The conventional process that must be followed to take out a mortgage is well known. The applicant must contact a bank, either online or in an office, must present the required documentation, wait weeks or months for their request to be approved and sign the deed before a notary. And following this procedure, in many cases, does not guarantee achieving attractive financing conditions.
In recent years, however, an alternative method of obtaining a cheap mortgage has gained popularity. According to the financial comparator HelpMyCash.com, more and more applicants decide to entrust the procedures to a mortgage broker, which is a professional who is dedicated to negotiating with banks and trying to obtain the best possible conditions for their clients.
One of the advantages of entrusting obtaining the mortgage to a broker or intermediary is the saving of time. This professional requests financing from several banks on behalf of the person who has hired his services, so it is not necessary to visit the offices of various entities or make copies of the documentation to present to each of them. In this way, times are reduced and approval can be achieved more quickly.
Additionally, according to HelpMyCash, brokers have great knowledge of the mortgage market. This allows them to know which banks offer the most competitive conditions at a given time, as well as negotiate to improve their initial proposals. The applicant, therefore, has a better chance of getting an attractive mortgage than if he or she processes the application on his or her own.
For example, if a mortgage broker is hired, the client will have more options to obtain a lower interest rate and with a smaller number of associated products. Likewise, if you have little savings, the intermediary may negotiate the granting of an amount greater than 80% of the price of the home, which is the maximum that banks usually finance.
And how much does a broker charge for their services? According to the comparator's analysts, the vast majority of these professionals apply a commission to the bank that finally grants the mortgage, as remuneration for having found them a client.
However, not all of them charge fees to the applicant. In Spain, there are a good number of intermediaries who work without charging any commission to the person who hires their services. They are focused, however, on clients with a good economic profile: with enough savings to pay the entrance fee, with a stable employment situation, etc.
Brokers that do charge fees to the client usually ask for a commission that can be percentage, between 1% and 5% on average of the amount of the mortgage, or fixed, around 4,000 euros on average. Their services are normally more complete than those of free intermediaries: they can negotiate financing of more than 80%, some offer advice...
In general, paying these fees is worth it, since the broker usually gets a better interest rate (which offsets the cost of their services) and can obtain conditions that the bank would not offer to the client if it processed the application on its own. In any case, it is always advisable to do numbers and assess whether it is appropriate to pay the price requested by the intermediary.
If the applicant considers it more convenient to request financing on their own, they can also find attractive offers. For example, BBVA's Fixed Mortgage has a low interest rate of 2.90%, which can be obtained by direct depositing your payroll and taking out the entity's home and life insurance. And the EVO Banco Smart Mortgage has a competitive variable rate from Euribor plus 0.48% (2.30% fixed for the first 24 months), conditional on meeting the same conditions as the previous loan.
HelpMyCash analysts, however, consider that it is advisable to request a mortgage from several banks at the same time, even if it takes longer. In this way, the client will be able to compare the conditions of different offers and can haggle with the entities to try to improve them.
