Mortgages:

Residential mortgage options

When it comes to getting on to the property ladder, there’s so much information available that it can seem a bit overwhelming. We regularly get enquires from people who just don’t know where to start!

The first thing we need to do is have a chat and work out what you want to achieve. From there, we’ll guide you through the process and be on hand to answer any questions you have.

Below, we’ve broken down the steps of the mortgage journey.

1:

Working out what you can afford

When it comes to buying a property, lenders need to know that you’ll be able to afford to repay the borrowed money. To work this out, they’ll conduct what’s known as an “affordability assessment”. To do this, they’ll assess your current income and outgoings and also look at your credit history to decide how much you can borrow in the form of a mortgage.

As part of our services, we’ll gather all the relevant information from you and work out how much each lender will allow you to borrow. As there are so many lenders available, this can take a few days, so it’s crucial that we get all your relevant information and documentation together as soon as possible.

2:

Checking what price bracket you can look in

You’re probably asking, “What price bracket can I look in?” Once we’ve confirmed how much you can borrow, we’ll add that figure to your deposit to know what price bracket you can start looking at for your new home.

In terms of your deposit, you’ll need at least 5% of the purchase price as a minimum. The bigger the deposit you have, the less money you’ll need to borrow in the form of a mortgage, and therefore the cheaper the rate of interest the lenders will offer you.

There are government schemes that can help boost your deposit savings, Lifetime ISA’s are fairly popular, as the government will top up your savings by way of a 25% bonus.

3:

Getting you the right deal

Now you know how much you can borrow and you’ve got your deposit saved, the next step is to find a property that you like and then submit an offer. From here, we’ll speak to the cheapest lender that meets your affordability and ask them to provide us with a Decision in Principle. This is an outline document confirming that the lender is happy to take you on as a customer.

4:

Sending the paperwork

Next, a copy of the Decision in Principle, along with proof of your deposit, is normally required to be sent to the estate agent selling the property; we can help you with this.

We’ll then submit your full mortgage application and send the lender a copy of the documents that we gathered during our initial meeting.

5:

Receiving the official offer

The lender will then instruct an independent valuation surveyor to carry out a mortgage valuation survey on the property. If the survey comes back positive, then the lender will issue the official mortgage offer to you and us.

Think carefully before securing debts against your home. Your home may be repossessed if you do not keep up repayments on your mortgage or any other debt secured on it. Please note that some mortgages such as commercial BTLs are not regulated by the FCA.