Mortgages for FTC-ers

ReadingTim

Apologies in advance if this has been done to death in various guises, but hope someone can help:

What are the possible options for getting a mortgage whilst on a fixed term contract? I'm with my current employer until 31 March 2014 (maternity cover), thereafter I'm not certain. I've been there a year and a half (2nd maternity cover, the benefit of being a man in an otherwise all female department!) Until then I'm treated as a normal employee - holidays, member of the pension scheme etc, rather than being a limited company.

I don't anticipate too much trouble getting another job as the proferssion I'm in is relatively recession proof - more like being dead man's shoes in terms of progression. Therefore, there's always a stready turnover of people moving on to climb the greasy pole. Unfortunately such general and sweeping statements don't pay the bills...

On paper I'm mortgage free (but would have to cash in some investments (premium bonds) to be actually mortgage free), and would have c.£160k deposit. Total remuneration for this 2nd year of the FTC is £70k, split £55k salary, £15k retention bonus, and I'd been looking around that mark for future (permanent) jobs.

My parents have offered to act as some form of guarantor - they recently downsized from the family home and have c£700k from the sale of that sitting in the bank, but they're retired, so the typical sort of guarantor mortgages don't seem applicable as they're no longer working. There's also no suggestion that all (or even any!) of that money would come my way when they're no longer with us - they're determined to enjoy their retirement and not be the richest people in the graveyard...!!!

Therefore the question is the extent to which there might be products out there to suit my circumstances, and the extent to which a mortgage broker can find them? Next is probably how much might I be able to borrow and what it would cost - given the aim is to move back to London, the sums might still not permit this if I can't borrow enough or it'll cost an absolute arm and a leg.

I appreciate this is a bit of a 'how long's a piece of string?' question, but don't particularly want to go through the whole rigmarole with a broker to establish that I'm asking the impossible, and that it's easier to put my moving dreams on hold until I'm in a permanent job!

Thanks,

RT

kingstreet

ReadingTim wrote: »

I'm with my current employer until 31 March 2014. I've been there a year and a half

TBH this is all a lender wants to know. How long have you been there and how long do you have left.

Choice of lender will depend on the outstanding period and as you approach March next year, the number of possible lenders will contract.

I'd expect you to need to have six months minimum to be able to get a mortgage from someone.

The other issues will be "fine-tuning" you can work on with your chosen broker.

amnblog

You are not asking the impossible if your question is, will there be a solution. There will be.

You are asking the impossible if you are looking to find the outline of the solution here without going through the 'whole rigmarole' with the broker.

It's your rigmarole, and you will need to allocate some time to have it considered properly by a suitable broker.

ReadingTim

Thanks Kingstreet.

What I omitted to clarifyis that the c£160k deposit comes from selling the current house, and the time it takes to do that might not leave me a clear 6 months before the FTC ends - perhaps I'm already timed out?!?

kingstreet

All you can do is play the hand you have...

You can't stop time. If you can't sell and leave enough time on your contract, you'll have problems if you don't have a new contract arranged, or have a permanent position lined up.

I'd talk to a broker now and try and get a roadmap/timescale drawn up for what's possible and when...