This is a great story for 2 reasons. The first is that as you may have seen we took on a trainee broker earlier in the year. I have been giving him more and more complex cases as his experience growns. This cases was meant to be a a nice easy one for him. But it became very time consuming!
A lady got in touch wanting a mortgage. She had recently had a promotion at work and was looking to buy her first home. She got in touch to ask how long she would need to have been in the new job but we advised we could proceed as soon as she found a property.
A week or so later she had found somewhere.
The situation
This application I thought would be a nice easy one so gave it to our trainee. The application went in, it was underwritten and all was ok. The valuation was carried out and then it was declined! Unsure why we went on to google maps and all we could see was a pub a minute or so down the road. We thought that would have been a bit harsh so we went back to the underwriter.
Tt turns out in a block of 4 flats, 3 of them are rentals and that was not acceptable for the lender. That is a little frustrating as it was not something we could have pre-empted but it happens.
I sat down with Matt and we went through the lenders to narrow down who we thought would be ok with the number of properties let out. Whilst at it, we also thought it would be a good idea to check about the pub. Surprisingly a few would have declined because of the pub despite it being a good minute or 2 down the road.
Second application went in… This was also declined! Despite being given assurances about the pub, it was declined in part because of the pub and also in part because of a phone mast! This was not on google maps so again, difficult for us to pick up.
At this point we were advising the customer we can probably still get a mortgage but do they really want one? It could be a problem when coming to sell. The lady wanted to proceed.
I also felt a bit sorry for our trainee. I spent a bit of time going through his research and advice and it was as thorough as any research I have ever seen, he had not made any mistakes and had done a better job than some experienced brokers I have worked with!
We found a THIRD lender at this point. Everything fit on paper, but like with the last one it would be down to the surveyors opinion.
Would it be third time lucky?
We advised the customer that this one unlike the other lenders did not include a free valuation so any application would come with a financial risk.
The lady wanted to proceed and give it one last try. The application went in, the following day we had received notification the valuation had been carried out. We waited a little nervously but the following day we received the Mortgage Offer!
Success!
Summary
This was one of those interesting ones where on paper everything was easy enough. There was a slight complication which might catch some people out and that was what I wanted Matt to look into it.
But to then find there were problems we could never have picked up on prior to application. It turned out to be a complicated case for any broker, let alone a trainee. Obviously we reassured the client that she was fine for a mortgage and it was more the property that was the problem.
But it was actually quite good for Matt and myself to sit down on this one. There were things I learnt from it after 12 years experience. I am sure it was a good one for Matt too.
The customer still ended up with a high street mortgage. She has her first home and with a little perserverance and some homework we were able to get a great outcome for her.