Help to Buy mortgage - is broker necessary?

kamb1ng

Hi all,

Newbie FTB here. My wife is self-employed as a music tutor making about 8k profit a year. I'm in full-time salaried employment (50k). Our situation is quite straightforward with no missed-payments, no CCJs, etc. The only thing we don't have is electoral roll registration because we're not UK/commonwealth/Irish citizens, although we have permanent residency (indefinite leave to remain).

We are thinking about purchasing a new build using HTB scheme.

We've met a local IFA in Cambridge several times and she's been helpful however not very responsive. I now have doubts on whether we need her at all since there are only about 4 lenders (Barclays, NatWest, Nationwide, Halifax, Lloyds TSB) participating in the HTB scheme.

I'm thinking about going direct to NatWest and make an application rather than waiting for the IFA to get back to me.

Is that a sensible move or would I missing deals by not using the IFA?

Any advice is greatly appreciated.

holly_hobby

Mge advisers/brokers do have access to exclusive deals that aren't available on the high st - and are helpful in directly mediating with the lender in problematic or unusual cases.

However, I'm unaware if there are any exclusive intermediary deals under the particular scheme you wish to apply for.

As long as you have the correct residency rights and traceable residence history in the UK, you and your wife can prove income (wife typically from SA302s), and a clean credit history then you could take a punt and go direct .... anything out of the ordinary I would suggest a brokers assistance

Holly

FTBSOS

Good luck with your application, though I don't think Nationwide are in the help to buy scheme just yet.

kingstreet

Nationwide aren't yet.

TBH it depends on the purchase price and your status. If FTB Buying between £125k and £250k, you'll probably be better off with Halifax on the stamp duty incentive products. These will give you a cashback of £1250 to £2500 on completion day - useful to help defray those completion costs.

3.19% with fee or 3.59% without, depends on the size of the mortgage.

Halifax being the first lender on the scheme have got things down and slick, while NatWest, as the newcomer is a bit of an unknown now, despite being a FirstBuy lender.

holly_hobby

Some good guidance for you there from Kings.

Wish you well

H

kamb1ng

kingstreet wrote: »

Nationwide aren't yet.

TBH it depends on the purchase price and your status. If FTB Buying between £125k and £250k, you'll probably be better off with Halifax on the stamp duty incentive products. These will give you a cashback of £1250 to £2500 on completion day - useful to help defray those completion costs.

3.19% with fee or 3.59% without, depends on the size of the mortgage.

Halifax being the first lender on the scheme have got things down and slick, while NatWest, as the newcomer is a bit of an unknown now, despite being a FirstBuy lender.

Thanks all for the responses.

The house we have in mind is priced higher than £300k, so I don't qualify for the Halifax stamp duty incentive product unfortunately.

The builder told me they're not allowed to help with stamp duty at all because we use the HTB scheme. If not HTB, they can. Has anyone come across this?

kingstreet

Builders seem to be deciding to offer incentives, or not, on an ad-hoc basis. There is nothing in the rules to say what they can and can't do. It's more about what they want to do IMHO.

Let_Us_See

Nationwide certainly lend in New Buy market.

kingstreet

Let_Us_See wrote: »

Nationwide certainly lend in New Buy market.

They lend on NewBuy but aren't expected to announce joining HTB until next week, maybe the week after.

kamb1ng

Just got off the phone with NatWest. The advisor said we passed the affordability requirement and just to call her back when our offer is accepted. She said we'll have a good chance of approval if our credit scores are good or above. Poor or average scores will mean a slim chance.

Now I just realised a potential snag. My wife has never had a credit card or mobile phone contract! She has her own current account and savings account with HSBC for almost 7 years. Other than that everything else is in my name.

Does anyone have any idea what her credit score is going to be like?

I just did free Equifax report. For me it's all green except for red in Electoral Roll (as explained in previous post). Does that count as good and above?

Many thanks again.

fragmast3r

my wife has had no credit cards, no loans, no hp, no mobile phone contract, no catalogues or store cards etc, and never been overdrawn, or have an overdraft, we've just got a mortgage on the HTB scheme with halifax