+–What Have Irish Mortgage Brokers got that others don’t? Why use you instead of somebody else?
Well, it’s about more than just ‘getting a mortgage’ when you deal with us. Granted we got nominated for a Golden Spider award for our website (best financial website category) and we got nominated for Mortgage Broker of the year in the last MoneyMate awards but that won’t make you happy (although we are fairly chuffed about it).

What will make you happy is dealing with our team, we don’t know of any other company that has a 0% staff turnover, literally…Nobody leaves because our customers are happy and so are the people here, its a positive ‘can do attitude’ that makes a big difference in dealing with us.

We don’t have exclusive access to banks, no broker does, so the biggest factor which isn’t systemized is people, and we are proud of our people, if your mortgage application isn’t going totally to plan you can rest assured we’ll be doing our utmost to get everything sorted out and resolved, we never ‘wash our hands’ on a client.

There are legal deals which are the best in the market, online mortgage tracking which we pioneered (some have copied us – we’re flattered to be honest), a speaking & animation guided website (we are the only ones in Ireland with this), and access to over 15 lenders, but above all of this we cherish our team first and foremost and after you deal with us you will too. We are advisors for life not just for now.

+–Will I be dealing with professionals? How do I know I’m getting the best advice?
Firstly, we are regulated by the Financial Regulator and they apply stringent tests to ensure that only professional advisors are in the marketplace. Secondly, every member of our team offering advice has either their Mortgage Diploma, Financial Services Diploma, QFA (Qualified Financial Advisor), or ACCA (Association of Chartered Certified Accountants), these are recognized professional qualifications relvant to the finance field.

Last of all our brokers operate on a commission only basis, so we don’t get paid in full unless we do our job right 100%. Think of any other industry where this happens?

Many companies talk about ‘Service’ and how their ‘Service’ is one of their competitive advantages, here we take the view that walking the walk counts for more than talking it, hence no salaries, so unless we do our job we don’t get paid its that simple. We lay our livelihood on the line by subscribing to this rationale, and we do it willingly because to be the best thats what it takes.

+–Do you charge broker fees?
In most cases we do, this is because in recent years credit has become increasingly difficult to obtain and we do a lot of work for our clients in order to obtain loan offers for them. Banks have also cut the procurement fees we are paid in half and put a ceiling on how much we can earn, this has had a very negative impact on our ability to trade on a ‘commission’ basis so we have moved to fees.

It is also a way of ensuring that we focus on our clients to the best of our ability, in the past we used to get loan offers or approvals for people and they didn’t turn into actual mortgages even though we did our bit, this was an administrative nightmare and left us in a position where we didn’t want to sacrifice our professional good name and ethics by under-representing cases based on when they might proceed, moving to fees has fixed that. You pay a fee and we do our damndest to get you a great deal, everybody wins.

+–Can I find out more about the mortgage for my particular circumstance?
Easy, call us, we are always there to talk and explain things to you. However if you prefer to read up on things yourself or browse the web you can find out a lot of information that way too. Click on ‘Mortgage Info’ section of our homepage and then on the left there are areas for the most common types of mortgages. If you don’t see what you are looking for there you can make an ‘enquiry’ from our homepage, its in the purple box to the left and we can get back to you with answers, or again, for the human touch just call 01 679 0990.
+–Why don’t people just find out what the best market deal is from a broker then go direct to that bank?
You could do that, but it’s kind of pointless, because the bank won’t give you a better mortgage price than we can get you. As well as that you have to do all the chasing and liasing on the loan and that will involve calling a banks call centre many many times, we have dedicated teams in banks that deal only with brokers and we can get your loan sorted out much quicker.

As well as that our relationship with you will span the amount of time you have a mortgage and that is likely to be a long time, if you ever switch your mortgage to get a better rate or want to buy another property we’ll still get you the best deal, going direct with a bank means you only get offered the products that particular bank have and they are not legally required to give you independent advice whereas Irish Mortgage Brokers are. We also save you money on various insurance products, so its a multi-pronged approach to saving you money and being your ongoig professional advior.