Hamlet: Act III, Scene I: “To fee or not to fee, that is the question” – one of the many questions that we brokers ask ourselves when setting up our terms of business. It can be a thorny subject, we have to earn a crust, yet not price ourselves out of the market, whilst also remaining professional in the eyes of our clients.

I've come across many brokers and their fees, and the average fees that I come across are an application fee of around £395 – usually payable when a lender is found and indicative terms are on the table – and a broker fee of 1% on completion, although many I've come across levy that fee at the offer stage. Fees tend to get higher on development finance. Many brokers also involve themselves in the practice of charging the 1% broking fee on top of the lender procuration fee that they earn at completion. I've also seen fees charged at the very start of the process, before any work commences, a matter to consider seriously as in our practice we don't charge our first fee, a £375 fee, until the application stage. This leaves me to question that judgement, as the bulk of the work is already completed; we've done the initial meeting and collected all the requisite information. And the meeting often runs to a couple of hours, not to mention the time and cost of scooting across and around our fine land. Clients just do not respect that work, in their minds the work starts when we have got them indicative terms, and I would say that in 2010 one in six cases never get beyond indicative terms. Let's have a look at the reasons why, in my case this year most of my enquiries have come via introducers, mainly of the IFA and residential mortgage broker variety. That's great to keep me busy but one can tend to find oneself as a telephone exchange; there to direct and guide other brokers when they have stumbled into rocky ground outside of their expertise. I know that the facts speak for themselves when I say that many of these introducers pick my brain then proceed to continue up that rocky pathway themselves, forgetting the fact that it's better to earn 50% of something than 100% of nowt, as they usually die by their own sword, will they ever learn? Will they ever stop using people? We know that answer, of course they won't, owt for nowt is their motto. In other circumstances clients get the terms then disappear forever, begging the question; were they really serious in the first place? Or were they just using me, and my free advice and research, to see what's available? Who knows... In summary, this is a question that I really hope many brokers add their two pennies worth to the debate. I would like to know the general feelings on whether to charge fees, and if so:  Contact Bob Havenhand: [email protected]