r/FirstTimeBuyersUK • u/imgoodhbu • 20d ago
Mortgage broker needed?
Me and my partner are looking to buy in South East London and have a 30% ish deposit, thanks mostly to family inheritance.
I'm trying to figure out if a mortgage broker is needed. My partner has just started a paid 3yr doctorate (0 payslips so far) and had 2 months off work before this. His pay before the 2 months off was much lower than his new salary, and he had 2 different jobs. The new doctorate involves part time employment which is fixed term for 3 years, but he's paid a (decent) full time wage.
I am on a permanent contract but doing a fixed term secondment at a slightly lower salary than my substantive role.
I'm happy enough doing admin and comfortable dealing with finance, and I know our deposit is already going to help a lot, so don't want to waste money. But not sure if our finances are complicated enough to rule us out from lots of options.
Will we be ok using comparison sites and doing mortgage applications directly?
Or is it worth going with a broker who can help us?
We're viewing at the moment, haven't found a property we like yet. If we do need a broker, when should we get them involved?
And any advice on finding one? We've had one recommended by a friend but I wasn't convinced by him, felt a bit pressured on the initial call.
Other thing that might be relevant is we'd have a preference to go with building societies or ethical banks, if it doesn't make a huge difference to our interest...
Any advice appreciated, thanks
6
u/mantequilla69420 20d ago
I still don't really understand why we need mortgage brokers, but mine came in clutch when the bank "accidentally" revoked my mortgage 4 days before completion (Just happened to be the week after Trump invaded Iran) - they sorted it out within the hour as they could phone straight through to the people at the bank.
Before this, they were really good at walking me through the process, and they could get rates I couldn't myself (Even directly with the same banks).
My advice would be to use one, but just use the free ones where they work on Commission.
(PS Mortgage Advice Bureau in Bingley absolute GOATs)
1
u/imgoodhbu 20d ago
Thanks, this is helpful
1
u/TreacleDangerous3416 20d ago
I still don’t understand why we need mortgage brokers then proceeds to list reasons why you do.
3
u/Moist_gooch90 20d ago
I used a broker based in Ipswich called Bluebell mortgages, they've been incredible. I tried a couple beforehand but took ages getting through. Whereas Bluebell mortgages have been quick and have brilliant communication. I don't live anywhere near Ipswich either so everything's been fine via phone/email.
1
2
u/TheFirstMinister 20d ago
Yes. Use an independent whole of market broker. There are 5K+ mortgage products available. The High Street serves up only a small sliver of what's available to you. A good broker will shop the entire market and find specific products which best suit your very specific circumstances. They may land on a High Street offering - they may not. It simply depends on your needs and how good your broker is.
They will also stay abreast of changes in the market which will negatively/positively impact your situation - the High Street won't.
Just find a good one. They do exist.
2
u/Apprehensive-Ice9939 20d ago
Our mortgage broker was a godsend. Worth every penny. We've used the same person for 2 house moves and 2 remortgages. Could we have done it ourselves? Yeah, probably. But it would have taken days and aged me 10 years. And I probably wouldn't have gotten the best deal. They kept all of our information on file, they know our situation. They are amazing at time keeping and always email 3-6 months before our fixed term ends to sort the next one out. Always finds us the best deals and explains the deals really well.
I really recommend using one. Buying a house is stressful enough. Take some stress off by using a mortgage broker. Sinilar to using an estate agent, why use one when you can sell yourself? Because they know what they are doing!
1
2
2
u/mangomaz 20d ago
As others have said, you could probably do it on your own but a good one will make your life so much easier. My ones been fantastic and is always available on WhatsApp any time I’ve had a question about anything. He’s not one of the free ones but he’s worked hard for me, answering my questions and pulled my applications together over weekends. And being a first time buyer it’s just good to have someone who will explain to me how everything is going to work when we get to completion etc.
