Orange Frog Mortgages and Simpsons Estate Agents will be hosting their very first Retro Rewind live music event on 14th October at the Loose Cannon Tap Room in Abingdon. There will be two live bands playing hits from the 80’s and 90’s, first up will be Fondue who will be covering the 80’s with some classic hits. Then the headline act will be The Britpoppers pumping out hits from the 90’s Brit Pop era.

During the evening there will be props, a photo booth, local beers to purchase that have been brewed on site by Loose Cannon and traditional Fish n Chips. Fancy dress is compulsory which has ramped up the excitement for the evening.

Matt from Orange Frog Mortgages and Stewart from Simpsons Estate Agents were amazed at the interest for the evening, tickets for Retro Rewind completely sold out within 36 hours of going on sale.

All proceeds raised will be donated to the Amber Phillpott Trust which raises money for Acute Myeloid Leukaemia (AML) in children.

Because of the massive interest in Retro Rewind, Stewart and Matt have decided to make this the first of many Retro Rewind charitable evenings. Check out the Retro Rewind Facebook page for more events coming in the next few months.

Choosing a mortgage broker.

Whether you are moving home or a first time buyer, choosing a mortgage broker can be a daunting prospect. Here we explain 6 simple steps to consider when you are looking to instruct a mortgage broker.

1. Check the company is registered with the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and the firm’s mortgage advisors hold the relevant qualification to allow them offer advice and they are individually recognised by the FCA. It is simple to make these checks and can be done on the FCA website, the following link will take to the correct page to make these searches. register.fca.org.uk 

2. Does the firm offer advice from the Whole of Market? Checking to see if they offer Whole of Market or if they work off a panel of limited lenders will ensure you will be offered the best mortgage to suit your personal needs and circumstances.

3. Most mortgage brokers charge a broker fee in addition to receiving commissions from the lender they place business with. Check what their fee is and how it is structured, this should all be clearly explains within the companies terms of business. Never be shy of requesting to see the terms of business or T&C’s before taking things further.

4. Lots of online mortgage brokers do not offer face to face meeting in the office, always check if you can go and see them if that is what you’d prefer. Since the pandemic many mortgage brokers now offer online meetings via Zoom and Teams etc. Online meetings are a great way of meeting your mortgage broker without the need to travel to their offices, freeing up more time for yourself. Obtaining a mortgage is one of the biggest financial commitments people make in their lifetime so making sure you are comfortable with the broker firm you choose is really important. Are you happy to be advised purely via email and telephone calls? Or do you want that more personal touch and actually meet with the person who will be finding your mortgage.

5. Most mortgage brokers have testimonials on their website which is great but ask if you can see evidence that the testimonials are genuine. Online platforms such as Trustpilot and Google allow people to leave reviews on their experiences with their mortgage broker. Another great way of checking is to see if the business has any social media activity such as Twitter, Facebook and Linkedin. However, always remember reviews are not 100% accurate, but they are a good guide to understanding a firm’s reputation.

6. Feeling comfortable with your broker is the most important thing, so once you have done your checks only instruct them if you are completely satisfied. They will hold a lot of personal and financial information about you so it’s really important you are happy with the company you have chosen.

Choosing a mortgage broker to work for you can make the whole process of moving house much smoother. They will liase with estate agents, solicitors and of course the lender on your behalf throughout the process. If you are a first time buyer the thought of getting a mortgage can be quite worrying. However having the right mortgage broker will make the process of owning your first home an enjoyable moment in your life.

Orange Frog Mortgages offer face to face appointments at their office in Abingdon and you can meet with the advisors online via Zoom. To get started just email or call them to arrange an initial free consultation and don’t be afraid to ask to see those genuine testimonials and terms of business. Call on 01235 555028 or email them on [email protected]

Happy house buying!

Q, Do I have to see an estate agents mortgage broker?

A, No!

You may well have been house hunting for months and finally you see the house of your dreams and put in an offer with the estate agents, only to be told that you must see their own mortgage broker before they put forward your offer. They may well say something like ‘your offer has more chance of being accepted if you see our own broker’ or ‘you have to meet with our broker so he/she can financially qualify how much you can borrow’ You do NOT need to do this.

