If you’ve ever spent your morning commute daydreaming about starting afresh with your career, this feature is for you. Each Monday, we speak to someone from a different profession to discover what it’s really like. Today we speak to mortgage broker and director at Trinity Financial, Scott Rochester.
Mortgage broker salaries vary depending on experience and performance… but as a guide, brokers typically earn £30,000 to £150,000+, with the highest performers and self-employed brokers often earning well into six figures. It’s a fair salary because the role involves helping people make one of the biggest financial decisions of their lives and can be quite stressful knowing this is such an important transaction.
I typically work around 47.5 hours a week, so 8.30am to 6pm… Some of our brokers work much longer hours because they want to be on hand to take new enquiries in the evenings.
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A perfect mortgage applicant would have… proof of income, a good deposit, a great credit score and be buying a relatively standard property that shows up on the lenders’ online valuation systems. Lenders use desktop valuations to do quick online checks to make sure properties are a good security. The process is often a bit slower if the lender needs to book a valuer to inspect the property.
If people want to get a mortgage without a broker, my best advice is… don’t assume they’ll offer the best mortgage for your circumstances. Compare deals from several lenders, check all the fees as well as the interest rate, and make sure you understand the lender’s criteria before applying to avoid unnecessary credit searches.
There is a common misconception that… it is always hard to get a mortgage if you are self-employed. As long as you have done your tax returns and/or company accounts, it really isn’t any harder than someone with a basic salary.
It seems unlikely that we will get the ultra-low fixed and tracker rates again… like HSBC’s 0.74% two-year tracker with a margin of 0.64% over the 0.1% base rate in March 2020. Or in July 2021, when Nationwide was the first lender in British history to offer a sub-1% rate on a five-year fixed-rate mortgage.
The economic indicators I pay the closest attention to in order to anticipate changes in the market are… swap rates. They are generally the key indicator of mortgage pricing, so when they increase or reduce in price, mortgage rates tend to follow sooner rather than later.
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The most frustrating clients are… the ones who think they know the market better than I do. Also, the clients who fail to tell you about their adverse credit until after you have done all the research and had a mortgage approval declined.
I think you would be surprised by our office nights out… we have a lively team in the office, and as this is quite a stressful job, it is nice to unwind. Many years ago, I was at a great mortgage party at the top of the Gherkin and Girls Aloud were booked as part of the evening’s entertainment. We all had a great evening, but I read in an interview that one of the Girls Aloud singers said it was the worst gig they have ever done, no doubt because of the guests!
My top tips to get ready for buying a home are… get your credit history and bank account looking squeaky clean. Subscribe to a credit reference agency to make sure there are no skeletons hiding from old utility bills or past credit accounts.
Pic: iStock
A really high credit score can strengthen a mortgage application, but it does not guarantee approval… Lenders assess the whole case, including income, deposit, age, employment status, monthly commitments, bank statements, property type and the size of the loan required. Borrowers with excellent credit can still be declined if the mortgage is unaffordable, they have too much credit card or loan debt, complex income, a small deposit, recent job changes or they are buying an unusual property. Some applicants with lower scores may still qualify, especially if issues are historic or minor.
The hardest properties to finance are… country properties with outbuildings and annexes with large amounts of land, often with agricultural restrictions. The other extreme is high-rise ex-local authority flats with low levels of private ownership, or flats with unresolved cladding issues. Since the Grenfell disaster, there are still a huge number of flats with unresolved cladding problems. Often this makes them unmortgageable and unsellable, until the cladding issues are rectified. This is made worse when the original developer is no longer trading and funding has to come from the government.
The hardest client to get a mortgage for was… a portfolio of properties in Battersea that was owned by a company based in Mauritius, owned by a Cypriot national resident in India. There were some challenges, to say the least, and it took about 12 months for the transaction to complete.
If I were prime minister, I would… focus on making the home buying and remortgaging process faster, simpler and more affordable. I’d encourage greater use of digital technology across lenders, solicitors and surveyors to reduce delays, and I’d look at ways to streamline the legal process, which is still far too slow.
It is much more enjoyable working in the mortgage industry when mortgage rates are coming down… and closer to 4% rather than going up and touching 5.50% or 6%. In troubled times when the lenders’ mortgage funding costs are rising, fixed and tracker rates can be withdrawn from the market very quickly, and this puts a huge amount of pressure on brokers and borrowers as we scramble to secure the best deals before they are pulled and become more expensive.
If I could go back and change one moment from my career, I would… go back to when fixed rates were ultra-low and take the longest one possible. I was always worried about paying exit fees in case I wanted to move home. Now after going through the market crash, COVID, and the mini-budget, I would go for certainty with ultra-low rates.
