Future First Time Buyer Advice

harrietrosie13 · 31 August 2015 at 8:47PM

Hi

My boyfriend and I are currently 21/22 and in our final years of university. We've been together 7 years and are quite traditional and family oriented, and we'd love to get a family home to start a family in asap.

However, it's increasingly difficult to get onto the property ladder, especially at our ages, and especially as we live in the South East of England.

We've both recently gotten an inheritance which we've put aside, so we have a fairly good deposit already. I'm wondering if anyone has advice on anything we could possibly do to make ourselves look better to a bank as we don't want to wait a decade until we can afford a family home! Is there anything we can start doing now that might increase our chances of getting a good mortgage?

Any advice is really appreciated!

Thrugelmir · 31 August 2015 at 9:09PM

Once you've got jobs start saving hard. There's no secret really in buying a property. You are facing the same challenges as previous generations have. Also set realistic expectations for your first property. Getting a foot on the ladder is the key. The dream house can come later.

amnblog · 1 September 2015 at 9:14AM

The current Help to Buy schemes are among the easiest ways for young people to get on the housing ladder.

You have not said why you might not 'look good to a bank'.

Have you checked with someone if you have options right now?

A simple conversation with a good broker would, at the least, help you get organised going forward.

dustywarrior · 1 September 2015 at 10:52AM

How is your credit at the moment? Do you have many monthly outgoings etc?

I would speak to a broker who is local to you and look at your current options, obviously the more deposit you have, the better you will look to potential lenders so get saving as much as you can!

GoldenShadow · 1 September 2015 at 6:22PM

We are FTB's (23 and 26). We decided against H2B, felt like too much debt to be saddled with so we saved a 10% deposit. If you are doing OK deposit wise, unless you want a new build, I would definitely evaluate all options. We didn't want a new build in the end, i can see the appeal but sooooo much money for the things we don't like (lounge diners, small kitchens).

We're East Anglia technically, but Essex prices aren't the cheapest in the region by a fair way. We stayed with one set of parents to save up faster, proper rent would have slowed us down a lot.

Do you have much debt bar student loans? Just make sure you aren't going over overdraft limits and are paying everything on time, paying things off will help your affordability improve.

Some lenders care about grad jobs. How long have you been in sector, is it permanent or a contract. I'm on a fixed term contract (2.5 years) so broker advised to be in before I am into the last year of my contract, and found a lender who didn't care if I had been in my role less than a year.

harrietrosie13 · 1 September 2015 at 10:25PM

Thanks everyone for your responses!

@Thrugelmir I totally get it about getting onto the ladder and getting a great house later, we just know we won't want to wait too long before having kids so the sooner we can get a bigger family home the better.

@amnblog help to buy is great, but you can only get them if you have a full repayment loan rather than a partial repayment so I'm currently looking into all options.

@dustywarrior I didn't realise that a deposit helped so much, I thought the amount you can borrow was totally limited by income, that's good to know it does help! Outgoings are just basics like rent, utilities, phones, food. To be honest I'm not sure on my credit, I assume it's bad because I have student loans!

@goldenshadow thanks for sharing your situation! We really don't want a new build for similar reasons, plus a large garden is important to us and new builds don't really have great gardens! I got into an overdraft while at uni but will have paid it off by spring, hopefully it'll help my credit that I have proof of paying debt back? As for other debts it's just student loans. Thanks for the info on grad jobs - I'm actually intending on going freelance but I know that'll make it even harder to get a mortgage, which is one of the reasons I'm looking into it now. We'll probably move in with parents to save rent too!

Rizla300 · 2 September 2015 at 1:47AM

Hi Harrietrosie13,

I would also take out a basic credit card after you have both secured full time jobs for 3 months. If you both make regular credit payments ( e.g. weekly food shop) and clear the monthly balance each month this will improve your credit score.

However if your in debt after uni I would stay clear of a credit card as not making payments will have reverse affect. If it's just a student loan debt
you're payng off each month then you should be fine to get a credit card.

Rizla300 · 2 September 2015 at 2:01AM

....I would also ensure your both get on the electoral roll ( even if you don't intend to vote) and get a landline. All these things will prove credit rating and there get you access to more mortgage lenders and better rates.

harrietrosie13 · 2 September 2015 at 9:43PM

@Rizla300 Thanks so much for the tips - I'm on the electoral role but my boyfriend isn't so we'll fix that! And we don't have a landline as we just use our phones, I didn't realise that had any affect. Thanks for those tips, I'm going to get a credit card (for thing I would usually just use a debit card for anyway) as soon as I finish uni to help my credit rating.

amnblog · 3 September 2015 at 8:35AM

harrietrosie13 wrote: »

@amnblog help to buy is great, but you can only get them if you have a full repayment loan rather than a partial repayment so I'm currently looking into all options.

You mean you hope to have some of your mortgage on an interest only basis?

Future First Time Buyer Advice

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