To be honest, you wouldn’t want the estate agent to know how much your maximum borrowing could be, especially if you are putting in an offer below the asking price! When making an offer, one of the very first things to produce is the Agreement in Principle document, this confirms your maximum buying power and the estate agent doesn’t need to know this. An independent mortgage broker can get this for you and then email the estate agent to confirm you are good for the money and ready to proceed. Based on this the estate agent is then legally obliged to put forward your offer to the vendor. The Financial Ombudsman states the following:

“By law you cannot make it a condition of passing on offers to the seller that the person wanting to buy the property must use services offered by you or another party. You must not discriminate, or threaten to discriminate, against a prospective buyer of the seller’s property because that person declines to accept that you will (directly or indirectly) provide related services to them.”

Offering our clients clear and concise advice is our number one aim here at Orange Frog Mortgages. Below is a step by step guide on the mortgage process and what to expect when instructing us to assist in getting you your mortgage.

1:   Free Consultation:

Whether you visit our office, meet with us via Zoom or over the phone the initial consultation is completely free of charge. During the consultation one of our CeMAP qualified advisors will talk you through your affordability, and will explain how we source the best mortgages that will suit your circumstances. Once the consultation has finished you will have an understanding of the maximum loans available to you, an idea on what the monthly payments will be and what the expected interest rate will be. We will also confirm our arrangement fee which is only charged once a mortgage offer has been issued. If, for what ever reason, a mortgage offer is not issued (sale falls through, you decide not proceed) our arrangement fee will not be payable. We always suggest to allow for 45 minutes to an hour to complete the consultation.

2:   Sourcing Your Mortgage:

Our advisors will research the most suitable mortgage products and lenders that best suit your circumstances. Once we have shown you our findings and you are happy with the product and lender we have recommended we will then start to arrange your mortgage. We source our mortgages from the Whole of Market and are not limited to a panel of mortgage lenders.

3:   The Agreement in Principle (AIP):

The AIP is confirmation that the lender has agreed to lend a certain amount of money. Once the AIP has been issued by the lender this acts as confirmation that you have passed the lenders credit checks. We cannot stress enough, the importance of being totally honest and upfront with your advisor regarding any ongoing credit commitments and any past or present adverse credit issues.

4: The House Hunting Begins:

When you are armed with your AIP you can confidently start your house hunting with the knowledge that you have valid AIP in hand. Estate agents may want to know you have your AIP to gauge whether or not to accept any offer you may want to put in. If you prefer to wait until you have found your property before getting an AIP, you can direct the estate agent to us, and we will confirm that we have carried out the affordability checks and you are able to proceed, subject to an AIP.

5: Full Mortgage Application:

When you have submitted your offer and it has been accepted you will then need to provide your advisor with the agreed purchase price for the property, the property address, your solicitors details and the name of the estate agent handling the sale. When your advisor has all the required information they will then start with the Full Mortgage Application. When the Full Mortgage Application has been submitted to the lender your advisor will then certify any documentation that the lender has requested from you and then send them on to the lender via our online portal. Identification and address confirmation will also be requested (passports, valid driving licence, utility bills etc) together with proof of earnings. When the lender has received all the documents and information requested this is when the lenders underwriters will review everything and make a firm decision to lend the funds.

6: Mortgage Offer:

When the underwriters have agreed the application the lender will then issue an offer letter, the offer letter will be sent to you, your advisor and to your solicitor. The mortgage offer is legally binding document issued by the lender and is usually valid for a period of 6 months. If during this time rates increase you mortgage offer will not be affected. If your circumstances change during this time, the lender can withdraw the offer.

7: What Next?:

At the stage of a mortgage offer being issued this is when the adviser has completed what has been asked of them. From here on it is your solicitor who will take things over, we always recommend if you have a good ongoing relationship with a solicitor to use them. If you do not have a solicitor we can recommend one, this will all be discussed during the free consultation. We have no loyalty to any solicitors in town and have no financial agreements in place with any when recommending them. Although our work is complete once you have the mortgage offer we are more than happy to answer any questions or liase with your solicitor to help move things along.

