BTL Mortgage Brokers

Should a landlord employ a buy-to-let (BTL) mortgage broker?

Landlords don’t like paying for things they can avoid. There is something hard wired into us that says ‘why pay for it when we can get it for free?’

This is also very true of employing BTL mortgage brokers and paying for BTL mortgage finance advice. There are thousands of pages of free advice on BTL mortgages across the old ‘interweb’. Moneyfacts one of the better sources for mortgage data has recently reported that the number of landlord mortgages has breached the thousand mark for the first time since the 2007 financial crisis.

The good news is that you don’t always have to pay for a BTL mortgage broker. Often they offer their broking services for free as they will receive a fee from the mortgage lender for completing the mortgage application on your behalf.

Landlord Mortgage Advice

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info@propertyhawkbtlmortgages.co.uk

Do I need a BTL mortgage broker?

I’ve just asked myself this very question when looking for a BTL mortgage on a slightly unusual property, (a modern conversion – with metal frame and timber cladding). Is there any btl mortgage company out there that’s going to lend on such an unusual building?

Now as a tight fisted landlord my immediate reaction was to grab the ipad and start searching for some of the better btl mortgage websites. I have listed some of the better btl mortgage brokers websites below with an overview of my initial thoughts. Please feel free to add in some of your suggestions or thoughts.

The other aspect that a good BTL mortgage broker brings to the table is that they have experience of dealing with the different BTL mortgage companies. They will know the companies that are difficult to deal with and the ones that are more accommodating. A good BTL mortgage broker will also be able to pick up on the subtleties of the clients financial situation. So they will know will BTL mortgage companies have restrictions on the numbers of properties they will lend against and where they might have area restrictions, etc. The restrictions and limits can get quite complicated for non standard landlord borrowers.

Which are the best free BTL mortgage websites?

Property Hawk Mortgages

Founded on the same principles of our free website. You do have to sign up for the service; but then you are presented with a market wide range of BTL mortgages. Powered by one of the UK’s leading commercial brokers TBMC. The search allows you to filter the results and also shares useful information on the rental surplus and additional borrowing. Not only that you can submit your own mortgage application.

Moneyfacts

Access to best rate products and free phone number with nice summary of the mortgage products so you can see at a glance essential stuff like LTV. To make an application you are directed to the individual buy-to-let mortgage companies contact centre. Free phone number, call back facility but limited choice of products although they are conveniently displayed by category. The nice thing about this site is that you don’t have to add any data to see their info meaning that you can start browsing for a mortgage immediately.

John Charcoal

One of the historic market leaders; who do let you see a selection of mortgage products. They have a brief selection of mortgage products but the website does not allow you to search under any given criteria. Clearly, as mortgage brokers they are keen to get you to contact them and no doubt incur a brokers fee.

Money Super Market

The Internet powerhouse has poured 1Os of millions into marketing and buying the well respected advice site Money Saving Expert. It does have a useful search facility searchable by type of mortgage, repayment period, initial offer period. To make an application it appears that you get fired off to the mortgage provider direct (no doubt MSM will get a referral fee for this).

Mortgages For Business

Again, one of the BTL mortgage brokers that have been around from the start. The website has a very useful facility to allow landlords to search products on their database by LTV, product type and gives costs for lender fee and interest costs. To go further you have to submit an enquiry form. The company is also strong on commercial mortgages and development finance.

Why would I need a BTL mortgage broker?

So having trawled the free BTL mortgage brokers sites, they still hadn’t answer my question, as to which mortgage companies were going to lend on an unusual construction type of steel frame and wooden cladding.

There was really no way of telling looking at the free data to hand.

This is where a little bit of inside expertise comes in handy. A good BTL mortgage broker will know which lender will lend on unusual buildings, high LTV are which are more flexible on rental cover. This is the service a landlord is paying for.

I really don’t have the time to phone a whole bunch of BTL mortgage companies to find the one that might be able to lend on my ‘unusual’ lending criteria. This is where a btl mortgage broker comes in. All landlord lenders are tightening their lending criteria.

For landlords that are self-employed they need to be able to provide a lender 3 years SA 302 and the tax calculation over view forms. This is new, but apparently all lenders require them. Things like this a landlord wouldn’t know, so having a good broker to hold your hand through the process is invaluable.

If I was back working for the Council as a PAYE employee then obtaining a standard mortgage on a standard buy-to-let property it should be fairly easy to find a mortgage yourself and go direct to a lender.

However, if you are looking for finance on a non-standard investment property or lending scenario then paying an expert broker £250 – 500 is well worth the investment to ensure you get the investment you want.

Other useful stuff on landlord BTL mortgages:

Landlord Mortgage – Key definitions

BTL Mortgage Brokers

Buy-to-let mortgages

Landlord BTL mortgage finance