Alexander Southwell Mortgage Services
Fee Free Mortgage Brokers & Advisor Services
Alexander Southwell is a fee free whole of market mortgage broker. We give expert mortgage advice, find the right mortgage for you and do all the hard work to apply for a mortgage – completely free of charge. We do not need to charge you a large broker fee to get a mortgage, we get paid by the mortgage lender after your home purchase or remortgage is completed.
Most mortgage brokers get paid by the lender this way. It’s called a procuration fee or ‘proc fee’.
For insurance products, we’re paid by the insurer when you complete the purchase and your cover starts.
The details of the fees we earn from lenders and insurers are set out in the product information we send you. What we pay our advisers reflects their expertise in finding you the right mortgage or insurance. We do not offer them incentives to pick specific lenders or insurers.
Mortgages in 6 easy steps
Fee Free Mortgage Brokers & Advisors throughout the UK, we get paid from the mortgage lender therefore we do not need to charge any large fee to the customer. So our only motivation is to get you the best mortgage rates and the most suitable mortgage deal for you.
1. Initial Discussion & Free Mortgage Advice
2. Review the mortgage market on your behalf
3. Share our mortgage recommendations
4. Package & submit a full mortgage application
We may be in touch if they require any further information, otherwise we’ll simply keep you informed as they consider your application. From application to mortgage offer stage on average takes between 2/3 weeks for the mortgage lenders to issue this.
5. Get protected
While your lender’s reviewing your application, it’s time to make sure you can still pay your mortgage if the unexpected happens so you’re protected against losing your home. It’s a tough one to think about, but you might get too ill to work, for example. Your mortgage broker will be in touch to make sure you have enough mortgage protection for: Long term sickness and disability, life threatening critical illness, early death (Life Insurance), and unemployment.
6. Oversee the process to mortgage completion
If solicitors are introduced, don’t worry. We’ll assist you with their paperwork and we can talk to them on your behalf. We’ll act as the middleman right through to mortgage completion.
Mortgage Services FAQs
One of the biggest benefits of working with a broker is the simplification of the market comparison and application processes and help you find the right mortgage. Once you have provided your broker with a few basic details, they will typically handle most of the subsequent complexities on your behalf. Working with an independent broker also means gaining access to honest and impartial information, which is rarely available directly from a bank or lender. Brokers can also provide access to exclusive deals you won’t find on the High Street, often from lenders that do not work directly with the public.
- Expertise – An experienced and reputable broker can also help you choose from the various mortgage products and home loans available, ensuring you make the right decision to suit your requirements and your budget.
- Simplicity – The job of the mortgage broker is to do most of the hard work on your behalf, comparing viable and competitive deals from as many lenders as possible to find your perfect mortgage.
- Impartiality – With no direct ties or exclusive affiliations with major banks or lenders, independent brokers are free to offer 100% honest and impartial advice for the benefit of their clients.
This is forever changing, lenders regularly change the mortgage products they offer. The excellent news is though, we are whole of market: Being independent and whole of market means we have access to every interest rate and deal on the market in the UK. This includes all high-street lenders such as Halifax, Barclays, Nationwide, Santander, Natwest and many more. Whatever your situation, we will help you achieve your best available mortgage interest rate and deal. We give the best mortgage services advice and guidance suited to your situation and the best available rates and deals. Our team of advisers will complete everything for you whilst supporting you every step of the process.
We are your online & face to face mortgage brokers offering a customer-focused service that is fee free!
While it can seem like a trickier process, self-employed people can still successfully apply for a mortgage. Make sure you’re prepared with at least two to three years’ of financial documents as this is the amount some lenders will require. Keep your personal and professional bank accounts separate, and registering for the electoral roll can help lenders to confirm your identity.
As always, it’s important to consider any personal and future circumstances when securing a mortgage, and seek professional advice to ensure you’re aware of the options, our mortgage services team is here to guide you through the whole process and help you get your dream property.
There are different levels of approval throughout the process of getting a mortgage agreed so it depends what part of the process you are in. After speaking to our mortgage consultant we can take you through every step to all three of these agreed for you:
- Affordability Check - Some clients are at the very beginning of their mortgage application process, therefore they might not currently have saved the correct deposit or be in a positions to move forward. We can offer a basic affordability check and provide further information to clients to let them know what they need to do and where they need to get to, to get them mortgage ready.
- An agreement in principle can be obtained instantly in some circumstances but usually will take a few hours if needed that fast. This is where we gather all of the relevant information from yourself, search the mortgage market, find a suitable lender who fits with your affordability and then run through the lenders credit checking system to make sure this fits with there criteria. Once this has been done the lender will issue us with a certificate stating the amount you can borrow in principle. This puts you in a perfect position to find a property and start negotiations with the estate agent.
- Mortgage Offer is where both you and the property you are purchasing have been approved by the lender. We have discussed your monthly payment, insurance protection and found the right mortgage for you. Approval requires a valuation to be conducted on the property and this whole process on average will take 2/3 weeks. Each application is different though, it doesn't matter whether you are a first time buyer, home mover or buy to let investor, some applications take 1 week and some can take up to 4 weeks depending on the full situation.
Yes, our brokers have a wealth of experience in a range of Mortgage types including in the increasingly popular buy to let Mortgage. See our Buy to let mortgage page for more information.
Typically the list of fees could include:
- Valuation fee – charged by the lender to value the property and generally paid up front with your application
- Solicitors fees – charged by the solicitor to complete the conveyancing transactions on the property. Part of this is paid up front when the solicitors are instruction but the remainder is paid upon completion.
- Stamp duty land tax – a tax levied by the government on any property purchase in England or Northern Ireland above £500,000 (This stamp duty holiday lasts until 31st March 2021).
- Lender arrangement fees – charged by the lender for arranging the loan. This can be added to the loan in most circumstances but will therefore increase the size of the loan.
- Booking fee – charged by the lender for booking the funds for your mortgage and typically charged up front with your application
- Broker fees – Some brokers will charge a fee, as much as 1% of the whole mortgage. we are a Fee Free broker so you do not have to worry about this at all!
The Financial Conduct Authority is a financial regulatory body in the United Kingdom, but operates independently of the UK Government, and is financed by charging fees to members of the financial services industry. All brokers registered in England are authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).This is for the customers protection and to guarantee that the service and mortgage advice level is sound.
Your home may be repossessed if you do not keep up repayments on your mortgage.
