Specialist broker – Why Contractors should use them

Specialist Broker

Specialist Broker

Tony Harris is a specialist broker of contractor mortgages. He has been getting contractors mortgages for many years. So, I thought I would ask him why contractors should use a specialist broker like him rather than go direct to those that give out mortgages.

I asked him “Why should I go via you when I can just walk into a high street bank or building society? What differentiates you?”

Contract Based

With over fourteen years experience as a specialist broker and of negotiating our contract based mortgage underwriting, we have built unrivalled relationships with lenders.

If you go in to a high street bank and present your accounts, the mortgage adviser will only see your net income. This should be considerably less than you are actually earning (if your accountant is doing his job). So, this could severely limit the amount you can borrow.

Annual Contract Rate

Instead we use our contacts to secure your mortgage based on a multiple of your annual contract rate. This is irrespective of how long you have been contracting. It also doesn’t matter how long you have left on your current assignment.

This invariably allows our clients to borrow far more than they could even when they were a permie. It also saves the trouble of collating years of accounts or projections. This is the standard requirement if you were to go in-branch.

Mortgage Lenders

We understand that you live a very hectic lifestyle and have tailored our service to match.

We won’t need to see you face-to-face for a lengthy meeting as our entire service is offered online, via email and by phone. We do all the running for you, liaising with solicitors, lenders and estate agents so you don’t have to.

You will have one contact who will guide you through the process and is on hand to answer any questions you may have, leaving you free to concentrate on the needs of your client.

Best Mortgage Rates

That answers that then. It would be a foolish contractor who walked into banks asking about their contractor mortgages.

Tony uses his credibility in the marketplace to help get contractors the best mortgage rates available and the highest offers.

To get further information or to apply to a specialist broker for a mortgage, fill in a form here and Tony will get back to you:- Mortgages for Contractors

Contractor Mortgages – how long do you have to be a Contractor to get one?

How Long Do you Have to be a Contractor

How Long

Contractors always want to know how long you have to be a contractor to get one.

Tony Harris is a specialist contractor mortgages broker. He has been getting contractors mortgages for years. We have heard tales of people walking into high street banks to get a mortgage only to be told that they need to have 3 years accounts with them to qualify.

Many contractors want contractor mortgages soon after they become contractors. With their new-found wealth that comes as a bit of a blow. So we asked Tony the question.

How long do you have to be contracting to get a mortgage? I heard you need three years worth of accounts.

Applying for a Mortgage

Said Tony, “It is true that if you apply for a mortgage yourself on the high street, you will almost certainly need to have access to several years accounts. You will also need to show a steady or rising income from contracting in this time.

“However, we base your mortgage on a multiple of your contract rate alone. We simply need a copy of your current contract, a bank statement and proof of ID to secure your mortgage. The great news is that we can get you a mortgage on your very first day as a Contractor!”

Specialist Contractor Mortgages

So, how long was I told? I wish I’d known Tony when I first wanted to buy a house and get a mortgage after I turned contractor.

I went to a bank. They told me I needed three years of accounts. I thought that was that. Houses in my area in Maida Vale went up from £18,000 for the one I wanted to £96,000 before I was able to buy one.

It’s great that these specialist contractor mortgages are available now.

To get further information or to apply for a mortgage, fill in a form here and they will get back to you:- Contractor Mortgages

Contractor Mortgage Offer – how much can you get?

How Much Can You Get

So, How Much Can You Get

The questions contractors ask is how much can they get when applying for a specialist contractor mortgage.

Tony Harris is a specialist contractor mortgages broker. He has successfully got contractors mortgage offers for years, way above what a high street bank would get you. We ask him how much a contractor can get on his contractor mortgage offer and how it is worked out.

Tony, how much of a contractor mortgage offer can you get a contractor? Is it related to the amount you pay yourself from your company? Can you get a contractor mortgage offer based on the total amount of the contract? Say I was earning £400 a day but paying myself £150 a day? How much of a contractor mortgage offer could you get me?

Tony’s reply on Contractor Mortgage Offer

“Our specially negotiated contract based underwriting uses your hourly or daily rate to work out how much you can borrow This is irrespective of how much you physically draw out for yourself.

“We simply take your daily rate of £400 and work out what your annualised rate would be if you worked at this level for five days a week and 48 weeks of the year.

