Self employed small income and mortgages.

Rtj123

I’m 33 and have been a self employed gardener for around seven years. I currently live at home still with my father after a number of personal problems in our family I stayed at the family home. 

I earn around on average 12k per year from my gardening business which has been fine for me up until now. I love my job and am working hard to gain more work. It’s difficult at the moment. I’ve now got a partner and we are working on the next step of buying our first house together . Our total yearly income would be around 38k a year at this current time. I’m quite lucky that I have around 16k in savings so that would cover a deposit of 10% on a house around 160k which we are currently looking at. I’m just wondering if this is anywhere near feasible? 

MyRealNameToo

Do you have other savings for the costs of buying a house or are you going to have less than 10% deposit after taking off legal fees, surveys etc?

Do you guys have any other debts like loans, credit cards, car finance etc?

Ultimately I would speak to a mortgage broker and see what they think is feasible. The fact you have seven years of working as self employed will put you in a better place than someone just starting out as long as the last 2-3 completed years have been a fairly steady income. 

Rtj123

Thankyou. Yes I have more than the 10% deposit to pay for other costs. I also have assets which I could sell if I need to but I don’t want to. 

We have no loans, we have credit cards but they don’t get used, we own our cars so no finance. My partner currently rents a house. My last three years income have been around 12k - 15k is that classed as steady? This year will be slightly less as I had to take some time off from work unfortunately. 

Rtj123

Another question, because mortgage lenders will look at our income and mine is lower. Will that hamper our chances as they expect us to be paying 50/50? Or will they take our total income combined only and work out from that? 

Rtj123

Do they also look at things like assets to get a beer picture? I have a number of vehicles which could be sold to fund if needed.

MyRealNameToo

Rtj123 said:

Another question, because mortgage lenders will look at our income and mine is lower. Will that hamper our chances as they expect us to be paying 50/50? Or will they take our total income combined only and work out from that? 

combined

Rtj123 said:

Do they also look at things like assets to get a beer picture? I have a number of vehicles which could be sold to fund if needed.

liquidation of assets isnt normal consideration outside of a draw down pension.

ACG

I think those figures stack up. 

Have a play around on some mortgage calculators or speak to a broker.

Rtj123

Thanks all. I’ve had a play around and a few have come back with they could offer £147,000 with a 16k deposit. What would be the next steps now. Are mortgage in principles enough to put in a offer on a house?