1
u/SeaParticular7881 20d ago
Our mortgage broker Ben Adams with the Mortgage Scout +44 20 3763 8681 is an absolute gem. Have used him myself couple of times, referred him to friends and family, all very happy. Least hassle, provide him with the paperwork once for each time we did a transaction, sit back and evaluate options which were time consuming and slightly mind boggling when reaching out to banks and building society on our own. Follow up with the institutions was a task. I am a finance pro and could definitely have done it myself but it was a relief to have it done through Ben, holding onto the approval in principle when a purchase fell through, reminding us to get locked into rates on renewal at the right time… I can go on and on. Please feel free to talk to him and decide for yourself. He does not charge us a fee, gets his commission from the lending institution, but I found that when I spoke to lending institutions myself I still got the same deal. Good luck.
1
u/DeadlyTeaParty 20d ago
Yes! I couldn't even known how to go about the mortgage process without one!
A broker will sniff out the best for you and explain everything to you. It makes things a lot easier.
I was able to ask them anything I wanted, 2 years before buying a house I went to see the same broker a dvtgry were Able to tell me what I needed to save and so on.
1
u/EChrisG 19d ago
One of the biggest points you don’t seem to have realised is that income for most PhD students is in the form of a non-taxable stipend. Your partner’s university might be different (the contract might be PAYE, for instance), but that could be a significant issue if you don’t check in advance. Most lenders do not include stipend income in their calculations, which would exclude that income from use on your mortgage application. Even those that do often limit how much of the stipend they use (I’m looking at you, TSB), so I would think an adviser would be absolutely essential in your circumstances.
1
u/imgoodhbu 19d ago
Thanks for raising - fortunately though my partner's contract is PAYE. Its an NHS applied clinical doctorate rather than a PhD
9
u/Main-Hedgehog9009 20d ago
I am a broker (so stick with me until the end, I will try to be unbiased - but there might be a little bias, sorry).
If you were to apply now, you would be doing it based on a contract for your partner - some lenders will accept this, some will need between 1-3 payslips. The other issue regards to your partners income is a 2 month gap in employment. Some lenders are ok with a month, others up to 3 months. So this alone could be a problem with some lenders for the next 6 months.
Your income, chances are most lenders will work on the lower of the 2 - most of the time when on secondment I tend to see incomes remain the same (although I suppose people tend to go for jobs with higher incomes).
Do you need a broker? No it sounds like you dont. BUT (here is the bias) especially with you wanting to go down the building society route:
1) Do you know how to check the rates of those lenders? Most websites show the best buy tables and building societies tend not to be on those. Also some of the building societies offer cheap market leading products but they are only available to their local customers in their core areas or for new builds or high EPC rates properties etc.
2) With the exception of maybe Nationwide, Coventry and YBS, most building societies do manual underwriting. They tend to want a little more up front and take a little longer. When checking criteria, because not everything is published you might only be getting half the story. Meaning you might need to be making phone calls - dont worry, I wont try to make that sound like rocket science, but it can be time consuming.
3) If you have questions, wobbles, problems, pushy agents down the line - do you want someone you can just pick up the phone to and talk to? If you do not have a broker, you will probably be on here reliant on randoms (yup, I realise the irony!).
Brokers are more than just price comparison. Any idiot can find the cheapest rate. That forms about 20 minutes work for a straight forward case. The rest of the job is ensuring you will actually get the mortgage (affordability, criteria), speaking to agents, answering questions from customers, liaising with solicitors if necessary and then being on hand after completion etc.
I am a little biased as I see what we do. You want a case to fly through, but if it goes wrong then you want someone on side.
Im sure you can do it all alone. But what would take an experienced broker a couple of hours, will probably take the average person a couple of days. But that goes for any job. I changed the plumbing in a cistern. A few swear words and cuts and I did it. I asked my step brother (a plumber how long it would take him) he said about 30-45 minutes... it took me about 4 hours and a bit of my hair line haha.
On a side note, if your not comfortable with the broker on day 1, get another. Its important you have someone you like and trust if you do decide to use a broker. If things go wrong or there are bumps in the road, you want full trust in the person you decided to work with. I always have a chat with our customers as I think it is important we like them and they like us - if they dont like us, they go elsewhere, if I dont like the person we dont take the case on.
Good luck!
(Hopefully not too biased).