Your Property Purchase - A step by step guide for home buyers .. 2

Why do you need a mortgage broker, and what will they do for you?? …

Hopefully, you’ve read my previous post (A Step by Step Guide .. 1) and worked through your 10 step pre-mortgage checklist – If not, please take a quick step back – When your steps are completed, then we can move along to number 2.

We looked briefly in the last post at the benefits of using a mortgage advisor, to save time, to identify the most suited lender and product, plus work through the admin. Today I want to look at exactly what a consultant at Moving Experience will do for you, the services offered, and how a relationship will hopefully benefit you for years to come.

A good Mortgage Consultant will have tools at our disposal that a member of the public will not, which you would expect because this is our profession! Very efficiently we are able to survey the products being offered by lenders on any given day, and narrow these down to a shortlist initially, and on to a mortgage recommendation after additional research. A shortlist may include lenders that will only accept an application from a mortgage intermediary, and in some cases,  we often have access to products that are only offered to a limited number of advisors.

I believe that, probably, the greatest asset available is experience. Often we are asked something ‘What’s the best mortgage that I could get? The house is worth x and I have a deposit of y , which lender is good at the minute?’ .. The question is more difficult than it may seem! I deal with many different lenders on a daily basis, in order to satisfy different client requirements. I need to understand which lenders are looking for what types of business, what ‘risks’ they will accept and those that they won’t do, and the variations in criteria. Most lenders will ask for very similar pieces of information, but how this information will be used / judged can be very different.

A good broker will be able to understand your circumstances and search the (ever changing) market to find the right option for you on any given day. By comparison, imagine either working your way through an array of information, unfamiliar terms and questions on the internet. Alternatively, you could make an appointment with individual lenders to speak a member of their staff, who can only talk about that 1 lender and its’ criteria and product range .. You could spend a huge amount of time, still not arriving at the ideal solution!

In addition to recommending the most suited lender and product, your mortgage broker can submit the application on your behalf, should be able to pre-empt a lenders’ questions, liaise with their underwriters if there’s a query or problem, and (when appropriate) apply pressure when needed if the process is dragging, in order to get the best outcome for you.

Why do you need a mortgage broker? For the same reason that you get a plumber when the heating needs to be repaired, or an electrician if there’s an issue with your wiring, it’s because they’re the professional with right training, experience, and tools to achieve your desired result.

David Atkinson

2/12/19