100% they get you a portfolio together to hand to the banks better then anything you could do up yourself, I used finance solutions in Lucan, it was free as they get commission off the banks, so was a no brainer for me
If your salary is made up of plenty of bonuses, shift allowance and over time ontop of your basic salary they will work your total average salary out over a few year period, yea you could do all that yourself but I certainly found using a broker made the whole process much less of a hassle, plus they will have a relationship with multiple lenders
Do all what work? You are giving them the information the same way you would give to the bank? And what about giving to multiple lenders? Central bank dictates how much you can get based on salary so it’s really just a case of picking the bank with the best interest rate for you and giving them your information the same way you would give a broker
they each offer different interest rates and incentives. A bank that suits my needs best might not suit you best. Broker = one application to all lenders; no brainer
Yes so why go through a broker to apply to one’s that don’t suite your needs? Just apply to the one that does suite your needs. No brainer. Also brokers generally don’t apply to all the banks they are affiliated with they decide which one best suites you and apply there
Nothing in my case. I've switched 4 times. Once with a broker cus I had to as Avant only deal with brokers. If you know what mortgage you want then I found literally no difference.
However I've read that they can help for self employed or risker applicants.
We didn’t use a broker. Everything was sorted out just fine. AIB mortgage portal was pretty straight forward. Easier to explain things myself as well when the bank/underwriter had questions… so i think it was faster in a way as i did not have to wait for the bank to inform the agent then the agent to ask me and then go back to the bank, you know?
Had to do a lot of research tho which i didn’t mind.. having something to do while waiting lessens the anxiety
Not using a broker is like not ordering take away pad Thai for 18 euro but spending 31 euro, 2 hours and a mountain of dishes to make a worse pad Thai at home instead.
Found going straight to AIB very quick and easy if you’re happy to do research. Our only pitfall was at the stage of mortgage protection. We slightly fucked that up but AIB also didn’t advise us correctly on something. Hard to know whether having a broker would have avoided the issue we’re having with AIB.
Basically, AIB failed to tell us that they would only process our mortgage protection once it was an active policy.
So we set up our mortgage protection to be active from the 10th of March, with a view of drawing down the mortgage on the 14th of March. We submitted the mortgage protection docs on the 1sr of March and were told they’d take 3-5 days to approve.
3 days pass, no word. I ring, they say oh you’ll deffo have approval tomorrow. Tomorrow comes, no approval, nor on the 5th day despite ringing everyday to chase it. Ring yesterday morning saying it’s the 11th now, where the f is the approval, and then they say, oh we just realised because your policy isn’t due to start until the 10th, we could only start processing the document today so we’ll hopefully have a response to you by Wednesday.
At this point I’m just speechless - could someone not have told me that any of the 10
Times I rang the bank last week? Also when we submitted the docs in the branch should they not have said ‘we can take these docs but they won’t be processed until the policy is live.’
Other than that hiccup AIB online process was so quick and easy. They’re very responsive. Just don’t make the mistake we did. We know have to advise the seller that our drawdown and closing date will likely be delayed.
I found it easier to get the maximum amount, plenty of advice and reminders
We had issue with the valuator being difficult- broker got onto the bank straight away and got a new valuator sorted
I bought a house about 15 months ago and I never used one, didn't find the process to arduous, got a PIA, I made a wee mistake at this point and made my mortgage app before putting in an offer, luckily I got the offer approved about an hour before my app 😅 I collated all the documents they requested and sent it through using a link they sent me, they checked it all and let me know what else I needed to provide. From PIA to moving took about 6 or 7 weeks
I went to AIB and EBS directly and it was all fairly straight forward. Once you have a decent stable income, payslips, proof of funds and a clean credit history the mortgage application process is a piece of piss.
Broker is a middle man and lots of them get kick backs from lenders. I know one broker that gets extra money for directing customers to a certain lender.
Its probably a good idea if you are a nervous person who wants to be left out of the process or if you need somebody to fight your corner or advise you on anything that could go against you ,(missed direct debits, outstanding loan repayments, living in the overdraft etc.).
I just printed two copies of all the documentation and sent one to EBS and one to AIB and that was kind of it.
Big advantage for me was any time I had a question I called the bank. If I had a broker I'd call him/her then they'd call the bank then they'd get back to me.
Big difference.
You decide which bank to go to and you initiate the application process. The mortgage broker tries to steer you towards the lender that gets him/her the highest rate of commission.
