We’re looking at buying a house, and we’ve so far started talking with pretty much the first mortgage advisor that got back to us, from a recommendation of an estate agent.
He’s part of Countrywide Mortgage Services which in itself is completely fine, and I don’t think there’s anything shady going on, but I feel like we’re being rushed and heavily pressed into moving as quickly as possible into booking viewings, buying into “mortgage protection” (basically life insurance packages with loads of bollocks on top) and it’s giving us a bad taste after our last two meetings with him.
At the same time, he’s shown us the portal he uses for finding mortgage rates and its clear we’d save more than the £700 price for his services, and we definitely do want someone to help handle the process for us, but are they meant to feel as pushy as car salesmen?
I had some dealings with Countrywide - my Dad’s financial advisor put us onto them and they came up with some weird tax avoidance scheme that would have involved giving them a percentage of his house or some such dodgy nonsense. We showed it to the lawyer who was redoing Dad’s will (who was a property lawyer) and he said it’d never work. Then again the lawyer was a bit rubbish and hadn’t done what was asked of him decades earlier which caused all sorts of hassle later on.
My rule of thumb is that, if you feel you are being pressured into something then walk away. There’s a reason they want you sign up.so.quixkly without shopping around and it isn’t to your benefit (best case scenario they want to guarantee their bonus). I had a British Gas guy come to give a quote on a new boiler and he tried the old “here is a deal but it expires when I leave”. I said “you were doing so well up until that point”.