Can anyone offer advice/suggestions to a first time buyer/shared ownership?

[mogs0]

I have never bought a property before and am completely clueless.

I am self-employed with a fairly low annual profit. It is increasing but not enough to be able to show 2 or 3 years of accounts.

There is a house for sale a couple of doors away which would be perfect for ds and I. It has enough room for me to run my business from (childminder) and it also has enough rooms that I could let two rooms to lodgers (already have one in mind).

I am currently selling all non-essentials in an attempt to save a deposit and have made a good start.

I've just done a quick google search of shared ownership but it implied that it would have to a house suggested by 'them' rather than one on the open market.

Money brought in from having two lodgers would cover a mortgage repayment (based on the basic figures I put in a calculator) but I don't know how to go about getting the money to buy the house in the first place. Is it possible?

talk to a mortgage broker, here is one I'm aware of but never used so not a recommendation. They can help for non-standard mortgages.

Just be aware that any lodgers you have will have you agree to CRB checks if you are a childminder & may put some people off using your services.

Younger - thanks, I'm a bit worried that they'll laugh at me for suggesting someone lend me so much money when I earn so little .

Red - thanks, yes, I am aware that they'll need to be checked. One person I had in mind (and has said she'd be more than keen) is a paediatric nurse so I thought it would actually be a good selling point with regard to my CMing .

When I was a live-in nanny, one of the families I lived with always had a lodger. Often they were overseas students, sometimes they were employed and it always worked really well...though their house was considerably bigger than the one I'm looking at and was in London. I'd have to research whether people look for just a room to rent in this area.

Have a check on any local housing associations. Some have their own properties but some rely on you to find the property yourself (or at least I am aware of that in my area).