Mortgages Explained

Obtain solid and impartial advice about mortgages and increase your chances of making the right financial decisions!

Mortgages are usually your largest and most important financial commitment. Excellent financial advice is crucial to the profitability of your property portfolio, a fact not lost on those of you who prefer to invest in commercial property either.

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Get the wrong advice about mortgages, buy the first product that you see, or spend too much money on your advice, and YOUR business will almost certainly be the poorer for your actions.

Everyone operates their lives differently. You have unique circumstances and must consider different factors when making long-term commitments like buying mortgages.

Here are some tips to help you cut a path through this complex area of personal finance.

Broker Selection

  • Select a reputable broker that understands your needs. Choose someone who can explain your options in detail. Most importantly... make sure that you can trust your broker.

Get references and speak to their clients!

  • Working with the broker, select the product that meets YOUR needs the closest!

  • Don’t be deceived into paying large *fees for advice about mortgages. Shop around.

Its not only large companies with big offices and high overheads**, that command overly inflated tariffs.

Often small impartial brokers with a low cost-base will be less expensive, but this isn’t always the case.

In my personal experience I have found that large companies will often tell you that they offer a far greater product range than the independent broker to justify their tariffs. But the reality of the situation is that they usually use the same databases as the smaller broker.

Indeed, it could be the case that you will receive a more personal service from a small broker. These days, small brokers will almost certainly belong to a "superbroker network" - a kind of "distributor" for mortgage products and insurance.

Superbrokers have:

  • Access to the full portfolio of mortgage products

  • Direct relationships with many vendors

  • Independent brokers to act as their sales force

Qualifications for brokers who deal in mortgage

EVERY mortgage salesperson is required to pass stringent exams to deal in this area of finance.

There are 3 levels of accreditation - each dictates the extent to which advice can be legally given.

These exams are called CeMAPs. Only the salesperson with all CeMAP 1,2&3 may offer you full advice and make recommendations between products.

Lower levels of accreditation generally refer to the ability of the salesperson to talk about a specific product they are selling (e.g a bank's advisor with the entry qualifications may talk about their special product, but they wouldn't legally be able to compare this with the bank next door’s special product.)

Additionally, every company has to sign up to the code of conduct for sales of these product solutions, as laid down by the Financial Services Authority (FSA).

Any significant problems with any company (large or small) can be reported back to the regulating body ... the ***Institute of Financial Services, under whom all brokers are controlled.