Advice needed for 2 desperate first time buyers!!!

dcm3283

Hi.

Myself and my girlfriend have been saving for over a year and a half now for a deposit for our first house. We have managed to get together £21k. We both earn ok money and have a combined income of about £35k. We started looking in May and found a house that we liked. We went to a broker to try and get an agreement in principle to make an offer and was turned down by Santander saying that with our situation we needed a bigger deposit. My girlfriend has a perfect credit score of 999 and earns £17k a year, her only credit commitment is finance on a car of which she has £2000 outstanding. My credit history isn't as good. At the time of us applying I had about £2500 outstanding debt from uni in overdrafts, one of these had gone to deafult which had a small amount left to pay. My credit score at this time was at 849. Since we got turned down I have completely paid off all my debt and settled that final default which means I am now debt free, except for a £100 overdraft on my current account. I do have 2 other deafults on my credit file that have been settled for over 2 years now. I have checked my credit score again recently and it has now gone upto 900.

We were told by our broker to wait 6 months, pay off all my outstanding debt and settle the default and then hopefully we should be in a position to get an mortgage. I however have been told by a few different people, including the advisors at credit expert that now I am debt free and have no outstanding defaults that we may be able to get a lender to accept us?

We are looking to borrow £114000 as we have a deposit of £21000.

Can anyone give me any advice on this please as both me and my girlfriend are extremely eager to get our own place and not sure how long to leave things as we know that have turned down applications on your credit file could hurt us in the long run?

Having spoke to different people and various companies we have had a lot of conflicting advice and we really don't know where we stand?

Any advice is greatly appreciated, especially from people who have been in a similar position to us and have managed to get a mortgage??

Thanks

dcm3283.

beecher2

Go to another adviser for a second opinion. The defaults stay on your file for 6 years. Don't obsess too much about scores as they're meaningless - banks will have their own lending criteria. If you've saved so much so quickly I'd wait until you have a 25% deposit and you'll have more options - but that's just a personal opinion.

dcm3283

Thanks for your advice. It has taken us over 2 years to save that deposit, with help from family. We are so desperate to move out that we are obviously hoping to do it asap but i know in our case it may take time. I have an appointment with an independent mortgage advisor on monday so we shall see what he thinks.

If this doesn't work my girlfriends parents have said they would look into the possibility of going onto the mortgage with her for a few years and then when it is time to remortgage hopefully i would be in a position to be added to it? Not really sure how that would work and notsure if i'd be comfortable doing it but it's an option to think about?

beecher2

Is there a reason for your desperation? Is waiting really not an option? Could you rent rather than buy until you're in a better position?

beecher2

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/35733137#Comment_35733137

You got pretty good advice on your previous identical thread.

missPinky

Hi

I brought my house similar price to yourself and with a similar deposit and i had £4k outstanding from a student loan. We got out morgage with santander but when through a broker as they can check most morgages at once saving you the hassle. Please note that getting too many quotes for morgages from individual lenders affects your credit rating.

Cannon_Fodder

Give it at least 6 months since everything was cleared up on your credit history.

Stop using your overdraft.

dcm3283

Sorry about the multiple posts! I'm just trying to draw as much advice as i can!

We are living at her parents house at the moment which isn't too bad but we have been together 3 years now and are just ready, plus we are feeling very cramped at the parents!

We have talked about renting and if we cannot get a mortgage then that is probably the road we will go down. We have a decent deposit already that we would just sit on and try and add too. Obviously we'd rather be paying towards a house that we owned rather than throwing money away on renting but we know that that might have to be a sacrifice we might have to make for a year or so to reach our long term goal. We are just trying to way everything up so we can make the right decision for our future!

dcm3283

Santander turned us down last time and that was through an independent broker. He did say that nationwide and a few others have taken clients of his before with adverse credit.

In regards to my overdraft, it is only for £100 which i very rarely use. only in the last few days before payday which gets reimbursed in full staight away. I also have a credit card for £200 which i use to buy my petrol and I claim back on expences so get's paid back in full every month.

I am also well aware of mutliple credit searched/footprints on my file. The only one I/we have had in the past 3 months is that decline from Santander and after seeking advice from Experian they informed me that credit searched drop off after 3 months so we are keeping an eye on that.

beecher2

I honestly don't understand the thought that you'd be throwing money away by renting. You'd be paying for a roof over your head, wouldn't have to deal with maintenance, and it also gives invaluable experience in budgeting so as you will have a realistic idea of the costs of running a home.

dcm3283

Yeah I completely see where you are coming from. On the other side of the coin however we want to get ourselves on the property ladder and invest our money!