Certified Mortgage Brokers: Sound Advice and Great Deals

You and your cousin John were talking mortgages the other day. He found it necessary to boast about the great deal he got from his bank – even going as far as to tell you that, if you were smart, you would go get a new mortgage from his bank to pay off your existing mortgage. Thanks, John.

So what’s the deal? John could very well be correct. But he could also be incorrect. The point is that he doesn’t really know. He is not a certified mortgage broker with knowledge of the entire market. He may think he knows more than the Mortgage Broker located down in the city centre, but what he thinks is probably far different from reality.

That leaves you with a decision to make. You either take John’s advice, ignore it and forget you ever had that conversation, or go speak to the aforementioned mortgage broker. The best course of action is the third choice. Even if you never thought about remortgaging your home, you will never know if a better deal is possible without looking into it. And the mortgage broker is the most qualified person to provide the answers you need.

Sound Advice from a Certified Professional

The place to start is to understand exactly what a certified mortgage broker is. In the UK, you cannot just place a sign outside your house and call yourself a mortgage broker. That’s not how it works.

A mortgage broker, also known as a mortgage adviser, is a licenced financial adviser who has undergone specialised training in order to be certified. As such, certified mortgage brokers are financial advisers with a special emphasis in mortgages. They must demonstrate their knowledge of the mortgage market by passing a certification exam.

There are some important things to note here. First, the specialist knowledge a mortgage broker possesses is often superior to the knowledge possessed by a bank or building society loan officer. Those officers have plenty of knowledge about general lending principles, but they are probably not specialists in mortgages.

Second, a certified mortgage broker possesses knowledge that goes well beyond just arranging mortgages. He or she can advise regarding multiple aspects of mortgage lending and how borrowing will affect your finances. He or she can help you better align your finances in order to make for a better future. A bank or building society loan officer cannot.

Finding the Best Mortgage Deal

Mortgage brokers go above and beyond mere advice to help their clients find the best mortgage deals on the market. They can do this because their access is greater. Before we get into that, note the three kinds of mortgage brokers recognised currently in the UK:

  • Tied Brokers – Brokers who represent a single lender and its products. This is the one exception to the greater access rule.
  • Multi-Tied Brokers – Brokers who represent multiple lenders and their products.
  • Whole of Market Brokers – Brokers who have access to virtually every kind of deal out there.

It’s obvious that whole of market brokers give clients the greatest amount of access. The most attractive thing about these kinds of brokers is that they are likely to have access to ‘broker-only’ deals. What are these deals?

From time to time, non-traditional lenders will put together mortgage products they only make available through certified brokers. They do so in order to utilise the services of said brokers to everyone’s advantage. As a borrower, you benefit by having access to deals your banker could not offer you.

Getting Your Finances Back on Track

Your cousin John may have been talking about a first mortgage when he told you about his bank. That is all well and good. But you are already in a home. You’re not looking for a first mortgage. Can the mortgage broker still help you? Absolutely. The mortgage broker can help you get your finances back on track.

Perhaps you are in a position of struggling to make ends meet. You have got in over your head and now your monthly payments are stressing your budget to its absolute limit. Among the many ways to get your finances back under control is remortgaging your house.

Remortgaging is not the right solution for everyone, but it might be right for you. This is where the advice of a mortgage broker becomes invaluable. Being more than just a bank loan officer, a mortgage broker can evaluate your entire financial picture in order to better help you understand the best path forward.

If it turns out that remortgaging is the best way to go, the broker can then help you arrange the best possible loan. This would likely be a remortgage worth more than you currently own on your home. The difference, known as your equity, is then put toward paying off your debt. You are left with a single monthly payment that is more manageable than all of those other payments individually.

Your cousin John is a nice guy. But he doesn’t know the first thing about mortgages and remortgages. That’s why seeking out the advice of a certified mortgage broker is better than listening to him. Wouldn’t you agree?