mortgage advice

[mathew]

im looking to buy a house pretty soon (which may mean selling the supra:()but the amount of mortgages out there is scary.

ive seen a mortgage advisor but cant help thinking that they give a biased view on mortgages and my bank, HSBC, sems to be quite expensive.

anyhows what im looking for is some unbiased info on mortgages regarding fixed rate and trackers etc. has anybody taken out one of these types?

[juanchan]

Speak to an Independent Financial Advisor - they give free advise on mortgages, the market etc. They will get a fee in commission from the company that you loan the mortgage money from, so it won't cost you a penny. They also have access to the entire market of mortgages, so you can pretty quickly obtain an overview of what is available for your income/budget.

[tbourner]

Yeah we spoke to an independant who worked in Mann Co estate agents, she was independant of the EA though, and gave some pretty good advice, they won't lie to you if you ask them how they get paid, if they say they're and IFA then they must be.

It will completely depend on your situation, we had a loan and no deposit so she put us on Northern Rock's together loan, which is 100%+ of the property cost, it was the only way for us. We also got a 5 year fixed rate because we weren't in a position to cover any possible increases in interest!

[snake]

if you get a morgage with a bank etc they will also try to sell you buildings/contents insurance, but it pays to shop around.

[juanchan]

Yeah we spoke to an independant who worked in Mann Co estate agents, she was independant of the EA though, and gave some pretty good advice, they won't lie to you if you ask them how they get paid, if they say they're and IFA then they must be.

 

Not always as clear cut as they make out though. I spoke to one guy based in an estate agents who was an IFA. I did some investigating on his company on the internet and it turned out that even though he was independent, his company was owned by the estate agents he was based in. He claimed he had no connections to the EA other than being based in one of their offices. That was enough to make me go to another IFA.

[ozz]

Be as informed as possible if I were you. Always go to an advisor knowing what you want - ie, what type of mortgage, what you can afford and what you are happy borrowing. Their job is then to match those needs for you. Noone knows your finances better than you so why leave it to them. Spend a few hours looking at the various mortgages and charges so you know all the terms they will use.

 

Hopefully that will stop them pushing you in a direction that might not be best for you but earns them the most money - they are there to make money after all you are just a method for doing that.

 

Sometimes worth getting your credit report from someone like experian and checking it for errors - you'd be amazed at what they get wrong. Whenever I go for mortgages I take utility bills, 3 month pay slips, 3 months bank statements and my credit report. They will do another but saves time up front.

 

I quite like the Abbey Nationals mortgages - though I hate the company and successfully got 2k compensation out of them last year when they changed their mind on lending me money last minute. Despite that I cannot help but like their products.

[uzthedentist]

go to a broker first, all the big estate agents have brokers that are paid by the mortgage lender when they bring them business, so theyre not associated with a single company.

 

Also go for a fixed mortgage. the interest rate is going to keep going up and up in the next few years as people keep borrowing way too much money than they can afford and then default on their loans.

[markymark]

Give Suprasteve a p.m he's a mortgage adviser and has helped a few people on the club