Where do we even begin! The only word I can think of is complicated.
In 9 years of being a Mortgage broker, I can not remember a time where Mortgage options have been so volatile. It almost feels like things are changing as often as the direction of the wind.
A good example of our industry at the minute…
An existing customer of ours called us at 10am asking if we could help secure him a 90% Mortgage for a new property he wanted to purchase. We advised him that at the time there were not any lenders who would do what he wanted without a 15% deposit.
At 11.30am I called him to advise that a lender was launching a new product the next day that would only be available for 2 working days and so we needed to move quickly. The day after the product was withdrawn, there were no other lenders who would have been able to help the customer.
What does that mean?
I think that story sums it all up at. Products and criteria are changing from one minute to the next. It appears that some lenders want to do 90% LTV mortgages, but not enough are prepared to do them, which means the lenders who do are in a position where they have to pick and choose when they are prepared to lend and choose little pockets of the market – first time buyers for example or remortgages, maybe capping the maximum loan amount lower than usual.
In effect the products tend to come with more stipulations than they did as recently as February or they are only available for short periods of time and then they are pulled. It makes our job very complicated, as you can see from the example above, we may be talking to someone who we can help one minute but then the next minute we can not. More so once you go above 85% LTV, if you want a Mortgage, you need to be prepared to move (no pun intended) quickly to secure the product.
How can we help?
Now more than ever is probably the time where a broker comes in to their own. With products being added and withdrawn on what seems like a daily basis and criteria being loosened and restricted depending on the way the wind is blowing, it is difficult to keep up with the market.
We are doing our upmost to keep on top of the changing market and are regularly reading emails from lenders and other companies we use to help us when researching your application. We have systems in place and regular contact from lenders and account managers with impending changes, going back to the example above, we found out about the product being released the day before hand, which gave us a little bit of time to get the customers documents together.
If you are looking to buy, it is useful to have someone on hand who will keep on top of the ever changing market and that is what we can do for you beyond what we would normally do.
Please feel free to get in touch to see if we can help, we are always happy to talk through your circumstances and give you an honest answer as to whether or not we can help.