This is the second post of this little series where I wanted to give you a review on the specialist lenders from a mortgage brokers perspective. The other posts in this series can be found here. We have all read reviews online where you are more likely to find negative reviews. There is a reason for that though, people are more likely to go online and vent their frustrations than they are to say how well someone has done. So I thought a brokers perspective, someone who has dealt with all of these lenders on a regular basis may help to give a more balance view.
Our history with TML
TML came around after Pepper money, they launched into a similar part of the market, we did not use them greatly as like Pepper they were not great when they launched and as we had already built up a relationship with Pepper by the time TML launched, we were quite slow to start using TML.
We started to use them a little more in late 2019, but then 6 months later when Covid hit, they stopped lending on residential mortgages and concentrated on Buy to lets. Buy to lets are not something we do a great deal of, so we spent 2020 and early 2021 having no dealings with them. However in early 2021 when they re-launched their residential range we started to look at them again.
We have only submitted 2 full applications to The Mortgage Lender since they returned to market, but both have gone to offer. We also have a couple of Decision in Principles with them, but we have not had to submit those applications yet. Another lender who we have a 100% record with this year, but we have submitted only a small number of applications to them.
The good
They are another Mortgage lender where we have a good support team in place. If we have any problems we can call on them to help resolve the issues.
Turn around times are around 2-3 days which is still pretty impressive for the specialist part of the market.
They have a good solid range of products, they differ from Pepper who say nothing in x number of months and instead they allow a combination of things to determine which products you would be eligible for. This works well if you have a combination of adverse issues to overcome.
The bad
Basically the same as mentioned with Pepper Money, they charge a non refundable application fee and they use bank statements when assessing affordability rather than ONS figures. This makes underwriting slower than we would like and typically there are more questions and we have to spend more time packaging the application and trying to pre-empt any questions on bank statements.
Summary
Another lender who I think has a solid offering and service in the specialist part of the market. We have less experience with them than we do Pepper so a little less to go off. However we still have a 100% application to offer since their re-launch and they are definitely a lender to consider if you need a more specialised lender.