Keeping your bridging cases moving

I’m Michael Schofield and I’m an underwriting relationship manager at Together.

We specialise in bridging loans that can be used in a range of ways, whether that’s fixing a broken property chain, expanding a business or landing a great buy-to-let opportunity.

We see plenty of room for people in our decision-making process, and have teams of experienced underwriters who are dedicated to both regulated and unregulated cases — enabling us to write hundreds of bridging loans every month.

I specialise in unregulated bridging applications, and head our team of commercial underwriters. We pride ourselves on being able to lend to customers with more complicated circumstances, and work closely with brokers to find the right solution for their clients.

When a broker submits an application, we get back to them within 24 hours

My role is to ensure that each application is reviewed in detail and meets our lending criteria, while actively seeking solutions to get cases over the line that require a little more flexibility and out-of-the-box thinking.

Bespoke treatment

What I love most about being an underwriter at Together is that no two applications (and no two customers) are the same — and I’ve been here for almost a decade! As a team, we all want to do whatever we can to help our brokers’ customers get the bridging product they need in the timescale they require.

Working closely with our brokers, we have the power to accelerate our underwriting processes

That’s why, when a broker submits an application, we get back to them within 24 hours, either with a decision or to request the information we need to make one.

If we’re unable to approve the application immediately, it’s very common for us to speak to brokers and obtain more detailed explanations around certain situations that could unlock the problem.

Having the right documents ready will help us speed things along

What’s really different about our processes is that even the largest loans we underwrite benefit from the same speed and service as any other. And that’s down to our many years of experience as a team and as a business, as well as our strong network of trusted valuers and solicitors who can action things quickly.

Working closely with our brokers, we have the power to accelerate our underwriting processes further with good packs and good-quality information.

An incomplete or missing valuation could slow things down

We’ve pulled together some of the main reasons your bridging applications could stall, so we can ensure the best possible journey for your customers:

• • We use an automated valuation model (AVM) for many cases but, where that hasn’t been possible, an incomplete or missing valuation could slow things down.
  • Proof of employment and income is one of the main things we need for serviced bridging applications — so having the right documents ready will help us speed things along. It could be as simple as one payslip being out of date, so it’s worth a final check.

Even the largest loans we underwrite benefit from the same speed and service as any other

• When it comes to second-charge bridging loans, ensuring you have the right consent from the first-charge lender will help your application move much faster.
• We can accept applications from expats and foreign nationals. We just need your customer’s nationality added onto our My Broker Venue system. Similarly, we can accept applications from limited companies as well as individuals — all we need is a completed company structure form.
• Whether it be dual representation or instructing our solicitors to make contact with the borrower’s solicitor, having these details on the initial application means we could have the application moving in hours!

If you need advice on your application to speed things along, you know where to find us.

For professional intermediary use only.

Subject to a credit check and an assessment of your client’s individual circumstances.