Thanks so much for the update Paul - especially with such great feedback!

Don't forget to share this experience with your friends - we don't want our site to be a well kept secret!

Lou

Many thanks for getting back to me Louise... right here's the outcome of last night's meeting with the advisor:
The best offer he's given is a 3yr fixed with First National as the lender, but is an arranged package through Pink home loans, this will be 4.89% for the 3yr term with no out of term redemtion charge, however there is a mandatory £200 release fee. I'm very happy with this offer so far & we're waiting for the guy to get back to us with a full key facts illustration (hopefully tonight). Overall if this becomes a guaranteed offer & we proceed, we will be paying at least £50 a month compared with if we'd shopped for a mortgage on the high street. Great advise on this site, very useful & informative, thank you. Paul.

Good morning

You seem to have foud your way through the house buying maze really well so far. As far as the Mortgage Advisor, he should explain their service at the first meeting and give you a document called a Combined Initial Disclosure Document (CIDD). They have already specified that any fees are only collected on successful completion of a mortgage, which would indicate that if you didn't proceed with them, there would be no fee. As this is something that is key to your decision, I would ring the firm to clarify before this evening. £195 is a competitive fee for informed advice (all mortgage Advisors need to have a recognised financial qualification) even if this is to give you the peace of mind that you have been offered a product that is best suited to your circumstances.

Looking at your endowment policy - it is certainly fact that you can get a better return by selling the policy than surrendering it with the Insurance Company - so you have taken the best step here.

Let us know how you get on this evening - and good luck to you all in your new home.

Louise

Hi, we're currently looking to upgrade from a 2bed to a 3bed semi (as we now have 2 children). We have been swating up on the home buying / selling processes & know what's involved but we're stumped when it comes to what happens when, we've accepted an offer on our property & put in an offer on our next property, but we're still sorting out our mortgage as i want the best deal for us & have been shopping around; we've got an independant whole market mortgage adviser that i had contact me from moneysupermarket.com coming round tommorow evening (22/08), they operate on a £195 fixed fee basis (payable on completion), now then, if they can't beat a good deal that i've been offered already, will i still have to pay their fee i ask you? We're looking for the best 5yr flexi fixed repayment mortgage btw. Endownment - we currently have one ot these & require it's value to go towards our next property purchase; i've been told the best thing to do is to sell it, so i've registered with http://www.fastteps.com/ also have called them & they seem very helpfull (also told that i should get at least £1500 more than the cash in value). That's about it for now, thanks for reading, any helpfull info greatly appreciated in reply.