buying a house advice needed

nickygen

in answer to the q's

my step dad is living in the house and paying bills/ council tax, i rent at the moment

we get on well and he can't force a sale as such as detailed in my mums will, i reckon i need to get a large down payment of around 10-15k within the year to keep him happy though

after my mums death i did think i would sell the house, pay my stepdad his share and use the rest (about 105k after fees) to buy a smaller house however i have my heart set on keeping my mums house (it has a strong emotional attachment and is much nicer than any property i could get after selling and re buying another house) and for the sake of 24k i feel that id be stupid not to try and make this dream a reality

GMS

Get yourself back to work and then speak to a good broker.

The amount you are looking for would not require a big salary, assuming you have no credit commitments. Your deposit is already in the house so you would not need to find any cash.

5 years may be a bit ambitious for a term though. You may be better aiming for a longer term to keep monthly payments down to an affordable level, and make overpayments as and when you can. Once your partner is back to work you can reassess your mortgage and if you want to at the time you can reduce the term.

Once you have a job you should look into this. Not all lenders require 6 months in current position, some will do with much less.

Good luck with the job hunt.

sonastin

As far as getting a mortgage is concerned (assuming £25k is the minimum you can get a mortgage for...) the house is pretty low risk for the bank as you are looking at LTV (loan-to-value) less than 20%. So you need to make sure that you aren't the problem. Step 1, obviously, is get an income. It probably doesn't need to be a high income as its not a big sum you are trying to borrow. Step 2, look at how you can convince the bank that its not a short-term income. Best bet will be to have a decent length of contract. With the low LTV, you might be able to convince the bank to consider you in under 6 months provided you have a permanent job. Temping is going to need a bit of history of continuous employment to convince them that you'll always be able to pay the mortgage. Step 3, work out what you can realistically afford in repayments. Don't overstretch yourself at this point and risk losing the house. If you take out a mortgage over 10 years with the option of making overpayments you can reduce the time to pay it off by making the overpayments when you have the money but aren't pushed when you don't.

It is worth speaking to an independent financial advisor to see what sort of arrangements they can recommend. Another good place to learn about this stuff is to speak to your bank too - but don't let them talk you into signing up to anything as they can only recommend their products. You can learn a lot by talking to them and asking questions during the interview and it gives you a baseline to start comparing other loans / mortgages against when you go away to "think about it".

RAS

And do some of the basics to make sure your credit record is good. Are you currently on the electoral roll? Check your existing credit records and clean them up if necessary.

Annisele

If you and your stepdad own the house 75%/25% with no other provisions (other than an apparent restriction on either of you forcing a sale for a while) - is he paying you 75% of a market rent?

If he is, and if he intends to stay living there for the forseeable future, you might be able to get a mortgage based on the income from his rent payments.

If he's not paying rent, why not? Did you Mum's will give him the right to stay there rent-free for a period? (Wouldn't be unusual if it did, but any such provision would make it more difficult for you to mortgage the property, because it would be harder for the bank to repossess).

nickygen

thank you so much for these replies, these really get to to the bottom of what i need to know and give me hope for doing this,

i have one overdraft left from my student days which is at 800 pounds which needs clearing when possible and my student loan but no other credit issues but will get a check as suggested.

My step dads not paying rent as i could theoretically share the house with him still but this is not a real option, he already has another house he is doing up so is looking to move out in the next 6 months

I think you are right about the term and the option to overpay would be very much something i would want, does anyone know a rough ballpark figure for what i would pay back if i had a £20,000 mortgage for 10 years?

also a little off subject but i have noticed quite a lot of jobs in my area for cashiers in halifax and santander and others as well as call center operatives for halifax, if (i know its a reasonably big if) i did get a job as a cashier or operative would that put me in any advantageous position for a mortgage at all?

thanks a lot

nick

sonastin

£20,000 for 10 years at an interest rate of 5% (better rates are available) would be about £215 per month (according to the BBC website's mortgage calculator).

mlz1413

If you get an interview for a job working for a bank then at the end when they ask 'any questions' say yes do staff get preferential mortgages?

I know nationwide used to do a very preferential rate for staff but with the banking crisis I daresay such perks have gone by the wayside, but its worth asking - it also shows you wish to work for the company for a long period so may benefit you to ask as long as you do it nicely!