Our first steps in buying a house

PrettyFlower90

Just looking for some advice, as me and my husband will be first time buyers and not sure what to do first.

We are currently saving our deposit, as much as we can. We are at the point where we could a 5% deposit saved with money for all the associated fees etc. However we don't know what we do first, do we go to a mortgage broker now to see where we stand and see if there are any mortgages available to us with our deposit and financial situation? Suppose there's no point starting to look at houses without knowing if we can get an e.g. 5%mortgage?

Thanks for any advice!

da_rule

Most mortgage companies have a rough online calculator which will show you how much they are prepared to lend you based on your deposit amount and income/outgoings, this is always a good place to start.
There are other options, such as the Help to Buy schemes which can make it easier to get a mortgage with only a 5% deposit, but this is easier for new build properties.
Do you have any of the money in a Help to Buy ISA, as that pays out a bonus?

PrettyFlower90

Yes we both have help to buy isa. The help to buy mortgage guarantee scheme is ending in 2 days so that's out, and we wouldn't go for the help to buy loan where the government gives you 20%. We've done a few of the calculators on lenders sites but they can be very vague e.g they'll give us between £180k-230k. Which doesn't help us atm as our deposit will obv vary greatly between those example values. Just don't know if we should go to a broker now?

da_rule

You could always approach a broker, there's no harm. They may charge you for it. I know when I purchased a house I went to the estate agent and they had a in-house mortgage person who did it all for free (I think they could see that I was a genuine buyer).

sparky130a

da_rule wrote: »

You could always approach a broker, there's no harm. They may charge you for it. I know when I purchased a house I went to the estate agent and they had a in-house mortgage person who did it all for free (I think they could see that I was a genuine buyer).

For free... No it wasn't. It really wasn't.

exiled_red

I'd have a look at what the online mortgage calculators suggest you might get include your deposit and consider this the maximum you could have available to buy with, then look and see how this compares to the price of property that you are looking at. Then look at how much the repayments would be now and if interest rates increase to see if you can afford it. I would then work from there and see how things might fit together...

AdrianC

sparky130a wrote: »

For free... No it wasn't. It really wasn't.

Well, it was free in that there was no charge made directly...

It's the same as any financial advice. The advisor needs to be paid. They can be paid by taking commission from the lender, or they can be paid directly leading to a better deal. One is more transparent than the other. Which is better value...? How long IS that piece of string?

da_rule

sparky130a wrote: »

For free... No it wasn't. It really wasn't.

Well for me it was free (i.e. I didn't pay anything), and I ended up not using them as they didn't have anything on their books that interested me. I was able to use the information they gave me though when searching elsewhere. Which, in relation to the situation the OP is in, would probably suit their needs too.

sparky130a

AdrianC wrote: »

Well, it was free in that there was no charge made directly...

It's the same as any financial advice. The advisor needs to be paid. They can be paid by taking commission from the lender, or they can be paid directly leading to a better deal. One is more transparent than the other. Which is better value...? How long IS that piece of string?

Very true. Here in Soton though we wouldn't advise EA services...

ruby_eskimo

I found that the Halifax online calculator was pretty accurate when compared to what they could offer us. We also spoke to a broker to make sure we could set ourselves a realistic budget. It's a good idea to speak to someone so you know how far away you are from your target and what you need to do to get there.

PrettyFlower90

I'll have a look at the Halifax calculator, thanks. It's just we know what we could afford, and what credit cards payments we have etc but doesn't mean lenders will offer us a mortgage.. there are mortgage brokers that don't charge a fee to the buyer so I could look into one of them to see if we're close to being able to get a o mortgage.