Submitted an offer - First time buyers

MattLcfc

Just wanted to share my situation, and see if anyone had any advice or words of wisdom.

My wife and I were originally planning on looking to buy this summer with a 10% deposit. In our head we were in the market for a 3 bed semi within the price range of £130k-£150k.

However we have recently view a 3 bed detached in a location that is great for us for £160k. We have both fell in love with it and have decided that we've just got to go for it as the property is perfect for us and has bags of potential to expand in the future if we needed, so we could potentially be buying a forever home, first time round.

So having spoke to the agent and expressed our interest we have submitted an offer (subject to receiving a MIP) for 5K under asking price. My worry is whether or not we will be able to get a mortgage. We would be looking at a 95% mortgage, so borrowing about £147k if the offer of £155 is accepted.


Our salaries combined are approx. £37,000pa, good credit reports & living well within our means, having saved over £1000 a month between us recently on top of all the bills and rent we pay at present. My big worry however is them nit picking our bank statements! As I wasn't expecting to be looking for a mortgage this soon, our last 3 months statements don't read too well. My main concern is that I have a number of deposit to Online Bookmakers, as I attended the Cheltenham festival this year for a stag do, and placed my bets online to limit what I spent while I was there.


I suppose I'm wanting to gauge opinions of whether people think we would be able to get a mortgage with the lenders being so picky now, and also what effect would being refused a mortgage have?. Between us we are going in with the mind set that if refused then we would carry on saving and try again in 3-6 months time, but is it as simple as that?

amnblog

95% mortgages are a lottery at the best of times Matt.

You wont know if you don't try.

If you are worried about bank statements your broker can place you with a Lender that does not ordinarily request them.

kingstreet

MattLcfc wrote: »

what effect would being refused a mortgage have?

None. Just a search on your credit files, visible to other lenders for upto twelve months if it leaves a "hard footprint."

MattLcfc

Thanks for both of your replies, another think I'm unsure of is whether we would be able to borrow the amount we require. I've just received a call saying they would accept £158,000 so we would need a mortgage of £150,000. Is this going to be possible on a joint salary of £37,000?

kingstreet

Possibly. Depending on mortgage term and other outgoings which may be of interest to the lender(s).

Ground rent & service charges; maintenance; credit commitments; dependents; childcare; season ticket costs and so on will typically be deducted from what is affordable.

MattLcfc

We have received a Mortgage In Principle for RBS through a broker. All good so far, however we've not had to submit any bank statements yet. Does anyone have any experience with RBS and how picky they are? I already bank with Natwest so hoping we should be ok. Just panicking now that we'e got so far it could all still go wrong!