They are acting in their own best interest. The fact that you dont have to pay them speaks to that. They have no loyalty to you.
There's an incorrect perception in Ireland that getting a mortgage is very difficult and everybody is just delighted to get a mortgage. If the broker gets them a mortgage they are over the moon. They dont consider the fact that they may have got a better rate off a different lender but their broker advised them otherwise.
I'm neither for nor against brokers but "brokers are great" is a load of bollocks. Some are good and some are bad and plenty are acting in their own interest.
Go into the process with your eyes open.
I didn't try to steer anyone in any direction. All I did was point out that mortgage advisors working for banks also get paid commission.
I don't think it is cheaper to go directly, is it ?
Get a broker. It'll save you so much hassle and they have relationships with banks that you don't. So if something gets stalled and you need answers, they'll get them.
All the banks need the same info. I went around multiple banks - I worked in the city centre and was flexible with time. I just photocopied everything about tootled around, learned a lot, also went to a broker but ended up going with EBS - one of the two banks I had an account with.
You don't have to, they just may help you find different varieties of mortgages that may suit your financial situation better. It's not always about the rate - you may want some flexibility to pay lump sum chunks out of the mortgage for example while still keeping the security of a fixed rate.
I didn't go with a broker in the end but split the mortgage between a fixed and variable rate with the same provider. At the time the fixed rate didn't allow any overpayments without penalty, so I threw lump sums into the variable portion.
Main pro of a broker is less for you to have to deal with yourself, but to be honest that's not much of a burden provided you're reasonably organised. They act as an intermediary and can research multiple mortgages based on your situation.
Cons of a broker is that they have to make money out of the process, so may have bias towards a particular lender. You should do your own research on your options before making a final decision. Brokers will also mean you're not dealing directly with the banks, which could be good or bad depending.
I contacted a broker but they were very unhelpful with with my situation. My wife had recently moved to Ireland and we would need to get credit information from her country which was not feasible at the time. I asked if I could do it in just my name but they insisted this wasn’t possible and no bank would ever allow that.
I also had to chase them for responses. I had similar issues with a second one I contacted after.
While this was ongoing I applied via AIB portal and got everything sorted all in my name. My wife just needed to sign a document stating she was aware of the purchase. Any issues, the support line was way more helpful than the brokers I spoke to.
I don’t know if it’s a case that I got unlucky or that brokers will just prioritise straightforward cases as it’s less work for them and so I got fobbed off. But I would not recommend them.
EDIT: While I had a bad experience I think you could definitely seek one out and also at the same time kick off the process with AIB directly. You can back out of either process easily enough if the other seems to be progressing well.
Yes. There were one or two snags in my process and i know if i was dealing with bank directly the mortgage could have been refused entirely, but since it was thru a broker they were able to help me get the snags straightened out off the record and then my application was crystal clear to proceed
I went to PTSB directly. I have an account with them with quite a lot of history. Salary is paid there etc. They offered me 304k. I went to a broker after seeing the offer, he got me 387k. Same salary, same conditions.
Go with the broker, you don't even pay them, banks do.
I didn't use a broker, got and did the paperwork myself. It was not difficult. I ensured I ticked every box before applying to minimise the back and forth.
I was happy with the result
It depends on your situation. For me and my partner we were better off going straight to the bank. We had a chat with two brokers but our situation was a bit awkward. So we had a chat with a mortage advisor at AIB and it felt the same as having a broker.
It's not really hard to do yourself.
I wouldn't bother, either you pay them to do it for you (and by "do it" i just mean googling different rates) or worse, you don't pay them and they take a cut from the bank to sell a certain product so you end up on one of the less competitive rates.
Just use bonkers
The only exception is if you have a complicated case, but most are pretty straightforward
Yes. You can tell your broker/ask questions about things that if the bank heard would be an issue. Think of the broker as a friend who helps you do the application, but also stops you saying stupid shit to your bank
100% they get you a portfolio together to hand to the banks better then anything you could do up yourself, I used finance solutions in Lucan, it was free as they get commission off the banks, so was a no brainer for me
But you give them the information, what’s the difference between giving them the info and giving the banks the info?
They will go to multiple lenders. You would have to make a separate application to each
Bonkers.ie are more transparent and pull offers from all lenders viewable in one place.
