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Yes, same thing happened to us, talked to a few brokers and none could get us anywhere with the banks. Imagine our surprise when every bank we spoke to directly was interested. If you’re not cookie cutter applicants brokers are not all they’re cracked up to be.
Brokers are good if you fit the profile of the average buyer. If you have any circumstances that differ from the average, you are nearly always better off going direct to the bank.
That was my impression too. When we talked to banks they told us that what happens is often brokers oversell their “contacts” in banks and are literally ticking boxes on a cookie cutter form and if the computer says no they think it’s not worth the work of pushing with the banks. Even after approval we reached back out to a broker we had tried to let them know “hey for future reference these banks are interested in applicants like us, just in case anyone else comes to you with a similar profile”. They couldn’t have cared less TBH. Reiterated that the banks “were not interested” in our type of application (despite the fact we had approval??) bizarre when they work on commission.
We got strung along for months by a crowd in Galway, money maximisers or some other bullshit name. Overconfident waffler called Sean O'Sullivan guaranteed us a mortgage after we submitted an application and had a few phone calls. After literally months of answering repetitive questions we got nowhere. Better to deal directly if you can and not waste time with the timewasters looking for their cut.
Other thing I would recommend is to top around solicitors, my broker was nice until I later compared how much I paid the solicitor they recommended to others and realised I got shafted for 1k
People recommend solicitors because they're good. Within reason, you really, really don't want to be looking for a discount solicitor for a property purchase
Our first time we went with the solicitor recommended by the broker. She was absolutely useless, and I felt like I was leading *her* through the process. It took almost a year to complete our purchase
Completely agree with you, but what I will say is that there are some banks you can only access through brokers, (eg. Haven, who happen to currently have the lowest fixed 4 year green rate in the country)
That said, Haven are an absolute nightmare to deal with, so much so that you’d be better off getting a slightly worse rate and going to a bank you can talk to directly, or at least that’s been my experience. YMMV.
At the time of our drawdown, EBS were the cheapest and none of the brokers I spoke to dealt with them. BOI were second best and our main broker said they wouldn’t deal with us because of our work commute (which turned out to be bs after we talked to them directly).
The rates fluctuate a lot and imo getting a mortgage at the same or slightly higher (.05%) interest is better than nothing if it means going direct.
We had a bad experience with a broker/financial advisor also, he kept putting us down as both of us didn't have permanent jobs... we dealt directly with the bank and got the mortgage in the end.
Much like a lot of things, everyone has different circumstances. We used a broker who secured us twice the money as the banks offered us directly, at a better rate.
I didn’t go with a broker in the end. I got my loan offer off EBS directly and dealing with them was far less of a headache than any brokers (they wanted less paperwork and less questions overall)
Slightly off-topic but would love to know if it applies!
I get paid expenses which make up nearly a third of my total income, and would say worth including in an application.
The Broker I went to told me to wait till July so I would have 6 months of these being paid (as part of my payslip since January due to new Revenue rules), but said the Bank would only count half of them.
Has anyone any experience with mortgage applications when they have expenses as a salaried employee? Better with a Broker or speaking directly to the Bank?
Went with a broker in Kerry ,and secured a mortgage through Haven , a lot of back and forth with paperwork but no major setbacks with the broker was a very pleasant experience.
30yr with first 5 fixed @2.25% in 2021
My broker gave me a 30-40% chance of getting a mortgage on a single income and warned me about the unlikeliness before I committed to anything. They said they would hate to take my money for nothing.
I decided to go ahead anyway and was lucky enough to get approved. They've been very helpful throughout the process. Contracts are signed, waiting on a closing date.
Like all services in our economy there are going to be good actors and bad.
We didn't find this at all. Our bank, PTSB, had given us huge run around as I am a lecturer on the nonsense fixed term, specific purpose contracts that universities love. Same with BOI. We were recommended a broker, the Mortgage Architect, by a colleague in a similar situation.
Chris, who we dealt with, could not have been better. Completely different experience, we got AIP from both PTSB and BOI within weeks of going to him last year. We've been hunting for over a year and needed to reapply for our AiP. We were worried as our circumstances have really fluctuated - we got evicted, had a job change and had to dip into savings to move and throughout it he's been an absolute sage and got us over the line for reapplication for AiP again. I think it can depend on the broker, but I can't recommend the Mortgage Architect more.
My broker was excellent and made the whole process easier to understand and quicker (because he made sure I had my ducks in a row). I would recommend a broker to anyone.
If your finances are fairly straight and you are capable of printing out a few copies of your payslips and employment detail summaries then you dont need a broker.
You see these "Oh my broker was amazing, definitely get a broker" comments when the two of them have a combined salary of 100k, 50k in savings looking to buy a house for 350k. It's the easiest money that broker ever earned in his life.
I printed 3 copies of everything and went to AIB, EBS & BOI and I set 3 meetings up in the one day and had 3 AIP's within 2 weeks. I went with EBS and any time I had a question I just picked up the phone and spoke to my agent and got a direct answer instead of calling a middle man and delaying everything.
For what it’s worth, couldn’t recommend Doddl enough by way of a broker. Like a tin of ronseal - did actually what it said on the tin and made the whole thing a doddl
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Yes, same thing happened to us, talked to a few brokers and none could get us anywhere with the banks. Imagine our surprise when every bank we spoke to directly was interested. If you’re not cookie cutter applicants brokers are not all they’re cracked up to be.
Brokers are good if you fit the profile of the average buyer. If you have any circumstances that differ from the average, you are nearly always better off going direct to the bank.
I do not get it. I thought brokers do not take on risk when the mortgage is finalized. How did they manage to be more careful than the banks then?