8: Insurance:

Building insurance on the mortgaged property is legal requirement of the lending, we can source our panel of insurance companies to offer you a competitive quotation. In addition to home insurance we would also recommend looking at  life and critical illness insurance, again this can be discussed during the initial consultation. You are not obligated to purchase any insurance through us but we’d be more than happy to look at this for you.

9: You Own The Property!:

After the solicitor has completed the legal process and contracts have been exchanged this is when you become the legal owner of the property

We have noticed lately that there appears to be more and more mortgage brokers advertising locally when in reality they are miles and miles from where they claim to be ‘local’.

Don’t get us wrong, we have no problem with competition, in fact we embrace competition, it keeps small businesses like Orange Frog Mortgages on our toes and helps us stay focused on delivering exceptional customer service.

What does slightly irk us is when a business states on their website that they are ‘local’ and go to the lengths of plastering websites with pictures of Abingdon and making false claims about helping clients in Abingdon for over 30 years. We believe statements like this to be untrue and misleading to potential clients. We also think it is grossly unfair on businesses like ours when this type of thing happens. As a business, we would never dream of advertising online in say Nottingham, stating we are local and have been helping clients in Nottingham for a million years etc etc.

One way of checking if a business is ‘local’ is to have a look at how the website reads. When businesses try to trick people into thinking they are local you will sometimes find that the websites are very badly written. They tend to try and stuff keywords on to the website which doesn’t make it read in a natural, flowing way. Also check if they have a local address and phone number, sometimes they will have a virtual local office and phone number, however,  the easy way around that is to ask if you can pop in for a chat as you are in town.

Look, as we have stated, we do not have a problem with competition, we just think this is wrong and misleading to blatantly state you are local when in reality the business is based hundreds of miles away.

Here at Orange Frog Mortgages we have absolutely zero intention of advertising anywhere outside of Oxfordshire, 85% of our clients are from Abingdon and thats just how we like it. We are a local firm, providing a bespoke local service to fantastic local people.

Since March 23rd 2020 when lockdown was introduced we have seen big changes in the way the mortgage industry has had to adapt, both from a broker and lender perspective. Prior to lockdown we actively encouraged our clients to visit our offices for the free initial consultation we offer. The main reason for this was to ensure our clients can meet with the people/company who will be sourcing their mortgage, which we feel gives clients assurance that they have instructed the right company. The relationship we have with our clients is the single most important factor for our business.

Sadly we have had to change the way in which we work to ensure we play our part in slowing the spread of the virus. We now actively offer our free consultations via phone and video conferencing to ensure we are doing our bit when it comes to face to face contact. For clients who would still prefer to visit the office we have covid measures in place such as desk screens, clear floor markings and hand sanitisers to ensure the safety of our clients and us. We have found that seeing clients via video conferencing has been working extremely well and we will continue to offer this for the foreseeable future.

There has been a big change in the way lenders are dealing with and handling the current situation. One of the most frustrating for brokers such as us is the time it takes to get through to lenders to discuss cases. Most lenders are still working with a skeleton staff in their offices with lots of staff still working from home, it’s quite normal for us to be on hold for anything up to and over 1 hour, sometimes to ask the most simplest of questions.

Pre Covid, most lenders had mortgage products available for buyers with smaller deposits of 5% and 10%. There are now less than a handful of lenders who offer this and the criteria for acceptance is very strict. The rates offered by these lenders are considerably higher than you may wish to pay.

In light of this we are advising potential buyers that for a successful mortgage application a deposit if 15% is preferable.

It is now more important than ever to use the services of a professional mortgage broker during these uncertain times to ensure you get the best possible deal. Here is the top 4 reasons why you should instruct a mortgage broker during the pandemic:

1,   Lenders criteria is changing more frequently than ever. When instructing a mortgage broker such as Orange Frog Mortgages clients can be sure we are aware of these changes which will not always be the case for the general public.

