Why use a Mortgage Broker?

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It’s such a cliché thinking that when buying a property, it’s good to go straight to the bank to get the best deal because you have been a customer for x amount of years. That may have worked in the older generation, where you had a good relationship with the Bank Branch Manager and were looked after for being a loyal banking customer, however times have moved on a lot since.

Going to the bank is great, however, a bank can only ever offer you a set of products that they offer, with rates or criteria they have set. So, if you fall out of policy, your bank cannot make you an exception or tell you go across the road, our competitor will lend.

So that is where our role as an Intermediary or a Mortgage Broker is important.

It’s our job to get to know you, your family situation, your financial situation, your needs to see what the best recommendation is for you. It isn’t about here I have a few products to offer, you may or not fit the criteria or affordability, but this is your situation, what your needs are and here’s my recommendation for the best product.

So what exactly do we do?

Well, first the compliance, the regulations, who we are, how we are authorised, the introductions.

Then we go into a fact find. This is where we want to get to know you. Are you a first-time buyer? A Homeowner? Are you buying? Are you re-mortgaging? What do you do? How much do you earn? This is us getting to know you.

After our conversation, we go ahead and find you lenders that match your needs, your affordability or what we discussed in our meeting and then we meet or communicate again.

We present my recommendation to you and if your happy with that, we proceed to do an Agreement in Principle.

So what is an Agreement in Principle?

An Agreement in Principle, just like its name is when a Bank agrees in principle of you earning X is agreeing to lend you a sum amount, subject to seeing your documentation. At this stage a credit check is done which will determine if they will lend the amount you want, a lesser amount or decline.

And After that?

After that, once you have found a property to buy, or are happy to go ahead and re-mortgage, we submit a full mortgage application to the lender, fully packaged with all the documents required by them.

Our role doesn’t end there, it involves liaising with the lender, solicitors, estate agents in the chain all the way through until you complete and beyond.

So that’s where your Mortgage Broker/Adviser/Intermediary plays a vital role when obtaining a mortgage. It may seem simple but shortlisting different lenders and products and criteria with over 100 banks, building societies, investment banks and private banks is a bit of a work load.