Why it is worth using mortgage brokers to find your mortgage
Mortgage brokers have an extensive knowledge of the market place
When the costs of buying a house or remortgaging are already very high, why should you consider adding to those costs by paying a broker to find you the best mortgage deal available for you? If you are under the impression that all a mortgage broker will do is a search of the available mortgages to find you the cheapest deal, then you are wrong, there are a whole list of additional things a broker will provide you with.
Protection and qualifications
The first thing you should know is that by using a mortgage broker you are protecting yourself as your broker has a duty of care to ensure that you end up with the most relevant product for you and not just the cheapest one that they can find on the system. They have to be able to justify, not only to you, why they have recommended a particular mortgage and should you feel, and be able to show, that you haven’t received the best advice you are able to complain and receive compensation.
Professional advice
A mortgage broker has also trained in the selection of mortgage products and will have had to study the pros and cons of all of the different types of mortgage available, along with additional requirements often found in mortgage deals, and so will be in the best position to be able to advise you on your best options.
They will not give you a hard sell
If you have ever approached a mortgage lender directly you are likely to have found yourself on the receiving end of a hard sell of their products rather than the fact finding mission you had intended. A mortgage broker will not usually have any affiliation with a particular lender and so will provide you with a balanced appraisal of all products. Not only will they provide you with the details of the mortgage, they will also be able to tell you about all of the specific criteria that a lender has in place for each of their mortgages. As and when you do decide to proceed with an application you may also find that your mortgage broker is able to chase it and potentially influence a lender in a way that you would not be able to as an independent applicant.
The cost of a mortgage broker
Understand how the broker recieves their fees
There are two ways in which a broker can be paid. They sometime charge a fee, which is usually a one-off fee that is paid upon a successful mortgage offer. This means you have access to the mortgage broker for advice and help throughout the application period. The other way is that they are paid commission by a lender when someone takes out one of their mortgages and there are no broker fees payable by you. With this type of payment, because you don’t pay the mortgage broker directly, you don’t get the ongoing support that you will get from paying a fee. All fees will be clearly stated in your Key Facts Illustration.
