Any advice on finding/choosing a mortgage advisor?

[CosyPumpkin]

DH and I are ready to buy - not great timing but we are desperate to stop renting.

We would like to see a mortgage advisor or broker. As presumably they can access better products, but also because we want to know our options in different scenarios. (I’m a FTB and the higher earner. DH has owned a house before, does a PAYE job four days a week and also freelances.)

I can access a half-price mortgage consultation from a big company through my union but online reviews look underwhelming. We’re asking people we know recommendations instead.

Can anyone share any advice on how to choose one and what to expect? What do you wish you’d known or asked?

Will we need to take proof of income and proof of deposit?

Any thoughts on whether it’s better to find someone who charges a set fee vs a %?

Any advice gratefully received! I usually ask my dad for advice about finances but he doesn’t have up to date knowledge of this and I don’t really know where to start - obviously am searching online but grateful for any advice or experience anyone can share.

I should have mentioned that it’s also a long time since DH briefly owned a house and he didn’t use a broker then, so this is new territory for both of us.

We started house hunting in early Sept and have just had a mortgage approved, via a broker, due to dh self-employment.

Definitely have proof of deposit and income ready. Projected future earnings for any self-employed work?

We had to get our credit card balance down before the bank would offer us the mortgage - it then took another 28 days for the credit check to update showing we had paid off the sum on the credit card. The bank would only make decisions based on its own credit checking service, which gets reports from 3 x credit reference agencies.

Another problem was that the surveyor valued the house at lower than the amount we had offered for the house. The bank would only offer a smaller mortgage than we needed. We had a scramble to find extra funds to top up what they would lend us - nearly lost the house.

Our broker did the job - we were chasing things every day though, but I think the bank may have been more to blame than the broker. Not sure if it was a fixed fee broker or not.

Never pay a fee for a broker!

Our mortgage broker was amazing - I would never in a million years buy a mortgage without a broker! She found us an incredible rate and also offered advice when we had difficulties with the process (difficult buyer who left us in the proverbial when I was pregnant and our mortgage offer validity was running out!) I was very newly self employed and we were buying our first house together too.
It was Claire at Simply Mortgages and Life - she's absolutely lovely and knows her stuff!

@NotTodayPal thanks for this! I think I was confused by the company I could access through my union but they’re possibly not actual brokers, they seem to just give advice. Steering clear either way having read their reviews.

@Houseyperson thanks for these tips! We’re wondering whether to actively discount DH’s freelance earnings and do it just on his PAYE income, or even just on mine as a FTB (though obviously that cuts down what we could borrow).

Sorry to hear about all the stresses you had. Hope it goes more smoothly for you now!

Also to add, Claire doesn't charge for her services - she is independent and the banks pay her a "finders fee" type thing

Thanks all - just reading my first post back and realising how naive and clueless I sound.

I'd suggest you find a long-established local/small/independent broker.

Long established because there are a lot of "newbies" who won't have the experience of dealing with slightly difficult/unusual scenarios. You need someone with years behind them who "seen it all, done it all", so will know which lenders are more likely to accept a "non standard" scenario.

I've had dealings with "newbies" who've not even understood the basics of self employment, such as the difference between being a sole trader and limited company, which usually cause a lot of wasted time/effort as they tend to complete the application forms wrongly, which leads to wrong mortgage firm reference requests being asked for, and before you know it, you've wasted a few weeks of your life and are back to square one and have to start again.

Local/independent because the big firms/banks etc are usually production line and struggle with anything unusual, so again, can waste your time going through the process, to be rejected when it comes to final decision. Some have been known to "tick the boxes" on the application form as they know which boxes to tick to get the offer in principal, but they've not ticked correctly, so the mortgage doesn't get through once the checks/references have been done.