I wrote a similar success story to this around 6 years ago, but we have done it again and I think it is something that deserves shouting from the rooftops!
11 days ago (from writing this story) a customer sent us a message through our website.
The situation
The information we received was that they were looking to move to a bigger home due to outgrowing their current home. Nothing too unusual there.
Their credit reports were generally fine. There were a few late or missed payments but nothing beyond a status 1 or 2 on their credit report. This is far better than we are used to seeing! There was quite a bit of debt which had been taken out in recent years. However the debt was primarily taken out to pay for a wedding and getting their home ready to sell.
They were after a 90% LTV mortgage which was not impossible but with late payments it was not straight forward and certainly would not be for every lender.
When looking at the credit report I thought we could get this through on the high street. However the customer then dropped the bombshell that they had gone to their original broker who had tried 4-5 lenders and all had been declined! This included one of the cheaper options I expected it to through with. That threw a bit of a spanner in the works!
What we did
I discussed with the client that I still thought we could get this through on the high street. However, this is where we did something a little bit unexpected… I wanted to try again with one of the lenders they had already been declined with.
I have previously worked for that particular lender and used them a lot over the years. They use a system which has some flexibility in it. We have the experience on how to use that flexibility to our advantage. I thought they were the best option to get a mortgage through on the high street. Not to blow our own trumpets, but this is where I think our experience comes in where we are confident enough to say we want to try something unexpected.
The outcome
Firstly we applied for the DIP, this was accepted! There were still some doubts as there were questions that would have played a part not picked up at the Decision in principle stage. However we had jumped the first hurdle.
The following day we submitted the full application. Just over a week later we heard back from the underwriter where they confirmed they were happy to offer the mortgage subject to a valuation being carried out.
They received the 90% product they were after. Unfortunately it was not the cheapest product on the market, but it was a high street lender and at normal rates which I think was beyond what they were expecting when they first got in touch after their previous experience.
Summary
Adverse and complex situations can come in many forms. In this case it was a large amount of debt and a few late payments, nothing significant but also clearly something which can cause a problem.
How good does this look!
Day 1 – Contact from the client via email. Phone calls and emails exchanged.
Day 2 – Documents received and Decision in principle issued.
Day 3 – Application fully submitted.
Day 11 – We were waiting for the underwriters during this time. Mortgage offer issued subject to valuation.
At this stage I tend to say to clients they can start to relax a little. At this point, we know that the clients are good for the mortgage and it is just down to the property.
Whilst I understand people set their hearts on a property, if there is a problem they can always look for another property in the knowledge they can get the mortgage.
This is such a good example where being declined by a lender does not mean you will be declined by all lenders. It also shows that “no” does not always mean “no”. This shows where experience can come in to play and make the difference.