First Time Buyer's Guide To Mortgages

Curls2208

I was so confused then! And then i realised you were replying to the post above mine xD

iain_mac1986

Hi there

myself and my partner had an AiP from the bank and subsequently made an offer on a house. The offer has been accepted and we have now involved a solicitor in proceedings. We had a mortgage interview set up with the bank however due to Covid19, the bank are no longer taking on new applicants. I’m just not sure where this leaves us. Once things go back to normal, are the banks likely to just go back to business as usual? Or are the banks likely to continue on a reduced service for a time? If so, do we have any other options? I feel like everything has just been put on pause and hopeful that we can just start with the buying process again? We just don’t want to lose out on this house - it’s perfect for us as first time buyers. Looking for any thoughts, advice or opinions, please! 

bravotango

iain_mac1986 said:

Hi there

myself and my partner had an AiP from the bank and subsequently made an offer on a house. The offer has been accepted and we have now involved a solicitor in proceedings. We had a mortgage interview set up with the bank however due to Covid19, the bank are no longer taking on new applicants. I’m just not sure where this leaves us. Once things go back to normal, are the banks likely to just go back to business as usual? Or are the banks likely to continue on a reduced service for a time? If so, do we have any other options? I feel like everything has just been put on pause and hopeful that we can just start with the buying process again? We just don’t want to lose out on this house - it’s perfect for us as first time buyers. Looking for any thoughts, advice or opinions, please! 

Hi,

As a first time buyer too, at the beginning of this month, I spoke to Santander, HSBC, and First Direct (part of HSBC too), as they have a good rate at the moment and they were all willing to talk about a new Mortgage Application, and I have a full Mortgage offer now with valuation.

My LTV is just under 40% (I managed to save a big enough deposit, and haggled quite a bit on the asking price despite this being at London prices for a semi-detached house), and so not sure if that made a difference?

Not sure who you are applying with, but you might want to look for a lender elsewhere pretty sharpish if you are worried about losing the house, just for your own piece of mind to be honest!

That way, you are taking control of the situation rather than leave it to fate how lenders react when Covid-19 eventually fades away (hopefully in the next 3-4 months, but reports from the media say it's going to be with us with the various strains of Covid-19 until at least the beginning of next year).

No one has a crystal ball, or even correctly predict what the lenders will do or how long the UK economy will take to get back on track fully.

magdalenn

Good morning,
Could someone please advise;

Am I still considered a first time buyer if I take a mortgage for a property which I immediately pass the ownership of, to my parents? 

I want to take a mortgage in Poland for a flat for my parents but I don't want to lose privileges of first time buyer in the UK, especially since I live in London, and Stamp duty fees are ridiculous. 

Secondly, are the banks' databases linked in any way, so can lenders find out where a person globally has debts? Or banks solely rely on information that we provide and then investigate it?

Thank you,

M

charlotteDob

Hi All, 
I was hoping I could get some advice on new builds and the help to buy scheme;

It's a bit of a long story but basically, I was on track to buy my first home yesterday with the help of the 'Help to Buy' scheme. I had my 5% deposit, mortgage in principle and my mortgage advisor in place as well as a solicitor. Just as I'd gotten to the point where my mortgage advisor was trying to get in touch with the estate agent I received an email from the agent quoting the seller saying  'they no longer wanted to sell me the property because I wasn't using their broker and solicitor', at no point had I been told that I needed to. Are they allowed to refuse to sell me a property for that reason? I'm a bit stumped, and disappointed of course.

I'm no longer involved in buying the property as I was not happy to go with their services. Their mortgage broker had already found me a mortgage that she was happy with but it was a bad deal. My chosen mortgage broker is a friend who was also recommended to me by several of my other friends, so of course, I would rather go with him.

This has all happened over the course of 2 and a half days, with the estate agent sending me daily, multiple emails demanding my solicitor's details which at that point I was still waiting for a couple of different quotes to come back before I decided who I wanted to go with. I was also receiving emails from him questioning my genuine desire to purchase the property as he felt that I 'didn't really want it'

So the timeline of events - Saturday 16th May 2020 I went to view the property, Sunday decided I definitely wanted to go ahead and buy it so I filled my details out and sent it to their broker so they could get me a DIP, Monday I had my DIP and paid my reservation fee, Tuesday I had my meeting with my chosen mortgage advisor, he found me a great mortgage deal, Wednesday morning I had all my solicitors quotes back and had decided on who I would use, Wednesday early afternoon received the email to say that the seller will not sell me the property because I'm not using their broker and solicitor. 

