I've been advised to spend £800 getting advice from a mortgage broker - worth it?

[QuimReaper]

STBXH (/his lawyers) have sent a estimation of what kind of mortgage they expect me to be able to secure based on my salary. My solicitor has suggested I seek advice from a mortgage broker to be sure our counter offer is realistic. Only problem is, they've given me a quote for £800. My legal fees have already wiped my modest savings and that's a huge amount for me - obviously if it'll meaningfully affect the final settlement it's worth the outlay, but I'm wondering if it's THAT much more valuable than a free assessment?

Try negotiating and try asking other mortgage brokers.

I don’t understand who is asking you for £800 or why STBXH solicitor is giving you mortgage advice.

For free advice on what kind of mortgages would be available to you, I would recommend London and Country. Have used them a couple of times and they are still recommended on MoneySavingExpert.com.

Link here

Sorry, have re-read and see it was your solicitor who recommended seeking advice from mortgage broker, not STBXH’S.

My advice to speak to L&C stands.

Why on earth are they sending your mortgage offers? Get your own independent advice, L&C are good and free. Or find your own local advisor, ours only cost £250 and we paid on completion.

We have used L&C who are free. They are having a laugh trying to charge you £800.

Once a free broker like L&C have calculated what you can afford to borrow, you can also search yourself using the comparison tools on Money Supeemarket and Compare The Market.

There are a lot of no-fee mortgage brokers, don't accept that!

The difference between a no fee broker and a pay fee one, is that the no fee ones are potentially swayed by the fees they get paid by the mortgage Companies to give them business.
When you pay the fee then in principle they are truly independent and will offer the best deal.

This fee seems excessive and I've never paid even close to that amount for my independent broker.

In any case, this is just to validate the estimate the other side has come up with. So just go to any broker and get them to get you a firm mortgage offer based on your salary etc. That's all you're validating, you are not necessarily proceeding with that particular mortgage.

You don’t need this

go online to any lender, enter your salary details, and dependents, any debts etc along with any deposit available and it will tell you

do a few of these

simple

The only reason a paid for service might be worth it is if their report is able to be presented to court to support your claim, if things do go to court that is.

Oh Charcol quoted me £850 fees, so I can believe it. They couldn’t match the deal I got from going direct to the Halifax though, so not worth the money IMO.

You can just put your details into MSE or somewhere, or do a check on Halifax/Nationwide etc websites - they all have “How Much Could I Borrow” calculators.

Your current mortgage company or any other Bank/BS should be able to give a written quote. Better than an online calculator based on multiples as should take you through affordability checks so more accurate.

Similar to getting an agreement in principle which estate agents will want to see when making an offer on a property.

The issue is that your ex and his solicitors have produced evidence of how much you can afford to borrow which is relevant to how much equity and capital share you need. They aren’t offering her mortgage advice they are building a case for less of a capital share.

First question is, do you agree with it? If not why not?

In order to challenge it you will need some counter evidence that this is not what you can afford to borrow or what a lender would agree to.

An online affordability tool is probably optimistic in terms of what you can borrow. They are trying to hook you in. A broker will do a better afford ability assessment and should be able to identify lenders. That fit your circumstances.

Remember their job is to introduce you to products. What you need is a report saying you can only borrow X as a max and whether that suits your budget. You need to make sure you get that type of statement. You will also need an affordability assessment setting out your maximum income and reasonable outgoings. .

The advice is worth it in my opinion but £800 sounds a bit steep. Should be more around £500 I say from what we paid.

Another vote for L&C, free and found us a deal we'd never found on our own.

I've never paid for a mortgage broker - they get a commission from the lender. Find your own.