Reply to: BTL mortgage: Freelancer Financials or Contactor Financials

[Mark McBurney@CMME]

What deposit are you putting down?

Clydesdale have a minimum loan size of £100,000

Residential lending criteria | Clydesdale Bank for Intermediaries - (under minimum and maximum loan size heading)

I know under very strict circumstances they can sometimes agree loans of less than £100,000 if you are borrowing very close to the mark but this is not standard lending criteria. Even at 90% loan to value with a 10% deposit you would still be looking at a loan of less than £100,000.

Is this a residential mortgage (as opposed to buy to let) and if so, are you a first time buyer?

A lot depends on who your relationship partner is; we can generally go down to £80k without any problems.

[matei]

For what it is worth, my experience with CF was quite positive.

We used CF to purchase a house recently, found them to be easy to work with and quite efficient. The only issues we encountered were when one of the brokers we were dealing with handed the case over temporarily to a colleague; there was a slight bit of confusion, but it was promptly resolved.

Other than that, any annoyances weren't down to CF - we were waiting on the lender (Nationwide) - again, minor, and the vendor's solicitors, who moved quite slowly. We had to get our side to nag them quite a bit to speed things along.

All in all it took about 3-4 months. Would use them again.

[Power Mortgages Ltd]

Hi,

The lender is Clydesdale. Purchase price of £110k. Thanks. Then at least I am paying the right fee.

Thanks

What deposit are you putting down?

Clydesdale have a minimum loan size of £100,000

Residential lending criteria | Clydesdale Bank for Intermediaries - (under minimum and maximum loan size heading)

I know under very strict circumstances they can sometimes agree loans of less than £100,000 if you are borrowing very close to the mark but this is not standard lending criteria. Even at 90% loan to value with a 10% deposit you would still be looking at a loan of less than £100,000.

Is this a residential mortgage (as opposed to buy to let) and if so, are you a first time buyer?

[Hawkeye]

Hi,

The lender is Clydesdale. Purchase price of £110k. Thanks. Then at least I am paying the right fee.

Thanks

[Mark McBurney@CMME]

I am currently trying to get a mortgage through CF and they are interesting. They choose to answer certain emails and then not others. I have still yet to get out of them the actual cost of the homebuyers survey. One minute it is £500 then the next it is £495 and then they take £500 from my credit card. I have not yet been sent their price list or T's & C's. I am curious if they are pocketing the difference sometimes. I am getting frustrated as who do you escalate to there!?!?! I do not want to lose the house I am buying at all so feel a bit trapped!

What is the purchase price, and which lender are you using?

Depending on which lender you're approaching and therefore which surveyor they use - eSurv and Colleys are two of the main ones - then you would be looking at c.£500 for a Homebuyers report if your purchase price is between £100k and £150k; and £500 would get you a basic mortgage valuation if you were buying at around £350k/£400k.

Depends on which surveyor is being instructed, if you could let me know the lender then I could help?

[Hawkeye]

I am currently trying to get a mortgage through CF and they are interesting. They choose to answer certain emails and then not others. I have still yet to get out of them the actual cost of the homebuyers survey. One minute it is £500 then the next it is £495 and then they take £500 from my credit card. I have not yet been sent their price list or T's & C's. I am curious if they are pocketing the difference sometimes. I am getting frustrated as who do you escalate to there!?!?! I do not want to lose the house I am buying at all so feel a bit trapped!

[Jack Kada]

I've had a real challenge with one of these brokers and am considering swapping to the other, but frying pan and fire spring to mind. However, no matter how busy they are, they should strive to provide a professional service or at the very least respond to emails and phone calls.

I won't (yet) say which one I'm disappointed with.

From experience, can anyone recommend one of these brokers over the other?

I tried both - Freelancer financials and contractor financials - and were not best pleased with both.

In the end I went with power mortgages who were EXCELLENT. I got a first class mortgage from them.

Thats just my experience mind you - Your mileage may vary

[Splif]

Same here

Hi All,

Had an abortive attempt at the beginning of the year and tried again at the beginning of August, which is still going on. Poor communication, representative requests for information from different people and not being able to do their sums are just some of the criticisms.