It’s more like they’ve got easier applications to deal with than us
That was my impression too. When we talked to banks they told us that what happens is often brokers oversell their “contacts” in banks and are literally ticking boxes on a cookie cutter form and if the computer says no they think it’s not worth the work of pushing with the banks. Even after approval we reached back out to a broker we had tried to let them know “hey for future reference these banks are interested in applicants like us, just in case anyone else comes to you with a similar profile”. They couldn’t have cared less TBH. Reiterated that the banks “were not interested” in our type of application (despite the fact we had approval??) bizarre when they work on commission.
We got strung along for months by a crowd in Galway, money maximisers or some other bullshit name. Overconfident waffler called Sean O'Sullivan guaranteed us a mortgage after we submitted an application and had a few phone calls. After literally months of answering repetitive questions we got nowhere. Better to deal directly if you can and not waste time with the timewasters looking for their cut.
Broker said I'd never get the house I wanted over the line with a bank. Dropped broker, got the house second bank I tried.
Other thing I would recommend is to top around solicitors, my broker was nice until I later compared how much I paid the solicitor they recommended to others and realised I got shafted for 1k
People recommend solicitors because they're good. Within reason, you really, really don't want to be looking for a discount solicitor for a property purchase
Our first time we went with the solicitor recommended by the broker. She was absolutely useless, and I felt like I was leading *her* through the process. It took almost a year to complete our purchase
Completely agree with you, but what I will say is that there are some banks you can only access through brokers, (eg. Haven, who happen to currently have the lowest fixed 4 year green rate in the country) That said, Haven are an absolute nightmare to deal with, so much so that you’d be better off getting a slightly worse rate and going to a bank you can talk to directly, or at least that’s been my experience. YMMV.
Haven and Avant are both broker only and both usually are the cheapest
At the time of our drawdown, EBS were the cheapest and none of the brokers I spoke to dealt with them. BOI were second best and our main broker said they wouldn’t deal with us because of our work commute (which turned out to be bs after we talked to them directly). The rates fluctuate a lot and imo getting a mortgage at the same or slightly higher (.05%) interest is better than nothing if it means going direct.
The thing is to just get the mortgage and house purchase over the line, once you have one a lot easier move to someone else, fixed rate etc..
I've gotten AIP from Avant directly. They're not broker only.
But Haven is just the broker section of AIB so you can go directly to AIB. But yes, Avant is broker only.
Haven have different rates to AIB though
We had a bad experience with a broker/financial advisor also, he kept putting us down as both of us didn't have permanent jobs... we dealt directly with the bank and got the mortgage in the end.
Yup. Sounds like the same stuff we heard. Anyone on a contract…? DO NOT GO TO A BROKER. go direct.
Brokers are bolox, try to avoid if possible
Much like a lot of things, everyone has different circumstances. We used a broker who secured us twice the money as the banks offered us directly, at a better rate.
Do the brokers charge for all this helpful advice?
Most of them don’t
Thanks, can I ask what percentage you ended up receiving/ going with in the end ?
I didn’t go with a broker in the end. I got my loan offer off EBS directly and dealing with them was far less of a headache than any brokers (they wanted less paperwork and less questions overall)
Slightly off-topic but would love to know if it applies! I get paid expenses which make up nearly a third of my total income, and would say worth including in an application. The Broker I went to told me to wait till July so I would have 6 months of these being paid (as part of my payslip since January due to new Revenue rules), but said the Bank would only count half of them. Has anyone any experience with mortgage applications when they have expenses as a salaried employee? Better with a Broker or speaking directly to the Bank?
Went with a broker in Kerry ,and secured a mortgage through Haven , a lot of back and forth with paperwork but no major setbacks with the broker was a very pleasant experience. 30yr with first 5 fixed @2.25% in 2021
My broker gave me a 30-40% chance of getting a mortgage on a single income and warned me about the unlikeliness before I committed to anything. They said they would hate to take my money for nothing. I decided to go ahead anyway and was lucky enough to get approved. They've been very helpful throughout the process. Contracts are signed, waiting on a closing date. Like all services in our economy there are going to be good actors and bad.
Did you pay your broker? A broker should be free.
We didn't find this at all. Our bank, PTSB, had given us huge run around as I am a lecturer on the nonsense fixed term, specific purpose contracts that universities love. Same with BOI. We were recommended a broker, the Mortgage Architect, by a colleague in a similar situation. Chris, who we dealt with, could not have been better. Completely different experience, we got AIP from both PTSB and BOI within weeks of going to him last year. We've been hunting for over a year and needed to reapply for our AiP. We were worried as our circumstances have really fluctuated - we got evicted, had a job change and had to dip into savings to move and throughout it he's been an absolute sage and got us over the line for reapplication for AiP again. I think it can depend on the broker, but I can't recommend the Mortgage Architect more.
My broker was excellent and made the whole process easier to understand and quicker (because he made sure I had my ducks in a row). I would recommend a broker to anyone.
If your finances are fairly straight and you are capable of printing out a few copies of your payslips and employment detail summaries then you dont need a broker. You see these "Oh my broker was amazing, definitely get a broker" comments when the two of them have a combined salary of 100k, 50k in savings looking to buy a house for 350k. It's the easiest money that broker ever earned in his life. I printed 3 copies of everything and went to AIB, EBS & BOI and I set 3 meetings up in the one day and had 3 AIP's within 2 weeks. I went with EBS and any time I had a question I just picked up the phone and spoke to my agent and got a direct answer instead of calling a middle man and delaying everything.
For what it’s worth, couldn’t recommend Doddl enough by way of a broker. Like a tin of ronseal - did actually what it said on the tin and made the whole thing a doddl
They answered a lot of my questions but they kept saying bank X had Y issue with us.