Mortgage Broker: Guiding You Through the Mortgage Jungle

Nowadays, applying for a mortgage is a fairly everyday experience.

A decade or so ago it was different. Many people regarded it with fear and trembling. You made an appointment with your Building Society manager, dressed in your smart clothes, and sat across from him (it was usually a “him”, and pretty intimidating he could be) on the other side of a huge desk. Then you meekly answered all his questions, hoping he would consider you reasonably respectable and would deign to grant you a mortgage.

These days there are hundreds of lenders all competing for your business. Most of them offer not one product but several, so altogether there are literally thousands of mortgage products to choose from. Now you are the one who is doing the deciding. How are you supposed to know which one is right for you?

Really, there is only one person who can act as your guide through the mortgage jungle – an independent mortgage broker.

Of course you can always go and ask advice from your bank manager. But remember that banks these days want to sell you their own products. The bank isn’t going to look at the whole market, and you can’t be sure that they are advising you solely in your own interest. They are actually bound by the terms of their employment to push certain products at you.

Alternatively you can go online and surf through all the different lenders. If you do this, you will probably pick the one that offers the lowest interest rates. But you may be in for a nasty shock when the mortgage is actually arranged and you find the rate you are actually getting is a lot higher. The lenders advertise a “typical interest rate” to pull you in, but there is no guarantee that that is the rate you are going to get.

It’s all very bewildering, but a mortgage broker can help you. It’s not only a question of finding the product that looks most attractive. Everybody’s individual circumstances are different. Age, financial situation, credit history, availability of deposit, type of property you are looking for, whether you are a first time buyer, what level of monthly repayments you can manage – all these factors mean that, virtually, no two applicants are the same. A mortgage broker won’t push a product at you for the sake of it. A broker will look your specific situation and take it from there.

Somewhere out there, there is a mortgage that is just right for you. It will be much easier for you to find it with a mortgage broker’s help.

Sean Horton is a Director of Enhanced Wealth Limited who are a specialist mortgage broker