[shark]

Best not to go direct to the lender and get someone who knows how to sort these things out to sort it out. In my experience (and that of loads of my clients, friends, family etc) anyway.

 

Usually I am against using intermediaries but things have got so complicated now that using an adviser is good value for money.

PM me if you want a recommendation.

[T_B]

My mate's an FA and he basically told me who to go old skool - face-to-face appointments in branch with big lenders, as I was pushing what was possible in terms of income multiples. That was September last year just as all the new stress tests were coming in. I went to Woolwich/Barclays and told them what product I wanted. A fair bit of jiggery pokery, but they were very good to deal with. It was like a trad meeting with a bank manager.

[Sloper]

Pretty much my experience, although we were well below the usual threshold re multipliers.

From memory I think most brokers will charge around 1% so you could easily be looking at a couple of k which works out at £50 per month over three years (apparently about the average length of a mortgage is 4 years) so you've got to be making some pretty serious savings to make the brokers fee worth while.

[Paul B]

From memory I think most brokers will charge around 1% so you could easily be looking at a couple of k which works out at £50 per month over three years (apparently about the average length of a mortgage is 4 years) so you've got to be making some pretty serious savings to make the brokers fee worth while.

If there's no upfront fee to the process there's no harm in asking.

[shark]

I think £200/250 upfront fee is what you should be looking at - they also get a kickback from the providers.

[Sloper]

Absolutely not, but a lot of the time the fees are wrapped up with the product and can be ratehr a lot! 

I've seen £3k fees on mortgages of £100k or there abouts for council right to buy transactions, I can understand sub prime borrowers will pay higher fees but gven the costs of the broker is usually when they make the application (we were told there was a about a grand for the applciation fee and then a fruther arranement fee) I wonder how much free advice you're actualyl getting.

Shark, and who do you think bears the cost of the commission / referral 

[shark]

Shark, and who do you think bears the cost of the commission / referral 

The mortgage lender.

It is their way of having an outsourced sales/processing capability as opposed to a salaried salesforce and administrators .

The mortgage costs/rates would be the same if I went direct.

[Sloper]

Not in all cases, in some they're bundled up and thrown in.

[Jaspersharpe]

I've used the same guy for years and have recommended him to loads of people. I don't recall anyone ever saying he'd charged them a fee and he definitely doesn't add charges to the mortgage. He gets paid by the lender as shark says.

[Sloper]

I'm no saying it's across the board, but just that some agents / brokers do charge significant fees, indeed there's a group litigation order in force with regard the very practice I'm referring to.

[shark]

Not in all cases, in some they're bundled up and thrown in.

You got me worried enough to re-check the mortgage illustration

[Sloper]

It may just be a sub prime or alt A practice, not really sure, I just know that the cvntish estate agents and their tied semi trained fucktwards weren't anyone I would want to deal with.

[GraemeA]

I've used the same guy for years and have recommended him to loads of people. I don't recall anyone ever saying he'd charged them a fee and he definitely doesn't add charges to the mortgage. He gets paid by the lender as shark says.

He charges £350 Jasper. But he got me a mortgage sorted (subject to valuation) in about 1 day. And then after realising that we wouldn't have the latest Works accounts ready for about another month he got me another one sorted in less than 1 more day.

Meanwhile it took 1 month, 2 appointments in branch and a phone call to get an appointment with Natwests actual mortgage guy. The phone call was just me repeating what I had already told the branch staff.

This all means that I can go skiing next week safe in the knowledge that I almost certainly have a house (subject to Greg not finding anything drastically wrong) to move into a couple of weeks after I get back. This is important to me, probably more important that any potential saving of going via the bank.

[Sloper]

Nat west in Manchester were the absolute opposite,  but any way nice one,has it double cellars ?

[Jaspersharpe]

Ah fair enough G. Must depend on the individual case/lender etc.

As you say, £350 to sort it like that is buttons. Good to hear it's worked out.

I could tell a few stories about people who have managed to get mortgages via the same guy who would have been (or actually had been) fucked going straight to the bank but obviously I can't.

[Sloper]

I've no doubt a good broker can work miracles, however you should see the professional negligence claims that can arise when the broker 'does his thang', I just batted one off as the stupid wankers missed limitation (I think we were alright in any event but the claimant's failure to serve within 4 months was a bonus).

[GraemeA]

Nat west in Manchester were the absolute opposite,  but any way nice one,has it double cellars ?

FFS Tom, you nearly got puntered for even thinking that I might by a house without ample cellerage

[Sloper]

And I'd have deserved it too.

[butters]

What's the current thinking on mortgages?

I am due to renew and unsure whether to go for another two years fixed or to go longer at five to ten years? Obviously there is a cost involved with taking the longer option - my current mortgage provider Nationwide are quoting 1.74% for two years as opposed to 3.09% for ten years (60-70% LTV) but the difference between the two is circa £50 a month which is quite a few fuck alls.

Both of those are without fees so a slightly higher interest rate but I can not see that the lower interest payment you get with paying a fee actually saves money but please tell me different if this is not the case.

Should add that I have asked my mortgage adviser to look into this for me anyway so the interest rate is likely to drop but I will have to take into consideration the remortgaging cost to offset any savings at which point I suspect the longer deal will start to look a better bet.

[shark]

I'm attracted to ten year fixes but they have started to creep back up though your adviser should be able to do better than 3.09%. Once you have all the options available get a calculator out to compare costs then decide how personally important the security of a known amount is to you each month versus the unpredictably of future deals. Regarding predicting the future direction of interest rates over the next 10 years anyone who says they know is a fool.   

[Johnny Brown]

Hmm. Those graphs would suggest we are in for a long period south of the line. How long do you expect to live habrich?

[slackline]

The line will change over time since its the "average" (presumably mean).  If the long term US Treasury yield remains low for a protracted period the mean will start to decrease and the line will drop.  In that sense its somewhat arbitrary just as the choice of highlighting the 3% lows (what their significance is I've no idea).

Quite why they highlighted periods where yield dropped below 3% with the grey blobs is anyones guess, as another horizontal line would provide a much clearer distinction.

The second graphs trend line could do with a confidence interval around it too.

I'm unsure how relevant data from around 100 years ago is to the current situation, global economics has changed drastically and not every country is the US so it would be useful to have similar data on other countries for comparison.

[shark]

Hmm. Those graphs would suggest we are in for a long period south of the line. How long do you expect to live habrich?

I am quietly confident that I will live long enough to say "I told you so" to Shark.

I'm not going to argue with you until you've written my reference

[Murph]

FWIW, I would recommend anyone to think about a long-term fixed rate at this point. Eventually all this ultra-cheap money available globally is going to result in inflation and much higher interest rates. Not necessarily this year or next but eventually for sure.

predicting the future direction of interest rates over the next 10 years anyone who says they know is a fool.   

I'm with Shark on this one 

In hindsight getting a fixed five years ago would have been a bad call, even if it was right according to all the long term fundamentals. As the big man sad:

In the long run we are all dead

[Murph]

Ha ha. Quality searching, Murph.

I saw it before I saw what you wrote today - it was the first page in the thread

Out of interest, what were typical fixed rates available five years ago, and what are they now?

No idea. But that advice from 2012 was in the context of getting a fixed rate mortgage which would likely have ended by now. I'm guessing they have gone up.

As everyone's favourite baseball coach once said:
[quote author = Yogi Berra]
It's tough to make predictions, especially about the future.
[/quote]