Meet Ken James of Contractor Mortgage Services
Tell us about your business?
Contractor Mortgage Services Ltd is a family-run mortgage and protection specialist, we cater to the residential and the buy-to-let market along with limited company buy-to-lets. We also offer protection advice to complement our client’s personal situations and needs.
Where are you based and where do you operate geographically?
We are based from home in North London but we deal with clients from all over the UK.
What are the main issues impacting your local market?
Whether it’s local or nationwide the issues are the same, shortage of stock which is driving the value upward and creating a seller’s market.
What challenges are you facing as a broker?
Due to the inflated prices, people are being forced to offer to secure a property we are seeing down valuations from the lender’s surveyors which is then creating issues for the clients.
What are the main opportunities for brokers in your area and nationally?
I believe that there is a great surge of people looking to improve their homes so we are seeing an increase in people borrowing from the equity that has grown in their homes, with the increase in costs for building materials the advances clients are having to take has increased, this is good for brokers not so good for the clients having to pay inflated prices for the materials.
What could lenders do to help further your business?
The obvious one would be to keep rates low for as long as possible but this is more of a wish than a reality.
Lenders response times to questions and checks on cases could be quicker in the main, this would allow clients to understand if their cases are successful sooner and take away some of the pain involved in waiting for outcomes.
What sets you apart from the competition?
One reason would be the service which we feel gets us a lot of traction when people are looking for a broker with a proven track record, we also pride ourselves on the reputation we have built up serving the self-employed/contracting community, this continues to be one of the main reasons we get referred to people, we have a strong understanding of what lenders want and we are able to help clients navigate the muddy waters that surround self-employed lending.
How should potential borrowers contact you?
Email or phone [email protected] or 0203 3022282
