Brokers reveal the strangest mortgage enquiries they've received
Brokers have revealed some of the strangest mortgage enquiries they've received in their careers.
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I once got a call from a prisoner who was convicted of robbery, asking if he could buy a buy-to-let, and a first-time landlord asking if they could buy a 2-bedroom property at auction and convert it into a 6-bedroom HMO. I said, "Good luck with that, buddy. You're going to need to find some tiny beds." I also once had a client who was a respected Pastor, who wanted to buy a house using his congregation's money as a deposit. I told him, "that's not how it works. You can't just tithe yourself a deposit".
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Ultimately, there are no stupid questions, as being a broker means being required to inform and educate no matter how low the initial level of knowledge the borrower may have. Some people have unrealistic expectations and sometimes do not like the answers they receive, but they still leave informed.
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I want to put a mortgage on a house my mum owns without her knowing about it.
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The absolute best I ever heard was from a client of a colleague. The borrower in question couldn't raise all the money he needed and wanted to get 100% of the equity out of the property without selling. The client's idea was to 'sell the property to myself'. The irony is that the whoever this customer was apparently worked in financial services.
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I always start my meetings with a prospective new client the same way, by telling them there's no such thing as a silly question, as I do this all the time and they don't, so ask whatever they feel they need to. That's not to say some people haven't tested that, but I always try and remember that a silly question is often a very sensible one, just wearing the wrong clothes. If you ever worked at Disney, you are taught the answer to the question "What time does the 3pm parade start?" is "The parade passes here at 3:20 and the best place to stand to get a good view will be just over there." So, when a client asks how long they can have a 40-year mortgage over, what they mean to ask is whether they would be allowed a 40-year mortgage, given their age. Sometimes the question asked isn't actually the question, and that's part of the skill of being a great broker: helping people get to the bottom of what they really need to know to help them make the right decisions.
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I want to put down a £100,000 deposit on the flat I'm buying for £300,000, but just a 5% deposit for the mortgage. In the end I figured out that the client, soon to be a doctor, really thought that there was a deposit paid to the seller of the property and one paid to the bank. Before figuring that out I was completely confused.