Mortgage advisor advice

nimbo

So I’m looking for some up to date advice about how to chose a mortgage adviser. The thread that Martin has posted in was from 2006 and I figured there was a chance the advice would change over that time. 

I will be buying a house <£150k. 

I have an income of around £60k. I do not want to over stretch myself. 

I am employed through an agency / umbrella company. I do not have a zero hours contract. 

I have a 10% deposit. And am looking at one house where I could maybe push to a 15% deposit - but it’s a bit of a dump so I suspect I’d stay 10% to keep the ready cash for all of the things I imagine are about to fall apart. 

I’ve spoken to one guy (through the estate agents) who seemed nice. But let’s face it he wants me to sign with him so he’s hardly going to be rude etc. He isn’t whole of market and he charges £700. That seems kind of steep. But I clearly know nothing. 

What super clever questions do I need to be asking? Or where can I look. Google seems to throw up loads of sites that will spam me for eternity. 

K_S

@nimbo Tbh, based on the limited info in your post, pretty much any half-decent broker should be able to place you without much trouble. £700 broker fee seems excessive (imho) for a non-adverse case and that too for a non whole of market broker.

If you don't want to pay a broker fee (not an unreasonable desire at all considering this is a moneysaving website), there are plenty of options listed on the MSE guide. If you don't feel that you're in capable hands or your case turns out to be less straightforward than initially expected, you can always look for a second opinion at that point.

ACG

£700 for relatively straight forward and restricted panel is pretty steep really. 
I would say anything more than £500 is probably on the high side. 

There isnt really anything clever to ask, it is what is important to you. The questions I mostly get on the initial calls are:
1) What do we charge and when - some brokers charge on application, some on offer and some on completion. 
2) What is the process - A lot of people do not know how it all works and who does what and when etc. The estate agents will have you doing the application and starting the legal work on day one. But thats in their benefit, not yours. 
3) The timeframes - how long will the application take, how long does the legal work take, when will we get the keys. 
4) What costs are involved - broker fee, legal fees, valuation fees etc. 

nimbo

Thank you both. I don’t mind paying some - but want to get the right person. They have 24 lenders... how many are there? 

So I have no bad bits in my credit files. I do have a car on pcp. He seemed to feel my employment status being through an agency and weekly pay may cause an issue. I’ve been through the same umbrella company for about 18 months. And obviously have pay slips etc. He thought this would knock the choice down to three lenders. 

I have also just applied for a new bank account as I currently bank with M&S and they wrote to me telling me they are closing all accounts. I managed to get to deposit worthy a few months early or would have avoided this footprint. But to be frank I also need a bank account. 

ACG

I think we have access to about 80-85 lenders. Realistically, in 10 years I have probably only used about 25-30 lenders. 

Of those 80, some wont even lend at 90% LTV, some only lend on Buy to let properties, some will only in certain parts of the country, some of them you would not need (ie adverse lenders), so that 80 odd soon comes down. 

But you could say the same of those 24, 

dunstonh

I’ve spoken to one guy (through the estate agents) who seemed nice. But let’s face it he wants me to sign with him so he’s hardly going to be rude etc. He isn’t whole of market and he charges £700. That seems kind of steep. But I clearly know nothing. 

Several issues there.
1 - not whole of market - That is a big no no and you should avoid.   In all areas of financial advice, mortgage or insurance advice, you should make sure the person is whole of market
2 - Estate agent mortgage advisers have the worst reputation of the adviser groups (that means it is a generalisation and there will be exceptions).  Independent estate agents being the exception as they tend to use local independent advisers.   The chains tend to use sales reps who know they only get one chance to sell to you
3 - £700 for a straightforward case is high unless all of the commission is being refunded/offset.  In our area, £100-£300 tends to be the range of the firms.   In the South East commuter belt you probably wouldnt expect to see any fee as higher house prices means bigger mortgages and more commission paid.   The fee tends to exist in low value areas where mortgages are smaller and not enough commission is paid to survive on it alone.

markjmatthews

Hi nimbo, I agree with pretty much everything that has been posted  by other Mortgage Brokers previously, but one thing that doesn't appear to be mentioned is to read client reviews, these can be a good indicator of the opinions of the clients of a broker

I am a Mortgage Adviser

You should note that this site doesn't check my status as a mortgage adviser, so you need to take my word for it. This signature is here as I follow MSE's Mortgage Adviser Code of Conduct. Any posts on here are for information and discussion purposes only and shouldn't be seen as financial advice.