What a mortgage adviser actually does
A good adviser looks across the market rather than at one lender's shelf, matches you to lenders whose criteria actually fit your situation, and then handles the application, the paperwork and the chasing. That last part matters more than people expect. A decision in principle usually takes a day or two; a full application can wobble along for weeks if nobody's pushing it.
Criteria are where advisers really earn their keep. Lenders differ on how they treat self-employed income, small deposits, new-build flats, older borrowers and a dozen other things they don't print on posters. Pick the wrong lender and you can lose weeks, and sometimes a valuation fee, to a rejection an adviser would have seen coming.
So is paying a fee worth it?
Sometimes, honestly, yes. Plenty of brokers charge a fee of a few hundred pounds and still save their clients more than that in time, stress and a better-fitting deal. If your situation is complicated, decent advice tends to pay for itself. Self-employed income, a small deposit, a flat with a short lease: these are exactly the situations where the right adviser earns their fee several times over.
If your situation is simple and you enjoy research, you can go straight to a lender and do perfectly well. You'll only ever see that one lender's products, though, and nobody will be checking whether a better fit exists three doors down.
The twist: ours is free anyway
At Quaystone the question rather answers itself, because we don't charge a broker fee at all. When your mortgage completes, the lender pays us a fee for arranging it. That's how we're paid, we'll tell you the exact amount, and it doesn't change which deal we recommend. You get the searching, the matching and the chasing, without the invoice.
One thing we'd say whoever you use: ask any adviser how they're paid before you commit. A good one will tell you without flinching. And if you'd like a second opinion on a deal you've already found, that's a perfectly normal thing to ask for too.
If you're weighing up a purchase or a remortgage anywhere in Dorset, half an hour with us settles most of it. You'll leave knowing exactly where you stand.