Pretty straight forward, I pay £390 (bills inc) for a room in a houseshare a family being my landlord. I like the place but in the next 12-18 months i'm looking at a 2 bedroom flat to buy, I'm not really sure where or what i should be considering when looking for a mortgage. I've got my eyes set on a nice two bedroom flat for £90k Is there a central place to look for mortgages or is it comparing the banks? Minimum deposit? I've always understood 10% but i'm not sure What are all the additional costs considering in buying a property? I'm setting myself a figure to save. hopefully to have a healthy savings pot by the time i'm 24
Searches/solicitors fees/surveys - pays to get a better one than the simple "mortgage lender survey" that just looks to see if there is a property there and if it's in danger of falling down, stamp duty, moving costs, installation of phone lines/internet/cable/sky tv etc. New carpets, furniture such as sofa's, a decent bed and some basic clothes storage (all can be gotten used and upgraded in time but they are an initial cost), cooking and eating stuff, cleaning stuff ...... The mortgage deposit is just the start of things when buying a property. Oh and house insurance/life insurance to ensure mortgage gets paid if there is a disaster of any type, most mortgages insist on it. Money supermarket is a good place to look for advice - they do "best buys" etc. Also consider going to an independent advisor, they'll look beyond your regular high street banks (and iirc have to disclose any commission they might receive on products they recommend)
I went to a mortgage advisor - they found the best rate and handled communication between me, the estate agent, the bank, and the solicitor. They didn't officially cost ME anything, the banks and insurance companies pay them to act as middlemen, like comparison websites, but they probably do add a small cost in some way. 5% is possible, but you'd get better rates and more likely to be accepted at 10%. My bank asked for just over ten percent based on my credit rating. Initial costs are the mortgage arrangement fee, surveys and the solicitor. In total mine came to ~£1500 for a property a similar price to yours, but needed very little survey work. You will need life and building insurance for the banks to be happy, should be less than £50 a month in a low risk area. You may need to pay management fees for the development/building in an apartment or flat - this may include building insurance, but not contents. Further costs will be found by your surveys, and your own wishes to change the property. If it needs no work like mine, and get a similar rate, you'll need about £13000 to buy and furnish. Maybe £11500 if you've got furniture already.
We went direct through HSBC as they were offering the best rates but they were a shambles, the only stressful part of the process was caused entirely by them. Go through a mortgage broker and you'll be sure to get a good deal and it's someone to take flak and prod people along, as Stotherd says. We put down 10% deposit and ended up spending another ~£6k of associated costs, and had budgeted another ~£5k for white goods, furniture, DIY materials and other expenses. This can of course be done a lot more cheaply if you're inclined. My advice for your house buying process, is to log all your calls and communications, should anything go wrong (and it easily might) you're in a stronger position to be able to say "I called you on x day and you agreed y...". We had a good solicitor and in my opinion he was the only person acting professionally throughout. Remember, all you need to become an estate agent is a cheap suit and a tacky shopfront
I used the help to buy Scheme recently to get my Mortgage, you only need 5% and the the government put in 20% I believe this is available on non new build properties now, but its something to look at. As depending on how much you can get for a deposit you can easily borrow less from the bank and get a better rate. I put in 20% myself in total inc the government share I only had to borrow 65% of the value which really helped find me a good mortgage with a good rate. Im paying about £375 a month for the mortgage on my new mid terrace place. I ended up using a mortgage adviser to help find the mortgage, it was offered to me by the house building company so it may have not been perfect but having someone looking for the mortgage for me really helped, So I would look into finding an adviser to help get your mortgage will save you alot of time, and there are some companies you might not have herd of that will really give you a good deal.
I've just got my first mortgage and I went through London and Country and the process was very straight forward. There is also a level of protection with them. They find the mortgage and pair it with a solicitor that works well with the mortgage provider and also L&C. We just got a 95% mortgage but on a dearer property and we got good rates. The mortgage was actually with Woolwich (Barcleys). There are lots of fees and remember Stamp Duty we expect to pay about £2500 total for all that.
+1 for L&C. I can't say they made it any easier for us than applying direct, but they did have deals & rates not easily found elsewhere.
and this is what caused the crash people getting mortgages too easily and due to change in circumstances couldnt pay it back. (not saying that was you ) also you dont need life insurnace but they will ask and try and make you buy it. It certinaly isnt required. my advise is to go through a broker as they will have maybe 5-10 different banks and building socceties to choose from and work out the best deal for you. 5% should be possible on help to buy scheme and goverment puts another 5% in on a loan (its not free) 10% is the starting point if you dont want/need assistance.
A 2 bed for £90k! Wow, where are you living? Anyway, as others have said, go to a mortgage broker. I'd heavily advise you put more than 10% down though - you'll get much, much better rates at 15% if you can stretch to that.
Indeed they now do alot of affordability checks and make sure if you were to lose your job you would have a way to pay your mortgage, they also insist from what I can tell of having home building and contents cover and stuff like that.
We use a independent advisor, who gets paid via commission, with no fees paid direct by us. BUT we do our own research around the suggested offer to make sure that it is the best for us... Whilst you don't have to have life insurance, its a good thing to have especially if you're the main bread-winner in any relationship. All our mortgages have required proof of home insurance before the monies were transferred. As most others have stated, 10% is really the absolute minimum you want to put down as a deposit otherwise the rates are abhorrent! Conversely anything over 30% will get you diminishing returns, and in some instances actually be counter-productive! My experience of the help-to-buy loans is that they look great but saddle you with a massive loan as well as your mortgage, and unless you can afford to overpay and get rid asap it will be a millstone as when you want to move on.
Theres a few different ways to do the help to buy, depending on your mortgage overpaying is not the best way as i know if I overpaid on mine it wouldn't be a good idea due to fees etc. from what I have been told alot of people are using the help to buy to get their first house and due to alot not having any really borrowing history, so when the 5 years comes up and they can they are remortgaging the property getting a better rate and getting rid of the lump the government own at the same time. Some of the 2 bed new builds here in manc are going for about £125k some for more
i feel for you parge. i bought my first house for 75K - 3 bed mid terrace just bought my shiny new house 3 bed semi detached with huge huge garden - 208K
Basically anywhere not in the London bubble. I would hazard a guess. On the topic, i to would advise going through a mortgage advisor, they will generally find you the best deal and in some cases find a way that wont actually cost you anything for their service.
Shop around for a good mortgage broker. You want ones that speak in plain English and explain the small prints. Many brokers are full of jargon and useless phrases to sell their mortgage package of choice, avoid them like a plague. You also want to look for brokers that search the whole market. They should tell you their limitations before asking their stand form filling questions. And it keeps rising. It's great isn't it (as a home owner)
We used a broker to find our mortgage. A guy who had an office in the back of a Bairstowe Eaves Estate agent which mean that he worked for Countrywide. He was awesome and not too expensive either, I think we paid around £350 for his services and he did everything, even chasing up solicitors and the estate agent for us.
I would tend to agree only if it's a second home, otherwise it's irelevant as guess what - the prices of other houses are also rising, unless of course you want to be homeless or move to another area.
