"Why so? A mortgage broker will get you the best deal from a variety of lenders at no extra cost. "
Hi Liam. No offence intended - and you were certainly one of the brokers I had in mind when I referred to those who post here.
I suppose the point I was making (poorly) is that for very many people, the best available rate should only take a few calls to lenders and some fairly basic research. That is all it takes me, and most of my borrowings are at ECB plus 0.8%, which is reasonably keen. It doesn't seem so complex to me that you should need somebody to do this for you; But I suppose that I am coming from a background of being very familiar with mortgages, and my perspective might not be that of the average punter. Plus, I have to acknowledge that the market does seem to prove me wrong - I think that the percentage of mortgages procured through brokers continues to rise. Any time you add a layer between buyer and seller, my first instinct is that you must be adding cost to a system. As against that, I believe some banks reckon it is cheaper to sell through brokers than to sell through their own staff. So, - if I reflect more fully on my comment - I do have to concede that the opinion given was off the cuff, possibly personal to my own circumstances, and perhaps not borne out by the evidence of the market. (as I re-read this, I must also concede that this is a very wishy washy retraction; )