it was ever £301. Still won’t let me pay it though, happy to just pay the £301 but don’t think it will have any effect on my account. 

I feel like the underwriter sees the default balance as £301 is still owed even though current balance is £0. I doubled checked this info on checkmyfile and confirms both entry’s as zero and satisfied. 

@crispy99 The defaulted balance will always show the value at the time of default, that's not going to change even after it being satisfied.

As a broker, I'd try and speak to the underwriter to discuss and understand what they want and explain that it's satisfied and zero balance. It could be something as simple as the underwriter being new and misreading the report.

I haven't had a need to speak to the underwriter for a Darlington app but with most smaller societies it's fairly straightforward to speak to the actual person looking at the case. I hope it gets sorted out, good luck!