Negotiating with several banks to get a good mortgage is not an easy task. Firstly, because it takes time to contact several entities, compare their offers and haggle to improve them. And secondly, because certain financial knowledge is required to know if a bank's proposal is competitive or, on the contrary, has room for improvement.
But the client does not have to face these procedures alone: there is the option of hiring the services of a mortgage broker. According to the analysts of the financial comparator HelpMyCash.com, negotiating the conditions of the mortgage with the support of this professional can be very beneficial, since it will save the applicant time and, above all, it will save them money.
And what are the advantages of hiring the services of a mortgage broker? To begin with, HelpMyCash analysts state that this intermediary is responsible for analyzing the client's economic and financial situation to assess whether they could obtain the mortgage; usually without commitment. Therefore, the applicant can know from the beginning whether the operation would be viable or not.
If this first analysis is positive, the client and broker will sign the intermediation contract so that the latter can begin the search for the mortgage. Normally, it will contact the banks that it believes can offer better conditions to the applicant based on their economic and financial situation. This will save time for the future mortgage holder, since they will not have to travel to the bank offices to present their request.
But the intermediary's work is not limited to processing applications on behalf of his client: he is also usually in charge of negotiating with banks to obtain better conditions. In general, thanks to their greater knowledge of the financial market, brokers obtain more competitive mortgages than entities offer to applicants when they go on their own.
For example, according to HelpMyCash, brokers are able to get fixed mortgages at less than 2.75%; an interest that the vast majority of banks do not openly offer to applicants. And at a variable rate, they can obtain interest of Euribor plus 0.49% or less without having to take out insurance or other associated products.
In addition, there are intermediaries specialized in obtaining financing greater than 80% of the purchase and sale value for those clients who do not have enough savings to pay the full 20% down payment that banks usually request. These brokers know which entities usually approve this type of operations and how to negotiate with them to obtain their approval.
But how much does it cost to hire a broker? According to HelpMyCash, it will depend on the policy of each intermediary. In fact, there are several that do not charge the client anything at all (their fees are paid by the bank with which the mortgage is contracted). However, their services are usually less complete: they put the applicant in contact with several entities and do not negotiate with them to obtain better conditions.
Payment brokers, on the other hand, usually haggle with entities and obtain financing for profiles that are further removed from the standard client, such as applicants with little savings. These intermediaries usually charge a commission that can be percentage, between 1% and 5% on average of the mortgage amount, or fixed, between 2,000 and 5,000 euros on average.
In general, hiring the services of a payment broker pays off, either because you usually get a lower interest rate (which compensates for their fees) or because you get conditions that banks do not usually offer to applicants (such as financing of more than 80%). In any case, it is always advisable for the client to do the math and assess whether it is convenient for him to pay his fee.
