Inform 11th June 2021

NEW BLOG OUT NOW!

Have you seen our latest blog feature from Skipton Building Society for Intermediaries?

Peter Shuttleworth, Decisions Systems Manager, and Aidan Walker, Credit Risk Manager, talk about finding the balance between adopting technology and managing credit risk.

Click here to visit their Blog to find out more…

Stamp Duty holiday deadline update

With the Stamp Duty holiday deadline of 30 June 2021 fast approaching, we’re continuing to see a significant increased volume of telephone enquiries.

To enable us to help customers aiming to complete their purchase by 30 June please:

• Avoid calling for case updates on non-Stamp Duty holiday completion applications where possible. Please refer to our Mortgage Application Tracking System (MATS) to keep up to date with the progress of your client’s application up to the point of completion.
• Check our service page. We update our current service levels at the start of every day, so please visit this page to get our admin or underwriting timescales.
• Refer to our contact us page for telephone number details of the correct team that can help you with your enquiry:

Regional Support Team
Your dedicated sales contact can help you with new business enquiries including:

• Understanding our residential and BTL Lending criteria.
• Case packaging advice.
• Our products and online systems.
• Agreement in Principle decisions.
• Mortgage application declines and maximum loans.

Admin Support Team
Our admin support team can help you with current mortgage application queries including:

• Case updates.
• Product fee queries.
• Documentation requests.

• Allow 10 working days for any material change requests to an application e.g. change of product, loan amount etc.

Please share this communication with any administration team colleagues working alongside you so they can follow this guidance on when and how to contact us.

Reaping the benefits of Open Banking in Buy-to-Let

What does Open Banking offer to brokers, landlords and underwriters? LendInvest’s underwriting team leader, Tom Steer, explains how we’re using it to make the Buy-to-Let process faster and simpler for everyone. Read more.

Looking for ways to say yes –

Specialist mortgages tailored to your clients’ circumstances

• Self-employed
• First Time buyers
• Home movers
• Remortgagers

We’re here to help. With flexible lending criteria and real people to underwrite your cases, it’s time to come to Kensington.

Discover more.
Visit our website or call us on 0800 111 020

Buy-to-Let Finance relaunched, Home Finance product changes and Broker Portal Update

We are delighted to announce that as of today, we are relaunching our Buy-to-Let product offering and making changes to all of our Home Finance products.

Following feedback from our intermediary partners, we are also pleased to confirm that we have made a number of enhancements to our online application portal to make it easier for you to submit cases and monitor their progress. A summary of the changes are as follows:

Buy-to-Let (UK residents, UK Expats and International residents):

• New products launched across our BTL product range.
• Minimum finance £150,000 across all BTL products.
• Minimum property values are now £235,000 for 65% FTV products, £200,000 for 75% FTV products and £190,000 for 80% FTV products.
• International resident HMO and MUFB products are not being relaunched at this time.

Home Purchase Plans:

• Minimum finance amount has decreased to £150,000, from £200,000 across all HPP products.
• Minimum property value for all 65% FTV products has decreased to £235,000, from £310,000.
• Minimum property value for all 80% FTV products has decreased to £190,000, from £250,000.
• The ‘Rent Only’ finance option has been temporarily withdrawn from all Home Purchase Plan products.

Full details of our new products can be found here.

Broker Portal Update:

• A new feature to upload multiple documents has now been integrated into our online application portal which allows a full suite of documents to be added per task, reducing the need for additional tasks to be raised and allowing applications to progress more efficiently. The new feature is available at the point of a) pre-submission tasks when all mandatory tasks are required to be completed, and b) b) Requests for Documentation.
• The Status Names have been revised to give a clearer definition of each stage of our application process and provide you with additional clarity on the status of applications you have submitted to us:

Packaging of Applications
One of the key reasons for delays in processing applications is that they are not being fully packaged at the outset. To deliver the desired levels of customer service to you going forward, we really need your support to ensure all required documentation is included in line with the guidance we provide at the time of submitting the application. Further guidance on packaging can be found here.

Thank you for your continued support. Our teams remain available to deal with your queries via phone and email, details of which can be found here.

When your client’s income is complex, we make things straightforward

Clients who are asset rich can often find it hard to secure a mortgage thanks to unusual income profiles, including these scenarios:

• Owning a substantial, high value property
• Having substantial cash, investments and/or pensions
• Being retired or on a career break
• Recently going through a divorce
• Appearing to have low income relative to borrowing needs

Whatever makes their income unusual, we treat each applicant as they are – unique. TFI is confident in finding mortgage solutions for atypical clients and can evaluate a variety of financial assets for income, using potential drawings on investments to boost affordability.

UNUSUAL INCOME: PROBLEM SOLVED

We recently arranged a short term mortgage for a couple in their 70s looking to purchase and update the perfect retirement home, selling their current property at a later date.

State pension income was insufficient for affordability, but by monetising a SIPP worth £500k we created sufficient income, avoiding an expensive bridging loan and allowing them to purchase and then sell chain free.

WHAT’S HOT?

• Part repayment/part interest only solutions available
• Income from pension, savings, investments and property assets taken into account
• Bonus acceptance up to 75% LTV
• ERC free short-term lending also available

Need help making a complex case more straightforward?

See what we can do for you by calling Ralph and the TFI team today…

Call – 0800 378 669

Or visit our website

Complex Incomes

Mainstream just isn’t us, our understanding underwriters would rather work with you to come up with real answers to real issues. And that’s why we call it lending for real life.

Complex doesn’t need to be complicated, we understand that life isn’t all nine to five. There are applicants out there working multiple jobs and receiving incomes from multiple streams.

• We use 50% of evidenced bonus / commission / overtime / shift allowance / Annual bonus
• 100% of car allowance / regional allowance
• 100% of second job income considered
• 50% of Rental income considered
• Joint applications with maximum of one applicant on furlough considered (furlough salary used)

For more information give our sales hub a call on 0344 257 0418 or find your local BDM.

Nominations are open for Community Giving 2021

We’re excited to announce the launch of this year’s Community Giving. Once again, you’re invited to nominate housing or homelessness causes to see if you could help them secure a £1,000 donation.

We’ve got 40 donations to give away, and this year you can nominate up to three causes, even if they’ve been nominated and received a donation in previous years. Sound good?

You can make your nomination on our website, the deadline is 5pm Friday 30 July. You can also find full T&Cs and further details within the nomination pack on our website. In the meantime, here are the basics.

Exclusive
Community Giving is exclusive to brokers and employees of intermediary firms.

Focused
The cause you nominate must be focused on housing or homelessness.

Sustainable
Your nomination(s) should show how the donation could provide potential long-term benefits to the cause.

Nominate now.

Non-portfolio landlords at Landbay

If you have a landlord with 3 properties or less click here. These options are perfect for clients looking to add a fourth property to their portfolio!

Criteria Highlights:

• Available to limited companies and individuals
• Minimum loan size £100,000
• Maximum loan size £1,000,000
• Maximum 75% LTV

Exclusions: Properties above or adjacent to commercial premises (applies to flats & houses), ex-local authority properties and new build properties

Got a case in mind? Then please get in touch using our BDM Finder.

Is the outlook improving for self-employed borrowers?

The residential sector is becoming increasingly complex for many types of potential borrowers. There are growing numbers of self-employed people who need additional support in servicing their mortgage requirements.

In addition, more and more people are having portfolio careers, often creating a mix of employment, freelancing, and/or consultancy work – therefore generating multiple streams of income. All of which are challenging scenarios for the more traditional lenders.

Despite the gradual reopening of businesses as lockdown eases and more lenders pushing up the loan to value curve, Mortgage brokers report that self-employed borrowers are still being viewed as risky business. This is according to the latest Mortgage Solutions poll where 61 per cent of brokers said the mortgage outlook was not improving for homeowners who worked for themselves, while 22 per cent said they thought it was.

Many lenders are reviewing their policy and criteria when it comes to meeting these demands, although the choice of lender can make a significant difference to the availability and amount a self-employed mortgage applicant can borrow.

This factor underlines just how vital it is for intermediaries to fully understand how specialist lenders such as Foundation Home Loans can meet the ever-changing needs of their clients in these challenging times.

