Using a Mortgage Broker vs Going Direct to a Lender – Which Should You Do?

Mortgages are becoming increasingly more difficult to obtain, with prospective buyers having to go through more and more checks to ensure that they can afford them.

Nowadays, this means that many people turn to a mortgage broker to help navigate the process, but is it worth it, or are they just a waste of money in an already expensive process?

Going Direct

Going directly to a bank or building society will, of course, mean that you won’t have to pay a broker’s fee so it often works out cheaper, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s the right option for you.

Lots of people simply go to their usual bank to arrange a mortgage, but in truth, there are no benefits to doing this as they won’t usually give you any form of preferential treatment.

You’ll still have to go through the same checks no matter who you’re borrowing from and by sticking to the one bank, you’re severely restricting the amount of mortgage products available to you.

This said, there are certain ‘direct only’ deals which you can’t get through a broker, so you might want to approach some lenders directly too just to see what you’re missing out on.

Ultimately though, you’ll get far more choice if you choose to use a broker.

Using a Broker

A broker acts as an intermediary who will search the market to find the deal that’s best for you.

There are different kinds of brokers out there but what you’re really after is a ‘whole of the market’ broker, which as you can probably tell, offers access to all the mortgage products available on the market.

This is worth knowing because there are certain brokers who are tied to certain products and lenders and being given access to the whole of the market is the main advantage of going for a mortgage broker.

And just like how some lenders can offer you exclusive deals, so can brokers, so you’re really not missing out on anything.

Another thing to make sure of is that you go to a ‘fee free’ broker. Search Mortgage Solutions are one such broker and explained: “If you’re wondering how fee-free brokers get paid, they’re compensated by the lender when you take out a mortgage with them, meaning that you can use their services completely free.”

Something else which really helps put people at ease when using a mortgage broker is the level of advice that they can offer.

Chances are that you aren’t much of an expert in mortgages and having someone on hand to explain things in a clear way can be invaluable. It also takes a lot of the hassle out of applying for a mortgage, which can be stressful at the best of times.

For some more advice on how to pick a mortgage broker that’s right for you, check out this post from Which?.

Ultimately, you might want to utilise a bit of both worlds, comparing deals arranged through a broker with those available when going direct. When it comes down to it, though, we feel that the services offered by a mortgage broker are too good to turn down, especially if they cover the whole of the market and don’t charge any fees.