Need a "Mortgages for Dummies" book! Advice?

[Loobs]

Hi everyone

Just wondering if anyone has any advice for me about mortgages. We private rent at the moment but are saving for a deposit and keeping an eye on the houses for sale in our local area. I don't know the first thing about mortgages or the process involved

Please share your experiences/advice

x

 

[housewifey]

Stalking! We are in the same situation! Not sure where you are but have you looked into help to buy and other schemes to help first time buyers get on the market?

 

[Loobs]

Hi! :wave: we're in Scotland too! Haven't really looked at anything at all, my DH is a bit more informed than me but thought I'd try and get to grips with whats going to be happening. I know there is once of those schemes that helps but it needs to be a new build property - we would like to stay in the same town we are now and there are no new builds at the moment, and no plans for them in the near future x

 

[ArcaneSpark]

Hello,

I haven't looked into the help to buy scheme deeply and I believe there might be more than 1, but it isn't only on new builds. https://www.helptobuy.org.uk

The first thing I would do is have a look at a bank mortgage calculator to see roughly how much you can borrow. Google 'first direct mortgage calculator' for example. All major banks will have them but I used FD the other day to get an indicative of what we could borrow.

The next thing I would do is look on www. Rightmove.co.uk to see what type of houses are in budget. I like to favourite them and then you can get an idea of what you can afford in various parts of your town & how quickly they are selling.

Getting a mortgage of course isn't that straight forwards especially thanks to the new mortgage market reviews. But I would start getting your finances in order, check your credit score, pay off any cards etc before going in to see what a bank would actually lend you.

I believe the money saving expert website would also have a whole host of information.

 

[Loobs]

Great help, thanks! Will check them out x

 

[tinkerbelle93]

Stalking this too. We moved into a part buy home 18 months ago but are considering moving back to my parents for some hard-core saving as it feels we will never progress from this at the moment (as well as finding the area very isolated) but I am so confused about deposits and income and help to buy etc

 

[hayz_baby]

The htb scheme isn't just for new builds but for all.mortgages as long as you will live there and it will be your only property.

It basically works that all you need is a 5% ddeposit. The bank is more willing to lend at a 95%ltv (loan to value) because the government are pretty much guaranteeing it for them.

There is another htb which is more of a equity loan and you borrow up to 15% deposit with your 5% at a very reasonable rate and you don't pay straight away. This one only applies to new builds

 

[LoveCakes]

We went to an independent mortgage advisor. They do call you a lot and make their money selling you the insurances but if you want a breakdown of a range of banks in the same format they are handy.

Good luck with your house, very exciting.

 

[tinkerbelle93]

So in the news it says they are changing rules on how much you can borrow and stuff. I'm really confused though, all the advice online is quite conflicting and I have no idea where we'd stand.

Apparently there's going to be a limit now of how many times the household income you can borrow which is expected to be 3 or 3.5x the income. But does that include both person's income?

I'm sure I have read before that currently you can either borrow 4x the main earners income plus 1x the secondary earners income OR 3x your combined income.

I really need to finish my uni and get a career if it's going to be 3x now 3x just my hubbys income would not get us much even with a huge deposit!

i'm crossing my fingers for some part-buys to come up in an area we like, I love our house but the area is isolated and the schools are terrible. I would happily rent if it meant we could live in the town my parents live in but hubby's really against it House prices have gone up soo much since we started looking three years ago but neither of our wages has! So yeah hopefully more affordable part buy homes will appear for us. X

 

[cjwn]

Edited.