You can take another look at the week’s news and we’ll round up the most thought-provoking or unmissable comments posted after stories or letters sent straight through to the editor.
Comment any time on the Mortgage Solutions website and you could feature in next week’s Mortgage Mutterings.
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Kensington increases buy-to-let LTV to 85%
Mortgage Solutions | 07 Feb 2011 | 11:21
Kay McLellan
Welcome return
What a welcoming and refreshing piece of news. Obviously the lender has assessed market conditions and realised BTL will be the buoyant activity in 2011. Hopefully other lenders will follow and launch other 85% LTV BTL products to compete. Only grumble is that once again Scotland is not in the lending area
HDC
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Why advice is too important to cut
Mortgage Solutions | 08 Feb 2011 | 10:35
Melanie Bien
Why advice is too important to cut
You are completely correct about advice Melanie but so few of these politicians have had proper jobs that they won’t understand that. The idea that we are all in this together is laughable . On one day you have Eddie George saying it is essential that people accept their 5% reduction of income in real terms.(For honest mortgage brokers it has been more like 50% as we subsidise the nationalised banks and the bonuses of their top men by sending clients there for their direct deals at £70pm cheaper.) Within a couple of days, George accepts an enormous enhancement to his pension. If he had been a man of any honour he would have shown some leadership and declined it. 96% of people in this country are being hammered to pay for 2% of scroungers at the bottom ( I don’t include the genuinely disabled in this) and 2% of scroungers at the top. If we weren’t such a supine race, we would see the scenes from Cairo here.
Des Platt
08 Feb 2011 | 15:14
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Channel 4 accused of “loathsome estate agent-bashing”
Mortgage Solutions | 09 Feb 2011 | 11:05
Kay McLellan
You are correct Trevor – but not for the reasons you think
No doubt Mary will make some mistaken assumptions in her programme tonight, not least amongst which is the one about estate agents ‘customers’ being the prospective purchasers. Unfortunately however this mistake will probably be driven by the misunderstanding that estate agents ‘act’ for both parties – which they do not, unless of course one counts the vendor and the estate agent themselves. While Estate Agents continue to ‘recommend’ a solicitor (in return for an undeclared backhander) even when prospective purchasers already have one(!) or imply that it is somehow “necessary” for their in-house mortgage adviser to vet prospective purchasers before any offer can be put forward to their actual client, the vendor, they will continue to be viewed as rogues. The habitual ploy of Estate Agents giving one story to the vendor and another to the prospective purchaser will always endorse the public’s view of the industry (I will not call it a profession) when eventually the truth comes out when the vendor and the prospective purchaser actually talk to each other – heaven forbid I hear all the agents cry!
Trickiedickie
09 Feb 2011 | 12:09
2 sides
There are people who are liars. There are people that cheats. There are people who are time wasters and there are people that are sweet! The above phrase could apply to some estate agents but it could equally apply to many of the ‘customers’ the estate agents deal with every day. The job is extremely difficult at the moment and I would not choose to be an estate agent. Needless to say, some agents are terrible in the service they provide but so are some of the people they have to deal with. Don’t get calls returned by your estate agent? How many calls do they make that do not get returned? Been misled by an estate agent? How many agents get misled by ‘customers’ every day of the week, (cash purchase, mortgage in place, sale agreed etc) There are 2 sides to every story – I’ll be watching this evening.
Nick D
09 Feb 2011 | 16:52
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Osborne: CPMA will be ‘world class’ regulator
Mortgage Solutions | 09 Feb 2011 | 08:34
IFAonline
Define World Class
World Class by what measure? Best or worst? – Interesting to note the cost of restructure – which the industry will pay, plus the additional cost of implementing their “mad cap” ideas.
Wornout
09 Feb 2011 | 09:26
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MS Poll Result: Brokers swing to fee charging
Mortgage Solutions | 10 Feb 2011 | 17:05
Mortgage Solutions
About time!
I have charged fees since opening my business in 2007. I wouldn’t be open now if I hadn’t. Brokers who don’t charge fees are undervaluing the job. You wouldn’t expect a plasterer to come and plaster a wall for nothing so why should we, after going to the extent of passing professional exams and offering a proffesional service, do the job for nothing?
Ben Roberts
10 Feb 2011 | 17:33
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Altmann: BoE is ignoring the warning signs
Mortgage Solutions | 11 Feb 2011 | 09:23
IFAonline
Right on Roz
As so very often – Roz is right again. Where do borrowers think their loans come from? From savers of course – who outnumber them 3 to one. Savers are moving their money elsewhere and this has already put pressure on lenders to harden their rates. Have you noticed that many savings accounts are now offering around 3%. That might not seem much (and it isn’t) but when can you recall savings rates being 6 TIMES the base rate! If the bank won’t raise rates, the market will.
Harry Katz
11 Feb 2011 | 09:42
Shame
This Dr Altmann that is setting herself up as an expert is obviously lacking in any real skill or understanding and just trying to control a situation by means that have consistently proved ineffective in the past, there is a saying that if you always do the same thing then the same thing will always happen. Let’s see some real skills and forward thinking by the BOE by finding other ways to control inflation that is being pushed up by factors that don’t really have a long term effect on inflation. Knee jerk reactions are a sign of poor management and professionalism and I for one back the BOE for their recognition of the situation, however, their long term strategy might be buckling under pressure from members of the flat earth society such as Dr Altmann.
David William
11 Feb 2011 | 10:39
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Have a great weekend.
The Mortgage Solutions team
