What Does A Mortgage Broker Do?

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What Does A Mortgage Broker Do?

Marcus Robinson introduces the company and talks all about the role of a mortgage broker.

What does a mortgage broker do?

As a mortgage broker, we’ve been running for 18 years and we’ve now got 12 staff. We’re based in Bristol and have won numerous awards.

Our job is to find the client the right deal for their circumstances. We’ll search the market and do all the legwork, after we’ve taken down information to tell us what we’re looking for.

We’ll go to all the different lenders, check criteria and see if there are exclusive deals available. We do all that research for you and then come back with a recommendation – and then you decide how you want to go ahead.

What’s the difference between going to a mortgage broker like yourselves versus your local high street lender?

As a broker, we’re not tied to a single lender. If you go to a high street bank, they’ll only talk to you about their products – and they’re not really giving individual advice. Meanwhile, we’re working on your behalf to shop around. We’re offering impartial advice – we’re not tied to anyone.

We only recommend what’s right for you – and clients are all individual. You may be self-employed, you may have adverse credit, or you may be buying a property of unusual construction. There are so many variables. We can look into that and put you with a lender that fits your personal circumstances.

Exclusive deals are another benefit. We’ll shop the market and get exclusive deals from certain lenders because of our buying power through certain mortgage clubs.

Another clear difference is just in getting an appointment. We’re getting reports that it takes three or four weeks to see someone in a bank – but we can meet you the same day. We’ve got numerous advisors and we can speak to people on the phone, on Teams, on Zoom, in person or via email.

If you deal with a bank on the high street, you’re dealing with call centres a lot of the time. With us, you’ve got a dedicated advisor and an administrator liaising with you. If you call up to ask a question, we know who you are. You’re not just a number and it’s very personalised.

A high street bank is also limited on the scenarios they can deal with. As I touched on, some people are self-employed, and there are specialist lenders for that. You may have an usual income structure. Nurses, for example, do additional hours and lots of lenders don’t like those. You may have a second job, but not all lenders let you use that income.

There are all these different scenarios and more, where an independent broker can shop around and use their knowledge and experience to put you with the right lender.

What services does a mortgage broker offer?

A big one is liaising with all the parties in the process. A lot of people say that buying a house is one of the most stressful things in life. You might not have done this before – but we do it thousands of times a year.

We’re dealing with solicitors, surveyors and estate agents on your behalf. That can take hours and hours – if you’re working, how else can you get that done? Usually you’re working when they’re open and you can’t speak to them in the evening.

We do all that on your behalf. We’ll sort out any issues that unfortunately arise. It may not be your fault – it could be the bank, or an error made by a solicitor. We’re there to correct those problems as fast as possible, make the whole process seamless for you and take the stress away.

Another service we offer is to get you an Agreement in Principle (AIP) or Decision in Principle (DIP). We look at your circumstances and find a good bank that suits you, with really good products. We’ll do a check with that bank if they can lend to you, and they’ll check your credit record and tell you how much you can borrow.

This is a real advantage when you’re looking for properties. When you go to an estate agent, they’ll ask how much you can borrow – and the Agreement in Principle confirms that amount. They will be reassured that you’re not wasting their time by looking at properties you could never afford anyway.

Once you buy a property you might be on a two, three or five year deal. Once that deal’s up, you normally drop onto the lender’s standard variable rate, which is always higher. So you should be re-mortgaging onto a better deal.

We do that for clients – we’ll look at the options. It may not be with your current mortgage provider, although we will look at what’s available to you as an existing customer. You can get some good deals sometimes, but we’ll compare those with the whole market – we see what else is out there for you and if that’s a cheaper route.

We also do all the chasing, talking to the solicitors, the lender etc. We can often get you free legal fees and even cashback, so there are lots of benefits there.

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We’ll find you a solution that covers your needs, circumstances and preferences and do all we can to make your mortgage application process as smooth as possible.

Can you help with protection?

Yes, and this is really important. You buy a lovely house, you’re really happy there – but unfortunately, something goes wrong. You lose your job, you get injured, you fall sick… What are you going to do?

We can set up policies to ensure you stay in that home. It could provide you with a regular income if you can’t work. If you were to get a serious illness – a ‘critical illness’ – you’re covered. Lots of people, unfortunately, do develop cancer or have a heart attack or a stroke. We can protect you against all those things.

Obviously there’s also death – which unfortunately, does happen, even to younger clients. What’s going to happen to you, your partner, your family, if you’re not there? How are they going to be able to stay in the home? We can shop around for protection like we can with mortgages.

We go to various insurers and find the right product for you and your circumstances.
We can also insure the property itself. If there’s a fire or if you get burgled, we want to make you’re protected. We can help you with that.

When should I see a mortgage broker? At what stage in that journey?

It should be as early as possible. Don’t go looking for properties until you’ve seen a mortgage broker – because how are you going to know what you can afford to buy?

If you see a broker, we see firstly whether you can get a mortgage, how much you can borrow and how much that’s going to cost you. You’ve got to be comfortable that whatever you’re going to buy, you can afford and it fits within your budget.

Does it cost for an initial conversation with you?

Not at all. We speak to clients all the time and we’re more than happy to help. There’s no cost for an initial consultation. We’ll liaise with you and explain what you can afford. We can get you a Decision in Principle.

If you don’t want to go ahead with anything, there’s no charge to you whatsoever. We are a fee charging broker, so if we recommend a mortgage to you and you want to go ahead – even then, we don’t charge you until you’ve actually secured the mortgage offer.

You’ve got peace of mind that we’ve done our job, and we’ll carry on and help you until you get the keys and move into that property. That’s the only time the fees become applicable.

What else do we need to know about working with Mortgage Style?

We’ve got a big team of administrators, because buying a property can be a stressful time for clients. We want to make sure that we’re communicating with you at all times. It’s the worst thing not to hear anything.

We’ve got people calling you, even if there’s not really anything to tell you. We just keep you up to date and explain when we expect to hear. That reassures our clients.We’ve got one administrator per advisor, which is quite high for our industry.

We’ve won a lot of awards, including local Bristol property awards for the best mortgage brokerage. Recently, we won a national award for Houses of Multiple Occupation (HMO) mortgages, which are often student lets or where multiple professionals share a property. That’s a key area that we advise on.

We’ve got over 500 five-star reviews on Google and Trustpilot. People are reassured when they look at the website and all the review sites – they can see we’re doing a good job.

Mortgage Style Ltd, trading as Mortgage Style, is an appointed representative of the H L Partnership Limited, which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority.

YOUR HOME/PROPERTY MAY BE REPOSSESSED IF YOU DO NOT KEEP UP TO DATE WITH YOUR MORTGAGE REPAYMENTS.

There may be a fee for mortgage advice.  The precise amount of the fee will depend on your circumstances and will be discussed and agreed with you at the earliest opportunity.  Typically, in most cases, our fee will be £495.  We charge £595 for bridging and adverse credit cases; and £995 for Later Life Lending