What is it like to be a mortgage broker?

Published 29th Nov 2008

Ms DeBattista, a mortgage broker in Cardiff, has felt the downturn for some time now.

Her work, with Castle Court consultants, is in the centre of town, opposite the museum.

"You do the review, put in the work, give best advice and don't get paid anything," she says.

"I've been broking for six years now and I'd never, ever recommended staying on an SVR before."

Another problem for brokers has been the introduction of dual pricing, which offers borrowers better rates of interest if they approach the lender directly instead of going through an intermediary.

"I can't do anything other than recommend that the client goes to the lender directly because they are going to get a better deal," she adds.

Ms DeBattista has heard that a number of brokers have started retraining as driving instructors to supplement their income.

Others are trying to make money offering services such as advice on home insurance, debt management or investments.

An alternative is to start charging fees for mortgage advice. While there are few new mortgages being taken out as the housing market is slowing, there is still business helping people remortgage.

"At the end of the day we're professional advisers and you wouldn't go to a solicitor or an accountant and expect them to work for you for free," Julia DeBattista says.

She has started charging an upfront 'commitment fee', which is refunded when the new mortgage has been completed.

Changing behaviour

But it is not all bad news for brokers.

Some of them say that the financial crisis has changed the behaviour of customers who would normally just go to the bank where they have their current account for a mortgage.

Now, because so many high street banks have been in trouble, they are shopping around and taking independent advice.

"The banks in some cases have said 'no' or the products they've got are so dreadful that it's completely unappealing so they turn to people like us," says Mr Pritchard-Jones.

"So in a way this whole credit crunch has been quite a good thing."

Clients also now understand that there is a degree of urgency in the process, because there is a danger that a rate will be withdrawn if the application does not go in quickly enough.

"You send paperwork to the client and sometimes it can just sit on the coffee table, so putting that pressure on them does gets it moving," Ms DeBattista says.

But sometimes, things happen that even the fastest application could not overcome.

"I opened my mailbox this morning and unfortunately an e-mail from Principality Building Society had been put into my junk mail box, so I got a message at 8:30 this morning that they're going to withdraw products at 5:30 yesterday afternoon," she says.

Source: ' bbc '

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