We’ve been introducing you to some of our colleagues at Chase de Vere. We tell you a bit about their background, what they do and how their work helps us to provide you with a better overall service.
This month we would like to introduce you to Ollie Sills, who is our Senior Manager for Mortgages and is based in our Birmingham office.
Ollie’s role
Ollie manages our team of mortgage advisers and administrators, who are based in our Birmingham office. We have seven mortgage advisers, supported by two administrators, and they provide financial advice and guidance to our clients on their mortgage options.
His professional background
Ollie began his professional career when he joined London & Country Mortgages (L&C) in 2003, as a Mortgage Adviser. This was shortly after completing a degree in Business Administration from the University of the West of England (UWE). At that time, he was the youngest mortgage adviser L&C had recruited.
In 2006, he was promoted to a Team Manager role, and he set up and ran a team of eleven new mortgage advisers. Ollie was very successful in this role and, in 2009, a new role as Graduate Team Manager was created for him. He was then running a team of sixteen established advisers, which became the top performing team in the company and evolved to be the preferred team to work with third party relationships such as estate agents, financial adviser firms and professional bodies.
In 2013, Ollie’s team then expanded to twenty-four and he was promoted to a senior manager role where he managed two team managers, who each had teams of eleven.
Chase de Vere had worked closely with Ollie over the years and were fully aware of his capabilities. In 2020, we offered him the opportunity to join us and to establish and manage our mortgage advice service. He jumped at the opportunity, and under Ollie’s stewardship this service has gone from strength-to-strength, providing an exceptional service for our clients and their families.
How Ollie and his team help our clients
The launch of the Chase de Vere mortgage service in 2021 completed the missing link in our overall financial advice proposition. It gave us more scope to advise younger clients, such as Junior Doctors, who are looking to get on the property ladder, current homeowners who want to ensure that they are benefiting from a competitive mortgage deal and the children and grandchildren of some of our more senior clients. We can also advise property investors, who invest in buy-to-let properties, and have a great record in placing unusual or specialist cases, where clients haven’t been able to find a mortgage solution elsewhere.
Ollie’s team is very experienced in advising doctors and other medical professionals. We have access to quite a few lenders who have bespoke policies for medical professionals and can help with mortgages for all career grade doctors.
His team is focused on providing a top quality and efficient service and making the whole mortgage advice process as stress-free as possible for our clients. As a starting point they’ll have an initial conversation with our clients, to understand their circumstances and what they’re looking to achieve.
If you’re looking for a new mortgage, or to understand if your existing mortgage is the best available option for you, our mortgage team will scour the market and then discuss their findings with you. As we are independent financial advisers, we’re not restricted to a panel of mortgage providers and can use any suitable products which are available. We don’t charge a fee for this service.
If we proceed with arranging a mortgage, we’ll liaise with the mortgage provider throughout the process, pushing them to move forwards as quickly as possible, and ensuring that you’re kept fully informed of progress at all times.
Ollie has been incredibly pleased with the feedback we’ve received from our clients, some of which you can read on the Chase de Vere and Chase de Vere Medical Trustpilot sites.
The current mortgage environment
We’ve seen interest rates rising in recent months, and this has a knock-on effect on mortgage rates. This can be of particular concern to those who are trying to buy their first property, or existing homeowners on variable or tracker rates or where their fixed rate deals are coming to end. Ollie’s team is able to provide guidance on the various options which are available and, for those worried about the future direction of interest rates, we’re able to secure mortgage deals which are valid for six months. Mortgage providers are obliged to honour these deals, although clients aren’t committed and so can move to an alternative arrangement if a better deal becomes available in the meantime.
In some cases, we’re telling our mortgage clients to do nothing for now. If they’ve spoken with us, and we’re aware of their circumstances and requirements, we can then keep in touch with them and let them know if a suitable option becomes available.
Ollie believes that even in the current environment, we’re able to help most mortgage clients, even if this just means reassuring them that they should stay where they are. However, for many clients, we’re also able to save them quite a lot of money by finding them a better mortgage deal.
Outside of work
Ollie is married and has three sons, who are aged 8 years, 6 years and 21 months, and he enjoys spending time with his family.
Ollie likes most sports, particularly Rugby Union in which he supports Leicester Tigers. He plays touch rugby and represents England in the over 30s category. Ollie played in the 2015 touch rugby World Cup in Australia, in which England came third, and in the 2019 World Cup in Malaysia, in which they were fourth. He is hoping to be part of the squad for the 2024 World Cup, which will take place in England.
Ollie has also started to coach his eldest son’s under 9s rugby team.
Ollie says:
“I’m delighted with the success of our mortgage advice service since it was launched in 2021. I manage an excellent team of advisers and administrators and we’re all focused on ensuring that we meet the mortgage needs of our clients and their families. It has also been particularly pleasing for me that we’ve been able to help many of our Chase de Vere colleagues with their own personal mortgage arrangements, being able to save them money and provide them with reassurance and security.
“To our Chase de Vere clients, please do feel free to speak with your usual adviser, or contact our mortgage team directly, if there is anything mortgage-related we can help with – even if you just want a chat to discuss your current circumstances and to see if there is anything we may be able to help you with in the future. My team and I are fully focused on providing you with the best possible level of advice and service.”
Your property may be repossessed if you do not keep up repayments on your mortgage.