Mortgage broker - ask me anything

Thaisparrow

Wondering if any broker could offer some advice please. I went to see a broker who is a family friend, myself and my partner are looking at buying a property we have found, need to borrow £160k both full time in stable jobs combined income of £77k so we were able to borrow more according to the calculator. 

Obtained 3 copies of the statutory credit reports from the CRA’s. All good, no missed payments, no defaults/bankruptcy/IVA or debt management plans. Both have good scores overall not that they matter. 

Provided bank statements and payslips and the 3 reports to the broker and he said no issues. I explained that my partner defaulted with Halifax 9 years ago; which was sold to a debt collector years later and later deemed unenforceable in 2020, so she hasn’t made payment to it for 3 years due to this and they’ve stopped bothering. So we said to avoid Halifax and the Lloyds group on this basis for ease of it all. 

My question is, even though we told the broker this he said we will be fine but will avoid the Lloyds umbrella. 

He has however gone for NatWest, which the AIP went through fine and he said they rarely decline post AIP provided pay and employment matches. Which they will. 

I’m a bit of a worrier and when I looked on their website and intermediaries website it says you have to declare if you’ve ever defaulted, which my partner has! Although it was 9 years ago, so it won’t show on the credit reports, I messaged the broker and asked the question yesterday morning and he hasn’t gotten back to me. He is very good and has lots of experience so not doubting this at all, just find it a little strange that he would use NatWest (they were the best interest rate I assume). Should I bother contacting NatWest to inform them or just leave it in my brokers hands?

Chrisal90

Not sure if you can assist me with this, I am currently studying for my CeMAP qualification privately.

If were to not be fully qualified but wanted to apply for a Mortgage Adviser position, would that put me in better stead than somebody completely untrained in terms of how long it would take me to become fully qualified with a firm (my course is only available for 12 months)

Thanks

MalMonroe

K_S said:

MalMonroe said:

Hello, 

I just have two smallish questions -

My daughter and I are thinking of applying to buy the council flat we both live in on a right to buy basis. We are entitled to the full council discount as we have both been here for 17 years now. We are not in London.

Will my being older (early 70s, she early 40s) be very detrimental? We were hoping for a 10 year mortgage - maybe 15 years if possible. 

She has an outstanding credit card balance of £2k on a 0% BT card - would that affect any application for a mortgage?

Many thanks. 

@malmonroe If your income isn't required for affordability, then you should have RTB lenders who will disregard the age of the older applicant. If your income is required for affordability, then it might get a bit more complicated, but that'll depend on the numbers.

For the purposes of a mortgage application, for the lender, a 2k balance on a cc will equate to a monthly commitment of around £60-100. Whether or not that's sizeable enough to impact your affordability will depend on the numbers.

Thank you, K_S. 

gj12

Wondering if a broker would maybe be able to offer a bit of advice on this please. We are due to change our mortgage in the next few weeks. Currently with Halifax at 2.44%, new deal with them is 4.84% fixed for 2 years. The best rate I can see available elsewhere is with progressive which is 3.29% discounted svr. 
This equates to a £65 difference per month on our mortgage and I'm wondering what is our best option. I'm trying to make a best guess at what might happen to the dsvr over the next 2 years and figure out if its worth fixing for guaranteed payments or if switching to the dsvr is worth it. I suppose its a bit of a crystal ball question but any advice would be greatly appreciated.  

K_S

@gj12 Progressive - Afaik they only lend on properties within Northern Ireland.

To answer your question - fixed Vs variable - I'm afraid I don't have any advice to give re the direction of rates or where they'll be in 2 years as my opinion but it's no more reliable than the next person's. 

For me personally, the choice would be between a 2yr variable Vs a longer fix. With a 2 year fix you're paying a premium over a variable rate but are still exposed to rates in 2 years time.

gj12 said:

Wondering if a broker would maybe be able to offer a bit of advice on this please. We are due to change our mortgage in the next few weeks. Currently with Halifax at 2.44%, new deal with them is 4.84% fixed for 2 years. The best rate I can see available elsewhere is with progressive which is 3.29% discounted svr. 
This equates to a £65 difference per month on our mortgage and I'm wondering what is our best option. I'm trying to make a best guess at what might happen to the dsvr over the next 2 years and figure out if its worth fixing for guaranteed payments or if switching to the dsvr is worth it. I suppose its a bit of a crystal ball question but any advice would be greatly appreciated.  

gj12

K_S said:

@gj12 Progressive - Afaik they only lend on properties within Northern Ireland.

