Mortgage advisor fees

[mckenzie]

We met with an advisor today as we need to borrow some money against our property. I assumed that the advisor got his fees from the mortgage company who he recommends but he is telling us his fees are £1500 for handling the whole business start to finish.
Am I being out of date with how things work nowadays?
TIA

Think it can work either way.

I was less than £300 for mine and was a difficult case. I think he also got commission.

Just go directly to the lender and cut out the fees.

Where I work (broker) we have a fee of xx% of the amount with a minimum fee of xxx.

That’s to research the full market, submit applications, process docs, liaise with solicitors etc.

You can go direct to a lender and not pay a fee.

Gosh, our broker was amazing, £295

I'm pretty sure we paid about £500, 4 years ago plus they got commission from the mortgage lender. We were able to stick it on the mortgage as well. It was honestly the best money we spent whilst moving. They made the whole process so much easier and negotiated much better rates than we could have done.

Thank you all
I think I need to negotiate with him! He’s quoting me quite a lot more than you’re mentioning here.

I’ve just got a mortgage and not paid a penny they declared that they got paid from the bank

I paid £600 a few months ago

For those who have recently got mortgages/remortgaged, how long was the process from start to finish?
Time is very much of the essence for us.

I used L&C and didnt get charged anything as they got paid by the bank - I also sense checked that I wasn't getting a bad deal in that (the rates they offered were also the best I could find myself). I would definitely recommend them, they were absolutely excellent.

I used a specialist freelance broker and it cost £495 and he got us a deal which ‘computer said no’ for when we went into a High Street branch of Halifax because we couldn’t give them three years of business accounts, We literally wouldn’t have got our mortgage without him (five months pregnant at time of offer, wanted to be in before the birth). It was the best £500 we ever spent and in the four years since he’s basically contacted us at the end of each fixed rate term to say he could renegotiate the rate with Halifax for us to make it lower and wouldn’t charge us to do so as he’ll get commission from them. We’re now overpaying the mortgage by the difference between what we’re paying now and what we started out paying and will be mortgage free seven years earlier than we would have thanks to him being so on the ball.

That seems a lot. Are you a particularly niche or difficult client to get a mortgage for? Ours was £300 and I must say it was worth it.

£1500????? Unless you would never have got a mortgage any other way there is no way I would ever pay that for someone to sort my mortgage out!

Jesus thats rediculous! i mine is 250!

go to london and country if needby - 1500 is excessive

If time is not on your side then bear in mind a broker can actually slow things down - a lot!

£300 and worth every penny with free remortgaging for the life of the initial loan term!

£199 5 years ago and we've used him every time since with nothing extra to pay.

If you already have a mortgage and just needed to release equity there is no need to use an advisor, just speak to lender direct.

In the past when I have used an advisor the fees were always covered by the mortgage provider. The amount you are paying for advice does sound high.

We're using a broker for two mortgages at the moment and no fee as they get paid by the lenders.

Remortgage was 3 weeks from application to money in our account

I used L and C and it cost me nothing for a simple remortgage. I couldn’t believe how quickly it was done - around a week including valuation etc.

I got one through my estate agent. Paid him nothing. No idea if he was able to search the whole market but it was just easier to use him and he got me a good deal.

I paid £500 and got a load of helpful advice about the Scottish house buying system chucked in for free - bit niche but as a first time buyer whose friends and family all bought in England it was very much needed!

Speed wise, I think once my offer had been accepted on the house I had a confirmed mortgage offer within the week. However that's probably due to the Scottish system (eg survey/valuation already done before it went on the market) and also my lender is apparently always very quick (Halifax if that's any use to you).

We are paying £400, another broker quoted £300. They obviously get commission.

Agree that a broker is perhaps not the best option for speed. If combined with a slow lender ahem Santander it can be a pretty painful process.