Using a Mortgage Broker / Self Build Homeloans

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Angel28

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Just wondering if anyone has any advice to offer on using a mortgage broker. I see some companies offer good packages minimising legal fees etc. Do you think it is worth your while to use one or can you get better value from shopping around yourself??
Secondly it is a self build homeloan we are interested in and I was wondering who offers the best rates/package for this.
 
Angel28 said:
Just wondering if anyone has any advice to offer on using a mortgage broker. I see some companies offer good packages minimising legal fees etc. Do you think it is worth your while to use one or can you get better value from shopping around yourself??
Secondly it is a self build homeloan we are interested in and I was wondering who offers the best rates/package for this.
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It really depends on your circumstances and on how much you're looking for. On our first mortgage, we went with REA [no, have no association with them], and found them very good. They charge a fee up front which includes most of the legal fees, and then refund commission - as far as I recall, a couple of months after everything's gone through, when it tends to come in very handy! I've steered a long way clear of brokers associated with estate agents, particularly because I think some of them do a lot of work with sub-prime lenders (i.e. thoroughly non-competitive rates which could cost you tens of thousands over the lifetime of the mortgage), but that's just me - I'm sure some of them are fine.

On subsequent mortgages - one buy-to-let, one PPR - we've negotiated directly with lenders. On the buy to let, it was purely for expediency and we got a good (at the time) tracker rate; on the PPR because we were looking for a package of financing including bridging, and, looking for a larger amount and being on a much more secure financial footing we felt more able to negotiate. You'd be surprised how effective it can be to look your bank manager in the eye and say "Nope, that's too dear. Can you do better?" Helps if you can tell them where's cheaper, of course!

There are probably a lot of additional factors associated with self-build and I've never had that complication... should be plenty of people who can comment though!
 
Thanks for that Dreamerb. We are considering going with REA and have read a bit about them, so advice is helpful.
 
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