Currently looking for a mortgage on a new property, and have used brokers in the past, but....
Is there still value for paying (£350+) for the services of a broker with the likes of moneysupermarket etc so readily available to do my searching for me?
i've found it increasingly hard to find one that deosn't charge the consumer compared to a few years ago
thoughts of the masses appreciated.
We had a long chat with a broker attached to the estate agents dealing with our house. We fine tuned our requirements with him (ie 30 year repayment rather than 25 etc) then tried to match his best quote. In the end First Direct came up better and he said he couldn't match it. He tried convincing me that paying him money would mean we didn't have to do much paper work but no deal!
Brokers can no longer get you deals that you can not get yourself on the high street.
Be careful of just using comparison sites though. A few big mortgage lenders dont go on them
Go with a fee-free broker - they will be paid by the mortgage lender. Make sure they are 'whole of market'.
I've used London and Country twice and been very impressed with the service.
Dave
Brokers can no longer get you deals that you can not get yourself on the high street.
Not according to our broker. He might be telling porkies but I'm assured he has access to products that are not availble to the general public, as well deals he has negotiated by virtue of put £xxx's through various lenders.
Also a few hundred quid upfront to get a great deal will pay for itself many times over the course of the mortgage...
just my 2p.. (gotta love mortgages..)
TM
Brokers can no longer get you deals that you can not get yourself on the high street.
Not true if you're a non standard borrower. There are banks that will deal only through the broker market.
If you have fairly standard requirements (see the standard best buy tables as they are based around typical deals) then you wont need one. Best buy tables and price comparisons will put you in the right direction and then i would just go direct via there website. Having done this a good broker would be willing to try and find a better deal and then justify his fee.
Brokers can be useful if you have a less than perfect credit score or non standard requirements as they will know where to go and would save you a lot of time.
I agree that if you have bad credit or unusual requirements that a broker may help make the process alot easier.
'Whole of Market' advisors can get you alot of products but not all. HSBC for example do not deal with advisors.
We have recently changed mortgage and 2 advisors separately told us that they can no longer get the preferential deals they used to. One was a friend who has now switched jobs and the other was an IFA we use.