Mortgage advisors recommendations, and are they worth it?

[optimisticpessimist01]

Title is self explanatory really.

DP and I are FTB and wondering if mortgage advisors have access to lower interest rates than us doing our own shopping around, and if so who would people recommend as a reliable advisors?

We've used a couple of different brokers before and as first time buyers found using a broker really helpful to guide us through things and for us to raise our questions. When it came to remortgaging we didn't bother for quite a few years but recently used again as we wanted specific advice about moving house/buying out of a fixed term contract. There are plenty about that don't charge you a fee but get paid by the bank you take a mortgage with although they are obliged to present you with all quotes.

FTB here, about to complete. We didn’t bother and did our own research. From what I see through comparison websites, we had the best possible rate for 85% LTV. We had the offer within 3-4 weeks.

If you have a straightforward case, eg no bankruptcies or etc, I think you can just do it yourself.

Hi OP, we have a broker who we've used every time - first mortgage, re-mortgaging, buying second property. He doesn't charge anything until you complete the transaction and we've always found he can beat all the market rates (even including his fee).

He's Frazer Horton at Edward Frazer - google will find him I think. FWIW I've recommended him to FTB friends and to a woman I worked with who was buying a £2 million+ house, and they've all loved him and used him several times after the initial transaction. There's a reason good brokers exist, they really do help and in my experience make things much less stressful by wrangling the lenders for you :)

We found a local broker through vouchedfor. Wasn't entirely sure at first, but figured as it's nothing down from us, we might as well see how it works. I'm really glad we found him as the place we fell for ended up being non-standard concrete construction and labelled as defective back in the '80s.

He was able to walk us through exactly what we needed for our own peace of mind and for the banks & his experience with it meant he could find us a deal with a bank he knew with the paperwork of repair scheme we had wouldn't automatically balk at that type of house. Currently crossing everything on it (had our valuation on the 21st, so with the holidays and COVID delays, who knows when we'll hear back).

He also gave recommendations on local solicitors that matched our needs too. We looked around after and ended up going with one of them.

We had some complex circumstances a few years ago and used a broker who was great - their knowledge was invaluable. We went back to them for our remortgage last year and they actually didn’t get as good a deal as we found independently. So I’d say worth speaking to one and seeing what they can come up with, alongside doing a bit of your own research.

It depends on your circumstances. If there is anything less than perfect about you or you are borrowing over 80% loan to property value then go for a broker. If you are high earners, great credit scores, and are borrowing less than just do the research yourself - often many borrowers with high incomes start with hsbc as their rates tend to be lower at lower loan to value ratios

I would recommend using a broker. The one that we use ( work related) has access to deals not available to the individual lender as well as loads of expertise in house purchases.

Make sure it's a broker you're using rather than the "adviser" working for the EA.