To answer your question - fixed Vs variable - I'm afraid I don't have any advice to give re the direction of rates or where they'll be in 2 years as my opinion but it's no more reliable than the next person's. 

For me personally, the choice would be between a 2yr variable Vs a longer fix. With a 2 year fix you're paying a premium over a variable rate but are still exposed to rates in 2 years time.

gj12 said:

Wondering if a broker would maybe be able to offer a bit of advice on this please. We are due to change our mortgage in the next few weeks. Currently with Halifax at 2.44%, new deal with them is 4.84% fixed for 2 years. The best rate I can see available elsewhere is with progressive which is 3.29% discounted svr. 
This equates to a £65 difference per month on our mortgage and I'm wondering what is our best option. I'm trying to make a best guess at what might happen to the dsvr over the next 2 years and figure out if its worth fixing for guaranteed payments or if switching to the dsvr is worth it. I suppose its a bit of a crystal ball question but any advice would be greatly appreciated.  

Thanks for the quick reply KS. 
You're right about progressive being N.I. only and that's where I am living. I had been steering away from longer fixes tbh as from what I've read and given my best guess I was expecting/hoping that interest rates would have settled down a bit in 2 years time and wasn't keen on being locked in too much longer than that. You've gave me something else to think about though as I suppose there's a chance that rates could still be high in 2 years time

MikeJXE

Hi I would much appreciate an answer from you knowledgeable  people 

If a building society surveyor values a home to need some repairs stated in their report

Does a building society retain some or all of the funds until repairs are complete or do they retain a portion.

Which is normal ? 

Thank you for looking 

silvercar

MikeJXE said:

Hi I would much appreciate an answer from you knowledgeable  people 

If a building society surveyor values a home to need some repairs stated in their report

Does a building society retain some or all of the funds until repairs are complete or do they retain a portion.

Which is normal ? 

Thank you for looking 

Depends. If the work needs doing immediately on ownership as a requirement of the mortgage, it may be retained until the work is done. Otherwise it is just repairs advised and there may not be any re tension.

Yellowstone2

Genuine question. If someone has had an 'agreement in principle' from an EA based broker, would they be obliged to apply for the mortgage through the mortgage broker? 

I was basically advised to see the EAs broker when I wanted to make an appointment to view a property. They said it would show that I was a serious buyer. But what actually happened was that the broker simply multiplied my salary by 4.5 and said I could borrow up to that much, and where the best current deal was. Then the selling side of the EA tried to set me up with viewings for properties for that amount.

I was told by the broker that although they were not 'whole of market' they could look for mortgages that would not be available to me directly and might be able to get a better deal than the high street, but it turns out best deal they can recommend is from one of the main high street banks, and on all the comparison sites. It feels really bad form for me to now go straight to the bank though and doing the application directly, but what other extra service would I be getting by going through a broker? Could it be that if the lender was wavering about whether to offer me a mortgage, the broker would be able to negotiate on my behalf?

In a way, I would have much preferred to have paid a small fee for the agreement in principle, and I would then have felt more free to go directly for the application. I feel guilty that the broker has already done some working out on my behalf.

I would really appreciate your advice, is it a complete nono to go directly after seeing a broker, or is it commonplace? I don't want to look like I'm doing something underhand, and that I've been 'using him for free advice' but on the other hand, I need to spend my money wisely, and can't quite see what I would be getting in return for the fee he would be charging (over £600) apart from directing me to fill out the appropriate forms, or am I being naive?

To clarify, I have not signed anything with the broker, I have not asked them to start an application for a mortgage. I have a decent deposit, no other loans or bad debt, not self employed.



 

Thaisparrow

Quick question for mortgage brokers, do you give options of say the best 3 deals interest and costs wise for a client and then they pick?  I am looking for a mortgage broker but want them to avoid nationwide as they may use an old version of a credit file for the DIP and want to avoid Barclays as they were the bank the default was with, the default isn’t on the credit file anymore dropped off 2 months ago. I will tell the mortgage broker this anyway but if nationwide is the best deal am I okay to say no I don’t want to risk and and to with say Halifax instead even if the price is worse?