“The lender will then specify what multiple of this they are willing to lend. However, it is usually around four times annual contract rate.

Contractor Mortgage Offer from Contract

“This means you could secure a mortgage of £384,000 despite only paying yourself £150 a day.

“You don’t have to have an annual contract to receive this amount. The lenders we use understand our niche clients. They appreciate that you are highly likely to secure another contract as soon as the current one has ended. So even if you only have a three-month contract, we should be able to secure you a mortgage”.

Director’s Salary

That’s pretty good and a lot more than a bank or building society would offer you. They would only take the Director’s salary you draw. They offer contractor mortgages based on 3, 4 or 5 times that. That wouldn’t buy you much.

It’s basically all down to Tony’s credibility with the mortgage brokers and his success down the years in bringing them contractors who pay their mortgages. Contractors can tap into that.

To get further information or to apply for a mortgage, fill in a form here and Tony will get back to you:- Contractor Mortgages

How quickly can you get Contractor Mortgages?

How Quickly Can You Get a Contractor Mortgage

How Quickly

We asked top specialist contractor mortgages broker Tony Harris how quickly he could get contractor mortgages. Was it a long-drawn out process? Here is how he replied.

“Our advisers will carry out an initial consultation via phone or email lasting 10-15 minutes. Once we agree which lender best suits your needs an agreement in principle can be secured. This will be within a matter of hours of your initial call or email.

“This gives you real clout when negotiating with estate agents etc. That’s because it shows the lender is broadly in agreement that they will lend you the money and that you can move quickly with any purchase.

Property Offer

“They would be assured that once you a seller has accepted your offer on a property, we’d agree a competitive interest rate scheme with you that meets your requirements and the application would go live straight away.

“After receipt of your initial instruction the whole process of underwriting, valuation and legal to you getting the keys to your new home in 4-8 weeks.

“It helps to speed things up, to get contractor mortgages, if you have the necessary documentation to hand. However, because we are able to do everything remotely via phone and email, the application is hassle free. It’s much faster than if you were to apply through a high street bank branch”.

Contractor Mortgages

That sounds pretty speedy to get contractor mortgages. It would put you to the head of the queue if you were bidding for a house.

Tony reckons that they can get a new contractor mortgage offers on the very first day of the new contractors first contract. They could have the new contractor in his, or her, dream house in less than a month.

To get contractor mortgages or further information or to apply for a mortgage, fill in a form here and Tony will get back to you: – Specialist Contractor Mortgages

Contractor Mortgage Offers Based on Contract Value

Contract Value - Contractor Mortgage Offers at best rates

Contract Value

Specialist brokers can get contractors mortgages based on their contract value.

Most lenders don’t understand contractors when making contractor mortgage offers. They don’t know how they operate.

They should, as most of them employ heaps of contractors in their IT departments and other departments.

However, those at banks and building societies who are the ones who decide if contractors should get mortgages are not the same people who interact with contractors in their computer departments.

Best Contractor Mortgages

Best Contractor Mortgages Rates & Offers

Contractors Risky to Lend To

From their point of view contractors are a big risk.

As they don’t have permanent (and secure) jobs they need to show a track record.

So, they ask to see 3 or more years worth of accounts.

Mortgage Offer Based on Director’s Salary

Now, what they are used to dealing with, when they make their mortgage offers, are salaries.

They then make an offer based on a multiple of a person’s salary.

They get the contractor’s accounts and peruse it for something they know.

“Ah, there it is” they think. “There’s the director’s salary. We will multiply that by 3 or 4 or 5 and make the contractor an offer based on that.”

The contractor would have been better to try to get a mortgage before he turned contractors.

Specialist Contractor Mortgage Brokers

Contract Based Mortgage Offers

Contract Based Mortgage Offers from Specialist Brokers

However, in the past few years, specialist contractor mortgage brokers have managed to convince some lenders that the contractor market could be a lucrative one for them.

They convinced one or two lenders to give it a go and lend to a few contractors.

The results were good. The contractors paid their mortgages regularly and didn’t default.

So, they gave out more and more mortgages.

Daily Rate Annualised

They based these mortgage offers on the contractor’s daily rate annualised rather than their director’s salary.

