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How much can I borrow and how to find a broker
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AaronGS
Posts: 4 Newbie

Hello all,
I have been reading through the threads on here and wow, what a wealth of information and lots of my questions have been answered.
I have been looking into mortgages my self for some time and, quite frankly, am now going round in circles.
My wife and I are looking to buy a house soon. It is not what we would want to do, for fear of the mad prices falling drastically and us ending up in negative equity. But have had our Notice to Leave served so have to leave the rental soon enough. We live in an area with a good state school so prices are high thanks to this too.
We are two professionals earning about £150k between us.
We do not have a massive deposit. We have about £70k, plus about £35k set aside for the Land Tax / fees.
There is no debt or credit issues in the past and we are in a relatively good situation but...
We were considering looking to buy the place we are in now. It looks like it will be about £650-700k! A fair bit more than anticipated when we initially thought about prior to the pandemic.
So, my questions are:
1. How much are we likely to be able to borrow, in reality. (L&C say £700k but I cannot see us actually being offered that.)
2. Will our relatively small deposit hinder us? Are there any lenders offering 90% LTV mortgages at that price range? If so, what is the % / monthly payments likely to be?
3. I am struggling with where to start on approaching a mortgage adviser. In one respect I think we are a straight forward application but I also want to ensure I have good guidance and can find options that maximise our chances of staying locally and not having to move away from the area we have ended up settling into.
There are a couple of Mortgage Advisers on here whom I see repeatedly giving what seems like excellent advise. But I cannot tell who they really are. Am I okay to PM them on here to ask a few questions and see if they can help me?
I really appreciate any helpful thoughts and answers. And am aware of the sad reality that we may just have to move away and the kids to start once again with friends etc.
I have been reading through the threads on here and wow, what a wealth of information and lots of my questions have been answered.
I have been looking into mortgages my self for some time and, quite frankly, am now going round in circles.
My wife and I are looking to buy a house soon. It is not what we would want to do, for fear of the mad prices falling drastically and us ending up in negative equity. But have had our Notice to Leave served so have to leave the rental soon enough. We live in an area with a good state school so prices are high thanks to this too.
We are two professionals earning about £150k between us.
We do not have a massive deposit. We have about £70k, plus about £35k set aside for the Land Tax / fees.
There is no debt or credit issues in the past and we are in a relatively good situation but...
We were considering looking to buy the place we are in now. It looks like it will be about £650-700k! A fair bit more than anticipated when we initially thought about prior to the pandemic.
So, my questions are:
1. How much are we likely to be able to borrow, in reality. (L&C say £700k but I cannot see us actually being offered that.)
2. Will our relatively small deposit hinder us? Are there any lenders offering 90% LTV mortgages at that price range? If so, what is the % / monthly payments likely to be?
3. I am struggling with where to start on approaching a mortgage adviser. In one respect I think we are a straight forward application but I also want to ensure I have good guidance and can find options that maximise our chances of staying locally and not having to move away from the area we have ended up settling into.
There are a couple of Mortgage Advisers on here whom I see repeatedly giving what seems like excellent advise. But I cannot tell who they really are. Am I okay to PM them on here to ask a few questions and see if they can help me?
I really appreciate any helpful thoughts and answers. And am aware of the sad reality that we may just have to move away and the kids to start once again with friends etc.
0
Comments
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There are a couple of very helpful brokers on this forum. You are ok to DM them for advice. I might use one of them for my mortgage. The forum code of conduct for brokers is quite strict so they will usually not do or say anything that could be taken as encouraging posters to contact them.
1 -
Normal calculations are 4.5 times salary
I believe 90% mortgages are coming back / have come back for first time buyers
Play around with a mortgage calculator such as https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/mortgages/mortgage-rate-calculator/
You can pm brokers on here, they’re not allowed to contact youMFW 2025 #50: £1139.75/£600007/03/25: Mortgage: £67,000.00
12/06/25: Mortgage: £65,000.00
18/01/25: Mortgage: £68,500.14
27/12/24: Mortgage: £69,278.38
27/12/24: Debt: £0 🥳😁
27/12/24: Savings: £12,000
07/03/25: Savings: £16,5001 -
Thanks for the replies. Really helpful.
@gozaimasu I had read that thread and could not see it this morning so started my own - would have been better adding to that one, thanks. Reading through more of it has been helpful.
@ukri thats really helpful to know. I have messaged a couple of them. I had not realised how strict the forum was in that way.
@MFWannabe cheers! Off to have another play with that calculator - its fascinating ad scary how much a small % change makes to overall sum paid, isn't it!0 -
With being professionals and having higher incomes, some lenders go to just over 5x income.
Don't use L&G if you want a good personalised service.
If you can cut back spending for a few months, can you get the other 5% together as that opens up a lot more doors.
Members do use the brokers who comment on the posts, it's so much easier to get a feel for how they interact with people and respond to queries. It's how I picked mine.Mortgage started 2020, aiming to clear 31/12/2029.1 -
Just replied to your PM.I am a Mortgage AdviserYou should note that this site doesn't check my status as a mortgage adviser, so you need to take my word for it. This signature is here as I follow MSE's Mortgage Adviser Code of Conduct. Any posts on here are for information and discussion purposes only and shouldn't be seen as financial advice.1
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gozaimasu said:
For me at least it makes more sense for people to start their own thread, you can then keep up with it. I still try to reply to threads like this where I feel I can add something but thats because I can keep on top of it.I am a Mortgage AdviserYou should note that this site doesn't check my status as a mortgage adviser, so you need to take my word for it. This signature is here as I follow MSE's Mortgage Adviser Code of Conduct. Any posts on here are for information and discussion purposes only and shouldn't be seen as financial advice.5 -
ACG said:gozaimasu said:
I am a Mortgage Adviser - You should note that this site doesn't check my status as a mortgage adviser, so you need to take my word for it. This signature is here as I follow MSE's Mortgage Adviser Code of Conduct. Any posts on here are for information and discussion purposes only and shouldn't be seen as financial advice.
PLEASE DO NOT SEND PMs asking for one-to-one-advice, or representation.
2 -
For my first property I used a broker and was granted 4.7x income. I then re-mortgaged using the free London & Country who were awful, as a result I missed my date and ended up paying SVR for a short period.I used the same broker again for the next property and got 4.5x income. I then re-mortgaged myself (easily done online with the same provider onto new deal) and the broker complained that I'd done it myself and he wouldn't have charged me a fee. Obvs annoyed that he didn't get a fee from the mortgage company! I don't think I'll be using him again.Another mistake I made was using the recommended solicitor of the broker. I will not be doing that again.0
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