FTB - Will we get a mortgage?

shmertnickname

Hello.

This is the first time I have used the forum so apologies for probably repeating what has been asked thousands of times before on here.

Anyway...

My girlfriend and I are hoping to buy our first house in Scotland the new few months. Our situation -

Me - 35,444 pa
My CreditExpert rating is only 780 (I had late payments on a mobile phone contract I had a few years ago which I regularly paid late; was just me being daft and forgetting to set up a direct debit) and I have never had a loan other than my current car finance. I used the website to get msyelf a credit card so that I could build up my score, although it has remained stable for the past 4 months.

Her - 31,200 pa
her CreditExpert rating is 950ish; credit card paid off in full, no other loans or debts.

We have a deposit of around 15k, are hoping to go for a house which we have seen and would be able to get for 112k, therefore a mortgage of 97k. We had previously spoken with a broker who had said my credit rating would prevent me from getting a mortgage (from Northern Rock) and to my massive displeasure this has now shown on up my credit ratring, despite him telling my girlfriend that it would not leave a record.

Using this website's mortgages guide we called London and Country who offered us an AIP of at least 120k, however suggested that we could basically get 10x whatever deposit we could muster, up to the limit of around 25k (250k house).

I have a few questions, and again apologies for asking when I am sure the answers are somwhere in this forum.

1 - LandC advised me to call back when I had an offer accepted, however I'd rather feel confident that I definitely have the mortgage approved and accepted before putting the current owner and ourselves through the stress. So; would it be possible to go (viaLandC) to the mortgage providers and checking IF we would be accepted?

2 - Similarly, in your opinions would we be accepted for a mortgae of that scale given our situation? And if so, am I best sticking with LandC or going to a specific provider myself?

Thanks in advance for your advice and for the help that I have got from reading other threads on here. This is the most stressful thing I have ever done!

opinions4u

I'd suggest getting the deposit up to 15% could ale a difference. At the moment you're £1,800 short but it would open up more doors and better deals.

Income wise there should be no issues. Your big problem is likely to be your previous carelessness. It might give you some difficulties.

The only ways to mitigate this are time and bigger deposit.

I'd expect a good broker to be able to procure you a mortgage. But it isn't in the bag.

gazfocus

If you're only looking to borrow £97k, it would be a safer bet just doing it in your girlfriends name as it's only be about 3x her income and your previous credit wouldn't be an issue then.

kidmugsy

It's been decades since we bought in Scotland, but in our time we had our solicitor arrange the mortgage before we offered on the house. When your offer is accepted you own that house so, by golly, you'd better have the money. At least, that was how it was then. Has it changed?