Where to start as a first time buyer?

[BoonDucks]

This is for DS who is 24 and a teacher.
I am in long term isolation so time on my hands to do some research for him.
He has a substantial amount for a deposit and lives in a rented flat in an city where house prices are well below average.
Obviously CV will have an impact on the property market but he had planned to buy this summer.
It's 40 years since I bought a property so am way out of touch, my memory of mortgages is 15% interest rates and no more than 1.5 times your salary.
I guess you get your mortgage approved first?
How do you decide which lender?
What do brokers charge?

Brokers can charge what they like, but there are plenty of free ones out there. They all (even if you pay them) will get money from the bank anyway. Many will also be able to do things remotely. If you say where he is you should be able to get some recommendations.

Firstly, go see your broker (f2f / call / online depending), they will tell you how much he can borrow and provide an agreement in principle.
Then book viewings to suit budget
Offer on house. If accepted he'll have to show proof of deposit and aip to show he can afford it
Appoint solicitors / conveyancers
Apply for mortgage (usually simultaneously with solicitors).

It'd be a good idea to have the solicitors names by the time you offer, it can feel like a rush once an offer is accepted otherwise. He'll need to ring round some and get quotes / see who he likes and once the offer is accepted the agent will probably be pushing for their details within a day or so.

First time buyer here, I’m going through my purchase at the moment with DH. We used a broker as we are both to bust with work. Rates can vary, we are based in London and we’re charged £295. The best we could get in terms of mortgage was 4 times our salary.

I don’t think it would be a good time for your DS to make a purchase. We’re on the final stages of our purchase and are considering pulling out due to CV.

The first step is for him to get a mortgage in principle, he can do this himself online, or via a broker. If you know all his details, you can plug a few bits into the banks online mortgage calculator and it’ll give an idea of how much he can borrow.

Thanks.
Majody what is aip? He is in Hull.

Anitai No of course it's not a good time, and it'll probably not happen any time soon. I imagine prices will fall and interest rates rise. At the moment his rent is far more expensive than a mortgage would be.

aip = agreement in principle. Basically says to an estate agent hes in a position to buy, and how much for. Ideally you dont show that to them, or get your broker to negotiate, as they will know how much ££ you can "afford"!

100% use a broker, dont use your bank. Better deals! my bank wanted another £200 a month on one of (many) remortgages! Back to the broker, shopped around! costs between £2-450 for a broker. cheaper isnt always better

as for finding a house, i drove round a lot, i knew the area on my first purchase but did a lot of asking, viewings and i went with my head not heart as a first house is rarely a forever home. Things change!

sure london and country do free brokers!?

good luck!

Yep, as pp said aip is agreement in principle. It's also called a mortgage in principle. They usually last 3 months. Our search took longer than that, but when it expired we left it until putting an offer in. It took a matter of hours to get it renewed. And the agent was happy to reference an expired aip until we went back in with the renewed one the day after.

L&C are free I think, but we used a small independent firm based in Solihull who were also free.

We found that an independent broker was happy to chat through the whole process with us and give us approx figures (what we could borrow, interest rates etc) without having to have an aip, so that might be a good first step. He told us things like: as a FTB, to get the same mortgage interest rate as a 10% deposit on an existing house, you'd need a 15% deposit for a new build. And so on. Very useful!