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Original poster

First time buyers

10 replies

Beachbabe1 · 05/05/2021 07:55

First time buyers advice please. We need to find out how much we can borrow for a mortgage. We are not ready to buy just yet but want to know what we can borrow as we have a price in mind. Am I right in thinking a mortgage in principle only lasts 6 months and Its not advised to get many of them? We know the house price we need a mortgage for, we know how much deposit we will have in 6 months. Online mortgage calculators are extremely varied. What can we do? Thanks all

OP posts:
MaMaD1990 · 05/05/2021 08:04

I'd be calling round mortgage advisors in your area, a few in mine give free advice (not sure if everyone does this though) and will be able to tell you the maximum you can borrow with information about your income and outgoings - they'll be able to tell you there and then. You don't want to get a mortgage in principle until you know what you can borrow and have a house to buy. Too many of them can negatively affect your credit score.

lockdownguru · 05/05/2021 08:23

Mortgage in principal doesn’t do a hard credit check so it won’t affect your score. As a FTB last year, I had 3 of them before starting to view the houses in my area.

LTV has been the important factor for my case - I needed 85% with a relatively large amount of loan (circa 750k) and online calculators were pretty accurate. Barclays said they can’t give me the loan, Halifax and Nationwide said they could, all online. So I applied and it was accepted. I didn’t go through a broker though my case was a straightforward one despite the high amount of loan.

lastqueenofscotland · 05/05/2021 08:27

As a general rule 4x your salary, and they’ll want 85% ish as a deposit

lastqueenofscotland · 05/05/2021 08:27

Woops no. 15% as a deposit! I meat the mortgage will be for 85%
Another coffee for queen...

Didicat · 05/05/2021 08:30

Also just because they offer it doesn’t mean you should go to the max amount, make sure you feel happy with the monthly amount as well.... depending on your age you can tweak the length of the mortgage to make it more affordable. Bear in mind also interest rates are super low!

SpnBaby1967 · 05/05/2021 08:55

We had a right mix from the online calculators. Everything from "are you mad even trying to get a mortgage for that much" to "is that all you want, we could lend you hundreds of thousands more than that!"

In the end we found an amazing mortgage broker, and got him involved when we were ready for an AIP.

BiBabbles · 05/05/2021 11:55

We found a mortgage broker through Vouchedfor who helped us work through the numbers as our financial situation is a bit odd - with our broker it was free until completion and then we paid a fee, some they get all the fees from the banks with no cost to you but we went with him because he was well recommended for handling more awkward situations. He was great with the mortgage (not so much with insurance, we ended up going elsewhere, but I can't fault him for his service with the house part).

They can do a 'soft' AIP which shouldn't ping your credit score, but generally they will get 1 to be able to show your position to vendors (he passed it on when we made our offer) and then if it ends up not being suitable when you actually have an offer accepted (as happened to us as the house was non-standard construction, different banks have different thoughts on things), they can do another with the details of the property you're looking at in mind before moving onto doing the full application.

GoumGoum · 01/03/2022 10:15

Hi All, not sure if this is the right thread, I was wondering if any of you has come across a similar situation: we are in the process of buying a flat in London (less than £500K), it is our first property in the UK and I recently inherited my parents' home. I have never used the house as my main residence as I have been living in other countries for the past 10 years. Advice from solicitor and accountant has not been crystal clear and I wonder if I would still qualify as a FTB or not. Any opinion is more than welcome. Thanks very much!

HouseIsOnFire · 01/03/2022 11:11

@GoumGoum

Hi All, not sure if this is the right thread, I was wondering if any of you has come across a similar situation: we are in the process of buying a flat in London (less than £500K), it is our first property in the UK and I recently inherited my parents' home. I have never used the house as my main residence as I have been living in other countries for the past 10 years. Advice from solicitor and accountant has not been crystal clear and I wonder if I would still qualify as a FTB or not. Any opinion is more than welcome. Thanks very much!
Sadly no - it's not about whether you have a main residence or not, it's whether any you own (or have owned) any other UK property.
Paul2022 · 11/03/2022 17:24

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