Has anyone dealt with Alexander Hall for mortgages?

[Daventry]

Be careful because as you have pointed out above, the Mortgage Advisors they refer you to are often in bed with the Estate Agents and if the Mortgage Advisor doesn't understand how you operate and believes because you don't have the 2 years accounts you would struggle to get a mortgage then they may feed this back to the Agent and recommend the Agent pushes the sale to another person for that reason. I have had this done to one of my clients recently who was told that they had to use the Estate Agent Advisor to get their offer considered (which is not true and against the practises Estate Agents should follow - but being the cowboys a lot of them are, rarely do) and when they did see the Advisor, the Advisor felt they couldn't get mortgage funding as their knowledge on contractors was poor and this was fed back to the Agent. Surprisingly a couple of days later the offer my client had accepted on the property was taken away and the property sold to someone else.

The "they can definitely get you a better rate" is straight out of the second hand car salesman's book on 'how to get more money out of the person the other side of the desk'. Truth be told, a lot of Estate Agents operate on a restricted panel basis meaning they do not have access to the whole of the market. The only reason they say "they can you a better rate" is because they know that is a line that most people would often refuse to ignore. Normally they are targeted on number of referrals sent through to the Advisors and paid commission for referrals so after lying about everything else they lie about what's one more little white lie to earn them some more commission and sit you in front of a Mortgage Advisor that probably doesn't understand your circumstances all too well and more than likely cannot get you a rate better than what you have already been offered.

There are other lenders who can consider contract rate based lending, yes. Whilst there aren't hundreds there are a few more than just Halifax.

Whilst some lenders will factor in permy work prior to Limited Company work they are few and far between and tends to only be the case if you have an existing relationship with the lender (current mortgage with them or bank with them etc). Most lenders will not factor in previous permy income because they would argue being self employed is a completely different set up and in most instances equates to different income.

What deposit are you putting down if you don't mind me asking and how long have you been contracting for? Some contractor specialist brokers have been known to simply recommend Halifax as default as their criteria is most relaxed when putting in a little leg work for your client can often unearth better rates.

Thanks for the reply.

Alexander Hall seem to work with Foxtons and so far I haven't gone to see any property of them. Looks like it's better to stay away from them if I want AH to get me a good mortgage deal.

[Power Mortgages Ltd]

Thanks everyone for your replies, I'll try to find out what other lenders they have in mind.

Regards.

Be careful because as you have pointed out above, the Mortgage Advisors they refer you to are often in bed with the Estate Agents and if the Mortgage Advisor doesn't understand how you operate and believes because you don't have the 2 years accounts you would struggle to get a mortgage then they may feed this back to the Agent and recommend the Agent pushes the sale to another person for that reason. I have had this done to one of my clients recently who was told that they had to use the Estate Agent Advisor to get their offer considered (which is not true and against the practises Estate Agents should follow - but being the cowboys a lot of them are, rarely do) and when they did see the Advisor, the Advisor felt they couldn't get mortgage funding as their knowledge on contractors was poor and this was fed back to the Agent. Surprisingly a couple of days later the offer my client had accepted on the property was taken away and the property sold to someone else.

The "they can definitely get you a better rate" is straight out of the second hand car salesman's book on 'how to get more money out of the person the other side of the desk'. Truth be told, a lot of Estate Agents operate on a restricted panel basis meaning they do not have access to the whole of the market. The only reason they say "they can you a better rate" is because they know that is a line that most people would often refuse to ignore. Normally they are targeted on number of referrals sent through to the Advisors and paid commission for referrals so after lying about everything else they lie about what's one more little white lie to earn them some more commission and sit you in front of a Mortgage Advisor that probably doesn't understand your circumstances all too well and more than likely cannot get you a rate better than what you have already been offered.

There are other lenders who can consider contract rate based lending, yes. Whilst there aren't hundreds there are a few more than just Halifax.

Whilst some lenders will factor in permy work prior to Limited Company work they are few and far between and tends to only be the case if you have an existing relationship with the lender (current mortgage with them or bank with them etc). Most lenders will not factor in previous permy income because they would argue being self employed is a completely different set up and in most instances equates to different income.

What deposit are you putting down if you don't mind me asking and how long have you been contracting for? Some contractor specialist brokers have been known to simply recommend Halifax as default as their criteria is most relaxed when putting in a little leg work for your client can often unearth better rates.

[Daventry]

Thanks everyone for your replies, I'll try to find out what other lenders they have in mind.

Regards.

[Mark McBurney@CMME]

Halifax are not the only lender who will lend to you based on your day rate, without having 2 year's worth of accounts.

Whilst I don't think Alexander Hall are quite at the Connells/Countrywide end of the EA scale, I don't think he'd be able to get a better rate than a contractor specialist, with respect to him(or her, obviously!).

Ask him which lender so that the brokers on here can give you a specialists steer on it.

[northernladuk]

I can't comment for this outfit but not having 2 years isn't a problem for some lenders. They will just take your permie levels before that. Last time I tried this within the two years the lady said no problems and just asked for my accountants details and they supplied what they could from the contracting side and just gave them my perm details for before that.

Got an offer in principle but never accepted though.

Speak to the lender and get the score before worrying what people say.

[DonkeyRhubarb]

I used Alexander Hall several years ago and they got me a good deal and provided an excellent service. Things may be different now though.

[Daventry]

Hi,

So I first called ContractorMoney and got an AIP with Halifax.

Then I've been calling estate agents and Foxtons insisted on me coming in and meet their mortgage advisors a.k.a Alexander Hall.

I went and they said they would get me a better deal - i.e less interest rate - than the Halifax one, but now I have read here that Halifax are the only ones that work off your daily rate. The other lenders require you to have 2 year of accounts which I don't have - Have had my Ltd for just a year.

So my question here is if Alexander Hall are lying to me and there's no way they can get me a better deal because no other lenders operate that way.

Also I have just read that Foxtons and Alexander Hall work together in bullying you to up your offer because they pass your details and know how much you can borrow. Thank god the property I have made an offer for is not managed by Foxtons...

Regards.