Tracker Mortgages are a big help right now

November 17th, 2008

You will be glad to know that things have settled down now and there are some quite good deals out there, certainly since my last posting to this blog about how things were unsettled and it was impossible to tie down the mortgage companies to a deal following the decrease in interest rates by the Bank of England on the 6th Nov.

But I am please to report that there are some worthy tracker deals out there now.

Take a look at this one Base Tracker for 2 years 4.99% APR 5.75%

Now I’m not saying that you should only buy a tracker mortgage at the moment, it does depend on your circumstances, deposit, place in life and so on…

But in these volatile times, a tracker to the base rate, is a good idea. Whether it suits you is something I can advise after a brief chat

Other ideas/deals/options are available we just need to talk.

Take care

Michael

www.mumsltd.co.uk

Tags: , , , , , ,
Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment »

Mortgage Broker Says “Don’t buy a Mortgage Today”

November 8th, 2008

Don’t buy a mortgage today, that’s the message I am giving my clients.

I like most people was surprised by the 1.5% reduction of rates by the Bank of England. But the mortgage market is a little unstable and volatile at present and will be till at least the middle of next week.

All of the banks and building societies have withdrawn their tracker mortgages, which means that if you buy a fixed rate mortgage today and the bank rate goes down another .5% or even 1% then you will have a more expensive mortgage than you should.

On the pessimistic side, if you get a fixed mortgage at 5.5% and the economy goes tits up and we see interest rates up to 5,6, 7,8% or more, you will have been glad to obtain a “cheap” mortgage.

Hopefully next week the lenders will come to their collective senses and bring back trackers or lower fixed mortgages.

So until next wednesday or so, do not get talked into buying a mortgage until things settle and better deals come back to the market.

Have a great weekend.

Michael

Michael Usher Mortgage Services

Tags: , , , , , ,
Posted in Mortgage News, Personal Thoughts | No Comments »

Hooray For Obama!

November 6th, 2008

I’ve got a feeling in my bones that this is going to be a good week for all of us. (well maybe not all of us but most of us)

A new world has just opened or so it seems with the election of Obama, the first black/mixed race president of America….

And finance has been off the front of the news bulletins for several days because of the American elections. Plus later this morning the Bank of England meet to decide what the interest rate should be. Its got to go down!!!

Its amazing that when there is no “Bad Financial News”, or its buried in page 5, people start to get more confidence about buying property.

I have had several brand new clients this week, who do not seem care about the credit crunch. The fact is that they have seen houses they want and they are going to buy them.

They have put in sensible offers, the owners understand that the market has shifted downward and have reduced prices and its a win win for all concerned.

Now of course the American elections are over, the media will do its best to shake our confidence by bringing us a daily drip of bad news. Already the news today is new car sales are down 23% on last year and there’s another report from the Halifax “The average price of a home in the UK was £168,176 in October, compared with almost £200,000 in the same month last year, representing a bigger annual fall than the 13.4pc drop recorded in September”.

Yes it just goes on and on…

Now I appreciate that news has to be reported but… its the number of “Experts” that comment on the market that shakes our confidence. The Newspapers have to fill their pages, the editors crack the whip and the journalists have to find a story…I know thinks, the journalist responsible for “house news” I’ll check my roladex and find one of my experts, phone him/her up, get a comment and build a story that’ll last a few days.

As I have said before, I know many people with businesses that are still doing OK, in fact some are doing great.

People still need to move, people have circumstances that change and need to sell their property, people want to buy a house to live in to call their own and all this hyping up in the media, just does not help anyone.

I still think that this is a good week and if interest rates go down by .5% or even 1.00% later today, it will be an even better week especially for all those people wanting to change mortgages or buy a new house.

Tags: , , , ,
Posted in Mortgage News, Personal Thoughts | No Comments »

The Gurkhas Get their Man Prince Harry

October 31st, 2008

We’re big fans of the Gurkhas here at Michael Usher Mortgage services and we have many clients who are Nepalese and have settled here in the Uk after serving in our armed forces.

