In June 2019, my wife and I began to think about purchasing our first home. Our time in a rented two-bedroom flat in Leith had come to an end and we were looking to purchase a house. We had some issues the year before due to credit scores and having worked to improve them, we began to start the process.
Following a robust search, we decided that we were most interested in moving slightly out with the city and identified Musselburgh as a good area. It has everything we need in a close radius; it was still close enough to the city (for both working and social reasons) and the property prices were much more attractive than the city.
My wife had been recommended Mortgage Advice Bureau from work colleagues and we immediately made contact.
From the first phone call, professionalism and friendly service were extremely clear. The call was laid back, to the point and extremely informative. We discussed basic information, what we were looking for and gave simple details in order for a short consultation to be completed. We were told instantly following that brief consultation that we were in a position to speak with an advisor.
We were put through to Niall Brown (who became our advisor) who introduced himself and what he would be looking to do for us. Niall’s professionalism and enthusiasm for his role was apparent and immediately put us at ease knowing we were in the right hands.
Niall was thorough and upfront and even informed us from a very early stage that one of our issues would be the small deposit we had against a new build. But despite this, Niall assured us he would do everything he could to help us find a lender that was willing to offer a mortgage based upon a 10% deposit.
Within a matter of days, Niall had come back to us with a potential lender and within 24 hours we had an agreement in principle.
From here, my wife and I could not be more impressed with the service that Niall provided us. He kept in contact via email and phone regularly, keeping us fully updated throughout the process from having our agreement in principle to having all our documentation in order so we could formally apply for our mortgage.
Niall took us through the process step by step with a professional, laid back and enthusiastic attitude and within a week of making contact, we had our formal application submitted. This was confirmed by George Hunter (our Mortgage Processing Expert) whose friendly and professional manner echoed Niall’s and kept us at ease through the most formal stage of the process.
Following this, Niall and George kept in touch regularly, keeping us updated on the process, the status of the application and answering any questions that we had.
All in all, from day one of us making contact to having our mortgage offer, Niall and George were professional, incredibly enthusiastic about their roles, laid back and easy to liaise with and most importantly, there for us every step of the way. All the complicated aspects of the mortgage process, discussions about solicitors, lenders and what was expected of us was relayed to us in simple, relatable language which left us having very few queries.
The entire process took approximately two weeks which was dramatically less than anticipated and despite it being so short, bore very little stress or panic and was completely smooth sailing.
My wife and I could not recommend Niall, George and the Mortgage Advice Bureau enough. From start to finish they helped us through what can be a very stressful process and made the entire experience very easy.