There still seems to be a general misconception of what a mortgage broker actually does. Brokers can tell you in seconds what the cheapest rate in the market is and, at various times, this will vary between a direct-to-lender product or a broker only deal, but this misses the point. Can this product actually be attained and is it the right fit for your personal circumstances?

Every day there are tales of woe from all areas of the consumer market about people who bought the cheapest products, which turned out to have a sting in the tail and cost a lot more in the long run.

A professional mortgage broker provides a level of service that a borrower cannot obtain direct from a lender and certainly not from a comparison site.

Get the right – and best – advice

The key issue is around advice. For those who want to take out the biggest loan they are ever likely to have without obtaining any kind of advice then the internet is a wealth of information. However, the cheapest product does not take into account the myriad of personal requirements and future flexibilities a client may need.

Therefore first time buyers, who may need a hand to hold throughout the process, should always look to obtain proper advice.

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For high net worth individuals, the whole range of highly competitive products (sometimes market leading) available through private banks – of whom offer a blank sheet of paper approach to underwriting – remains the preserve of the more respected broker.

An expert broker will be able to look at thousands of mortgage products on the market as well as some that are only available through the mortgage broking market.

A lender can only talk about their own products and many will not provide perhaps the most important bit: advice. A mortgage is the largest commitment that most people will ever make and to do this without taking full advice and comparing all the options available is a risky game, especially with all the small print and fees that surround mortgage products.

A small fee paid to a broker can save thousands of pounds over the term of a mortgage or avoid costly penalties in the future.

Speed up the process

For those who are generally time poor, or need to move quickly, the service a broker provides can take the pain and hassle out of the process and ensure that deadlines are met without you breaking a sweat. 

Securing the property of your dreams often means moving quickly and many larger brokers have access to the underwriters themselves to discuss any complexities with a particular case from the very beginning, rather than having to go through the layers of process that walking into a branch often entails. This means that any potential issues can often be anticipated and the whole process smoothed.

Helping a busy client to complete the mortgage application, preparing all the documentation and liaising with the lender, valuer, estate agent and solicitor to ensure deadlines are hit is a time consuming process and this is all part of the broker’s service.

Knowing which lenders are able to proceed quickly and which ones have a paperwork backlog can be the difference to actually getting the property you want or losing out.

An aftercare service

There is also the aftercare service; not only looking at how clients can ensure they are able to both repay the loan and protect their new home, but advising them each time their product comes up for renewal or their circumstances change mid-term.

The days of a broker simply looking down a list of products, pointing at the cheapest and pocketing the inflated commissions are thankfully long gone. As mortgage criteria toughens, professional mortgage advisers who provide down-to-earth advice and a proper relationship-based service are, and always will be, in demand.

Andrew Montlake is director at Coreco Group, a mortgage advisory firm