First Time Buyer Advice Please

*Paris*

Hi all,

My partner and I have a deposit of £25,000 and we have a joint income of just over £40,000, if we were to look at property for around £175,000, would this be realistic?

Not sure where to begin with it all!

Many thanks in advance for any advice

opinions4u

Possibly.

If you can get your deposit over 15% you may find that there are better mortgage deals out there than if your deposit is less than 15%.

Ideally you should see a whole of market mortgage broker to help you find a suitable lender.

GMS

Keep the loan to 85% LTV or below and you may have more options as O4U says.

I would suggest speaking to a broker. It is important to apply for the correct mortgage, not just the cheapest rate.

Impossible to say without all of your circumstances being known but in theory it could be possible.

cpdc1030

GMS wrote: »

Keep the loan to 85% LTV or below and you may have more options as O4U says.

I would suggest speaking to a broker. It is important to apply for the correct mortgage, not just the cheapest rate.

Impossible to say without all of your circumstances being known but in theory it could be possible.

When I was a FTB two years ago, I did go to a mortgage broker, who wanted to charge about £1000 in fees and couldn't match a mortgage product which was offered directly by NatWest (who I ended up taking a mortgage with). I don't see the point? Surely the goal is to pay the least amount.

Why not instead, focus on your two or three preferred mortgages, and call the lenders to determine whether your income and property meets their requirements? It is a bit more effort but not unreasonably so. They won't carry out a credit check until further down the application stage.

Your income multiple should be acceptable to a lot of lenders - but of course I don't know what your credit history and outstanding loans are. I do agree however that if you can keep the LTV below 85% you will open up a lot more doors.

brit1234

*Paris* wrote: »

Hi all,

My partner and I have a deposit of £25,000 and we have a joint income of just over £40,000, if we were to look at property for around £175,000, would this be realistic?

Not sure where to begin with it all!

Many thanks in advance for any advice

Is there anyway you can save up £40k deposit. The reason I say that is the closer you get to that £40k the more likely you are to have a 25% deposit as the house prices continue to fall. Your £25k deposit could eaily be wiped out in within a year.

As for the mortgages i think the best deals are in house and not with the brokers as they are not passed on. You should check the mortgage lenders brackets. Say you can't get a 25% deposit another bank may have deals at 20% deposit where the original is 15% after 25% bracket. This will give you a better rate.

No need to rush though, house prices are falling so you have time think things through.

GMS

brit1234 wrote: »

As for the mortgages i think the best deals are in house and not with the brokers as they are not passed on. You should check the mortgage lenders brackets. Say you can't get a 25% deposit another bank may have deals at 20% deposit where the original is 15% after 25% bracket. This will give you a better rate.

No need to rush though, house prices are falling so you have time think things through.

Mortgages are complicated and require more investigation than purely the headline interest rate. HSBC do not deal with brokers and are generally offering the best rates. I have recently had a client who had a DIP with HSBC but was better with another lender I sourced. The rate was slightly higher but the deal overall was better for the client.

If people arehappy to do the research and applications themselves then fine. There needs to be proper research done though to ensure the best product and that criteria is met. Can be expensive app fees involved which will be lost with a decline in some cases.

As for falling prices - you may well be right but only time will tell. Even if they do fall it is often cheaper to buy than rent, and if a house is looked upon as a home rather than an investment it is not usually a long term problem.