So this is good news from the Associated press

Prince Harry made honorary Gurkha

Prince Harry has been made an honorary Gurkha by the fearsome Nepalese warriors he served with in Afghanistan, a Gurkha fighter said.

The renowned soldiers paid the royal officer the ultimate tribute by presenting him with a Kukri - their dreaded combat knife - as a token of their esteem.

Lance Corporal Bhim Garbuja, 25, from the 1st Battalion Royal Gurkha Rifles (RGR) served under Harry in Helmand Province earlier this year and described him as a favourite among the troops.

They even cooked the young royal super hot goat curries with meat sourced from the Afghan army as a treat.

The Prince of Wales, Colonel in Chief of the RGR, flew into Brunei to meet Lnc Cpl Garbuja and his Battalion colleagues stationed in the Sultanate as part of his tour of the Far East with the Duchess of Cornwall.

Speaking about presenting the Prince with a Kukri the Nepalese soldier said: “We felt he deserved it, he is a good officer and we worked under his command.”.

Harry, 24, an officer in Household Cavalry Regiment, went to Helmand Province in December last year to work as a Forward Air Controller, serving at Garmsir in southern Helmand and Musa Qaleh. But his four-month deployment was cut short after 10 weeks, when a news blackout broke down at the end of February.

Captain Surya Gurung from the 1st Battalion summed up the importance of the gift to the young royal, he said: “We don’t normally give it as a present to people.

“Those who we give it to, it’s because they have earned it themselves. They gave it to the Prince because of his support, friendship and work with us. For us it’s not necessarily because he is a Prince, it was because he was so liked by the soldiers. He contributed to the camp and raised the morale of the boys.

“He should consider himself hereafter a Gurkha. I see him as a Gurkha officer because he was there in that particular time of operations in the front line - that really mattered.”

Posted in Gurkha Fight For Justice, gurkha mortgages | No Comments »

1% Interest Rates, Yes Please

October 30th, 2008

In America, the Fed has cut its interest rates by half-point to 1 percent, there have also been cuts in China and Norway…..….Now that’s what I’m talking about.

I’m not an economist, but is seems daft that the bank of England are taking so long to cut interests rates in this country. At 4.5% with a review on 6th November.

Believe it or not, the number of new mortgages approved in September rose..(33,000 in fact) after an all time low on approvals in August. Some experts believe however that this could be down to the changes in stamp duty. We will see..

Now according to the Nationwide, house prices in the UK have now fallen for the twelfth consecutive month.

They say that property prices fell by 1.4% in the last month, taking the annual rate of fall up from 12.4% to 14.6%. As a result, £27,000 has been wiped off the value of a property, taking the average cost of a home to £158,872.

But…..the Land Registry has said that annual house prices in England and Wales have fallen 8%, while it posted a monthly fall of 2.2% in September.

This takes the average property to £168,814, according to the Land Registry.

SO WHO DO YOU BELIEVE…Too many experts… and Nationwide, like many other large companies have journalists, who feed other journalist from the newspapers with a drip of stories.

Why, because they have got to sell newspapers, mind you I think Nationwide do tend to whoop it up a bit, you know, sensationalise things more than most. They must have journalists sitting around brainstorming “How are we going to get in the papers tomorrow”

But to get this mortgage market going again, we need to see lower interest rates, I’m not suggesting an immediate cut of 1 or 2%, because that probably cause more problems than it solves. But over the next 4-6 month lets hope that Bank of England can do something in that direction.

After all, if your are on a tracker mortgage and many of my clients are, you could see your mortgage fall dramatically.Or if you get a new mortgage and are able to get it at a lower rate than it is now, you will have more money in your pocket.

And of course this means that you will have more  money over at the end of the month to spend in the shops, restaurants and other businesses to help get this economy going again.

Take care

Michael

Tags: , , , , , , ,
Posted in Mortgage News, Personal Thoughts | No Comments »

House Prices down 15% Who said so!