2,   Mortgage Brokers are working harder than ever to ensure clients obtain the best rate available that suits their circumstances.

3,   Hiring a mortgage brokers can unlock exclusive mortgage deals that are not openly available to members of the public.

4,   Finding the right mortgage can be a stressful experience (more so in these Covid times) so by instructing a company like Orange Frog Mortgages you are freeing up time to do something more relaxing.

To find out more about how a mortgage adviser can help you during these unprecedented times and to book a free, no obligation consultation call 01235 555028

A quick guide to remortgaging

Most homeowners choose to remortgage their homes to reduce their monthly mortgage payment amounts, but other reasons include to raise capital, to pay off a mortgage sooner, to reduce the size of repayments, to access better interest rates, or to consolidate other more short term debts.

According to research carried out by MoneyExpert, nearly one in every three UK mortgages is a re-mortgage, so should you join this growing number?

Is it time to re-mortgage?

For the vast majority of people, a mortgage is the largest financial commitment they will ever have. Therefore, it makes sense to make sure you are benefitting from the best rates available to you.

If your mortgage is about to expire, then you could be on the verge of being charged your lender’s standard variable rate (SVR). This will usually result in an increase in your monthly repayments, so if you know that your initial mortgage rate is about to end, contact a mortgage broker to start looking for alternatives as soon as possible.

Choosing the wrong mortgage product could be an expensive mistake. A mortgage broker has access to thousands of deals and will know which ones are right for you.

If the value of your property has risen significantly since you took out your mortgage, it is also probably worth investigating whether the increased equity in your property allows you to benefit from better interest rates.

If you want to know more about re-mortgaging and what it could mean for you, speaking to an expert mortgage broker will ensure you get the best deals available for your circumstances. They will also handle the re-mortgage application and help you through the process.

Get in touch with us today to book your free, no obligation, 60 minute consultation for information on how Orange Frog Mortgages can help you re-mortgage.

Studies have found that over 70% of people looking to obtain a mortgage prefer to use the services of a mortgage broker (1). Just why do more people steer towards using mortgage brokers than their own bank? Here are some of the top benefits of using a locally based Oxfordshire mortgage broker.

Wider choice

Stick to your own bank for mortgage advice and chances are you’ll only be provided with a limited amount of information. Banks are often geared towards promoting their own products or those products that gain them the most commission. This may not necessarily work out the most cost-effective choice for you.

An independent Oxfordshire mortgage broker, on the other hand, has access to a much wider range of mortgage options and does not take a biased approach. The broker will take a good look at your financial situation and present the options to you that suit your circumstances the best, not what works out financially better for the broker. In some cases, the broker may even have access to special broker-only deals that you wouldn’t be able to obtain elsewhere.

As well as providing mortgage advice, mortgage brokers have extensive know-how to be able to advise you on a whole range of other financial aspects, as well as specialist areas of mortgaging.

Save time

If you want to find a good deal on a mortgage, inevitably, it pays to shop around. But, this would include conducting a lot of research and visiting different banks or lenders to get an idea of what options are available. The beauty of using a mortgage broker is that they can save you a lot of time and hassle, by doing all the research for you.

Naturally, mortgage brokers will be able to complete the relevant paperwork for you, too, so that you don’t need to spend time filling documents in.

Speed up the process

A mortgage broker has vast experience working with numerous different lenders, so they will understand how each one operates and what strings to pull to chase up any mortgage applications. Indeed, for those applicants looking to get a mortgage in a hurry, a broker will know which lender is the best to turn to for a speedy outcome. This might not be the case if you decide to use your bank as a lender.

As an Oxfordshire mortgage broker providing a range of market services to clients, why not experience the many benefits of using a mortgage broker by getting in touch with us today?

Call 01235 555028 or email [email protected]

Source:

(1) – https://blogs.spectator.co.uk/2018/12/satisfied-clients-or-hefty-fees-what-really-makes-mortgage-brokers-tick/