Advice ref house move and mortgage

Franco_P

Hello,

Having recently made a decision to start looking at moving house, i'm at a bit of a loose end where to start.

We have just over a year to go on a fixed term (5yr) mortgage, which expires in September 2019. Our house is worth approximately 220k and we owe just shy of 120k at the moment, so approx 100k equity. Our combined base salaries are approx 140k. My wife is due to go on maternity in late September of this year. From a savings perspective, we have about 15k cash that we'd like to use for fees and to bolster the deposit, we have other savings (about 20k) but ideally we want to keep that aside.

A few questions:

- When I originally brought our house I just went to a branch (Natwest) and spoke to a mortgage advisor and got a mortgage in principle and moved forward from there. Given our relative smaller salaries at that time, and minimal deposit I'm not convinced we got a great deal. My question is - should I go branch hopping, or should I speak to a broker of some form? I used an online broker when we last re-mortgaged which got us a much reduced rate on another fixed term, but again being green, am not sure if this was the best approach.

- We're ideally looking at houses in the 450-500k range. Taking into account salaries and our current equity, does this seems feasible. I guess the advisers will help to guide here, but does this seem a reasonable aim?

- We will not really be in a position to "move" until later in the year - due to some work obligations. So we would be looking at buying a property in about November of this year. My wife will be on maternity at this stage - will the lender take this into account when agreeing what to borrow? She will be returning to work post maternity.

- I guess as with everything there is no fixed answer, but what are the next steps for me? 1) Speak to bank/lender/broker to agree what I can get? 2) get our house valued? 3) house on market? 4) find house we want, and make offer (before or after our house is sold?)

Sorry for the naivety, I have had a search but would appreciate some guidance before I start what seems a pretty complicated affair!

Thanks

GoingOn30

What is the market like where you are going to be selling?
If it's slower then get your house valued and on the market as it could take months to get a buyer and a chain completed.
If it's a faster moving market then you may want to wait a month or 2 before doing that if you're confident you'll find a buyer quickly.
I wouldn't start looking at brokers/lenders until you are a little further on in the process.