Had used them way back with no issues but despite complaining the first time and giving them a second chance it's been just as rocky this time around. Haven't completed yet!

I'm in the market for a buy to let in the new year - won't be using them.....

[NickNick]

Well the estate agent has now advised to view more flats this week.

Have called Halifax to ask how to proceed and they say they can't help me because the account is managed by my broker - CF.

CF say that if I buy another flat in the same building then I have to start over and go through the whole process again. Even worse - the original offer wasn't affected by MMR and took 9-10 weeks. So I reckon this time it'll take 6 months despite them saying Halifax are taking 3-4 weeks.

If I have to start over and send again all the documents including passport, proof of address, etc I'd rather switch broker.

Has anyone been in this situation before?

Yes.
Tried to buy a house, got the sale agreed, mortgage took so long that the vendor got cold feet and the sale fell through. Heard about another one a few doors up and fairly quickly agreed to buy that one instead only this time MMR had kicked in so we had to start the process again.
It was through CF and took about 6 weeks the second time, I forget how long it took the first time round.

[Dark Black]

In defence of CF, we've had several abortive attempts at buying a property over the last few years (pulled out each time for various reasons), finally achieving our goal last November. During that time I've found CF to be for the most part, very helpful (and very patient ).

Yes, sometimes I did have to chase a bit, but again for the most part they always returned calls (usually within a couple of hours). I would use them again and also be happy to recommend to others (I don't work for them btw!)

[Mark McBurney@CMME]

Well the estate agent has now advised to view more flats this week.

Have called Halifax to ask how to proceed and they say they can't help me because the account is managed by my broker - CF.

CF say that if I buy another flat in the same building then I have to start over and go through the whole process again. Even worse - the original offer wasn't affected by MMR and took 9-10 weeks. So I reckon this time it'll take 6 months despite them saying Halifax are taking 3-4 weeks.

If I have to start over and send again all the documents including passport, proof of address, etc I'd rather switch broker.

Has anyone been in this situation before?

Changing property will certainly mean a new offer, but what they ask for is generally just an update of the documents that you provided with the original app. They will need a new valuation of course which will cost money and could take a week or two to carry out, but in terms of your documentation it should really only be a refresh of your docs, so perhaps the last three months bank statements/payslips etc. Unlikely that they will ask for new ID as, although it's a new property, it isn't actually a wholly new application. Although I grant you, the implication of pre and post MMR could be an issue with ID etc.

Halifax average between application and offer is 3/4 weeks at present, that is true.

As CF to speak to their local BDM and get confirmation of the docs needed to submit a 'Change of Application', that should give you a good idea of what is needed etc.

Good luck.

[Daventry]

Well the estate agent has now advised to view more flats this week.

Have called Halifax to ask how to proceed and they say they can't help me because the account is managed by my broker - CF.

CF say that if I buy another flat in the same building then I have to start over and go through the whole process again. Even worse - the original offer wasn't affected by MMR and took 9-10 weeks. So I reckon this time it'll take 6 months despite them saying Halifax are taking 3-4 weeks.

If I have to start over and send again all the documents including passport, proof of address, etc I'd rather switch broker.

Has anyone been in this situation before?

[Daventry]

The estate agent has advised to give another week to the seller and then go back to viewing flats if he doesn't reply.

If the market worked as it should, he would have to cover the cost of my solicitor and mortgage fees

[wilko123]

I've used FF and my experience was as follows:

1. Polite and decent to deal with, generally.
2. Worked to find me the best deals according to my circumstances.
2.1 Didn't investigate/look into some particular details which delayed matters extensively almost resulting in me losing the property.
2.2 Main contact went on holiday and didn't really brief the admin person left to take care of things.
3. Didn't seem as interested once the fees had been taken even though I didn't end up taking out one of the mortgages and paid for both.

Would I recommend them? Yes, but i'd also recommend you do your research first and if you know which mortgage providers you are going for, find a broker who deal with them and doesn't charge you a fee.

[CChann]

That's the difference I found with FF - they will chase the lenders regularly and whenever you write to or call the broker they will always answer and give you an update. Service well worth paying for.

Learnt my lesson,just called halifax up myself and they mentioned "they need my contract which is extended this month" which I have sent to CF three times