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Original poster

2 mortgage advisors giving us very different figures

32 replies

SunriseMoon · 21/04/2023 17:53

We have a mortgage advisor, she’s been working on a decision in principle all week for us. I thought it was odd to be taking so long.

We wanted to make an offer on a house so spoke to the independent mortgage advisor the estate agents have in their office.

She told us a DIP takes half an hour, and she got us one for 285k. We haven’t yet had the certificate through via email. She said she wasn’t sure why the other MA was taking so long to get us a DIP.

Then the first advisor has come back to us saying she’s having to appeal to get us a 212k DIP and offered us a DIP for 185k.

wtf is going on? Is this normal? They both had the same documents from us. Which advisor do I trust?

OP posts:
EstherHazy · 21/04/2023 18:11

Probably neither! But tbh I'd trust the one who gave the lower figures over the EA one.

I spent over a year looking for a house and spoke to umpteen EA mortgage advisors because they pretty much forced you to in order to view the properties. Every single one said I could get 4.5x my salary, and I got myself an AIP online for 4.3x from Halifax. I didn't mis-declare anything, it was all totally correct. But then back in Feb when I got an offer accepted on a house and came to apply, I couldn't get over 4.2 from anywhere at all. I had to take it out over 30 years or it wouldn't pass affordability, and then we had to jump ship again because one reduced it further because of a student loan (the type 1 kind that barely gets repaid at all - £16 a month). I had a choice of two lenders in the end who would give me what I needed. I was really cross I'd just been strung along all that time when people were touting for my business! I've a perfect credit score, massive deposit, no dependents or loans, a solid job - I had not a single thing that would make me worry and yet when it came to it, there wasn't a lot of choice!

Anyway, my advice would be - and I know this sounds ridiculous - but get some info from a 3rd one. The difference between these two is so vast it's really impossible to know, so I'd try a 3rd one (L&C for example) and see which side they come down on.

Original poster
SunriseMoon · 21/04/2023 18:25

Thank you @EstherHazy similar happened to us last year. They kept changing how much they’d lend until we couldn’t buy anything and gave up. Just the most stressful and unnecessary process.

I’d really just like to get a straight answer as to what our budget is - we went looking based on what the first MA quoted us 🙄 I don’t know how anyone actually buys a house if the goalposts keep moving.

OP posts:
morbidcuriosity · 21/04/2023 20:43

My AIP from a high street mortgage was 59K, my mortgage broker said i could have up to 115K.. I needed 90K and have it, and im exchanging next week..

maybe the first MA works for a high street bank?

MissLucyLiu · 21/04/2023 20:47

It’s quite normal now more than ever. The affordability ratio between different lenders are changing every other week. Some might be offering more conservative figures because they are anticipating a similar moves from the banks. Brokers also get a better deal as their relationship with the underwriter means they can prob push for more.

Boomboom22 · 21/04/2023 20:50

If I'd listened to l and c I'd have waited 7 to 10 years longer to buy a house. Pay a private mortgage broker, ask colleagues and friends for recommendations. They will get you way better deals for 500 and do everything.

Persuaderama · 21/04/2023 20:52

You can usually get a dip yourself online very easily.

KievLoverTwo · 21/04/2023 21:32

SunriseMoon · 21/04/2023 17:53

We have a mortgage advisor, she’s been working on a decision in principle all week for us. I thought it was odd to be taking so long.

We wanted to make an offer on a house so spoke to the independent mortgage advisor the estate agents have in their office.

She told us a DIP takes half an hour, and she got us one for 285k. We haven’t yet had the certificate through via email. She said she wasn’t sure why the other MA was taking so long to get us a DIP.

Then the first advisor has come back to us saying she’s having to appeal to get us a 212k DIP and offered us a DIP for 185k.

wtf is going on? Is this normal? They both had the same documents from us. Which advisor do I trust?

We have been speaking with 4 over 3 weeks.

We have gone from 5.4% with 1k in fees to 4.89% with 250 cashback.

Some could get us 35 year deals to keep monthly payments down, others could not.

Some could get us 35 years with both our names on the mortgage, others could not, and could only get 33 years with both our names (I am a 'dependent' as I do not work).

Shop around more. When you get your new best deal, go back to all the others and ask them if they can better it. This has made them all get us better deals, repeatedly.

We made a point of not disclosing the lender, cashback amount (either saying small or medium) or mortgage fees (same wording).

We have got the monthly payments down 300pm by putting the legwork in.

They all have different lenders and different deals available to them.

Interestingly, the only one who wanted his services paid for by us was the one who was getting the worst deals, was the slowest to reply, and gave us the least amount of information in order to make a decision, and didn't fulfill his promises of when he would come back to us, so we dumped him after a week.

EA brokers have a rep of being useless.

Original poster
SunriseMoon · 22/04/2023 07:06

Thanks all. We haven’t got to the point of choosing the specific mortgage though, we just want to know our max budget.

I get that shopping around is a good idea, but I don’t get how any of the figures we’re quoted are worth the paper they’re written on iyswim.

It feels like we can either go with the higher DIP and it will be a stressful disaster and we’ll lose our dream house (this is what happened last year), or we reduce our budget to fit the lower DIP and it’ll be smooth sailing because the underwriter has already done the reductions any lender would have done after application. (Or potentially they’ll also keep moving the goalposts after application and we’ll lose that one too).

Is there a way around this? A lender/broker that sticks to their DIPs? Or do we just have to put up with it?

OP posts:
GiltEdges · 22/04/2023 07:28

SunriseMoon · 22/04/2023 07:06

Thanks all. We haven’t got to the point of choosing the specific mortgage though, we just want to know our max budget.

I get that shopping around is a good idea, but I don’t get how any of the figures we’re quoted are worth the paper they’re written on iyswim.

