First time buyer - mortgage advisor?

KitsuneBlue

Hi all,

Having let January escape me, I’m now trying – and struggling - to progress a search for my first property.

I am a single buyer and have a saved deposit of c.£40k. Other than this I have allocated a separate fund of around £5-6k for fees and have been looking for properties around the £180-210k mark.

I have read through the excellent first-time buyers guide on here and read through posts but am reaching a stage of analysis paralysis so would be grateful for some guidance.

With my deposit now saved, I have tried to take reasonable steps to improve my credit rating – active purchases on an existing credit card, paid off in full and to date, registering to vote etc – but despite this it still seems rather low (341 on Clearscore) so now scratching my head at how to progress with a mortgage application.

I understand there are differing views as to the value of credit scores, so wasn’t sure whether there was anything else I should pursue before attempting a mortgage as this seems to be lower than average?

Of equal concern, I’m very keen to progress but unsure on what logical order I should follow next i.e. speak to a number of mortgage advisors, speak to just one ‘independent’ advisor at a cost, or speak with my bank in the first instance for an indicative rate?
I guess I’ve become rather paranoid about searches on my account so just want to progress in the way that doesn’t potentially compromise me later down the line.

Grateful or any advice kind MSE’ers

ACG

There is no such thing as a credit score. There are scores credit agencies give you based on their own calculations, but that is worth nothing.

What tends to happen is that lenders take the information (balances, payment history etc) and combine it with the information from your application to score your application based on their own scoring system and you either pass or fail that.

In terms of your credit report, is there anything on there that would be an issues? A lot of late payments/defaults/CCJs? If not, and you have such a healthy deposit I am pretty confident you should be fine whatever route you go down (broker/bank etc).

One other thing, the term "independent" has changed a few times for brokers over the years. In its current definition, it actually means a broker can do first and second charge mortgages. So just a whole of mark broker would do the job. However, they may not have access to a few lenders (HSBC/First Direct being the main ones), but they may have special deals, for example I know we can access deal through Ntwest that you could not get by going direct and those deals are usually quite a bit better.

But as I say a lot, a broker is not really a price comparison service, our job is to find you a good deal and get you that deal. Any idiot can find the cheapest Mortgage.

KitsuneBlue

Hi ACG,

Thank you for the quick response, that gives me a bit of a steer. I will investigate whole of market but as you mention also check for some of the direct options from lenders.

lazygoodperson

Hi Kitsune, another FTB here

I can't say I'm massively clued up and able to give you specific advice, as I'm also still so inexperienced, but I can tell you that I decided to have a chat with an independant mortgage advisor a friend recommended to me, and I haven't looked back since!

As he was recommended to me, I felt safer with him, and all the way through he has been very helpful in not only finding me a good deal, but also offering his opinion on the whole house buying/finding process. Of course, this is bound to vary depending on the person, but I have felt very reassured having an experienced hand involved. I only had to pay him when I got my official mortgage offer, so all consultations etc before that were free to me.

Hope that helps a little, good luck!