Compare Mortgages

Why would loan officers and mortgage brokers work with Mortgage-Leads.com? To mitigate their own risks when it comes to advertising. Loan officers and mortgage brokers profit from the loans they close on. If they have no clients, they have no profits. Mortgage leads mitigate those risks by providing leads that have already been:Pre-FilteredPre-Qualified
Mortgage-Leads.com uses multiple interfaces to reach a client base that is nationally based. Local mortgage brokers and loan officers are then provided with leads that are within their own local area. Using a service to generate leads benefits mortgage brokers in the following ways:

Increases ReferralsClose More LoansMake More AppointmentsAttracts New and Repeat CustomersDecreases Marketing OverheadAn Edge on the Competition
The sad fact is that the competition for loans increases every day. The turnover rate of loan officers that abandon their careers in loans is about 95% within 5 years. That leaves only 5% making serious profits from the business. It does not matter whether officers specialize in Home Improvement, New Home, Secondary, Refinance or Debt Consolidation loans, a mortgage lead service mitigates the marketing risk and improves their personal business.

The key is to take advantage of the leads generated. Depending on the type of lead service invested in, mortgage brokers need to employ lead management. This crucial piece of the puzzle will not only improve personal business, but also provide a traceable resource for budgeting marketing funds on a year-to-year basis.

Leads are provided in different quantities based on the personal specifications or options chosen by the officer. Its important to follow up on the leads as soon as possible. Because the leads have been pre-qualified and pre-filtered, providing detailed loan options to potential customers has never been easier.

More loans are being closed via lead services every day increasing the competitiveness of the market. Consumers want to shop their opportunities looking for better values, better interest rates and sometimes just a better payment. Because the consumer need is high, the supply must meet the demand.

Mortgage-Leads.com provides a crucial resource for officers who want to remain competitive. Internet savvy clients are more likely to surf the web in search of services and products than flip through the Yellow Pages. The potential client base is more than just private individuals, but also businesses. Real estate investment and small business loans are on the rise.

Mortgage brokers can optimize their market potential via mortgage leads. By contracting for a set number of leads for a set amount of pounds, mortgage brokers are not penalized for bad leads. They do not pay for leads that prove to be inaccurate or bad. This allows them to expand their business while minimizing their expenses. Taking advantage of mortgage leads requires good salesmanship. A good salesman will handle the follow-up and closing calls, making the most of the leads provided by the mortgage lead service. Taking advantage of pre-qualified, pre-filtered mortgage leads can ensure a profitable business.

To maximize their benefits while minimizing the risks, mortgage brokers should not only redistribute their marketing via traditional channels, but also engage personal lead management. A good management process will help to prevent leads from falling through the cracks. They will be able to prospect their leads in a timely fashion and improve their closing rates. In short order, they will mitigate their risks where their mortgage leads are concerned.

In today’s ever-changing world, people need more and more flexibility when it comes to borrowing and mortgages. With this in mind, more and more lenders are offering what they term as ‘flexible’ mortgages. However, the term ‘flexible’ can mean a lot of different things. If you are unsure about which mortgages are flexible and what the benefits of a flexible mortgage are, then this article might be helpful to you.

What does flexible mean?

Although there are a lot of mortgages that claim to be flexible, there are some things that define a truly flexible mortgage. There are four main characteristics you should look for when determining if a mortgage is flexible. These are:

·    Being allowed to overpay
·    Being allowed to underpay
·    Being able to take payment holidays
·    Interest is calculated daily

Overpayments

One of the best features of flexible mortgages is the ability to overpay. With traditional fixed repayment mortgages, there is no easy way for you to pay more than your fixed repayment each month. If you have a flexible mortgage, then you will have the ability to pay as much as you can each month. This means that during the good months you can speed up the process of paying your mortgage back. If you regularly overpay then you can save yourself thousands of pounds in interest payments.

Underpayments

Underpayments are another useful feature of flexible mortgages, but they should be used sparingly. If you are unable to make the repayment in a given month, then you can just pay as much as you can, effectively underpaying on your mortgage. Although this is good as it stops you from defaulting, there are penalties involved. The more you underpay, the longer the mortgage will last or the higher your repayments afterwards will be.

Payment holidays

Payment holidays are similar to underpayments, but they let you completely halt payment for a period of time. Although this might sound appealing, there are usually restrictions. Lenders will not let you take a payment holiday unless you have overpaid in the past, and after your holiday you will have to overpay again to get the repayments back on schedule. However, payment holidays are useful for people who are self employed or who want to take a break from work for personal reasons.

Other benefits

Another benefit of flexible mortgages is the ability to borrow back money from your mortgage. If you have overpaid in the past but are now in need of extra cash to fund home improvements or some other purchase, then you can borrow the money back that you have overpaid. Although you will be changing your mortgage terms again, getting a loan at the rate of your mortgage is the lowest personal loan rate you can possibly get.

If having flexibility and the chance to overpay and underpay is important to you, then you should definitely opt for a flexible mortgage.

