In 7 years of being a Mortgage broker I have always held the opinion that it does not matter where your mortgage broker is based so long as they are good at what they do, we have customers from Brighton up to Edinburgh and never had any problems with those who are not local.
I still hold that view, but this week has given me a slightly different perspective on it and below are 2 examples of why.
Why can a local Mortgage Broker be useful?
One of our customers in Stockport was selling their home and buying a new one. The customer instructed a solicitor to deal with the sale but not the purchase – simple oversight as it is the first time she has sold and bought at the same time having been a first time buyer previously. We started the mortgage application and when the offer had been issued it was sent out to her solicitors. As the solicitors had not been instructed to deal with the purchase, they did nothing with the offer – you would expect them to call the customer and ask a few questions but that did not happen.
The customer then emailed her contact at the solicitors but no reply. I then emailed the solicitors and also no reply. I then called the solicitors, left a message and heard nothing back. I then went on the firms website and tried to find the contact details of someone higher up who could pick it up. Whilst doing that, I came across a solicitor I knew from a few years back when he worked elsewhere. I emailed him and within 15 minutes he had replied and within the hour he had opened up a case and made a start on it.
The second example is a Mortgage Broker I know from down south was having a problem with an estate agent in Manchester. The broker called me to see if I knew anyone there who I could call to help resolve the issues. As it happens I knew someone who worked there as I used to work with them, so was able to call up and try to smooth everything out between them so they could move forward.
Summary
The point I am making is that whilst I still do not think you need a local mortgage broker, sometimes it can come in handy having someone in the area who has contacts. As myself and Dawn have lived and worked in Manchester & Stockport for decades we have built up a long list of contacts ranging from estate agents and solicitors solicitors through to trades people all of which you can call on should you need it. We also now have a local mortgage broker in Huntingdon and St Neots who can help with similar issues in that area.
It is not common that we are needed to call in favours from people we know at estate agents or solicitors, but it just happens that this month it has happened a couple of times. So if you are in Manchester or Stockport and looking for a local Mortgage Broker, why not get in touch? With over a decade experience as a Mortgage broker between us and also another decade working in financial services, we have plenty of contacts we can call on from estate agents and solicitors through to Head of Sales and underwriters at mortgage lenders, some of these are people we know outside of work also which can make a difference.