Bob The Broker
Welcome to Bob's blog.
Each week Bob rants and raves about various firms and individuals in the industry. Do you agree with him?
Yes? No? Have your say!
Read and comment...
A fond farewell to Bob the Broker's blog
Tuesday 10th May 2011Today, Bridging & Commercial bid a fond farewell to Bob the Broker’s weekly posts. Bob Havenhand today retires from his year-long post as resident blogger on the site, in order to focus more closely on his new business, South Yorkshire Property Consultants. Through all the industry’s highs and lows, Bob has been there to provide his wordly views, having ‘ridden through the ups and downs, and watched governments come and go’ since he first began his career as a financial advisor/broker in the mid-eighties. Over the course of 36 Bob the Broker blog entries, the readers have discovered his pet hates, seen a typical ‘week in the life of’ a broker, and been presented with various issues related to ‘lender idealism’, the difficulties with buy-to-let deals, and the pros and cons of buying leads. Bob has certainly ruffled some feathers within the industry, especially when naming and shaming the lenders that he’s dealt with, notably through his ‘The winners and losers of 2010’ blog. He has also been a positive voice for change, never afraid to question how worthwhile mortgage expos and seminars are, how wrong it is to charge upfront fees, and the importance of support within the industry. Bob Havenhand...
0 Comment/s
Proud to be English
Tuesday 3rd May 2011Well as I type I'm once again in the midst of another 4 day break from work, call me sad but I'm fed up of them, two in two weeks is a joke. I've got business to attend too but there's no one out there… oh well, I'll be bright as a button on Tuesday morning. In fact, this week for a change I'll look at local life and the news, rather than my business. It's been a bad weekend all round, at the match on Saturday I had to witness my team drawing to the Dingles, but still getting relegated to the third tier of English football, well a crumb of comfort is that there'll be a Steel city derby next season. The last time we met in the 3rd tier in the 1979/80 season we set the crowd records, over 90,000 saw the Blades play the pigs in the two games, (you didn't need a bank loan to pay for match day tickets in those days). For those of you that don't know the banter in the‘people’s democratic republic of South Yorkshire’, there's no love lost between us Dee Dars in the South West of the county and the Dingles in the...
0 Comment/s
Another messy, complex case
Tuesday 26th April 2011Happy easter to everyone, three days back at work then it's off again for that wedding down south, and then May day. I see a days fishing coming on Friday, sorry if that offends but they didn't watch my wedding, and getting wed on the pitch at beautiful downtown Bramall Lane was just as illustrious as Westminster Abbey. Just before the break I had an influx of bridging enquiries, I'm pleased to say that of the ones mentioned last week that the big one, £950,000 gross loan, has been placed and we should get the valuation instructed this week and move it on, very happy with my lender on that one. At the other end of the scale a £25,000 purchase at auction, well the two bed terraced house is in 'ULL' as we say in Sheffield, probably worth about £40,000 on the open Market and with about £350-£375 per month rent it's not bad value for money. Thing is this has proved harder to place than the larger loan above, the client has paid 10% at auction, plus about a grand in auction fees, and the balance of £22,500 is far too low for most bridging lenders, even lower if more deposit...
0 Comment/s
When lenders let you down
Monday 18th April 2011Once again listening to Saturday football, and pondering on what to include in my blog, frustrated by a bridging loan that should have completed Friday but as Diana Ross sung "I’m still waiting. Disappointment… My client has exhausted his auction 28 days; in fact Monday is the last day of his 15 day extended period, so some backsides need kicking on Monday. The worse thing to me though is the sheer disrespect expressed towards my client and I on Friday, when twice I was promised call backs from the lender. However, when I chased updates on the funds being released, it seems they thought we didn't deserve a call back, they know who they are!! But even with my little rant I am somewhat perplexed as the guys at that particular bridging lender are usually ok. Presenting a complex case for a willing lender… Moving on I have three Bridging cases to research and source a lender for on Monday; by the time you read this I will hopefully have them with underwriters. One is a large complex case including three commercial property purchases, £740,000 of funding, against a value we are led to believe of over £1,840,000. These purchase prices are hugely discounted...
1 Comment/s
Putting a face to a name
Monday 11th April 2011Monday morning blues, then grey, then red!! My week was well planned, but unfortunately the execution of those plans on the first day faltered due to unforeseen circumstances. I rose early and at 8.40am I boarded a train from my local village train station for the 6 minute journey into Doncaster. On arrival I had a 15 minutes wait before my second leg of the journey would see me on a train to Leeds, before the final leg which would be the short journey from Leeds to Bradford. The plan goes off the rails… I was to hold a three way meeting between myself, my client, and a representative of the Asian bank, United National. The bank was the perfect match for the lenders criteria and my client’s commercial funding requirement. I was feeling a bit blue in the head, the sky above me was slate grey and a slight drizzle was in the air. I'd had a good weekend on the old grog, and needed to wake up a bit, then the train slowed to a halt about 100 yards short of the platform at Doncaster, and it was a full 5 minutes before the announcement was broadcast,"we are sorry for the...
1 Comment/s
Pages 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
Share this page