Realistically can this happen!

moneycantbuyyouhappiness

Hi all so I've mainly been on the debt free wannabe forum.

I will be paying my debt off on Thursday. We were planning on buying a new build house next year we were hoping to have saved at least 15% on a property of around £260k we would have needed to use HTB equity loan as this would be right at the top of our affordability. My partner earns £30k I earn £17.8k.

We have no serious outgoings at all only fuel costs of about £100pcm combined.

The thing is we have seen a beautiful house that has just come onto the market. It could be a real contender for us and seems a lot of house for only £170k in comparison to the new ones.

My question is what are our chances? If we went for it we have a 10% deposit and another 4k -5k for fees etc. But I have only just got out of debt and my partner is very good with his money. My credit report looks good, (on noddle its all green) all payments made on time no defaults, CCJ's. However I did go over my credit limit on a credit card a couple of times last year.

Is there any point of us even looking?

MortgageMamma

It seems like a large income stretch on the face of it, have you had a full affordability assessment done by a mortgage broker?

moneycantbuyyouhappiness

Thank you for your reply Mortgage Mama, no we haven't yet. My partner wants us to actually view this one first before we look at a broker. We don't want to set anything in stone until we have seen it and both like it.

We were expecting to wait until the end of next year for the more expensive new builds but I am eager to go for something more realistic in price and this is the nicest I have seen in the price bracket.
I just wanted to see what the general consensus was. If 170k will be out of our reach with a 10% deposit then obviously I won't go and look at it. Thank you.

Bippityboppity

I'd go and see a broker before you do anything as a good one will tell you your chances from the get go, rather than see it and get your hopes up and have a broker tell you to wait another 6 months or something. We fell in love with a house and went to view it, and we had only a 12% deposit plus fees saved and I was almost sure our broker would say no as our situation is complex, and I wished we had spoken to him before as it was so stressful falling in love with a house and not knowing if it was even possible. As it transpired we missed the house just as we got our AIP but as luck would have it the sale fell through and we managed to buy it, and we moved in on Saturday! So IMO see a broker as you'll have peace of mind and direction from the outset - plus it's nice to have that piece of paper in your hand if you really want to make an offer as it does speed things up a bit and most agents want the AIP if they're putting forward an offer.

mildredalien

Have you plugged your earnings into a few mortgage calculators to see what kind of mortgage you might get? If you have no expensive outgoings or debts to service it looks doable but tight, assuming a max mortgage of £163k. It might be worth seeing a broker before you start viewing as then you'd know more about whether to pursue a cheaper home sooner, or wait until you have enough to go for a new build. There's no point viewing houses you have no idea if you can buy, but if you get an AIP you could properly start looking now and loads of potential homes could come up before next year.

Although if you were planning to save up nearly £40k for a deposit by next year that could get you an even better deal on a cheaper house then. Not sure why you wanted to go for an expensive new build if there are bigger and cheaper alternatives?

moneycantbuyyouhappiness

Thank you for all your replies.

The new build is larger in every aspect really but this house would work for us in terms of size.

The only reason we have considered it is because it seems very competitively priced and to be honest not much fits our criteria. Houses around this price are usually much smaller and don't have the number of bedrooms we want.

The ones that do fit our criteria are around the 220-230k mark and then we just end up thinking we will wait for the new builds.

This may seem like a daft question but if we speak to a broker and they do searches will the search affect our chances of getting a mortgage in the future?

Bippityboppity

There's hard searches and soft searches when applying for an AIP but again a good broker will know what to do for the best. Ours said he literally wouldn't even try for an AIP unless he thought we had a strong case and I nearly fell of my chair when we got an AIP from Natwest, never thought in a month of sundays we'd get a high street lender. They may just surprise you!

moneycantbuyyouhappiness

Thanks for your replies everyone. Every mortgage affordability calculator I have used comes out saying we could borrow over 200k. I've used HSBC, Nationwide, Natwest, Halifax, The Money Advice Service. The estate agents have said they will get their broker to have a chat with me anyway so I will wait for that.

amnblog

1. Affordability is not a problem useless there are other costs not mentioned here.

2. Do not use the Estate Agrnts broker for reason evident all over this forum. Find a good independent, ideally via recommendation.

moneycantbuyyouhappiness

Thank you amnblog

There is nothing major we are both on the cheapest phone contracts possible £15 and £20 respectively, we both go to the same gym that is £10 pcm and have Cinema unlimited cards at £17 each but would happily give these up if required but we feel we could comfortably afford these. We have no dependents, no credit card balances (as of tomorrow). All of the calculators I have used showed affordability wasn't an issue.

Any tips for finding a really good broker? We had one in mind who came with a good family recommendation but she is currently moving company and doesn't want to take any more clients at the moment.

Mizenberg

Bippityboppity wrote: »

There's hard searches and soft searches when applying for an AIP but again a good broker will know what to do for the best. Ours said he literally wouldn't even try for an AIP unless he thought we had a strong case and I nearly fell of my chair when we got an AIP from Natwest, never thought in a month of sundays we'd get a high street lender. They may just surprise you!

Same here- our situation is quite complex financially, but we took a chance on lloyds, and got offered the mortgage no problem! Still waiting to exchange on a house, but still- never thought we would even get this far!