Selecting a Mortgage Broker

The top advice for selecting a mortgage broker and how to get the most out of them.

Now in the dawn of the online world, you can get easy entry to a wide range of reference sites such as moneysupermarket.com or comparethemarket.com without the need for comprehensive solvency checking that would compromise your hard-earned solvency. At House Network we recommend talking to someone who is totally autonomous, has full market place coverage and is totally free.

The best we can do is not to turn to someone who only works with one or a small circle of creditors, because they will just be selling you the best for the business. Remember the Financial Conduct Authority's regulations - all mortgage creditors should be ruled and controlled by that authority - and any serious creditor who is good for his salt should take pride in displaying them somewhere on his website.

A lot of broker will provide their services free of cost, while others will bill you a thousand for the benefit and collect it under the cover of a handling commission. Handling charges are just another way to calculate your mortgage entitlement, and there are now a number of brokerages that will dispense with them and let the creditor instead do it.

Be sure that you have thoroughly investigated your broker registration information beforehand as you do not want to eat into this tough savings before you even take out the mortgage. As a rule, a broker will bill up to 1 percent and each creditor agent's provision will be applied to lower the fees. They should create value by providing better dealings that you may not be able to find yourself, by helping you save your own precious amount of money, by actually being able to get the mortgage you want, by getting as much effort out of the mortgage claim procedure as possible, and by giving you advice on the most appropriate mortgage type (maturity, interest rates, whether fix, floating or mixed).

Brokers make their living, but they must show why it is worthwhile to pay a commission for their service in your case. Mortgage markets for first-time purchasers or do-it-yourselfers are very different from those of higher income groups looking for bigger mortgages. Ask your broker if he has the necessary abilities and experiences.

Each broker must be regulatory and have successfully completed their CeMAP (Certificate in Mortgage Advice and Practice) exam. A number of brokerage firms may have Advanced CeMAP and this allows them to provide advice on lifelong mortgage loans provided to retirees. On your own account and not for the real property agent or the real property broker, an impartial broker will work so that they have your interests at the centre.

You should have recourse to a broad spectrum of creditors and should advise the right products on the basis of your own circumstance rather than the compensation you receive. During your first meeting, whether by telephone or in person, a broker must present you with a regulation paper entitled "Keyfacts about our services", also known as IDD (Initial Disclosure Document).

It is a paper prepared by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) to make sure that a broker declares what kind of bank account he has. When you want a broker who has as many creditors as possible, his IDD should indicate that he has a full offer or full coverage of the entire brokerage business.

A number of brokerages operate from a single lender board and this could be up to 20 individual financial institutions, while a whole group of brokerage firms can have up to 80 financial institutions.