Broker vs a tied or restricted adviser
Not all mortgage advisers can offer you the same range. Some compare a wide range of lenders across the market. Others are tied or restricted, limited to one lender or a small panel. The difference directly affects the choice you get, so it is worth understanding before you commit.
What this means
A mortgage adviser can recommend mortgages from a range of lenders across the market, not just a single provider. That means your situation is matched against a wide range of options, and you are more likely to find a lender whose criteria genuinely fit you.
What tied or restricted means
A tied adviser represents a single lender and can only recommend that lender's products. A restricted adviser works from a limited panel of lenders rather than the full range of options. This is common with some estate agents' in-house mortgage services and some bank advisers. The adviser may be perfectly competent, but the range they can offer you is limited by design, and that limitation may not always be obvious.
Why the difference matters to you
If an adviser can only offer one lender or a small panel, the recommendation you get is shaped by what they are allowed to sell, not purely by what is best for you across the range of available options. You might be steered toward a deal that suits the arrangement rather than your circumstances. With a broker, the starting point is your situation and the full range of lenders, which is a fundamentally different basis for a recommendation.
A note on estate agent mortgage services
When buying through an estate agent, you may be encouraged, sometimes quite firmly, to use their in-house mortgage and conveyancing services. That is their commercial model. You are under no obligation to use them, and you are free to choose your own broker and your own solicitor. Keeping those choices independent means each part of your purchase is working for you, not for the agent's referral arrangements. Any buyer, any solicitor.
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