October 28th, 2008

I woke up to Sky news this morning and one of their headlines was “Millions Face Negative Equity” with the sub headline, “Up to 1.2 million homeowners in Britain could soon fall into negative equity if house prices continue to fall steeply, a report has warned.

This report is from the Bank of England and is called the “Bank of England’s Financial Stability Report”.
Sky News and other media sources love to spoil our mornings don’t they? They take the bones of a report such as the one above and create a big headline and story, then profess it to be actual, just to get us to “stay tuned” or get us to buy the newspaper.

Well I’ve been saying it for quite a while that yes there does have to be a correction in the market, but if you take the 15% already taken off the value of houses, plus the forecast of 15% that the “experts” warn us will occur in the next year, then you have a loss of 30% in three years. REALLY!!

There are so many experts out there, whose job it is to contribute an a daily or weekly basis to the media or they wont get paid. If there is any good news it just gets buried.

Good news is not good for newspapers, it doesn’t sell as well as bad news. There have been many attempts to start a “good news” newspaper but they just do not get off the ground, because fundamentally, we like to read bad news. Why, don’t know, I’m not a psychologist, nor do I play one on TV.

So when I read those headlines, I take them with a pinch of salt, yes its tough out there and the value of houses will remain staticfor a year or two, but after that they will go up…its a monetry cycle folks.

People still have to buy houses to live in, not to necessary profit from in a big way, leave that to the buy to let investment boys and girls.

Buying a house is still one of the safest investments long term. And if you buy one with a conventional mortgage, you will pay back what you owe and end up with a great investment at the end.

Do yourself a favour, stop watching 24hr news…

Take care.

If you want straight talking mortgage advice, call me up, I’m here in the office 9-5 at least.
Michael
www.mumsltd.co.uk

Tags: , , ,
Posted in Mortgage News | No Comments »

Joanna Lumley and Me-The Truth

October 20th, 2008

Joanna Lumley and Me-The Truth

I have always fancied Joanna Lumley, well what hot blooded Male wouldn’t.

A former glamour model and of course famous actress, famous first of all for her part in the “New Avengers” television series from the 70’s.

But apart from fancying her, I also have something in common with her..THE TRUTH… She has the interest of the Gurkhas in her heart and I have many Nepalese clients, who are mostly ex Gurkhas who want to settle in this country after serving in battle zones around the world, protecting our interests.

I don’t want to get into the politics of whether we should be in some of those places we are at the moment, but the point is, we should try and support the ex-gurkha soldiers, especially those who served our country in the past.

There is a on-going campaign for these ex-soldiers and you can find out more details here www.gurkhajustice.org.uk They are not looking for handouts, but they are looking for signatures.

Please visit their site and sign up… and here is the lovely Joanna who has made a brief video showing on YouTube.com

Tags: , , , ,
Posted in Gurkha Fight For Justice, gurkha mortgages | No Comments »

Mortgage Advice Camberley

October 16th, 2008

We’ve been giving mortgage advice in Camberley for the last 20 years. We have succeeded where others have failed because my philosophy, which reverberates around our company, is exceeding our customers expectations and giving the personal touch.

Before becoming a mortgage adviser I was an estate agent and before that… Well you just don’t want to know, well maybe you do…

Among the many things I did before settling into this career, I was a milkman. Yes I delivered milk in one of those electric milk floats, it was and still is one of my favourite jobs that I ever held.

I worked for Stuart’s Dairies out of Sandhurst, sadly no more alas. But one of the core principles I was taught by the older lads, like old Mr Stuart, Jeff and Tony, (two of his long time employees) that customer service is paramount, the most important thing when dealing with the general public.

Take Tony for instance, even if he got up at 3am and started his round at 4am, by 10am you would still hear him whistling his favourite tune and with a big fat smile on his face. And if ever there was a mistake on one of the deliveries, say a customer got a silver top instead of a gold top they would phone the depot, in those day there we’re no mobiles. Tony on his return would go dashing out on his bike and deliver the right milk. Naturally the customer was extremely pleased and so was Tony who really loved his job.

