Martins View On Using Mortgage Brokers...

(a) By using a mortgage broker you are inserting a 3rd party between you and the lender. You will not be able to contact the lender directly with any queries you may have and you will need to rely on the broker's staff to do all that for you. If you try to contact the lender during the application process they will not discuss your case with you and they will simply refer you back to the broker.

Not necessarily so. A third party effectively exists if you use bank staff. The staff member is not the one making the decisions. Plus, bank staff have more limited access to underwriting than mortgage brokers do. Bank staff have to accept what they are told. Brokers have multiple angles of attack they can use. A few months back, one of my mortgage brokers was getting the run around from the lender so I phoned them up and spoke to their compliance department and got them involved and they overturned the decision. A bank clerk couldnt do that.

(b) Brokerages have their own resource demands, objectives and priorities so you cannot expect an instant response to your queries of the lender - like you would get if you went directly to the lender - and there will typically be a 2 working days time-lag between asking a question of the lender (via the broker) and receiving a response. Essentially the pace of progressing your mortgage application will be dictated by your mortgage broker.

As would bank staff on any unusual stuff. With mainstream applications, there is no difference.

In my recent experience the broker was taking over a week to process queries between me and the lender. This caused considerable stress as we were up against a tight deadline set by the property developers. Eventually we managed to get a contact at the lender to provide us with the information we needed and they told us that the broker had not contacted them to ask for it - even though the broker told me on three separate occasions that they had requested it and were waiting for a response from the lender.

That is not good. However, we have come across bank staff members going on holiday and leaving the application in their desk with the branch having no other mortgage authorised individuals covering for 2 weeks.

(c) The main lenders have invested millions of pounds in their customer facing and back office processes with the specific intention of supporting direct business. They will often provide better interest rates and other financial incentives to customers who do not use brokers. An example is HSBC who are currently advertising their best-in-class deals to direct customers only.

Actually, the lenders have invested more in dealing with brokers and there are more mortgages arranged by brokers than there is by the lenders own staff.

d) Using a broker does not necessarily mean you will get the best deal and there are lots of free comparison websites out there to find the best mortgage deals for you, including this one. You don't necessarily need a broker to tell you what the best deals are.
NB The deal I got came with £500 cash-back. I later learned that if I had gone direct I would have got £1000 cash-back and the same interest rate

And not using a broker does not necessarily mean you will get the best deal either. At different times, different lenders will have different deals that favour one distribution or the other.

Hi, New to the forum so apologise if the question has been asked before. I'm looking to buy a home shortly and am a few pounds shy of the deposit. My credit file and score is above average and I'm wanting to take a loan to supplement my deposit and use the extra cash to buy my daughter's first car as well. Should I take the loan before the mortgage application or just a few weeks after? Any suggestions on the best way forward??? Thanks in advance...

BobyP said:

Hi, New to the forum so apologise if the question has been asked before. I'm looking to buy a home shortly and am a few pounds shy of the deposit. My credit file and score is above average and I'm wanting to take a loan to supplement my deposit and use the extra cash to buy my daughter's first car as well. Should I take the loan before the mortgage application or just a few weeks after? Any suggestions on the best way forward??? Thanks in advance...

It doesnt work like that. 
The mortgage lender and solicitor has to do money laundering checks as well as establish where the deposit has come from. It will come out in the wash if you take out a loan to cover the deposit. There are 2 lenders I know of who can accept a loan towards the deposit, so there are options but slim on the ground. You need to be honest and find the right lender for you otherwise you could find after making an application potentially paying out money on valuation fees etc you come unstuck at a late stage in the process.

You need to do your research or speak to a broker (for the record, that is not a plug for business - I would not take a case on where the deposit has come from a loan, I am not judging, I just think as a regulated business, it is skating on thin ice). 

ACG said:

It doesnt work like that. 
The mortgage lender and solicitor has to do money laundering checks as well as establish where the deposit has come from. It will come out in the wash if you take out a loan to cover the deposit. There are 2 lenders I know of who can accept a loan towards the deposit, so there are options but slim on the ground. You need to be honest and find the right lender for you otherwise you could find after making an application potentially paying out money on valuation fees etc you come unstuck at a late stage in the process.

You need to do your research or speak to a broker (for the record, that is not a plug for business - I would not take a case on where the deposit has come from a loan, I am not judging, I just think as a regulated business, it is skating on thin ice).