Oak Tree Mortgages

22/08/2026

Selling your home for the first time 🤔

Here’s the order we’d suggest 🏡

📅 Book a meeting with us:

https://bookings.gettimely.com/oaktreemortgages/bb/book?product=136614%3ASV

🏠 Before the meeting, ask three estate agents to value your property.

Planning to do some decorating or other work first? Don’t necessarily wait for that to be finished — just tell the agents what you’re planning.

💷 We’ll then help you work through the figures.

Using the valuations, we can help you understand your existing mortgage, likely borrowing, moving costs and the budget for your next home.

Ideally, we do this before your property goes on the market, or around the time it’s listed.

That means when you’re deciding what price to market your home at — and what you can realistically spend on your next property — you’ve got a much clearer picture of the numbers.

Thinking about moving and not sure where to start? Book a meeting with Oak Tree Mortgages and we’ll help you work through it.

14/05/2026

People often think mortgage advice is about one thing:

“Getting the best rate.”

And yes — rates matter.

But after more than 20 years helping people with mortgages, I can honestly say that the rate is often the easiest part of the job.

The real work sits in the life happening around it.

Over the years, we’ve helped people buy their first home together, move to be closer to better schools, remortgage to create breathing space financially, navigate divorce and separation, deal with bereavement, buy out former partners, adapt plans after redundancy, sickness or life simply not going to plan.

Sometimes it’s a really exciting chapter.

Sometimes it’s one of the hardest periods in someone’s life.

And mortgages don’t pause while life is happening.

A mortgage adviser often ends up doing far more than “finding a lender.”

We help people make sense of complicated decisions when they’re overwhelmed.

We explain things when the legal process feels confusing.

We spot problems before they become expensive ones.

We calm panic when headlines say “rates are rising” and help people avoid making rushed decisions.

We sometimes become the quiet go-between helping keep difficult situations calmer than they might otherwise be.

We help people protect themselves, their homes and their families when life takes an unexpected turn.

And sometimes, we simply reassure someone that they’re not being unreasonable for feeling worried.

The truth is, a mortgage is rarely just a mortgage.

It sits inside real life.

For many clients, we don’t just help once. We help through different stages of life — first homes, bigger homes, children arriving, separation, retirement planning, investment properties, helping children get onto the ladder.

Some families we’ve looked after for generations now.

That trust means a lot.

So yes, rates matter.

But good advice is often about so much more than a number on a screen.

It’s about helping people make good decisions at important moments in their lives.

That’s the bit people don’t always see.

🏡

17/04/2026

Everyone’s trying to guess where interest rates are going 🤔

Even the professionals can’t agree.

In the last few weeks alone, expectations have swung between rate rises 📈, cuts 📉, and holds ⏸️

Recent commentary from Switch Your Money On (17 April 2026) cuts through the noise on the Bank of England outlook:

• Short term: likely no movement while uncertainty remains ⏳
• Medium term: rates are still expected to fall 📉
• Reality: those cuts will be slower than people hoped 🐢

Translation?

Rates aren’t about to drop off a cliff
But they’re not heading back up aggressively either

🚨 This is the first week since the onset of the war in the Middle East that we have seen mortgage lenders reducing fixed rates.

This is exactly where people make mistakes:
👉 Rushing into a deal out of fear 😬
👉 Or sitting still waiting for the “perfect” rate 🎯

At Oak Tree Mortgages, we don’t play that game

We:
• Lock in a rate when it makes sense 🔒
• Keep it under review 👀
• Switch if the market improves before completion 🔄

No guesswork. No panic. No chasing headlines.

Just a process that works in uncertain markets.

08/04/2026

🏡 FIRST TIME BUYER MYTH:

“If we buy below our Agreement in Principle, can we borrow the difference to do the house up?”

Short answer: ❌ usually no.

This catches so many first-time buyers out.