They also only needed to see the contract as proof of earnings.

In the beginning the lenders were quite conservative when lending to contractors.

However, they gradually relaxed once they saw that contractors were actually quite good payers.

Despite the uncertainty of working as a contractor, they were able to organise themselves into making regular payments even when they were out of work.

More and More Mortgage Offers for Contractors

As a result, specialist contractor mortgage brokers are able to get more and more mortgages for contractors from more and more lenders.

What’s more, it is at high street rates or sometimes better.

Every so often they get a special mortgage offer just for contractors based on their contract value.

Specialist Contractor Mortgages

Specialist Contractor Mortgages brokers

Contractors now have access to a growing number of lenders and a growing number of mortgage offers.

The process is pretty quick too.

You can normally get contractor mortgage offers on the very day you ask for one, providing you have all the details and could, potentially, be able to move into your dream house anywhere between 2 and 6 weeks after you sought the offer.

Applying for a Contractor Mortgage

To find out more, or to apply, just click on Contractor Mortgage Application and fill in the form there.

40% Deposit Interest Free Present to Londoners from Government

40% Deposit Interest Free

40% Deposit Interest Free

Londoners are to receive a 40% Deposit Interest free from the Government. This is according to an announcement in the Autumn Statement for Chancellor George Osborne.

That was a major rabbit that he pulled out of his hat, completely out of the blue.

This is under the Help to Buy scheme.

Help to Buy Scheme

The Help to Buy scheme has worked very well outside London but not very well in London.

The Government offered 20% deposits, interest free, to those wanting to get on the property ladder.

However, this was not much use in London where property prices have soared out of all recognition.

A nice flat in a decent area could cost you close to a million pounds.

So, offering them a 20% deposit wasn’t going to do the trick.

IT Contractor Mortgages

Indeed, even IT Contractors, who are pretty well paid, would struggle to buy a first home in London.

A contractor who earned £400 a day would be able to borrow close to half a million using specialist contractor mortgage brokers.

However, he, or she would be left scratching around, even at that, for a home in a decent area.

So, now contractors in London, who wish to purchase a new home, will qualify for this 40% deposit.

5% Deposit for UK Contractors

With this new initiative, or latest version fo the Help to Buy scheme, contractors would need to stump up jus a 5% deposit and the Government will stump up another 40%.

This will leave lenders just needing to stump up a further 55%.

Because the lenders are loaning just 55% it means that they are likely to loan money at lower rates than a lender asked to stump up 90% or 95%.

40% Deposit Interest Free laons for London contractors

40% Deposit Interest Free loans for London contractors

Nationwide Mortgages Just for Contractors

It’s expected that the Nationwide Building Society are going to want to have a piece of this action.

One specialist contractor mortgage brokers have a current deal with them to get contractors mortgages at great rates.

A high street building society, or bank, would ask contractor to produce three years worth of accounts to get a mortgage offer.

They would base that mortgage offer on a multiple of their Director’s salary.

That’s not much use.

This specialist contractor  mortgage broker has a deal with the Nationwide specially for them that provides mortgage offers to contractors just on production of their contract.

House Prices to rise for for UK Contractors

House Prices for UK Contractors

Mortgage Offer based on Daily Rate

Furthermore, they will base that mortgage offer on their daily rate annualised.

So, if their daily rate was £400 a day, the offer would be likely to be £400 x 5 x 48 (weeks) x 4.

Therefore, it is expected that Nationwide will give a new deal to London contractors with a rate as low as 1.59% fixed for 2 years with a £999 arrangement fee.

For more details on this , or to apply, all you need to do is click on Contractor Mortgage Application and fill in the form there.

Cheaper Contractor Mortgages Could Be Here for 18 Months

Cheaper Contractor Mortgages

Cheaper Contractor Mortgages Rates

It looks like cheaper contractor mortgages will be with us for some time now.

It was thought that Bank of England interest rates would soon be on the way up, pushing up the price of contractor mortgages.

The Governor of the Bank of England had hinted that they could be going up by early next year.

He had said that late this year, they would be monitoring the situation closely.

Interest rates on contractor mortgages had started to rise in anticipation of a rate rise coming within months.

Mortgage Rate Increase Unlikely

So, the contract Mortgage market got a pleasant surprise when the Bank of England announced that the first increase was unlikely to come before May 2017.

