Don’t put off till tomorrow what you can do today.

We have had a magical mix of Mortgage and Protection training in October, and every provider has brought something different to the table. Protection from L&G, Guardian, Royal London and LV, and Mortgages with two smaller specialist lenders Swansea Building Society and Newbury Building Society, and two more familiar lenders: Halifax and Barclays. 

There is always something for everyone in the training whether for a brand-new advisor like Romarna, to Kelly who has been with us for nearly 4 years and worked in the industry for 20 years!

It is really important that all of the advisors and some of our administrators build relationships with our Business Development Managers, so we can easily access answers directly when we need support on cases, rather than spending hours waiting on the phone to call centres, and so we are up to date with the products and criteria the lenders and providers offer, as no two have exactly the same offering.

BDM Day at BMA

I am not sure a mention on here will do justice to what an amazing event this was! On 14th November we invited all of our Business Development Managers to our Birmingham office for refreshments and cake. We have been promising to do this for ages.

Thank you so much to everyone who dropped in and made the day such a success. We are so lucky to be supported by such an incredible bunch of industry specialists, and with all of the gloom we have had this year, it reminded me of the fantastic industry we work in.

In The News

On 2nd November we had the news that the base rate held at 5.25% for a second time. This shows huge confidence in the market. We have had lenders offering lower rates as well with 2-year fixed rates below 5% available this week.

I can’t remember the last time we had this for a fixed short-term product. There has been good news as well for the buy-to-let market with rates for 5-year fixed under 4.5%.

Can you help us reach 600 Five Star Google Reviews?

We have set ourselves the target of reaching this milestone across both sites before the end of the year. At the time of writing, we have 14 to go.  We all take great pride when a client mentions our name in a review, and we are really grateful for the time our clients take to feedback.

Re-mortgage due before end of April 2024?

We are currently booking in clients whose mortgage product ends before the beginning of May. Please book in asap. It’s not too early – and whilst lenders are all fighting to be at the top of our product sourcing it is a great time to secure a new deal. We will continue to monitor the rates for you up until completion.

This month I have decided to highlight that some of the cases the girls have been working on for months, and even years in some cases, have now completed!

We have completed on a lot of house purchases in October, so it’s been a really positive month for people finally moving in before the end of the year.

Louise has had clients move into their first home finally, after we first saw them in 2021. There were complications with their application, and time was needed with actions recommended by us to ensure they could get a mortgage. We have kept in touch with them and now, 2 years on, and after following the advice we gave, they secured a mortgage with a competitive product and they are settling into their new home.

We have had a client complete on multiple buy-to-let mortgages that have taken around 12 months to process. This particular client had a lot of complex issues that another mortgage company wouldn’t deal with involving probate and solicitors, so the client popped into our Kings Norton office and Louise took the cases on. The client remembered using Louise over 10 years previously but had lost touch with where she was working after she was on maternity leave and moved jobs. She has been greatly involved in securing products in what has been a really tough market for buy-to-let mortgages, with really tight deadlines on this as well. It can be quite emotional for the advisors as well when these complete, as they have often been speaking to the clients on a daily basis.

These cases really are rewarding, and the feedback we have had from the clients on these two in particular this month has been really lovely and as the owner of the business, it makes me so proud of the work my advisors have done, their tenacity and ability to go above and beyond to find a solution, on cases that most advisors would have given up on following the first appointment.

Sometimes the journey from when you first see us to completion can be long and tricky.  We don’t just take on cases that are simple and complete quickly. We pride ourselves in looking into more complicated cases where other advisors may have said no, and ones that do need the clients following our advice for a while to ensure they achieve the best possible outcome.