Monty’s Mortgage Blog

The Mortgage Myth

By Andrew Montlake | Published: 04.07.11

If you believe everything you read in the papers you would be forgiven for thinking that there is not much point in applying for a mortgage at the moment because it is all too difficult. Banks aren’t lending and those that are want blood samples and a charge over your children in order to even think about giving you a few quid.

The good news is that this is actually a myth. There is no mortgage shortage and lenders actually have begun to compete for your business. How else can you explain the new trend of 7 day sales from certain lenders who are offering tracker rates from as low as just 1.99%, (4.0% APR)?

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Posted in Best Fixed Rates, Best Mortgage Rates, Coreco, Independent Mortgage Advice, Interest Only Mortgages, Large Mortgage Loans, Mortgage Brokers in London, Mortgage Market, Remortgage | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

What Is A “Mortgage TweetMeet” ?

By Andrew Montlake | Published: 20.06.11

Since engaging with the Twittersphere back in early February 2009 I have been amazed at how far it has come and the amount of people I have conversed with. True, it took me a long time to get to grips with and to understand how it can be used properly for business purposes, but a bit of perseverance is now paying off.

Of course there have been many detractors, the piss-takers and technologically inept who continue to see social media as a waste of time.

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Posted in Coreco, Credit Crunch, Economic Recovery, Independent Mortgage Advice, Mortgage Advice, Mortgage Brokers in London, Mortgage TweetMeet, Property Market, Social Media, The Economy, Twitter | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

The “Have Your Cake & Eat It” Mortgage

By Andrew Montlake | Published: 20.05.11

The biggest issue for borrowers in these uncertain times is the question around interest rate rises. To be fair, even the self-confessed great economic minds and the Bank of England Monetary Policy Committee themselves are split on the issue.

For some, rates will not change for another 12 months, others say they will rise slowly but surely by the end of this year, whilst yet another section believe rates will have to rise a lot quicker than expected next year even though this will cause more than a fair share of wailing and gnashing of teeth.

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Posted in Best Fixed Rates, Best Mortgage Rates, Coreco, Large Mortgage Loans, Monetary Policy Committee, Mortgage Brokers in London | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Tweet Nothings

By Andrew Montlake | Published: 13.05.11

I was interested last week to note some of the vitriol which Nat West have been greeted with in response to their move to replace phone calls with Livetalk, an instant messaging service. It made me wonder if there was a wider issue of a resistance to technology from many in the mortgage broking industry.

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Posted in Coreco, Large Mortgage Loans, Marketing, Mortgage Blogs, Mortgage Brokers in London, Social Media, Technology, Twitter | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Bank Base Rate Decision

By Andrew Montlake | Published: 05.05.11

Although the Bank of England’s’ Monetary Policy Committee, (MPC) have yet again decided to keep Base Rate on hold, the internal splits within the committee seem to remain with a 4 way split according to the minutes of the last meeting.

Whilst the debate rages on, recent research conducted by the BBC reflected the differences within the MPC. Of 22 economists who were asked “In which month do you think the MPC will raise interest rates?”, 14 said August, 4 plumped for May and 1 each reckoned on June, July, November and February.

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Posted in Bank Base Rate, Best Fixed Rates, Best Mortgage Rates, Coreco, Large Mortgage Loans, Monetary Policy Committee, Mortgage Brokers in London, The Economy | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment