Why use a mortgage intermediary?
With so many banks and lenders offering mortgages, it can be hard to choose which one to go with.
Here are five advantages of using a mortgage intermediary:
- Your mortgage intermediary knows the mortgage market inside out. Getting the best mortgage for their clients is their bread and butter.
- Mortgage intermediaries are impartial – they're not affiliated to any one lender or banking institution, so you know you can trust them to find the best deal for you and your circumstances.
- If there's one thing you'll be delighted to have taken off your hands, it's undoubtedly the mortgage paperwork.
- Not only will the mortgage intermediary have all the information you need, they'll deal directly with lenders on your behalf – which saves you time.
- The mortgage intermediary has done all this before, many times, and knows exactly what's required at each and every stage of the mortgage process.
- They are there at the end of the phone or email to help you with any queries you might have no matter how small.
Should you get advice when taking out a mortgage?
In assessing a mortgage application the key consideration lenders look at is the ability to service loan repayments.
In order to assess this, lenders review your current income and make estimations as to the likelihood of your income continuing into the future.
In considering income the following points are relevant:
- Some overtime will be taken into account – depending on the pattern of overtime
- An element of bonus, to the extent it is guaranteed, will be taken into account.
- Consideration will be given to length of employment and security of employment.
- For commission based income – Lenders not to happy taking over 20% of commission into account
- Contract income is by it's very nature subject to uncertainty. For contract employment lenders will look at the nature and length of the contract /contracts and the probability of income continuances.
- Other income to the extent it is verifiable and continuous will be taken into account.
Understanding Mortgage rates
Please review the lenders products or contact one of our consultants.
- The IRR (Internal rate of return)
- The APRC (Annual percentage rate charged)
- The follow on interest rate (Fixed rate mortgages)
- If interest rates are expected to rise, fixing at today's rates is generally advisable
- The opposite is true if interest rates are expected to fall
- Much depends on the level of expected change in rates over the period of the fix.
- If you are concerned about rates rising above today's levels you should seriously consider fixing.