Broker suggestion and the process

tbkbt

Hey everyone, just looking for some advice.
We are currently in dundee but will moving down to edinburgh area for work soon. we've been planning on getting our own pace for a while so we've got £30K deposit, though would rather use £25k to leave us a buffer. We were planning on renting in the area first as to get a feel for the area, also my wife has got a full time job at £26k a year, i'm currently on £21K but by the end of year once i finish my apprenticeship i will be on £26K also.
The more we think about it we cant really be bothered going through the hassle of renting again, especially for only 6 months - a year. This lead us to thinking about buying straight away.
We would like to use a broker as this would be the first house buy for either of us. does anyone have a recommendation for online/phone brokers or any local to edinburgh that are good?
Also we were wondering if we went ahead just now and found out how much we could borrow is there a kimit on how long we have to find a house that we like before we would ahve to reapply? Not too sure how this all works so i might be miles of the track here.
Thanks for any help.

TCA

Just relearning the whole process myself but I think finding out how much you could borrow from a specific lender is just a guideline. When you find a property you want to buy, you have to apply for a specific mortgage product for that particular property before you receive an official mortgage offer, which will have a time limit on it. Somebody more in the know will hopefully correct me if I'm off the mark on this.

Malmo

What you need to get the process started is an AIP / DIP from a lender. This isn't a mortgage. The purpose of the AIP is to validate your creditworthiness and based on that, indicates your maximum borrowing power taking into account income and commitments, subject to further affordability and other criteria. They generally expire after 90 days but varies by lender.

An AIP is then turned into a full mortgage application when you have a property you want to secure the loan against. You can obtain the AIP either yourself direct from a lender assuming you have researched their criteria or via a mortgage broker. Just get one for the maximum amount the lender will allow based on your income/commitments. It doesn't mean you have to borrow that much later on.

Estate agents generally treat you as a serious buyer if you have the AIP in place when you view and then offer.

Never use estate agent mortgage services. Keep them at arms length when it comes to your mortgage and conveyancing matters.

Aswell as asking friends and family for broker recommendations and using Google, another method is to use the unbiased.co.uk directory. Suggested steps are posted here. Speak to 2 or 3 and get a feel for whether or not you could work with one of them.

Have a read of this MSE article which describes a simplified timeline and milestones of the buying process. It doesn't really factor in the complexities of a chain and the impact of that on the end to end process, but it is still useful as a guide.

Here is also a MSE guide that refers to the likely buying fees & costs to factor in and when they may be due.

As well as the above, I'd also urge you to take the time to thoroughly review your credit files/reports from all 3 Credit Reference Agencies (Experian, Equifax, Callcredit/Noddle) and give copies of these to your broker.

I've read countless threads here where posters haven't done this and have been declined or delayed in their application further down the line because of historic credit issues or errors in their data.