Ok then, truthfully how hard is it to get a mortgage these days?

[PogoBob]

When I last got a mortgage they were giving them away with minimum challenge. Everything now seems to be about how impossible it is to get a mortgage.

So, in others experience how bad is it? We've got a 15 - 17.5% deposit (based on likely price), the mortgage is around 3.2 times my salary or 30% of my take home and we've no debt and good credit rating. Our joint account has been a little unhealthy over the last few months though as going into overdraft / spending some savings but all square again now.

TIA

No idea, but you sound like you are in a good position

I have seen threads on here re not taking an HSBC offer as they seem to change goalposts/charge many extras.

Ours is with the Co-op and it was a very easy application/completion process.

Good luck

We've had to stand our ground and fight with the woolwich to get ours approved. We're Keeping our original mortgage and getting a second product with them up to new purchase price. They just didn't want us to have the product. Why advertise it then?! We won in the end .... 3 months later!

Well I walked into the bank the other day and asked if they'd lend me £250k and they said yes.

I'm only 27, self-employed, would-be first time buyer, been in and out of overdraft since leaving uni (mostly in!!) and it was just me getting the mortgage.

So seemed pretty easy to me!

Thanks all, have heard a few stories of people getting an agreement in principle, putting an offer on a house and then having the rug pulled out from under then when it comes to the actual application for really daft reasons (almost as if the supplier is looking for an excuse to refuse them!)

Our IFA reckons it's fine as long as you have some deposit and a reasonable credit rating. He says that it's the 100% mortgages which have disappeared.

Oh, but forget it if the property is risky, such as structural problems or is overpriced compared to valuation, etc.

For our agreement in principle (we're also self-employed) they say they are willing to lend us an insane amount of money. Barking. We're not going to actually apply for anything like that much, but it's not very reassuring that the AIP doesn't seem to bear any relationship to reality.

I am starting to wonder is AIP are actually worth that much really as it does seem to be a case of all bets are off when it comes to the actual application!

The AIPs are automatically generated by a computer system, then it will get pulled out and looked at by a human if your credit rating is bad, if you have a very small deposit, if you have an unusual application (say a first time buyer with a 50k deposit or something)

If its a standard application it usually just gets processed by machines more or less.

Also depends on the lender - HSBC and First direct are very risk averse. Your best bet is to work with a broker who is whole of market & does not charge you a fee.

www.moneysavingexpert.com/mortgages/best-mortgages-cashback

Thanks Lamb, have been recommended a broker and going to make an appointment when we get back off holiday to see where we are.

Our bank were willing to give us an AIP for an insane amount of money too. We just stared, slack jawed at the mortgage advisor and then asked if they were joking. It was nearly 5 times our joint income. In the end, we didn't borrow even half of what they'd agreed in principle. If we had tried to borrow the full amount, I don't believe they'd actually have lent us it.

We could never afford the monthly mortgage we would have if the AIP amount were the real one we're planning to take on. I can imagine people who are less risk-averse looking at properties right up to the amount of their AIP and then being shocked when the final number crunch is done.

It does make me wonder why AIPs are even useful. Far more sensible to ask for proof of funds and a payslip or bank statement, though I'd not want to share those with a pimpled teenage estate agent myself .

I wonder if all the bad news about people being turned down for mortgages is because a proportion of people are still trying to borrow the full amount of ridiculous AIPs. Maybe this used to be the done thing back in the days when house prices were going to go up and up forever.

We have remortgaged our current house with a building society. The original mortgage was with our bank, the process was pretty easy but they had all our details. When we remortgaged they went into much more detail, especially looking at affordability, we had a lot of changes in our circumstances but I think that the building society were a lot more thorough, in some ways it was more reassuring.

We changed due to rates plus the BS let us have a mortgage past 65 years old, the bank wouldn't. We just went in and explained our reasoning and they agreed it.

MadBus I think the real problem of mortgage refusals is that multiples have reduced. When DH and I first started looking, we could get 4 times joint salary as standard. Now all the best deals are only 2.75 times joint.

Which is eminently sensible, except prices where I am have risen whilst the pool of people able to buy them has shrunk. In London the gap has been met by foreign money and bankers' cheap mortgages thanks to QE, but there aren't many bankers in Manchester or Leeds.

Like KensingtonKat, we looked for a house easily affordable rather than "max we could borrow" - and, possibly as a result of that got 100% based upon 2.5 times single income.

The estate agent thought we were quite barmy though and couldn't understand why we didn't want to buy x bedrooms if we "could".

agree, it also depends on the property.
and be aware of the lenders tricks/hurdles. we recently bought and the house was valued lower (not much) than our offer (which was already very cheeky).