A lot of people are told:

💬 “If your AIP says £300,000 and you buy for £270,000, you can use the £30,000 difference for the kitchen, bathroom or decorating.”

That advice is often 🕰️ years out of date.

In reality, mortgage lenders work from the purchase price (or valuation if lower) and then apply the deposit percentage to *that figure.

So if you buy for £270,000 with a 5% deposit, the lender is typically looking at:

🔹 Deposit: £13,500
🔹 Mortgage: £256,500

That “extra” money people think exists?

🚫 It’s gone. You can’t just draw it out for renovations.

One buyer said to me recently:

💬 “That’s different to what people had been telling us, so I’m glad that I asked that now.”

Exactly why it helps to check the facts before offering.

A lot of this well meaning advice comes from the pre-2008 days, when some lenders would go above 100% loan-to-value.

⏰😥 That world is long gone.

The smarter question now is:

✨ “How do we structure the purchase price, deposit and future improvement plans properly from day one?”

That’s where good advice saves stress.

Thinking about buying a place that needs work? 🛠️
Book an initial chat and we’ll help you map the numbers properly before you commit.

https://oaktreemortgages.com/book-appointment/

02/04/2026

Is your mortgage fixed rate ending later this year? Please don’t panic.

With everything going on in the world, it’s completely understandable that many homeowners are worrying about what this means for their next mortgage deal.

The instinct can be to rush, lock something in too early, or even pay an early repayment charge to escape future rate rises.

In most cases, that is not the best move.

Many existing lenders allow you to secure a new deal around 4 months before your current rate ends, and right now this is often the smartest time to review your options.

Mortgage lenders are not currently pricing especially aggressively for new business, so making changes too early or paying fees in the middle of market volatility can sometimes do more harm than good.

A calm strategy nearly always beats a panic reaction.

If your fixed rate is ending in the next 6 months, now is the time to plan your review point so you are ready to act when the right lender window opens.

Use our online diary to book your refinance review: https://oaktreemortgages.com/book-appointment/

And if you know friends or family who are worried about their mortgage ending this year, please share this post with them — it may help them avoid an expensive panic decision

26/03/2026

✅ We’re back up and running!

Our email and website services are now fully restored, and everything is operating as normal.

🙏 We’d like to say a big thank you to Hotlobster Design Ltd for their hard work and support in getting everything back up and running.

We really appreciate your patience over the past few days while this was resolved.

As always, if you need anything, we’re here to help.

23/03/2026

✅ Update: Our email service is now back up and running.

📧 However, due to the recent technical issue, any emails sent between 5pm on 18th March 2026 and 2pm on 23rd March 2026 may not have been received by us.

🔁 If you contacted us during this time and haven’t had a response, please resend your email or get in touch with us directly.

📞 0121 733 8833

🛠️ Our website is still currently unavailable, and we are working to restore it as soon as possible.

📩 We are also working through all emails received and will respond as quickly as we can.

🙏 Thank you for your patience and understanding.

21/03/2026

⚠️ Quick update for clients:

Please see the pinned post above for our alternative email addresses for all advisers.

Our main email addresses (.com) and website are currently unavailable.

📞 You can also call us on 0121 733 8833

We’re working to resolve this as quickly as possible—thank you for your patience.

Call now to connect with business.

20/03/2026

⚠️ We’re currently experiencing a technical issue affecting our main email addresses (.com).

📧 As a result, we’re unable to receive or send emails through our usual email accounts. This issue started on Wednesday, so any emails sent to us since then have not been received.

🛠️ Our team is working to resolve this as quickly as possible.

📩 In the meantime, please contact us using the following alternative email addresses:

Calvin Oram – [email protected]
Andy Rawlings – [email protected]
Westley Gordon – [email protected]
Debbie Cutts – [email protected]
Trusha Chavda – [email protected]
Claire McKay - [email protected]

📞 Or call us on 0121 733 8833.

🙏 We apologise for any inconvenience caused and appreciate your patience while we get this resolved.