Saving/Applying for a mortgage 2020-22 Edition

I used Deirdre in Park Financial and I couldn't recommend her enough. Made everything so much easier, and lovely to deal with.

Congratulations! Did your broker inform you how you qualified for the exemption? I.e good savings? Income? Net disposable income? Or a combination of them?

Thanks

How do brokers actually work in relation to get paid?

Something to add. A broker should only be used if you envisage an issue with your application due to one reason or another or like in the case of Avant they only communicate with brokers.

Why? They remove so much of the hassle and the bank pay their fee in most cases. My application was straightforward but it was wonderful having them chase the bank and only needing to do one set of forms.

What chasing and why would you have to do more than one set of forms.

How to get a morgage if you application is straight forward:

1.Find bank with lowest interest rate

2. Apply to bank

3. Give forms they ask for.

4. get approval

It's that easy.

I've done the process twice in the last 2 years. First time direct with ulster Bank second through a broker with avant... if anything the broker was more hassle.

The good thing about a broker is I would imagine they have better access to the bank. Likely dedicated manager for dealing with brokers. A broker is worth lot of business so imagine they get better treatment. If there is contentious elements maybe they have access to people with more discretion. I had no issue going direct to UB first time. So far broker seems fine. Though I am doing a switch and looking to top up for extension so seems grey as to whether any of the avants, finance ireland etc do these.

See who would give you the most? It's 3.5 times your earnings.

If you looking for an exemption or every last cent then that's not a Straightforward application and if you see my first post on brokers it holds true therfore you have countered you own point.

I'd love to hear about the advice he gave you on bidding. Something along the lines of go up in 5s and then drop to 2.5s or else go up to what you can... I know a dn estate agent and all bidding advice he hears about is bolox. Highest price gets it unless its a first time buyer where he will advise to take a lower bid to avoid a train scenario

Sales falling through and all. Nothing about your scenario sounds straightforward 😂😂

With regards to the first point. Do you think banks pay these guys and don't recoup it in some way. They factor it into the cost of doing business and use this to calculate interest rates.

Secondly on the first point. I'm two years into a four year fixed rate. I'm currently breaking the fixed rate and switching from 2.6 (which was the best rate at the time) to 1.95 which is currently the lowest and fixing for 7 years. Had I used a broker I would now be liable to him for 3.3k.

With regards to your second point. Finding the lowest rate takes 30 seconds online (bonkers and fill in details)

Using a broker for a bit of ease as people see it could affect you down the line financially.

Depend on what type of house you're buying, in some cases they are the cheapest.

Our broker got us a 4.5x exception in 2018. When we first went to him he audited our finances and was able to tell us what we needed to clear to ensure smooth sailing, gave us advice about a work scenario that arose (a good job offer post-approval which was a big step up salary wise but came with a probation period that would have snookered our application) and helped us navigate a few other things that arose. Before we went to him I was dealing with AIB and UB myself and both experiences were awful. Couldn't get a straight answer and they didn't seem fussed on whether or not we went through them or not, it was hard to get someone on the phone whereas our broker was a single point of contact who chased up on everything for us.

We didn't NEED one specifically. We met with him with a list of questions, one of them was exemption related. In the end we did go that route because the broker (who is also a financial advisor) went through our finances with us and suggested that it would be an option for us if we did X and Y. He didn't push (presumably a larger mortgage loan for us was a larger commission for him), he prepared us for the two scenarios and handled all of the back and forth with the bank. We absolutely could have done it ourselves but as far as I'm concerned it's a free resource who knows the process and can get you an answer to questions much quicker than the bank staff.

The brokers operate on a commission fee with claw back basis that if you leave the lender you drew down with within the first 3 years, the lender will take back some of their commission. This is in their terms and conditions they all have to advertise on their websites. It's not always the person taking the mortgage that is liable to pay it. Each broker will have their own way to handle it, for some it's a cost of doing business. They would just get a pro-rata rate of commission.

In my experience the broker said they sometimes charge fees. I was told there will be none. I suspect it comes down to them working out likelihood of success. If it's gonna be challenging case and may not get approved they may want fee to fall back on. The great thing is there is loads of brokers and all are competing for business. So shop around. None of it's rocket science so you should be unlucky to get a bad one.

Yes, that is correct. She has property in another country as well as a prior (repaid) mortgage. That's one of the reasons I want to apply for a sole mortgage. Based on the info I got from a mortgage broker, it is difficult but may be possible to get from other banks. Will see how that goes.

Anyway, still looking for anyone successful with a similar situation in Ireland. Would bring my spirits back up :).

Thanks!