First mortgage. Gaps in work history

IDriveStuff

Hi. My life's going to change soon. I live with a parent and he's selling up to emigrate. I have 25% equity on the deed, as I put money in to renovating years ago. After the sale and once I add in my savings, I should have a deposit of around £180,000 to put against the kind of property I'm hoping to get which will be £280k-ish.

So I'll need a mortgage, of around £100k.

I have no debt, no CCJ's ever. I think my credit history is good, but I never use credit cards (only debit) so I have no history of loaning/repaying.
My fixed outgoings are low, only a mobile phone contract to my name.

How badly will a bit of an iffy work history be for me? In the last 5 years I've only worked full time for less than 4 years, with the last year being the main problem year, as I went travelling and retrained, then only worked agency shifts here and there during the last year. I could easily have got a £25k-30k per year job pre-Corona crisis but I didn't, I stayed on agency hence I currently have no job! Corona made the agency work dry up. Which I know is the #1 thing that has to change if I want to get a mortgage! I'm fairly confident of finding a full time job even if it's less money than I've been earning recently. Assuming I do find work in the next month, if I went for a mortgage in say 6 months, what are my chances?

MovingForwards

Based on pre-virus days:

Being on the electoral roll, having a phone contract, having current account (s) is usually sufficient.

Potentially a mortgage is possible on the first day of a permanent job, contract / payslip to evidence salary.

Some lenders require 3 - 6 months of being in your job.

Your travelling may / may not be a concern, this varies between lenders.

Mortgages are based on salary and affordability, generally 4.5x your income. So be mindful of the job you land being sufficiently to cover borrowing £100k.

As I said, the above is before the virus hit, no one knows what the next 6 months will be and how lenders react / change criteria.

You also need mortgage arrangement fee, valuation fee, funds transfer fee to pay the lender. Solicitor fees and disbursements (searches, registration fees etc) and broker fees (if applicable).

A decent broker would be a good call, saves you having to read all the different lender criteria and hope you pick the right one; you only get a few shots with lenders before they start to get a bit iffy over credit file searches.

Don't forget to budget for furniture / white goods, moving costs and having a bit in the bank in case anything breaks / leaks shortly after moving in.

IDriveStuff

Thank you, that's really helpful. Concise, valuable advice!
You may have saved me some trouble there, as I was assuming that any full time job would do. The 4.5x income has ruled out a temptation to return to an easy, enjoyable job I did many years ago, as the low wage wouldn't meet that requirement. In the past year I've been putting quality of life above earning potential, but now it's all about the money from here on in (at least for the foreseeable), time to roll up my sleeves, set the alarm for 2am and go and do the kind of work most other drivers try to avoid, to give myself the best chance

Thanks for the advice - and giving me a steer.

md258

I'm not sure on the exact details, but I think you might have to pay stamp duty as well (about £4k) as you're no longer a first time buyer

IDriveStuff said:

I have 25% equity on the deed

ACG

If you can get a permanent job on around £20-25k a year, I would say you will be fine.