Billy McCluskey
Sales Manager
Qualification | Certificate in Mortgage Advice and Practice 1, 2, 3
Billy has been in the mortgage intermediary industry since 2018, after a 10-year career in customer service.
Billy’s background working directly with customers and leading teams in previous retail roles reflects his strong empathy with people from all sorts of backgrounds. He brought all of that with him to Commercial Trust when he started life here as an advisor and it continued to help him when Billy became a manager.
For Billy, challenges present the greatest opportunity to learn. Experiencing this industry go through the Covid pandemic was a real learning curve. It made him realise how important Commercial Trust is as a broker and how particularly important our role is when handling specialist cases.
Delivering top class service has been instilled into Billy from his time in retail and its importance has carried over into Commercial Trust. In his eyes, it’s all about understanding the needs of each client individually and delivering on promises made to them every time.
Billy feels that here at Commercial Trust we stand out due to our specialist knowledge of the buy to let and specialist mortgage market. He feels we have a great team of advisors, that work together and use their knowledge to get the right lender first time, providing a smooth process for our new and returning clients.
Billy eagerly looks forward to a long career here at Commercial Trust, and knows that he and his team will play an important part in the future of many buy to let landlords building their portfolios.
"It is truly rewarding for us all at Commercial Trust to turn people's lives around"
Billy’s top tip
The main advice that Billy would give landlords, is that there is a vast difference between each lender and their eligibility criteria. As a result, it is important to think ahead and consider the steps taken now and how that can impact you later down the line.
E.g. if you own three properties and buy a fourth, you will be a classed as a portfolio landlord in the eyes of lenders (as a result of underwriting rules set out by the Prudential Regulation Authority). Not all lenders work with portfolio landlords, so, if you wanted to build a long standing relationship with just one lender and place all of your properties with them, you would need to pre-plan this prior to hitting that portfolio threshold.
Billy’s most memorable client case
One case Billy would say is a real story teller and encapsulates our service is with a client he had back in 2019.
The client had troublesome tenants and as a result had not managed to stay on top of their finances. Prior to approaching Commercial Trust, they had been to several brokers to try and remortgage, before a receiver of rent was appointed by the existing lender. All the brokers they had previously spoken to were unable to help.
However, Billy managed to find a lender that took a flexible and common sense approach to the situation his clients were facing.
Not only did Billy get them the remortgage they so desperately needed, but thanks to Billy’s colleague in the Account Management team, who worked alongside him with the clients, the mortgage completed within just 6 weeks.
Having come to the brink of losing their property, this was a phenomenal achievement and the positive impact it had on the client was immeasurable.
Find out more about the products we broker
Buy to let mortgages
Mortgages for houses, flats, Houses of Multiple Occupation or holiday lets, Invest in personal name or via a limited company.
Bridging loans
You can fund property investments quickly, buy at auction or buy property not yet fit to occupy, because it needs renovating with a bridging loan.
Commercial mortgages
Buy property to be used for business purposes, either to run your own company from or to rent out to commercial tenants.
Development finance
Raise funds for ground-up builds, for small or large scale projects, where you intend to develop and sell, or retain property and rent it out.