With demand for property continuing to rise, securing your mortgage as quickly as possible can help ensure you’re in the best position to make the purchase. However, if it’s getting closer to the weekend it’s definitely worth knowing whether your mortgage broker works on the weekend.
Yes, some mortgage brokers work weekends as they’re aware that a lot of property sales happen on Saturday and Sunday. However, not all mortgage lenders or underwriters are available so depending on your query, getting an answer may be difficult.
In this post, I’ll run through ways that you can avoid needing any support over the weekend as well as how you can contact certain parties over the weekend.
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Ways To Avoid Needing Your Mortgage Broker On A Weekend
As not all mortgage advisors work on the weekends or even if they do, they may be working at a reduced capacity, the best thing to do is to try and avoid needing to contact them in the first place. I’ve listed a few things you can do to help.
- Find a mortgage advisor before you start looking at properties. As soon as you know you want to buy a new property, start looking for a mortgage broker. They may also be able to give you helpful advice that could change your budget which could save you a lot of time searching for properties.
- Secure your mortgage in principle in advance of viewing a property. If you’re viewing a property on a weekend and think there’s even a slim chance that you could make an offer, try and get your decision in principle in advance so you’re ready to make an offer. A decision in principle may only last for 3 to 6 months, however, you can always get a new one.
- Ask your mortgage broker as many questions as you can in advance. Running through a variety of scenarios with your mortgage broker can be an excellent way to understand if you’ll have any questions before making an offer. I’ve also written a post about what questions to ask a mortgage broker that you may find useful.
- Submit your mortgage application as soon as you can once your offer is accepted. There are a lot of processes that need to happen when buying a house from property searches to valuations. However, the underwriting process by the mortgage lender can take from 2 to 6 weeks depending on the complexity of your situation. This can avoid you having to contact your mortgage broker pushing for an update, and risk the seller changing their mind.
Checking If Your Mortgage Broker Lender Works Weekends
The best way to check if your mortgage broker or lender works on the weekend is to try and find the contact page on their website. Unfortunately, there isn’t a standard rule for the industry stating everyone works on a Saturday from 10am to 3pm for example.
If you may need them at a weekend, asking your mortgage broker in advance will be the best approach and also asking for options if they do say they don’t work weekends. They may be able to give you the contact details of another broker in the company that works weekends if you are in need of support.
However, online mortgage brokers are actually helping to push the boundaries of the industry that I’ll explain below.
Online Mortgage Advisors Work Weekends
With the wave of new online mortgage brokers being set up, they’re pushing the industry to rethink its old practices in multiple ways, including opening hours.
For example, Habito is an online mortgage broker that has very long opening hours, including both Saturday and Sunday. They are open 9am to 9pm seven days a week except for Fridays when they finish at 5pm.
This is a significantly longer opening time than a lot of brick and mortar alternatives. I’ve written a full review of Habito here that you may find useful.
Depending on where you are in the mortgage application process, you may have already found a mortgage advisor, although this may be useful for the next time you need a mortgage.
Do Underwriters Work Weekends?
Whether your underwriter works on the weekend will depend on the mortgage lender you’ve chosen. However as the mortgage application process can take from 2 to 6 weeks, the earlier you can submit your mortgage application the better to avoid needing them on a weekend.
This is especially true if you’re coming up to a holiday period such as Christmas and New Year when a lot of people will be taking annual leave. Really this shouldn’t disrupt the timescales, although the team will more than likely be reduced over this period, so depending on the backlog of cases could cause some delays.
Do Underwriters Work For The Lender?
Yes, a mortgage underwriter works for a mortgage lender. They are the ones that carry out the in-depth analysis of a mortgage application to determine if the lender should approve the application.
This is why choosing a lender that has an in-house underwriting team can mean they can work together a lot more efficiently and helps to speed up the process. Hopefully, this can help to avoid the need to contact them over a weekend.
Summary – So Do Mortgage Brokers Work Weekends?
Overall, some mortgage brokers do work on the weekend however the best strategy is to try and do as much in advance as possible to avoid ever needing to contact them over the weekend. This includes everything from getting a decision in principle before viewing a property or asking as many questions in advance as you can.
Asking your mortgage broker to explain the end to end mortgage process can also be very helpful as well and can help settle your nerves if you haven’t heard anything in a few days or weeks, as sometimes no news is good news.
I hope this post has been helpful and that all goes well with buying your new property.
Hi, I’m John. I’ve always had a keen interest in Finance, so much so that I’ve made a career out of it! This site is a place where I can share everything I’ve learned as well as give me the excuse to research certain topics.
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