Advise need for First Time Buyers

missfitsz

Hi all,

We have just put in a reservation fees for a property of our dreams which will only be ready to move into on June 2015 within the Help to Buy Shared Equity scheme.

Shopping around for good mortgage rates via our broker and only just found out that mortgage offers will only last for 6 months (we are now 11 months away before the house is ready). The builder, Taylor Wimpey has mentioned that we would need to apply for the mortgage once now, and again as the offer would have expired then, which means spending necessary costs for valuation fee and booking fee. With one criteria that if we go with their preferred mortgage broker, ONLY the valuation fee will be paid for us for the 2nd application. The reason we went with our own broker is because they don't charge any broker fee. How can I go about this to ensure we don't spend any more money for a 2nd application again?

Also, undecided on whether we should fix our rates for:

1) 3.24% for 3 years / 3.99% after
Overpayments within 10% of the original loan amount

2) 3.64% for 5 years / 4.74% after
Overpayments of 10% each year

* Both mortgage fees are similar so they don't affect our monthly payments.

Any advise would be appreciated as we have heard from news that the base rates going up?

Thank you ever so much!

snowscreamer

You won't be able to fix your rates now if the offer expires! Rates have been on the rise so imagine they will be quite a bit higher than today's rates by the time you fix your mortgage.

As to how to avoid 2nd application fee, I'm not sure there's a way around this.

kingstreet

We don't allow our builders to take a reservation if the property won't be ready inside nine months.

First, the ATP from the HTB Agent allows only three months to exchange contracts, then the ATE requires completion inside six months.

FWIW Halifax has very long completion draw-down deadlines on its products (currently 28/2/15) and you can change to a new product without paying more fees when you get a bit closer. Do first application on "add to loan" basis.

If TW want a mortgage offer to enable you to exchange contracts within 28 days on a property which is still eleven months away from completion, I'd tell them to eff off.

There are other builders.

missfitsz

kingstreet wrote: »

We don't allow our builders to take a reservation if the property won't be ready inside nine months.

First, the ATP from the HTB Agent allows only three months to exchange contracts, then the ATE requires completion inside six months.

FWIW Halifax has very long completion draw-down deadlines on its products (currently 28/2/15) and you can change to a new product without paying more fees when you get a bit closer. Do first application on "add to loan" basis.

If TW want a mortgage offer to enable you to exchange contracts within 28 days on a property which is still eleven months away from completion, I'd tell them to eff off.

There are other builders.

Thanks Kingstreet for the reply.

I know I found it very fishy too, but there were 4 other couples that were very interested in this very same property that's why we acted fast and took it off the market.

Can you please help clarify what do you mean by "add to loan" basis?

Do you have any thoughts on whether we should fix it to 3 years or 5 years based on the rates above?