Career change into finance (mortgage adviser)

garywoodward

Hi all

I am looking for some advice!
Having been made redundant from a job in television I am looking to change career and have decided I would be interested in being a mortgage adviser (long story how that one checks out!).

I have taken careers advice and it has given me a first push but, to anyone currently in the industry, how would you recommend getting started?  Where do I look, what qualifications do I need and how should I go about getting them?

I'm happy going in as a trainee as I am currently paying no mortgage so starting salary is not a huge deal as long as I'm not being taken advantage of.

Thank you in advance!

DullGreyGuy

https://www.prospects.ac.uk/job-profiles/mortgage-adviser

Above advises of the minimum qualifications needed etc

The two mortgage advisors I knew both worked in retail banking, moved into mortgage advice internally and became qualified then left the bank and one went to a large brokerage and the other setup their own business

housebuyer143

You will need to do a CeMap course to be a mortgage advisor. 

ACG

As above, you need to CeMap or CF1/CF6 exams with CII - https://www.cii.co.uk/learning/qualifications/certificate-in-mortgage-advice-qualification/ 

Getting into the industry at the minute will be quite difficult as brokers are currently being made redundant and I cant see that improving much over the next 12 months. 

The exams are the easy part, once you have that you then need to obtain CAS. Only certain people can provide CAS - typically they are managers/business owners. CAS is much harder as it is a case of understanding lenders, products, appetite to risk etc.

The easiest way I can think to explain this is one of my trainees had a case where the cheapest lender was nationwide. I knew nationwide would decline the case, no reason for it as everything fit criteria but I just knew it would fail the credit check... My trainee could not understand why. We did the DIP and it failed. We then went to the third lender (natwest) and they accepted the case... That is just experience and knowledge you build up over time. But that is the harder part as it changes over time and you need to be doing enough applications to get to grips with this. Once you start to understand this part, you can then get CAS. 


There are 2 types of advisers:
1) Who is employed and is given leads.
2) Who is self employed and may also be given leads but is probably required to self generate also. 

2) In the current climate would be easier to get as there is less risk to the "employer", but chances are you will earn less in the early years (I went down this route as I became a broker in 2011-12 when it was also quite hard) and took around 2-3 years to be earning a proper wage. 

But if you get your qualification off your own back, it shows you are serious I think. I once took on a lady who was a single mum purely because she did the exams off her own back. That did not work out in fairness but that was for other reasons.