Mortgage Advice

sHAYM4N

Hi

Hoping someone maybe able to offer some advice? First time buyer so totally new to this sorry!

Myself and my girlfriend have been living at an apartment for the past 6 years (she has ownership of the property on mortgage).

Now we're looking to get our first house together. I've been self employed for the last 4 years, so we were awaiting to get a little business history together and build our credit scores. We've been to see a mortgage advisor and have been offered a mortgage in principal. Our deposit would be the equity my girlfriend hold in the apartment.

It's still early days, the apartment has been valued, but not on the market as yet (hopefully within the next couple of weeks, just considering our agents).

We weren't sure at all whether we would be offered a mortgage, so have just so far been to see the one mortgage advisor (our local Halifax). We've been offered a mortgage in principal, but during the meeting we were advised not to apply for any further mortgages as this would obviously affect our credit rating. Halifax don't currently have the best interest rates available I don't think, so was wondering what our best bet would be into shopping around first?
Would a mortgage broker be a good bet, or would they basically applying on our behalf, and would this also affect our credit scores?

Just a little confused at the moment, we're delighted to have been offered a mortgage - but obviously don't want to shoot ourselves in the foot either way!

Thanks in advance :beer:

wjr4

You should always go and see an independent mortgage adviser/broker first.. It saves the hassle of trying to find the best deal yourself & well worth any fee. How many credit checks have you had in the past year?

Thrugelmir

Might was well wait until you start marketing the property. After that consult a broker to source the various options for you. The fact that Halifax has offered a DIP suggests that there's a mortgage out there for you when you actually need to apply for one. Until you've a firm offer you won't be in a position to progress further. In the interim period anything could change.

sHAYM4N

rjw4 wrote: »

You should always go and see an independent mortgage adviser/broker first.. It saves the hassle of trying to find the best deal yourself & well worth any fee. How many credit checks have you had in the past year?

Cheers! Just checked on Noddle and I have had 13 searches this year, a few from the likes of Paddy Power, Betfair etc on money laundering (I don't gamble but work as a designer for a digital casino, so have had to setup accounts for research this year) . 4 from the mortgage application, a couple from car insurance quotes.

I haven't taken anything out for a couple of years. I did recently extend my credit card limit recently (one of the negatives I had on my report was that I didnt have enough credit). My Noddle score is currently 608, and Clearscore is 429 (down from 455 since the credit card extension & mortgage application). Only negative listed is again that my credit card limit is low (£700).

Thrugelmir wrote: »

Might was well wait until you start marketing the property. After that consult a broker to source the various options for you. The fact that Halifax has offered a DIP suggests that there's a mortgage out there for you when you actually need to apply for one. Until you've a firm offer you won't be in a position to progress further. In the interim period anything could change.

Thanks sounds like great advice. We're due on holiday in a few weeks so will do a bit of decorating and get it on the market, then see about a broker on our return