For example, we accept retained profits and one year’s accounts for the self-employed. Here are 3 key reasons that Foundation Home Loans should be your first port of call for complex Self-employed cases:

• Solutions designed specifically for clients with complex and multiple employment – from recently self-employed, directors, partners and contractors, to PAYE full and part time
• Maximise borrowing with 100% of more types of income considered – including high commission and bonuses, trust, investment and pension incomes, share of net profits, retained profits, and salary dividends
• We underwrite to your client’s individual circumstances and telephone support for brokers directly from the case underwriter.

So, if you would like to know more about our residential offering, then why not speak to your Regional Account Manager

Adverse Credit? Clients shouldn’t be shamed into thinking they need not apply for a mortgage

A recent study by Aldermore Bank* showed that first time buyers are more likely to be rejected for a mortgage than they were a year ago. Unfortunately, more than two in five said that they had been rejected more than once. This compares with fewer than one in five before the pandemic.

In the survey, the top reason for mortgage applications being rejected was due to having a poor credit history (41%) and over a quarter of prospective first-time buyers said that they were worried about their credit history with over a third currently seeking to improve their credit score.

In our experience, an often repeated mistake is for first-time buyers with any kind of complexity and/or poor credit to seek to obtain a mortgage via their bank first and this will more often than not result in a rejected application. This can lead to despair, desperation and sometimes shame and embarrassment, but specialist finance brokers and distributors especially are experienced in helping such customers.

This is demonstrated by our recent partnership with the well regarded online mortgage broker, Mojo Mortgages who are referring their complex customers to impact, as we have vast experience in helping such customers obtain mortgages with a range of options not available directly to customers and many other broker firms.

The relationship we have with some of the specialist lenders ensures that some will allocate an onsite underwriter to our offices (during normal times) who will purely look at impact’s cases.  This ensures certainty of decision and underwrite and in return the lender receives volume, quality business and increased completion conversions.

With some of the high street lenders looking to encourage clients to go direct and cut out the original broker, especially when it comes to PTs, now more than ever it is a good time to be looking at the specialist arena for another business income opportunity.  As furlough draws to an end and many customers find themselves struggling on a monthly basis, this area is sure to be in demand over the coming months.

The Aldermore survey also highlighted this. More significant credit issues are becoming more prevalent with nearly a quarter (23%) having an account handled by collection agencies, one in nine (14%) having taken out a payday loan, 12% having a County Court Judgement (CCJs) and 9% having a bankruptcy in their past.  These findings are being echoed in our day-to-day dealings with brokers and their customers and it’s clear that the pandemic has impacted the finances of many, but that need not mean that they cannot obtain a mortgage.

Lenders have an appetite to lend and we’ve seen that recently with many different product launches in to the specialist arena.  This includes Help to Buy, Shared Ownership, Limited Company Buy to lets, 95% LTV Lending, Bridging, HMOs, all types of adverse, all manner of property types and so much more.

In addition, with the onslaught of technology, knowing that you have access to over twenty specialist lenders in one place, without the need to rekey data in to twenty different systems is time saving in the current climates.  Systems should have the ability to seamlessly link in with market leading sourcing and criteria systems, such as iress and Knowledge Bank, and automatically store and update evidence of research as well as any produced KFIs/ESIS.  With documents able to be ‘dragged and dropped’ into the system and automated updates via SMS and emails, any specialist packager partner you deal with should make the processing journey as simple and as slick as possible.   Most importantly, adding value to your relationship with your clients.

The more thorough and better prepared brokers are from the onset – in terms of asking the right questions to generate relevant and detailed responses from any complex or adverse customer – the less time is spent firefighting issues further down the line, and less stress will be placed on the client, throughout this process.

By enlightening customers to the many options available, no matter what their circumstances, we can all help to remove the supposed stigma and shame of having poor credit and help make customers’ home ownership dreams a reality.

Speak with the impact today on 01403 272625 to find out more.

Source: https://www.aldermore.co.uk/about-us/newsroom/2021/04/four-in-five-prospective-first-time-buyers-have-been-rejected-for-a-mortgage/