Help for first time buyers

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Wondered if anyone could help point me in the right direction when it comes to mortgage advise.

We currently private rent, and come from family’s of renters so don’t have much knowledge at all of buying a home but would very much like to.

Theres so many options, the 100% mortgage with no deposit option for renters, the governments scheme which put in 25% of your savings and the rent to buy options that i feel a bit lost! We haven't saved a deposit at all yet but could start saving now if we really tried!

Any advise or places to turn to for advise would be greatly appreciated!

I would focus on saving for a sizeable deposit and avoid any schemes. What timeframe are you aiming for?

Start saving hard and put it in a LISA. I wouldn’t touch a 100% mortgage with a barge pole as you will likely end up in negative equity.

London and country are good mortgage brokers. Without a deposit of some sort or someone to guarantee your mortgage you are not going to get a good rate though. I would try to put some money away for a deposit and consult a broker to find you a good mortgage.

Get a LiSA asap and do not do shared ownership or similar schemes under any circumstances if you can avoid it

Save hard and put a meaningful deposit together.
After a while (when you can see if saving is actually as easy as it sounds), speak to a mortgage broker and see what mortgage is actually affordable.

Read MSE, best place for practical money advice on all sorts of subjects.

Money Saving Expert

We just bought, move in Thursday as first time buyers. It's a buyers market and we didn't want to miss out so we had a 5% deposit and saved the other 30K we saved for stamp duty moving fees and repairs. Having av20% deposit made barely and difference in the monthly payment. Do as you wish but we preferred to keep our money for decorating etc

Before you start thinking about schemes at logistics start to do the groundwork then when you are ready to look at the pros on cons of the different available options.

1. If you are between 18 and 40, open a LISA put a nominal amount in. This needs to be open for 12 months before you can use it towards a house deposit.

Word of caution if you are buying in expensive areas the average first time buyers homes are above the threshold you can use your LISA for and you will have to pay a penalty to get your money out or leave it until you are 55. These are typical in the south east or notoriously expensive towns

1. Get an idea of numbers ...

What are the rough costs for buying starter homes in your area? Run a basic calculator for what mortgages you might be offered based on your salaries and how much they would cost per month? How much would moving costs be?

1. Go through finances in fine detail to workout how much you realistically can save in the next year.

Even if you get a 100% mortgage you are probably still looking at £5+k in moving costs and ideally money once you move in for decor or unexpected costs so ideally you would need £5-10k available in the 6-9 months between putting an offer on a house and the first few months of settling in and seeing what needs doing and in what priority.

In our first house we had hoped that we wouldn't need to decorate our bedroom for a while but they must have broken a bottle of after shave when moving as it stank of aftershave. No matter what we did we couldn't get rid of it so we had to replace the carpet straight away. There were fitted wardrobes which we didn't want to keep so we had to remove them in order to carpet and then we found the fitted wardrobes were hiding a couple of bits of dodge DIY nothing massive but it did mean that expenses we had anticipated being in 1-2 years after purchase we moved to immediately after purchase, we had a contingency so it was ok.

1. Review all the information and draw up a rough plan. There are lots of products and schemes available but for most people a 5-10% deposit gives them loads of options for mortgages and buying properties. I would work out of this is a realistic target before getting bogged down in the ins and outs of other schemes.

1. A few months before your start properly house hunting get some advice on mortgage and look into mortgage in principles. These are when the bank gives you a document saying we on theory are willing to give you X mortgage on a property of Y value.

I agree with the other comments about avoiding schemes, especially if index linked in some way or prone to Government whims (you never know when you’re going to be designated with broad shoulders). The best way is the old fashioned way, save a deposit and start off small with a fixed mortgage you can cover any of life’s up and downs then trade up. A good nights sleep is 100% worth more than having a house rather than a flat.