Advice for a First Time Buyer

amyloofoo

Hi,

I'm sorry if you've answered questions like this a million times before, but I got into the mess I'm in at the moment through acting without understanding the full facts so I thought it was best to check!

Myself and my husband got married last year, I'm 25 and he's 29 and ideally we'd like to start a family in the next couple of years. He's from a very comfortable middle-class family and feels very guilty about not being able to give his children the upbringing he had.

We currently live in a little flat in a rough area and it's not a suitable place to raise children, so we've made the decision to wait until we're free of debt and are in a position to be able to move to a nicer area, and ideally buy. The problem is me, as I have bipolar disorder (diagnosed in 2009) and managed to make a mess of our finances when I wasn't well, which we're still recovering from.

I only have one default, which will drop off my credit file in January 2014; but have 1 arrangement to pay marker on my credit report, and 2 on DH's report (this is my fault, and it kills me that in my ignorance and stupidity I have made things worse for him). I've read that arrangements to pay can be seen as equally bad as a default, and although I hope to have all my debts repaid by the end of March 2013, these will stay on our reports and could prevent us getting a mortgage?

Currently DH earns £16,500 and I earn £13,500 (although I am currently studying and will earn a much better wage when my course ends in 2 years). I've had a look at properties in areas where we'd like to live, and a modest 2 / 3 bed family house is around £120,000. Is it likely we'd get a mortgage and how much deposit would we need to save? Also, do lenders look unfavourably upon gifted deposits as we would save the majority ourselves but DH's parents have offered to help with some of this.

Sorry for waffling

R_P_W

Hi, a minimum you would need for a deposit would be 10%, but ideally if you can get to 15% you would maybe have access to some better interest rates.

You will also need to have an additional 4-5k for things like solicitor fees, surveys etc.

Your income combined for the price range you are looking at seems reasonable, but i can't really comment on whether your financial history will have a major impact on your chances.

I guess you need to pay off any debt as soon as you can and then save like crazy.

amyloofoo

R_P_W wrote: »

Hi, a minimum you would need for a deposit would be 10%, but ideally if you can get to 15% you would maybe have access to some better interest rates.

You will also need to have an additional 4-5k for things like solicitor fees, surveys etc.

Your income combined for the price range you are looking at seems reasonable, but i can't really comment on whether your financial history will have a major impact on your chances.

I guess you need to pay off any debt as soon as you can and then save like crazy.

Thanks, I thought that would probably be the case but wasn't sure how arrangements to pay / gifted deposit would affect our chances.

Thrugelmir

Clear debt owed as quickly as you can. An arrangement to pay will impact your ability to obtain a mortgage for a period of time after its completed.