Buying "dream" house now or miss out waiting for better deposit amount?

[ImAllOut]

I'm new to property buying so forgive me if these are stupid questions/assumptions.

My husband and I have been saving since last September using a Lifetime ISA and currently have enough for a 7-8% deposit on a house we have fallen a bit in love with which would give us mortgage repayments about £60-80 a month more than we'd like (estimate). Waiting until November/December will give us a 10% deposit, so gives us a smaller mortgage plus more money for furniture/fees/costs etc.

Similar properties in the area have stayed on the market for around 2 months, but this one has been up for 5 weeks now and the price has just been dropped a couple of percent. The owners were in a chain but I'm not sure if that's changed now and that's why the price has dropped. It's not a particularly sought after area but is cheap so attracts lots of first time buyers. There are a few similar houses up for sale but none with this exact layout and style that we like.

I think sensibly we should wait and save and hope that, even if the house sells before we get 10%, we can find a similar "dream" home when we're in a better position.

My question is has anyone been in a similar position and what did you do? I'm a bit blinded by the house so can't think sensibly!

It's fine, if you offer now, the overwhelming odds are you won't have completed before Nov/dec. it takes about four months.

This was sort of my hope and what's pushing me to go for it... I wasn't quite sure on the timelines of mortgages and everything though. Say we got a mortgage agreement now but in 3-4 months time were able to add to the deposit, would we just get a different interest rate at exchange?

No money changes hands until completion. It's rare you get to that stage in less than three/four months.

So yes, you organise mortgage in principle, then you need to have your survey done and all searches, the seller does the same thing and it's usually a chain, then you exchange contracts, then complete.

It's not a fast process. And nigh on impossible to speed up in most instances. If you offered now, you'd be lucky to be in before Xmas. But you can put any date on it you wish,you agree with the sellers, who agree with the sellers of the house they are buying and so on.

It depends on the type of mortgage you go for, there are many different types, you can go for a fixed term ie it stays the same for five years, or a tracker, which moves with the base rate.

Speak to a few mortgage lenders and decide what's best for you.

If the mortgage offer is for say £100,000 and then you only need £90,000 in theory then yes the mortgage company can say you need a completely different offer (and many do). This may be important to you if you are agreeing a fixed rate and the rate rises in the meantime.

However if you make sure that you can overpay your mortgage (even during the fixed term) by say 10% then you will just be able to make an overpayment immediately you complete without it affecting your fixed rate or overpayment charges. Make sure any product allows for such overpayment.

Thank you so much, that's made me feel a tad more hopeful!

If you know how much you'll have as a deposit in Nov/December then you know how much of a mortgage you will need. Remember to take intimate account all fees etc.

Your mortgage company will tell you how much they'd be willing to lend, v how much you want.

So for example, you say you want 100. But you can say what if I wanted 120, would this be ok? Much depends on the level of deposit v value.

In addition mortgages are now done on affordability. So for example, they stress test to 7percent and look at your outgoings, hence why you provide bank statements and pay statements,