It feels like we can either go with the higher DIP and it will be a stressful disaster and we’ll lose our dream house (this is what happened last year), or we reduce our budget to fit the lower DIP and it’ll be smooth sailing because the underwriter has already done the reductions any lender would have done after application. (Or potentially they’ll also keep moving the goalposts after application and we’ll lose that one too).

Is there a way around this? A lender/broker that sticks to their DIPs? Or do we just have to put up with it?

No lender will guarantee sticking to a DIP because it's a figure they've given based on limited information pre-due diligence.

Original poster
SunriseMoon · 22/04/2023 07:31

So how do people buy houses if the loan amount goes down after applying? It’ll be my first time buying a house, I genuinely don’t understand how people pick a house to offer on if they don’t know how much they can borrow?

OP posts:
OUB1974 · 22/04/2023 07:37

Could you talk to a specific lender instead of a broker? I've done a few searches online and got different figures (we're only borrowing a small amount so it's less relevant to us). I spoke to a bank yesterday and she went through everything in much more detail and I got a completely different figure to any I'd got online.

tallcypowder · 22/04/2023 07:43

www.halifax-intermediaries.co.uk/tools-calculators/mortgage-affordability-calculator.html

Put your details in here. It gave a really accurate result for me.

I also must have got lucky with my broker as I managed to get the 4.5 x joint income even with a student loan plan 2. No fuss at all.

MTR33 · 22/04/2023 07:58

It’s not ALWAYS better with a broker. Nationwide offered us 10% more because i was a customer with them already. The two mortgage brokers we spoke with said they couldn’t find a better deal so we ended up doing it ourselves. Just applied online, quite straightforward for us.

CorsicaDreaming · 22/04/2023 08:04

Have a look on moneysupermarket and at least you'll get an idea of the market and which of the figures you've got is more accurate

www.moneysupermarket.com/mortgages/

They have a section for first time buyers.

I tend to just use that and then apply direct and not bother with brokers ( but wondering if I should...)

ParkrunPlodder · 22/04/2023 08:14

Have you tried Handlesbanken?

Original poster
SunriseMoon · 22/04/2023 08:16

I could talk to a lender but why would the number they give me mean anything if they can change their minds at any point?

People buy houses every day… how? You get a DIP, make an offer, apply for a mortgage, the lender discovers you eat food and went to uni so reduces the loan amount… then what?

do the vendors just accept less money in the end? Do you borrow the difference from family? Am I missing something?

OP posts:
tallcypowder · 22/04/2023 08:24

SunriseMoon · 22/04/2023 08:16

I could talk to a lender but why would the number they give me mean anything if they can change their minds at any point?

People buy houses every day… how? You get a DIP, make an offer, apply for a mortgage, the lender discovers you eat food and went to uni so reduces the loan amount… then what?

do the vendors just accept less money in the end? Do you borrow the difference from family? Am I missing something?

If you use the intermediary calculator. It should give you an accurate answer as it takes into account debt. Barring any credit report problems or surprises a lot of DiPs are the same.

tallcypowder · 22/04/2023 08:25

You can even read lending criteria to see if your circumstances fit.

Original poster
SunriseMoon · 22/04/2023 08:31

Thanks @tallcypowder thats given me a number in between. That’s helpful.

I guess it’s a leap of faith, you just have to hope it all works out?

OP posts:
Original poster
SunriseMoon · 22/04/2023 08:32

We have multiple streams of income, which is why we’re using a broker to find us a lender that recognises all of it.

OP posts:
DanceMonster · 22/04/2023 08:32

SunriseMoon · 22/04/2023 08:16

I could talk to a lender but why would the number they give me mean anything if they can change their minds at any point?

People buy houses every day… how? You get a DIP, make an offer, apply for a mortgage, the lender discovers you eat food and went to uni so reduces the loan amount… then what?

do the vendors just accept less money in the end? Do you borrow the difference from family? Am I missing something?

I don’t know about anyone else, but this is how we did it.
We sorted our own AIP from the website of our existing bank. We offered on a house that was about £25k lower than our maximum budget based on the AIP. Got the mortgage approved quickly through the same bank we got our AIP from (there were reasons for using them over anyone else).
I guess it’s harder if you’re looking to stretch your budget to the max.

ParkrunPlodder · 22/04/2023 08:38

SunriseMoon · 22/04/2023 08:32

We have multiple streams of income, which is why we’re using a broker to find us a lender that recognises all of it.

Handlesbanken are good at coping with those sorts of circumstances. That’s why we went with them.

Original poster
SunriseMoon · 22/04/2023 08:39

Handlesbanken - thanks @ParkrunPlodder

OP posts:
Original poster
SunriseMoon · 22/04/2023 08:43

So… the house we want is significantly less than the higher DIP we’ve been quoted. The intermediary calculator gave me more than enough to offer asking price.

Does that mean we can offer and work out the details, talk to multiple lenders/brokers later?

OP posts:
WoolyMammoth55 · 22/04/2023 08:54

Hi OP, if you have a DIP that's more than the house you want to buy then you are 'proceedable' for that property. Go ahead and offer.

If your offer is accepted the EA will want sight of the DIP at that point.

Then you get your survey and do your searches and possibly re-negotiate the offer price depending on the survey - i.e. if lots of expensive works need doing then you ask the vendor for a reduction.

Once this is all agreed then you finalise your mortgage offer.

FWIW we have always used an independent broker with all our purchases, the high street banks could never come close to the deals he's got for us, and definitely if you have 'unconventional' earnings then he would have expert knowledge of which lenders to go to. His fees are only chargeable if you complete so if it falls through for any reason he won't charge...

It's a no-brainer.

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