Welcome to the Wild West – But don't expect Billy the Kid to ride into view pursued by Doc Holiday, instead, enter an unsuspecting first time buyer hunted down by a rogue West Midlands broker, Gunfight at the OK Birmingham. 

Scene one: I got a call from a referral, referring my bespoke services to a friend of his, singing my praises even before I'd seen him. The power of the spoken word, moral here is: do your business professionally, knowledgeably, legally, and in a friendly manner and you'll never be without business.

Scene two: The lady called me with the following circumstances; single lady living with her disabled mother, income is a guaranteed £16,000 per annum from her employment, plus mother’s income, the mother wasn't to be party to the residential mortgage. They are looking to move out of their current rented home into a home of their own. However, two glaring problems arose when she explained, first, her low level of income to service the loan and, second, that the property was up for sale at £170,000, and wasn't currently habitable. It was a house with no bathroom, no kitchen and half refurbished. A builder friend of hers has quoted at £20,000 for the full refurbishment, so £190,000 full funding was required.

The only bright point was my client’s £45,000 in her savings account, but that still left her with finance requirements of £145,000.

Scene three: It couldn't be done I told her, not with residential criteria, the income was way too low, plus uninhabitable property – even if a lender would look, they'd retain the whole amount until habitable, so sorry but no can do.

We discussed it, then I told her that in my view there was only one way out; to purchase the property on a BTL basis. The lender would allow completion without a full retention, refurbish the property, and then the lender would assess the rental feasibility to maximise the loan. It may just fit, but she'd have a BTL mortgage on a property where she'd knowingly be using it as a main residence. Would one, or even both of us, be committing mortgage fraud?

Scene four: Enter her previous option. She had previously approached another broker who, after listening to her story, told her that it could be done easily, after paying his initial fee of £500, by using his surveyor, his solicitors, and his lender. Wow! she exclaimed, having never used a broker, she was in awe at what brokers could do, the lender was to be the Halifax, a proud High Street name, he knew the local manager he told her, it'd go straight through he bragged, and after completion all that would be required was a sweetener to the local manager, £4,000 he quipped.

Anyway when she got back off the floor and regained her consciousness, she thought long and hard about it and “phoned a friend” hey up it's Who Wants to be a Millionaire! That friend of course was the friend who introduced her to me.

To contact Bob directly email: [email protected]