That means that we could have low mortgages rates for 18 months or maybe even more.

Cheaper contractor mortgages could be here for a while.

The Bank of England had expected that inflation would be starting to rise by now.

However, inflation is keeping itself very low at around zero.

This is because problems in the world economy, and especially in the Euro area and China, are keeping the UK economy from roaring ahead.

Lower Economic Growth Keeping Interest Rates Down

Indeed the Bank decreased, slightly, their estimates for growth in the UK economy this year and next year.

The Bank has taken down its predicted growth in the economy from 2.7% to 2.6% this year and from 2.6% to 2.5% next year.

Normally, at this stage in the cycle, the economy would be roaring ahead with 3% to 4% growth and with inflation starting to rear its head.

However, deflationary conditions in the world economy are keeping the UK to non-inflationary growth levels.

Indeed, the Bank said that inflation would only be 1% by the end of next year. This is hardly the runaway inflation that could cause interest rates to rise.

This is very good news for contractors and the specialised contractor mortgages market.

Mortgages for Contractors to Remain Cheap

According to one mortgage broker, it could mean contractors getting even cheaper rates than before with the first interest rate hike perhaps 18 months away.

Currently, contractor mortgage rates are about as low as they have ever been. Yet expect them to go even lower in the coming weeks as lenders adjust to the new scenario of low-interest rates for a longer period of time.

They will start to reverse the increases they had put on interest rates in anticipation of a base rate rise.

Cheaper contractor mortgages are on the way.

Better Mortgage Offers for UK Contractors

The advent of specialized mortgages for contractors, in recent years, mean that contractors can now get better offers than they used to get, at lower interest rates, and they don’t, now, have to produce three years worth of accounts.

They no longer get offers based on their Director’s salary.

That’s provided they use specialist contractor mortgage brokers rather than walk into high street banks or building societies.

Mortgage Offers for Contractors

Nowadays, contractors can get offers of 4 times their daily rate annualised – just on production of their contract. It’s taken that contractors work 48 weeks a year.

So, a contractor earning £500 a day gets £2,500 a week, or £120,000 a year.

With a mortgage offer of 4 times salary that equates to a potential mortgage offer of £480,000.

To take advantage of these lower rates, contact a specialist contractor mortgage broker for more info, by filling in the form below.

Please click on Contractor Mortgage Application and fill in the form there.

First Time Buyers Advantage | Cheaper to Buy Than Rent

Best Contractor Mortgages

First Time Buyers Advantage

Itis time to get a first time buyers advantage for contractors.

They can now get first time buyers contractor mortgages in the contractor mortgage market which suit them as much as all contractors looking for mortgages.

A survey by Halifax has revealed that buyers are £670 better off per year than those renting.

It was reported that the average monthly rent in June 2015 was £722 for a three bedroom property. This compares to a mortgage of £666 for the same size property.

Therefore the average first-time buyer’s monthly mortgage is 8% lower than the typical monthly rent.

Contractors Buying Property in London

Those buying in London could save up to a massive £81 per month this year. The average mortgage cost is £1,338 compared to the average rental cost of £1,419.

The financial benefits of buying versus renting has made quite a leap in the last 6 years.

During the credit crunch buying was 16% more than the average rental cost. This meant you would be paying out £1,154 a year more on your mortgage compared to renting.

Buying Cheaper than Renting

So why in 2015 is buying cheaper than renting?

So, there is now a first time buyers advantage because of historically low mortgage rates

Halifax reported that despite the typical price of a three bedroom house rising by 25% since 2009, mortgage rates have plummeted.

The average mortgage rate was 4.92% 6 years ago in comparison to today’s average mortgage rate of 2.91%.

Contractor Mortgage Market Rates

At the beginning of 2015 rates were at a record-breaking low. They were pushed down by the Bank of England’s base rate, which is currently hovering at 0.5%.

This resulted in a flood of competitive rates into the mortgage market. This enabled Contractor first time buyers to secure a mortgage with a small deposit and record-breaking low mortgage repayments.

Although the Greek crisis seems to be putting pressure on the Eurozone, which could also be delaying Britain first interest rate rise in 8 years, media reports reveal that the prospect of a hike are immanent as the UK’s economy strengthens.

Some high street lenders are already preparing themselves with mortgage rates slowly creeping up.

However the Governor of the Bank of England, Mark Carney, has indicated that base rate rises will be a slow process. Despite the forthcoming increase there are plenty of competitive mortgages deals to be found.

Buying Property vs Renting

Buying your first home is the biggest decision you will ever make.

Many first time buyers find the whole prospect rather daunting. The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors reports that just 1 in 5 young buyers find the mortgage process easy.

Therefore it is essential to seek professional financial advice and weigh up the pros and cons before committing to a property purchase:-

Saving For a Deposit

– Saving for a deposit can be a struggle but help is at hand. There are Government schemes that help you purchase your first home with as little as a 5% deposit. Help to buy ISAs will also be launching in the Autumn which will help you save your deposit.

– It’s a big commitment but once you have paid off your mortgage your home will be yours.

– Home improvements can be costly but they can increase the value of your property. So it might be worth finding a project for your first home to help you move up the ladder later.

– If your home increases in value the equity may help you purchase a bigger property or fund your retirement pot.

– Buying can be cheaper than renting.

– If interest rates rise, your repayments will go up. It’s important to prepare for any rate rises and take advantage of cheap fixed rates whilst they last.

This is why there is a first time buyers advantage now.

Specialist Contractor Mortgages

Our partners are experts in helping Contractors to find a mortgage tailored to your unique needs and they have a wealth of experience and knowledge of contractor mortgages.

They are leaders in the specialist contractor mortgages market.

They can take the hassle out of finding the right mortgage rate for you. To find out more please click on Contractor Mortgage Application and fill in the form there.

Specialist Contractor Mortgage Deals – Nationwide to Offer Them

Property Crowdfunding for Contractors

Contractor Mortgage Deals

We look, now at contractor mortgage deals in the current market.

Tony Harris is a supplier of specialist mortgages to the contractor market. It used to be that if a contractor wanted a mortgage, he, or she, would:-

1.  Have to produce three years worth of accounts

2.  Be given an offer based on your Director’s salary.

Still, to this day, if you walked into a hight street bank or building society, they would ask for the same.

Specialist Contractor Mortgage Brokers

Those contractors in the know, however, use specialist contractor mortgage brokers like Tony Harris to get the top contractor mortgage deals at  best contractor mortgage rates.

Tony has been getting great contractor mortgage deals from Kensington, Newbury, Furness and Kent Reliance.

Now, after seven years of negotiating Tony has managed to get a great contractor mortgage deal from the Nationwide – and at market leading rates.

UK Contractor Mortgages articles

UK Contractor Mortgages articles

He has done some business with Nationwide in the past but only on behalf of Umbrella Company contractors.

Limited Company Contractors

Now Nationwide has agreed to provide great contractor mortgage deals for limited company contractors. Indeed, they are offering them at the same great market-busting rates that they offer to permanent workers based solely on their contract rates.

Nationwide are prepared to offer those contractor mortgage deals to contractors in several professions including IT, engineering, oil and gas and interim managers as well as a host of others.

There is no minimum income requirement.

With these new contractor mortgage deals, Nationwide are expected to become the lender of choice for UK contractors.

Contractor Mortgage Offer

When they are working out their mortgage offer to you, Nationwide will take into account 80% of your contract rates over a 52 week period. That will give contractors a shedload of money for house buying purposes.

They’ll give you loans of up to 90% of the value of the property as a loan or 85% if you are remortgaging an existing property.

contractor mortgages

Cheap contractor mortgage deals

They have some really good specialist contractor mortgage deals on the table. These include a 10-year fixed rate mortgage. With interest rates due to rise this is the time to be taking one of those.

2-Year Fixed Contractor Mortgage Deals

Here’s what they are offering on 2-year fixed deals.

60% LTV – 2 years fixed at 1.49% with a £999 arrangement fee
75% LTV – 2 years fixed at 1.79% with a £999 arrangement fee
80% LTV – 2 years fixed at 1.89% with a £999 arrangement fee
90% LTV – 2 years fixed at 3.14% with a £999 arrangement fee

You don’t have to pay the mortgage arrangement fee up front as that can be added to the mortgage.

