Getting a mortgage as a contractor

[BigLadFromBeeston666]

What are the best brokers for a limited company contractor? After having a look through the search function here it seems like most rated are:

- Freelancer Financials
- CMME

Having a nightmare with Habito at the moment. They sent my details off to Halifax, who are meant to be good with contractor mortages, who keep asking the same inane questions e.g. "Well if your day rate is X then why is your salary so low on your payslips?"

Only thing is Habito are free, and Halifax have already run a hard search.

So...what are your experiences with using a broker to get a contractor friendly mortgage?

[eek]

What are the best brokers for a limited company contractor? After having a look through the search function here it seems like most rated are:

- Freelancer Financials
- CMME

Having a nightmare with Habito at the moment. They sent my details off to Halifax, who are meant to be good with contractor mortages, who keep asking the same inane questions e.g. "Well if your day rate is X then why is your salary so low on your payslips?"

Only thing is Habito are free, and Halifax have already run a hard search.

So...what are your experiences with using a broker to get a contractor friendly mortgage?

Well you screwed up by using a firm that doesn't understand contractors to get a mortgage - the reasons that you use a specialist broker is because they know the correct department / team of people to speak to to get the mortgage approved (and those people aren't the people who process your typical mortgage application as you've now found out).

[BigLadFromBeeston666]

Well you screwed up by using a firm that doesn't understand contractors to get a mortgage - the reasons that you use a specialist broker is because they know the correct department / team of people to speak to to get the mortgage approved (and those people aren't the people who process your typical mortgage application as you've now found out).

It pains me to pay the extra £799 / £999 for them to organise it all. Ideally I'd want the broker to make their dollar from the bank and not me

[WTFH]

It pains me to pay the extra £799 / £999 for them to organise it all. Ideally I'd want the broker to make their dollar from the bank and not me

Except they are not allowed to do that any more.

They have to show you the breakdown of their fees. They are supposed to be INDEPENDENT and not swayed by one bank or another. They charge you a fee, you get impartial advice.

[BigLadFromBeeston666]

Except they are not allowed to do that any more.

They have to show you the breakdown of their fees. They are supposed to be INDEPENDENT and not swayed by one bank or another. They charge you a fee, you get impartial advice.

Really, is that true? When I read the T&Cs of Habito on how they make money they write:

How does Habito make money? There is no cost for using Habito*. It makes its money from procurement fees paid by lenders in return for introducing customers to their mortgages

Is that some legislation you're referencing?

[northernladuk]

What are the best brokers for a limited company contractor? After having a look through the search function here it seems like most rated are:

- Freelancer Financials
- CMME

I've used the first, no experience of the second but there is your answer.

Having a nightmare with Habito at the moment. They sent my details off to Halifax, who are meant to be good with contractor mortages, who keep asking the same inane questions e.g. "Well if your day rate is X then why is your salary so low on your payslips?"

Only thing is Habito are free, and Halifax have already run a hard search.

So...what are your experiences with using a broker to get a contractor friendly mortgage?

And that is what happens when you don't use one of the two at the top of this post.

Experiences are great because I used one of the two most recommended that you listed. I paid the money, got a great service and job was a good 'un.

Let the best provider do their thing and if you have to pay then pay. To ignore recommendations and try save yourself a bit of money then, well, it could be a bit rocky.

[Freelancer Financials]

What are the best brokers for a limited company contractor? After having a look through the search function here it seems like most rated are:

- Freelancer Financials
- CMME

Having a nightmare with Habito at the moment. They sent my details off to Halifax, who are meant to be good with contractor mortages, who keep asking the same inane questions e.g. "Well if your day rate is X then why is your salary so low on your payslips?"

Only thing is Habito are free, and Halifax have already run a hard search.

So...what are your experiences with using a broker to get a contractor friendly mortgage?

Habito are fine when they're dealing with your standard employed person on a permanent employement contract, but when it comes to contractors and self-employed they become unstuck. They lack the knowledge and expertise to package your application to a contractor friendly lender. The reason why they're asking you "Well if your day rate is X why is your salary so low on your payslip" is because Habito hasn't packaged your case correctly. Halifax are a contractor friendly lender but your application has has to be presented in the correct way. That's why you go to a Contractor Mortgage specialists. There are plenty of other lenders that are contractor friendly, but Habito tend to go to Halifax only and still they can't even do that properly!

[zonkkk]

I went direct to Nationwide. Said I was self-employed, they asked for self assesments for the last 2 years, which I downloaded directly from the HMRC site. Didn't have to send anything from my accountants.

Wife is a 50% shareholder, and on a small salary from another employer. They put her down as self employed too with income from dividends and salary as secondary income source.

The only issue is that they look at how much money you actually paid yourself (dividends included) and not how much money the company is making.

The mortgage adviser was excellent too. I had to go back and borrow more as my sale fell through. Got the new mortgage offer back in 5 days.

It's worth a try.

[PerfectStorm]

You can go straight to the bank these days, they know what they're doing as long as you don't pick a backwater branch to put it through.

The 2 companies listed say they're independent but in my experience they're not.

Banks you can try: Halifax, Nationwide, Yorkshire/Clydesdale (might be called Virgin now)

Put your earnings down as Self Employed, income is Day Rate * 5 * 46

Oh and don't be swayed by "exclusive rates" - the brokers do have them, but they're not exclusively low, nor can they beat the banks offerings once their fees are taken into account.

[BigLadFromBeeston666]

Thanks all for your responses. So I tried Nationwide directly today just to see if I could get a DIP.

As the Co-applicant has been a contractor for 8 months and not the minimum of two years, it was rejected.

So seems like a contractor specialist is the way forward for my circumstances. I just hope the service will justify the considerable fee.

I also share your concerns Perfect Storm that the two specialists mentioned are not independent.