Mias Calls On Mortgage Lenders To Fix Their Exit Fees

MIAS, the Mortgage and Insurance Advisory Services (http:www.mias-ltd.co.uk ), is concerned that, despite the recent publicity and various campaigns in the press, borrowers are still being stung by punitive exit fees.

Lenders charge exit fees when customers redeem their mortgage in full, for example, by switching their mortgage to a rival lender. Exit fees can also be termed administration charges, sealing fees or deeds-release fees and are raised to cover the cost of taking property deeds out of storage, sending them to a solicitor and producing a final account statement. Borrowers are warned when they sign up that if they switch lenders, theyll have to pay a fee but the size of that fee is not guaranteed to stay the same.

Within the last few years, lenders have increased their exit penalties steeply, with some now topping the 300 mark (http:www.mias-ltd.co.uknews-index.htm ). Firms have claimed that these hikes are necessary because of their increased costs and extra work, yet this justification appears hollow when one considers that property deeds are now held electronically at the Land Registry.

Alistair Good, Managing Director of MIAS said: One client, whose penalty had increased from 85 to 195 compared it with entering a car park where the prices were clearly displayed, only to find that they had more than doubled when it was time to pay.

He added: While we appreciate that lenders need to recoup the costs incurred when a mortgage is redeemed, borrowers need to be informed about these costs at the outset. If the fee is excessive, then the client can look elsewhere.

Although exit fees make up a tiny percentage of overall mortgage costs, it is unfair to hit a customer with an unexpected charge, which can reach 300. MIAS would like to see lenders state their exit fees clearly and fix them at the outset of deals. In this way, the client is treated fairly, in line with FSA guidelines.

One example is Northern Rock. Although they charge the relatively high fee of 250, they do commit to charge the fee stated when the client signs up for the mortgage. MIAS would like to see more lenders adopt this approach.
Commenting, Roger Milbourn, Director of MIAS, said: Exit fees, though unpopular with customers, are here to stay. But if lenders are to lose the tag of back door charging and reduce the flow of complaints to the Financial Ombudsman Service, they must be more transparent about these fees.

We see no good reason why the exit fee cannot be fixed for the life of a mortgage, so that the client would be aware of the charge from the start. Under the current system, exit fees can increase by more than 350% by the time the client comes to redeem his or her mortgage. This makes a mockery of the FSAs requirement to treat customers fairly despite their claims that they are not a pricing regulator.

In the absence of fixed exit fees, it is imperative for mortgage brokers to go through closing charges carefully with the client. The adviser should explain that the borrower may incur a punitive charge if they switch lenders or pay off their mortgage early (http:www.mias-ltd.co.ukfaqs.htm ) and in this way, broker and client can compare products fairly.

For further information, please contact:

MIAS Ltd
0845 833 0878
Managing Director: Alistair Good
alistair@mias-ltd.co.uk

Director: Roger Milbourn
roger@mias-ltd.co.uk

Notes to Editor:

The Mortgage and Insurance Advisory Service (MIAS Ltd) is a firm of impartial mortgage advisers, offering a comprehensive service to clients seeking residential and commercial mortgages and mortgage protection.

Founded in 2002, MIAS has quickly gained a reputation for providing straightforward, impartial mortgage advice, matching clients up with some of the most competitive deals around. MIASs experienced brokers have expertise in all sectors of the mortgage market and look after the whole transaction from beginning to end, making the process as smooth and as headache-free as possible.

Previously, in the UK, if you wanted to apply for a mortgage to buy a new home, the amount that would be lent to you would be automatically tied to how much money you earned. With runaway UK housing prices over the last decade, and with incomes remaining fairly stable, this method of calculating how much you could borrow on a mortgage has become out dated. Today, many new home buyers need to look for more creative ways to borrow money if they want to buy a new home in Britain.

The Affordable Mortgage

Probably the most common of the new forms of mortgage is the affordable mortgage. Unlike mortgage that fixed to your earnings, affordable mortgages are calculated based on how much you can afford to repay each month once you have taken into consideration all of your other expenses. So, for example, if you have recently bought a new car on hire purchase and will be making hire purchase payments for the next three years, these hire purchase payments will be deducted from your salary and what remains will determine whether or not you can afford to repay the mortgage loan. UK affordable mortgage loans have allowed new home buyers to borrow as much as 50 percent of their monthly disposable income in mortgage repayments, which usually gives new home buyers a much better chance of buying a new home.

The Flexible Repayment Mortgage

Growing in popularity is the flexible repayment mortgage. As mentioned, traditional mortgages take into account what you current earnings are, how much you borrow, the interest rate, and then calculates, roughly, a monthly repayment that will be fixed (variable on interest) for the remaining 20 to 30 years of the mortgage term. Real life, however, is not like that. It is highly unlikely that youll be earning the same in 10 years time as you earn today. A flexible repayment mortgage takes this into consideration. It allows you increase your mortgage repayments over time. As such, within parameters, you are able to borrow more on your UK mortgage than you earn today on the expectation youll be earning more in the future.