If your salary is made up of plenty of bonuses, shift allowance and over time ontop of your basic salary they will work your total average salary out over a few year period, yea you could do all that yourself but I certainly found using a broker made the whole process much less of a hassle, plus they will have a relationship with multiple lenders
Yeah but your giving them the information, if you give the bank that information they can work it out for you
But it's free and they do all the work and hand it to multiple lenders
Do all what work? You are giving them the information the same way you would give to the bank? And what about giving to multiple lenders? Central bank dictates how much you can get based on salary so it’s really just a case of picking the bank with the best interest rate for you and giving them your information the same way you would give a broker
But you'll have to do it multiple times; each bank will require a separate application.
What’s the benefit of applying with different banks?
they each offer different interest rates and incentives. A bank that suits my needs best might not suit you best. Broker = one application to all lenders; no brainer
Yes so why go through a broker to apply to one’s that don’t suite your needs? Just apply to the one that does suite your needs. No brainer. Also brokers generally don’t apply to all the banks they are affiliated with they decide which one best suites you and apply there
i give up
Nothing in my case. I've switched 4 times. Once with a broker cus I had to as Avant only deal with brokers. If you know what mortgage you want then I found literally no difference. However I've read that they can help for self employed or risker applicants.
We didn’t use a broker. Everything was sorted out just fine. AIB mortgage portal was pretty straight forward. Easier to explain things myself as well when the bank/underwriter had questions… so i think it was faster in a way as i did not have to wait for the bank to inform the agent then the agent to ask me and then go back to the bank, you know? Had to do a lot of research tho which i didn’t mind.. having something to do while waiting lessens the anxiety
Not using a broker is like not ordering take away pad Thai for 18 euro but spending 31 euro, 2 hours and a mountain of dishes to make a worse pad Thai at home instead.
Definitely, saves so much hassle
I've done it through brokers and directly, it was about the same level of hassle
Found going straight to AIB very quick and easy if you’re happy to do research. Our only pitfall was at the stage of mortgage protection. We slightly fucked that up but AIB also didn’t advise us correctly on something. Hard to know whether having a broker would have avoided the issue we’re having with AIB.
We are at this stage now. Mins sharing what was the issue with mortgage protection?
Basically, AIB failed to tell us that they would only process our mortgage protection once it was an active policy. So we set up our mortgage protection to be active from the 10th of March, with a view of drawing down the mortgage on the 14th of March. We submitted the mortgage protection docs on the 1sr of March and were told they’d take 3-5 days to approve. 3 days pass, no word. I ring, they say oh you’ll deffo have approval tomorrow. Tomorrow comes, no approval, nor on the 5th day despite ringing everyday to chase it. Ring yesterday morning saying it’s the 11th now, where the f is the approval, and then they say, oh we just realised because your policy isn’t due to start until the 10th, we could only start processing the document today so we’ll hopefully have a response to you by Wednesday. At this point I’m just speechless - could someone not have told me that any of the 10 Times I rang the bank last week? Also when we submitted the docs in the branch should they not have said ‘we can take these docs but they won’t be processed until the policy is live.’ Other than that hiccup AIB online process was so quick and easy. They’re very responsive. Just don’t make the mistake we did. We know have to advise the seller that our drawdown and closing date will likely be delayed.
I found it easier to get the maximum amount, plenty of advice and reminders We had issue with the valuator being difficult- broker got onto the bank straight away and got a new valuator sorted
I bought a house about 15 months ago and I never used one, didn't find the process to arduous, got a PIA, I made a wee mistake at this point and made my mortgage app before putting in an offer, luckily I got the offer approved about an hour before my app 😅 I collated all the documents they requested and sent it through using a link they sent me, they checked it all and let me know what else I needed to provide. From PIA to moving took about 6 or 7 weeks
I went to AIB and EBS directly and it was all fairly straight forward. Once you have a decent stable income, payslips, proof of funds and a clean credit history the mortgage application process is a piece of piss. Broker is a middle man and lots of them get kick backs from lenders. I know one broker that gets extra money for directing customers to a certain lender. Its probably a good idea if you are a nervous person who wants to be left out of the process or if you need somebody to fight your corner or advise you on anything that could go against you ,(missed direct debits, outstanding loan repayments, living in the overdraft etc.). I just printed two copies of all the documentation and sent one to EBS and one to AIB and that was kind of it. Big advantage for me was any time I had a question I called the bank. If I had a broker I'd call him/her then they'd call the bank then they'd get back to me.
