UK Mortgage Broker
The mortgage sector is understandably very off-putting for the
majority of people looking to purchase a new home, and perhaps
most particularly so for first time buyers. Having to trail through
the many hundreds of mortgage lending companies on the market,
select the very best type of mortgage option for your individual
circumstances and absorb the technical terms and vocabulary associated
with the mortgage process is, in reality enough to deter any customer
from arranging a mortgage, or at the very least leave them lacking
confidence in the decisions that they eventually make relating
to their new home. However, a mortgage broker is oftentimes a
very effective solution to all of these potential problems and
worries.
 
In short, a mortgage broker is a type of financial professional;
they are an intermediary between the customer (the mortgage borrower)
and the mortgage lending company, which may well be bank or building
society. The customer should find reassurance in the fact that
all qualified and reputable mortgage brokers or mortgage brokerage
firms will be regulated by the Financial Services Authority (FSA)
and so all of their procedures and advice are consistently checked
and forced to comply with certain industry standards. A mortgage
broker may sometimes be referred to within the industry as a mortgage
consultant or mortgage advisor.
The principal benefit of arranging your mortgage through a mortgage
brokerage service is that the advice you receive will remain completely
impartial; very few mortgage brokers maintain affiliation with
a specific mortgage lender, and so they are in the perfect position
to offer the customer a more comprehensive and unbiased survey
of the mortgage schemes that are on offer and then move on to
apply these directly to the personal and financial circumstances
of the customer.
The mortgage broker will usually require some form of financial
assessment, so that they are able to fully understand and recognise
the status of the customer’s financial affairs. The mortgage
broker will then progress onto the ‘advisory’ stage
of the brokerage service, suggesting mortgage schemes that are
best suited to the customer’s situation, as well as being
the most competitive. Once the customer progresses beyond the
advisory stage, and opts to actually arrange their mortgage through
the mortgage broker, a broker’s fee may well be applicable.
This is a form of payment for the mortgage broker’s services;
for researching the mortgage market, investigating and evaluating
the clients financial status, arranging the contracts and relevant
paperwork and most importantly, ensuring that the customer is
well aware of what is actually occurring at each stage of the
mortgage process. The way in which each individual mortgage broker
calculates their broker fee varies greatly; some brokers may apply
a fixed administration fee for every customer, whereas others
may opt to set their charge as a percentage payment of the mortgage
repayments that the customer will come to make every month. In
certain circumstances, the customer may find that the mortgage
lending company may be willing to cover some, if not all of the
brokerage fee upon a successful mortgage application.
Of course it is incredibly important that the customer selects
their mortgage advisor carefully, and ensures that they are accredited
by the FSA. Some people find that the very best recommendation
however, may come from a family member, friend or colleague, who
has already employed the services of a particular mortgage broker.
In short, however, a mortgage broker is a very effective and sound
solution to some of the most prominent problems and fears that
arise from a mortgage application, making the entire process far
less of a burden to the customer.
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