All in all its been an absolutely awful experience, I thought I'd found my dream apartment, in my desired location. I'm more than able to afford it based off of my salary. It was all coming together ...

I'm struggling to find any actual advice, I have found articles stating that this is not ok but I don't know what to do about it, this can't be normal! No one would ever buy a house if it was. My dream apartment has now gone to someone else (there'll be other apartments/houses) and I'm waiting for my reservation fee to be returned. I might have spent the better part of yesterday afternoon roaring my eyes out (whilst also trying to WFH full time!) But I now just want to report them to someone, this can't be ok?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!
Kindest,
Charlotte



 

CarlaAEl

@charlotteDob
The developer or real estate agent does not have the right to refuse sale due to you not wishing to use their solicitor or mortgage broker. In fact most people advise against using their broker or solicitor on the basis that they will not be acting in your favour. Lots of developers have special deals in place to get kick backs or commission from certain solicitors or brokers and thats why they want to push you to do so. Often they provide relief ... e.g. We will give you £1000 towards legal fees if you chose our solicitor. But if you do your research you'll find its not worth the risk to save a couple of hundered pounds, in the grand scheme of spending to by a home. 

Have you already put a reservation fee down to hold the property?

charlotteDob

CarlaAEl said:

@charlotteDob
The developer or real estate agent does not have the right to refuse sale due to you not wishing to use their solicitor or mortgage broker. In fact most people advise against using their broker or solicitor on the basis that they will not be acting in your favour. Lots of developers have special deals in place to get kick backs or commission from certain solicitors or brokers and thats why they want to push you to do so. Often they provide relief ... e.g. We will give you £1000 towards legal fees if you chose our solicitor. But if you do your research you'll find its not worth the risk to save a couple of hundered pounds, in the grand scheme of spending to by a home. 

Have you already put a reservation fee down to hold the property?

Hi Carla, 
I put down a £500 reserve which I got paid back to me this afternoon in full. 
I get the feeling they just haven't wanted me to buy it, as weird as that seems, perhaps there was a person behind me wanting to use their solicitor services so they could get their kickbacks or a buyer wanting to put in a cash offer ...

The whole situation has just been really weird. I didn't think they were allowed to refuse to sell to me because I wasn't going to use their broker and solicitor but the advice I've received off of a few other people is that they are legally allowed to do that, which is the scary thing! 

But, nevermind, I wasn't up for playing their game and I've hopefully saved myself a lot of hassle. The estate agent hadn't been pleasant to deal with from the beginning so it's a bit of a relief really. 

This was my first attempt at purchasing a property and its been a learning experience! 

blackblesso

Please i need advice on a good location where me and my partner can get affordable house say between 200,000-250,000, 3-4 bed house.  We are first time buyer and we have two kids between 5-1 years.  We can afford to get deposit of £20,000-25,000 if needed.  Any professional advice will be appreciated.  Thank you in advance.

hazyjo

blackblesso said:

Please i need advice on a good location where me and my partner can get affordable house say between 200,000-250,000, 3-4 bed house.  We are first time buyer and we have two kids between 5-1 years.  We can afford to get deposit of £20,000-25,000 if needed.  Any professional advice will be appreciated.  Thank you in advance.

Please start a new thread, thanks

RyanT1992

Hi, 
I'm a first-time buyer in a bit of a tricky situation with regards to my credit history, and wondered if anyone could help?
I'm buying with my partner in the next year
- Both credit ratings good (I know it means nothing)
- Combined salary of £80-85k (expecting payrise before then), in full-time permanent jobs (Marketing & Private Nanny)
- 10% deposit
BUT
- I had a serious gambling problem (100+ payday loans over the past 6 years)
- Most of them 2018 or before
- By the time we apply for a mortgage, I won't have had any loans in the past year (nearer two years) or gambled in two years

Will we struggle to get a mortgage? And if we can get a mortgage, do you think we'd be able to borrow 4.5x our salary, or will it likely be a much lower multiple? We're buying near London, so obviously every penny helps massively in that respect...

I just want to set our expectations somewhere near reality, as the online mortgage calculators don't bring into account the payday loan history (and I won't go for an AIP until it's been at least a year since last payday loan) - the online tools say we can borrow anything from £250-400k, which is just not helpful at all!

Thank you in advance to anyone who can help!