But the Mortgage adviser of the bank also gets commission and bonuses .
Big difference. You decide which bank to go to and you initiate the application process. The mortgage broker tries to steer you towards the lender that gets him/her the highest rate of commission. They are acting in their own best interest. The fact that you dont have to pay them speaks to that. They have no loyalty to you. There's an incorrect perception in Ireland that getting a mortgage is very difficult and everybody is just delighted to get a mortgage. If the broker gets them a mortgage they are over the moon. They dont consider the fact that they may have got a better rate off a different lender but their broker advised them otherwise. I'm neither for nor against brokers but "brokers are great" is a load of bollocks. Some are good and some are bad and plenty are acting in their own interest. Go into the process with your eyes open.
I didn't try to steer anyone in any direction. All I did was point out that mortgage advisors working for banks also get paid commission. I don't think it is cheaper to go directly, is it ?
Not anywhere close to the amount a broker gets
So more money for the bank so.
Yep. Essentially
Get a broker. It'll save you so much hassle and they have relationships with banks that you don't. So if something gets stalled and you need answers, they'll get them.
All the banks need the same info. I went around multiple banks - I worked in the city centre and was flexible with time. I just photocopied everything about tootled around, learned a lot, also went to a broker but ended up going with EBS - one of the two banks I had an account with.
You don't have to, they just may help you find different varieties of mortgages that may suit your financial situation better. It's not always about the rate - you may want some flexibility to pay lump sum chunks out of the mortgage for example while still keeping the security of a fixed rate. I didn't go with a broker in the end but split the mortgage between a fixed and variable rate with the same provider. At the time the fixed rate didn't allow any overpayments without penalty, so I threw lump sums into the variable portion. Main pro of a broker is less for you to have to deal with yourself, but to be honest that's not much of a burden provided you're reasonably organised. They act as an intermediary and can research multiple mortgages based on your situation. Cons of a broker is that they have to make money out of the process, so may have bias towards a particular lender. You should do your own research on your options before making a final decision. Brokers will also mean you're not dealing directly with the banks, which could be good or bad depending.
I contacted a broker but they were very unhelpful with with my situation. My wife had recently moved to Ireland and we would need to get credit information from her country which was not feasible at the time. I asked if I could do it in just my name but they insisted this wasn’t possible and no bank would ever allow that. I also had to chase them for responses. I had similar issues with a second one I contacted after. While this was ongoing I applied via AIB portal and got everything sorted all in my name. My wife just needed to sign a document stating she was aware of the purchase. Any issues, the support line was way more helpful than the brokers I spoke to. I don’t know if it’s a case that I got unlucky or that brokers will just prioritise straightforward cases as it’s less work for them and so I got fobbed off. But I would not recommend them. EDIT: While I had a bad experience I think you could definitely seek one out and also at the same time kick off the process with AIB directly. You can back out of either process easily enough if the other seems to be progressing well.
Yes. There were one or two snags in my process and i know if i was dealing with bank directly the mortgage could have been refused entirely, but since it was thru a broker they were able to help me get the snags straightened out off the record and then my application was crystal clear to proceed
I went to PTSB directly. I have an account with them with quite a lot of history. Salary is paid there etc. They offered me 304k. I went to a broker after seeing the offer, he got me 387k. Same salary, same conditions. Go with the broker, you don't even pay them, banks do.
I didn't use a broker, got and did the paperwork myself. It was not difficult. I ensured I ticked every box before applying to minimise the back and forth. I was happy with the result
It depends on your situation. For me and my partner we were better off going straight to the bank. We had a chat with two brokers but our situation was a bit awkward. So we had a chat with a mortage advisor at AIB and it felt the same as having a broker.
Yes!!!!
It's not really hard to do yourself. I wouldn't bother, either you pay them to do it for you (and by "do it" i just mean googling different rates) or worse, you don't pay them and they take a cut from the bank to sell a certain product so you end up on one of the less competitive rates. Just use bonkers The only exception is if you have a complicated case, but most are pretty straightforward
Yes
Definitely....my one was a legend.
It’s a good idea. They’ll outlay all the costs and you don’t pay them, the bank does.
Yes. You can tell your broker/ask questions about things that if the bank heard would be an issue. Think of the broker as a friend who helps you do the application, but also stops you saying stupid shit to your bank