I have always tried to emulate my hero Tony and his buddy Jeff, two really great guys who made a difference and believed in giving great customer service.

So what has this got to do with mortgage advice in Camberley, well if you need any mortgage advice on a property in Camberley, Frimley, Farnborough or any where in Surrey and Hampshire, you can be sure that like Tony, Jeff and old Mr Stuart, I will be giving you a first class service just like they did. And we believe in giving the personal touch, to help you get the right mortgage.

But if you get the wrong milk delivered, give me a call and I’ll see what I can do.

Michael
www.mumsltd.co.uk

Tags: , , ,
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

1st Time Buyers

October 15th, 2008

It’s a great time for first time buyers

Do you know, during the month of August this year in the UK, there were over 42,000 loans agreed for house purchases and of those, first-time buyers made up over 15,000 of the total. Of course that is down nearly 60% on August last year.

An here’s another statistic to show how clever you are down the pub tonight: Those entering the property market for the first time on average borrowed 84% of their property’s value and 3.18 times income, down from 90% and 3.39 respectively, during the same month of 2007. (info from www.financemarkets.co.uk)

Since August things have changed because of the credit crunch and the tightening of the interbank lending, but with the Uk government pumping loads of dosh, (our dosh) into the system, things should get easier for all including first time buyers.

The price of houses across the Uk will still have to come down by 10% or in some cases 15%, maybe even more, back to late 2006 prices and this is good for first time buyers.

In one of my local towns, Farnborough Hants, there were 1 bedroom flats on the market at 179k, these have been reduced to 160k and many of the same developement wil be sold to the local housing association who are in short supply.

So when the market bottoms out, early next year, I think we will see a boom in first time buyers. But the value in property may not have such a meteoric rise. Which is good for everyone.

So first time buyers out there, its time to brush up on your negotiation skills and start looking for bargains

Michael

http://www.mumsltd.co.uk/

Tags: , , ,
Posted in Mortgage News | No Comments »

Mortgages Are Available Here In Camberley, Frimley..

October 14th, 2008

Despite what you may hear in the press. Let me shout it out “MORTGAGES ARE AVAILABLE” here in Camberley, Frimley, Farnborough and elsewhere in Surrey and Hampshire and in fact in most places in the UK

Now, I know that’s not what you’ve been told in the press as they go about their daily routine of spreading the doom and gloom, but I am arranging mortgages on a daily basis.

Of course, life is not easy at the moment for mortgage advisers, nor is it easy for people searching for mortgages and I have had to use all of my 20 years experience and contacts within the mortgage industry to enable me to secure mortgages on behalf of people who need a new mortgage.

I believe that it is only because I have this experience, that I’m able to secure mortgages, but it’s not easy.

For instance, if you’re a first time buyer and you were hoping for a mortgage with a 5% deposit, it may be difficult to place a mortgage with one of the larger companies, although not impossible. It could be that you may have a second salary, or a part-time job and some lenders will take this into consideration.

For people who have a fixed mortgage that’s ending quite soon, they may have to change their mortgage lender, or it may be possible to stay with the existing mortgage company, but obtain a better rate.

Even in the press today, despite the stock market rally, there are stories about some of the largest lenders who have in fact increased their rates, even though the Bank of England reduced its rate by 0.5% last week.

For instance Nationwide has increased it tracker rate by 0.3% but if you have a larger deposit say 25 to 40% its still possible to get a rate of 5.49%, but of course, you have to know where to look and who to talk to.

When people come to me for the first time, I spend a great deal of time just getting to know them and their circumstances. I find this is time well spent.

If you would like help in trying to source your new mortgage, whatever your circumstances, please call me on 01276 670777 or you can e-mail me. Michael@mumsLtd.co.uk

If you think your case is difficult, you have no idea how difficult some cases can be. We are here to help no matter how difficult you think it may be. Hey, it’s worth a call. Just for a chat.

Michael

www.mumsltd.co.uk

Tags: , , , , ,
Posted in Mortgage News, Uncategorized | No Comments »

« Older Entries