Mortgage Broker & solicitor - in Reading, Berks

[Dave_C]

Can anyone recommend a mortgage broker in Reading please? A colleague in Reading wants to get his first mortgage. He has been in the UK for around 2 years and I suggested he speak to a broker who can look at the whole market instead of a specific bank or lender.

Same for a conveyancing solicitor in Reading.

Many thanks, Dave C

[Jakob W]

Though I realise this isn't actually answering the question(!), I wouldn't feel the need to have either a local mortgage broker or a conveyancing solicitor. In all cases where I've used them, I've gone with recommendations from friends, and have ended up with people across the other side of the country - phone and email make this a non-issue.

[ian]

Yes, and it's very variable. We went local the first time because we figured that would be better. It wasn't. Like everyone else, the moment you step out of the office, they dump the file on some back-office clerk whose main interest is Facebook. It's mostly drudge work after all.

Internet is much the same. We used someone in Yorkshire the first time and it was fantastic, responsive, really on the ball. So we used the company again. Awful to the point we had to formally complain.

Basically, as far as I can tell, reports of good conveyancing experiences are exceptions to the rule. At best, get used to chasing people for things that ought to be routine parts of the service, more so considering what you're paying.

[Dave_C]

OK, so not local? I live in Scotland so can't offer any suggestions as I live in a different country, but am working in Reading and can't ask any friends as I have very few down here.

Cheers

[ian]

I think people will avoid recommendations for the reasons above. As ever, get a few sample quotes from local and internet firms, do some Googling, ask anyone in work who's recently moved house etc. Filter out the stupidly cheap and expensive outliers, anything that gets red-flagged, and et voila. Then gird for the endless depleting bureaucratic dirge that will end with surgical removal of a significant part of your remaining bank balance. I once spent an entire afternoon patiently (then less patiently) explaining that 'yes, we do live within 250 metres of a watercourse, an underground watercourse, however I don't really think we need a flood survey because, you know, we're 73 metres above it.' That and ringing them every single day for the update they promised the day before. Honestly though, in retrospect we were asking someone we'd probably not trust to complete a snack run to the local shop with a transaction covering the better part of a million quid.