Do I need a mortgage broker?
An honest answer from a site that, yes, introduces mortgage brokers — including the cases where you genuinely don’t need one.
Plain-English guide · no advice, just how the market works
The short answer
No — you can walk into your bank, or apply to any lender directly, and plenty of people do. The real question is whether a broker would get you a materially better outcome for your particular situation. For simple, strong cases the gap can be small. For anything with a wrinkle in it, the gap is often the difference between approved and declined — or between two offers tens of thousands of pounds apart in borrowing.
What a broker actually does
- Whole-of-market access. Your bank sells its own shelf. A whole-of-market broker compares across dozens of lenders — including broker-only deals that never appear on lender websites.
- Criteria knowledge. The rate table is public; the acceptance rules aren’t. Which lender tolerates your credit blip, counts your bonus, likes your new-build flat — that lives in brokers’ sourcing systems and experience.
- Application craft. Presenting income properly, pre-empting underwriter questions, chasing the case along. Applications fail on paperwork more often than people think.
- Regulated advice. An FCA-regulated broker owes you advice suitable for your circumstances — with accountability behind it. (Broker Finder itself is an introducer: we connect, brokers advise.)
When going direct is perfectly fine
- You’re employed with straightforward income, a healthy deposit and clean credit — and you enjoy doing the research yourself.
- You’re doing a simple product transfer with your current lender and you’ve checked the market well enough to know their offer is competitive.
- You have a specific deal in view that a lender offers direct-only.
Even then, many people run a broker conversation in parallel — it’s free to find out whether the market beats what you’ve found.
When a broker earns their keep
- Self-employed, contractor or mixed income — lenders read the same accounts very differently. More here.
- Credit history that needs explaining — specialist lenders exist, and their criteria aren’t public. More here.
- Small deposit — the difference between lenders at 5–10% deposit is substantial.
- Buy-to-let — rental-cover tests, company structures, portfolio rules. More here.
- Deadlines — a broker who knows which lenders are processing quickly can rescue a chain.
- You’d simply rather not — decoding criteria is a job; it’s reasonable to hire it out, often at no cost to you.
Leaning towards “probably worth a conversation”?
Describe your case anonymously and see which specialists put themselves forward. Choosing nobody is always allowed.
Free for you, always · no credit check · FCA-regulated brokers only