10-Year Fixed Rate Mortgage Deals

Here’s what they are offering for 10 years fixed rate mortgages, which could be just what you want with interest rates set to rise. These rates lead the market.

60% LTV – 10 years fixed at 3.14% with a £999 arrangement fee
75% LTV – 10 years fixed at 3.44% with a £999 arrangement fee
80% LTV – 10 years fixed at 3.69% with a £999 arrangement fee

If you sell your house and buy another one, you can simply carry these rates over to your next property.

Nationwide Tracker Mortgages for Contractors

Here’s what Nationwide offer for Tracker Mortgages.

75% loan to value – 2 year tracker at 1.44% (0.94%+BBR) with a £999 arrangement fee
80% loan to value – 2 year tracker at 1.94% (1.44%+BBR) with a £999 arrangement fee
85% loan to value – 2 year tracker at 2.69% (2.19%+BBR) with a £999 arrangement fee
90% loan to value – 2 year tracker at 3.49% (2.99%+BBR) with a £999 arrangement fee

All the above specialist contractor mortgage deals are available on purchase and remortgage.

Indeed, if you are remortgaging to the Nationwide, they will cover your legal and valuation fees which is a pretty good deal.

Contract and Address Details

If you want to apply for one of the above deals, Tony and his team will need:-

1.  A copy of your contract

2.  Proof of address details from your passport and a utility bill from the past 3 months

3.  Your personal and business bank account information from the last three months.

Having those together, when applying, speeds the process up a lot. The Contractor Buy To Let Market is also booming.

Contractor Mortgage Offer

When you contact Tony and his team you can get an offer in principle within an hour of you contacting him.

They don’t charge a fee which some contractor mortgage brokers do, so that will save you £500 or so.

To find our more, or to get a quote, simply click on Contractor Mortgage Application and fill in the form there.

90% Contractor Mortgages with Cashback at Great Rates

Contractor Mortgages With Cashback

90% Contractor Mortgages with Cashback

Since the Halifax made a special contractor mortgages with cashback offer through our contractor mortgages partner, dozens of first time buyers have taken advantage and shared tens of thousands of pounds at an average of £2,300.

They expect that the offer will come to an end shortly so it is important that contractors get in now if they want to take advantage of the offer.

Contractors have obtained some of the best rates on the market – and got their cashback too. The Halifax are making this contractor mortgages with cashback offer only through our partners, in order to get a one-off big boost to their mortgage business. The offer will disappear soon.

The cash is being given so that first time buyers can cope with the extra costs of moving in. The Halifax are giving cashback of 1% of the total mortgage costs up to £2,500 paid within a month of completion.

Contractor Mortgages with Cashback Rates

They are offering some great rates too for their contractor mortgages with cashback:-

90% for a 2-year fixed mortgage at 3.44%

85% for a 2-year fixed mortgage at 2.34%

80% for a 2-year fixed mortgage at 2.19%

60% for a 2-year fixed mortgage at 1.64%

Arrangement fees are £1,499 for all of the above.

That’s some pretty good rates especially as they can be locked in for 2 years.

Help to Buy Contractor Mortgages

You can also get contractor mortgages with no arrangement fee for smaller amounts borrowed.

You can also get a 95% contractor mortgage using Help to Buy. The deal is also available for new build and affordable housing.

It doesn’t include Buy To Let or mortgages of over £1 million.

Contractor Mortgage Application

You need to lock in this deal quickly though. Get an agreement in principle as soon as you can.

You need to have made a formal mortgage application before this deal ends. Our partners are ready to help you immediately.

Our partners can get you a quote on the every day you apply. If you get an AIP (Agreement in Principle) for the loan it will help when dealing with the estate agents. You may even get a better price than someone who doesn’t have one as you are ‘ready to go’.

Our partner started the specialist contractor mortgages market 10 years ago. Contractors used to find it difficult to get mortgages previously and had to produce three years worth of accounts and got an offer based on their Director’s salary – which made the offer very low.

Now, our partners can get them offer on production of their contract and at a multiple (up to 5 times) of their daily rate annualised ( x 48). They are happy to give you their expert advice free of charge.

Apply for Contractor Mortgages with Cashback

To find out more about the contractor mortgages with cashback offer or to take up the Halifax offer while you can, you should click on Contractor Mortgage Application and fill in the form there.