Why Can Haysto Help, when Others Can't?

High street banks can offer tempting mortgage deals at competitive rates, but they tend to use a ‘one size fits all’ way of measuring applicants. Because of this, not everyone is eligible for these mortgages. Specialist mortgages are designed specifically for people who wouldn’t be eligible for a high street bank, for example someone with bad credit or a self-employed worker. 

We work almost exclusively with specialist lenders. Specialists use human underwriters and assess applicants on a case by case basis, and will therefore be more willing to consider your case. Most mortgage brokers don’t have a good knowledge of the specialist mortgage market - but we do. Our Mortgage Experts know how to handle the tricky stuff, and have spent years building great relationships with specialist lenders. 

Stick to the specialists

Specialists may not be as well known as the big banks, but they’re the real deal. So many of our customers wrongly believe that a “no” from one lender means it’ll be a “no” from all of them, and you might be sceptical about applying somewhere that’s not one of the big names. But there’s a big misconception that mortgages from specialist lenders “aren’t as good”. It’s just not true.

Specialist lenders are regulated in exactly the same way as the high street banks - adhering to strict guidelines set out by the Financial Conduct Authority and the Mortgage Market Review.

All lenders, whether high street or specialist, will thoroughly ‘stress test’ your ability to pay. They’ll look at hypothetical situations and see if you could still pay your mortgage if something unexpected happened. And as specialists use human underwriters, they’ll be looking even more closely to make sure you’re safe to lend to. 

Dispelling the 'subprime' stigma

We can understand why some people correlate specialist lenders with subprime mortgages after the financial crisis of 2008. But they're not the same, and mortgages are very different these days. 

Before 2008, mortgage applicants were able to self-certify their own income without any background checks or affordability tests. That meant that people were borrowing WAY more than they could afford. So, we get that when we’re able to offer a competitive mortgage rate to those with complex circumstances, it can be hard to see how the lender was able to offer that.  

But back in 2008, lenders weren’t tightly regulated. They approved lots of mortgages as they expected borrowers who couldn’t pay would simply sell their house at an inflated cost rather than defaulting on their mortgages. But house prices fell, and so many people were unable to make repayments. 

Getting a mortgage today is a far different experience. You can’t self-certify your own income, and lenders require a lot of information from you about your financial circumstances. Your affordability will always be thoroughly checked when you apply, and you’ll only get a mortgage if a lender is certain you’ll be fine paying it back. 

Acting as advocates

You can’t apply to most specialist lenders directly. Because they’re more niche, you’ll need to go through an ‘intermediary’ to get access to those particular mortgage deals. Intermediaries are people like us - specialist brokers who work with the lender on your behalf and who are specifically to deal with applicants who would struggle to get a mortgage on the high street. 

Trickier cases take time and expertise. There’s more work involved in finding the perfect lender and putting together a fab application. That’s why nearly all specialist mortgage brokers will need a fee for their services. It’s a niche, a specialism - and experts are worth every penny.

The real difference 

We listen to the story behind the numbers. High street banks are stuck in their ways, and many use automated decision-making (read: NO-bots) which makes things tricky for those who don’t fit the perfect mould.