The Current Account Mortgage

Strictly speaking, the current account mortgage is not a mortgage at all its an overdraft. As such, it is not restricted by the same lending ratio limits that traditionally apply when applying for a UK mortgage. Nonetheless, so long as you are financially disciplined enough not to be overly concerned with having to live with a large overdraft on a daily basis, this type of new UK home mortgage can mean the difference between being able to buy a house now and having to wait until you have enough of a deposit or a high enough salary to qualify for a traditional UK mortgage.

The world of UK consumer finance is forever evolving. To try and respond to recent demographic changes in the UK, and to ever rising costs of living in the UK, UK credit lenders are having to be more and more ingenious when it comes to obtaining new business. As such, if you find yourself in the position where you simply cannot afford to buy a new home on your current salary, dont give up, look around and see if you can find a UK home lender wholl agree to lend you the money to buy your new dream home on more flexible terms and conditions than was previously the case.

Lowest mortgage rates UK lowering the cost of mortgage

Mortgage is the most widespread industry that offered to loan borrowers with real estate as collateral. Mortgage has so many innovations and opportunities that a loan borrower can exploit them for their own benefit. You must have heard and read it elsewhere that mortgage rates are at an all time low. That is true. With growing competition in the mortgage industry getting lowest rates for mortgage in UK is not that difficult.

Yes that is true, but how does one find lowest mortgage rates in UK. Many borrowers are practically clueless the criteria to decide on whether the mortgage rates are lowest or not. When you are looking for lowest mortgage rates in UK, you will see that there is not any one single rate. There is a list of rates. And when you go to different loan lenders for rates, they will give to you several mortgage rates list, sometimes identical sometimes different. What is going on? You think in your mind. Is there any thing as lowest mortgage rates in UK? Yes, there is.

You will come across this message everywhere go look around lowest mortgage rates. Look around how? nobody tells you that. It is like standing on the start line not knowing this way you have to run. Calling loan lenders and asking for lowest interest will be practically useless. Also calling for lowest mortgage rates at different days will give you different rates for mortgage rates are changing everyday.

Who is responsible for getting you lowest rate for your mortgage in UK? Economy? President? Government? Inflation? Discard all the high words! It is you and you are one of the most fundamental factor responsible for finding lowest interest rate on your mortgage. With mortgage borrowers absolutely flooding the market place, mortgage lenders are lowering the mortgage rates to attract more and more customers. How can one attract customers for mortgage? By offering lowest interest rates.

However, it is not that easy. Every homeowner wants lowest interest rates for its mortgage in UK. Lowest rates on mortgage in UK are subject to a borrowers personal financial condition. Therefore, different mortgage borrowers will have different lowest rate for mortgage. One way to figure it out is to apply for mortgage quotes at different loan lenders. But are these quotes really consistent keeping in mind the fact that mortgage rates are continually changing. Most loan lenders will give you a correct quote for mortgage. A mortgage borrower looking for lowest rate should use APR to compare rates. APR will enable you to know true interest rates on mortgage including the interest, discounts, mortgage insurance and other related fees. This will enable you to get a true quote without any hidden fee which the lender might be concealing behind the lowest mortgage rate claim.

Prequalification is a way of discovering whether for mortgage will also enable you to know whether you are getting lowest interest rates or not. A lender will see your present current income, debt and basic credit history situation in order to qualify you for a maximum mortgage amount. When you find lowest interest rate for mortgage in UK, you can lock in your interest rate. A lock means the lender will lock in the lowest interest rate and points for a specific period of time that is usually the time during which the loan application is processed.

Lowest interest rates in UK are possible if you have good credit history. A good credit history has innumerable benefits in the loan market. Also lowest interest rates are possible adjustable rate mortgage. Adjustable interest rate mortgage in UK have interest rates lower than traditional mortgage. Also loan term of a mortgage should be lesser. A 15 year mortgage will mean lower rate of interest than a 30 year mortgage. A shorter loan term will always save money.

No other single factor has so much effect on your mortgage as mortgage rates. Getting a mortgage in UK at lowest rates will mean that you have agreed to all those who asked you to get the best mortgage deal. A little decrease in interest rates would mean big in terms of savings. There is loads of information available on internet to know how the market is currently fairing. Dont settle for the first mortgage rate you stumble upon because they seem lowest. Go to different mortgage lenders. And then decide. Lowest rate for mortgage is not the only factor to look out while mortgaging for but it certainly is one of the deciding factors.

So while you are jumping frantically from one site to another in order to get lowest interest rate, you forget that it will need some patience and hard work. Like all good things it wont come easily. Lowest rates for mortgage in UK wont be served on a platter. No way. If you had enjoyed doing homework in school, looking for lowest interest rate wont be a problem. Look around, study research, read and you will find mortgage rates not only lowest but surpassing your own mortgage rate arithmetic.