Introducing Buy to Let Finance for Landlords

We are pleased to inform you about a new service we can introduce for landlord finance, such as buy-to-let mortgages via Commercial Expert. 

But first, a little background on how we got here and our personal experience with the company. 

As most know, in addition to running the Guild, we are also a private landlord personally. 

We had several loans on an - as-purchase basis - many years ago. Then, when it all went pear-shaped, the bank was in panic generally and wanted to consolidate all into a single mortgage. 

To persuade us, they offered a small reduction in the rate. However, it was a crazy loan in our view because, at the end of the term, we would still owe the bank! The loan was insufficient to cover all debt! 

We heavily complained about this at the time, but we were assured (and have this logged) that “there would be no problem at the end of the term and a renewal would be forthcoming”. 

We knew this was a lie! We knew then that this was stage one of the bank getting out of the market generally, so during this new consolidated loan, we took out various accounts with some banks to hopefully put us in a good position when the term expired, still owed them.

In all reality, even with the reduction in rate, we didn’t have all that much choice but to proceed with the consolidated loan! 

As suspected, one year before the expiry of the term, we received a telephone call and were told, “we don’t lend to people like you anymore” (that is a direct quote)! (We think they meant landlords in general, but there must surely be better ways to phrase it)! 

So off we went to one of the other banks we’d started using in preparation. 

Our main problem is that we don’t have single, simple houses, and it’s all a mixture of flats, offices, shops, garages and storage. Therefore we expected the process to be not so simple. 

The bank we went to was beneficial and passed us to Commercial Expert to whom we provided our information and requirements. 

Overall, their service was excellent and did the job without fuss. 

We decided on a mixed-use property that was large enough to cover the amount required in one hit (rather than having 2 or 3 properties which would need individual surveys and registration). 

Thankfully we’d been conservative with our valuations meaning the survey was no problem and sailed through. The money was transferred, the old bank cleared, and now we’re on the final leg to being debt free! 

There is just one comment we would make for anyone thinking of obtaining finance: just be prepared for the fees. 

Commercial Expert were upfront with their fees, but then there were the bank’s solicitor fees plus surveyor costs to be added. 

Of course, these couldn’t be quoted because nobody would know the amount. It was these solicitor and surveyor fees that caught us out as to how much it would all cost. I think from memory one was around £2000 and the other about £1500. This was more than the broker plus bank fees and was a significant expense! 

The service itself was excellent, and the job was completed with much greater ease than we thought it would be. 

During the whole process, we had in the back of our minds how useful this would be for Guild subscribers but remained entirely silent on that point so that we weren’t given any special treatment if they thought extra business might come their way. 

Commercial Expert specialises in not just single houses but also the more complex type properties with a mixture of residential and commercial. They can also cater for HMOs. 

Some of the financing they can complete include:

• Private Equity facilities
• Restructure from existing bank
• Unsecured business loans
• Commercial Investment
• Bridging Finance
• Semi - Commercial
• Cash-Flow solutions
• Asset Finance
• Development Finance
• Secured Loans
• Rescue Finance

If you require finance, please see our page for buy-to-let finance for landlords, including commercial, mixed and HMO, to make contact and arrange a callback.