Share the things you wish you’d known before getting a mortgage with Habito - £300 voucher to be won! NOW CLOSED

[JustineBMumsnet]

Whether you’re buying for the first time, moving house or remortgaging, getting or changing a mortgage can be a daunting, time-consuming and confusing experience. Online mortgage broker Habito would like you to share the things that – with hindsight – you wish you’d known before getting a mortgage.

Here’s what Habito have to say: “Habito is the world’s first digital mortgage broker. It searches the entire market and enables you to apply online for a mortgage or remortgage quickly all online without any cost”

So, if there’s anything you wish that you’d known before you decided to take the plunge and get a mortgage, share this below.

Also, if you’re considering getting a mortgage or remortgaging, feel free to head over to Habito and see if they could help.

All those who post a comment on this thread will be entered into a prize draw where one MNer will win a £300 voucher for a store of their choice (from a list).

Thanks, and good luck!

MNHQ

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I wished we had saved more of a deposit and not taken out an endowment mortgage :)

I wish I'd thought more about over payments and how much interest they can save over the years. And that one day it will come to an end!

When I bought my first house years ago I wish I'd understood that there was a world of difference between different providers and not just gone straight to my bank. Thankfully, I got savvy quickly and put in the work to get the best deals.

I wish we had shopped around more and that we had overpaid more when we could have done instead of blowing it on holidays but we were young and naive.

The fees to switch deals

I wish I had known my actual budget. We had no kids when we took our mortgage out and we are now struggling to afford mortgage and childcare payments (childcare is nearly worse than a mortgage!)

I wish I had known to use all our spare money to overpay the mortgage so that it would be finished now. It's been 24 long years but we are nearly there!

I wish I'd known to shop around more rather than just go to my own bank!

definitely think about your future. Are you planning on starting a family and will you be able to afford that bigger house that the bank is giving you a mortgage for! Might be comfortable now but will you be in 5-10 years?

I would have liked to be prepared about all the extra fees are associate to the mortgage.

It's not as complicated as you think. do a bitvof research and don't let the jargon bamboozle you!

we had a mortgage when interest rates were really high and then an endowment mortgage. We were royally screwed over. Wish we had had better financial advice

That the amount of interest you pay is horrifying! Overpaying, even by a tiny amount, really does make a difference over a 25 year period.

And also, that the banks wanted a breakdown on everything we spent. We always managed the bills well pre mortgage, but that breakdown on where our money went was eye opening!

I wish I had saved harder for a bigger deposit or stretched ourselves a bit more and bought a bigger house.

I'd have considered more carefully the fixed term length before signing up. We found a good 5 year deal - interest rates were considered to be fairly low at the time. Literally just as we signed up, interest rates dropped considerably. Just coming to the end of the 5 year deal now and when we go to renew, should be able to save almost £200 per month based on current rates.

I rent now but used to own a place in Luton, I sold it and decided to buy a place in Chelmsford, a similar distance from London where I worked in the city, which was good as I had most of my travel paid for me by a tax deductible scheme of some sort (sketchy on the details now..) ... literally a few days after I signed everything I was made redundant, talk about crap timing!!! I ended up getting another job in Canary Wharf but I had to pay nearly £350 in train fares/car parking fees each month as I didn't have a travel assistance scheme there, I could have gone to bloody New York for that each month back then!!!

We only got our mortgage last April, so I had been swotting up on them for a long time before. I'm glad I knew about overpaying as you save so much interest, just make sure you let the bank know you want it off the term and not just as an extra payment. I have already knocked off 15 months by overpaying.

I wish we had for a bigger deposit

Not to use brokers or solicitors attached to the estate agents! An independent broker can be very helpful but clue yourself up first so you have an idea of what you want and what all the terms mean. When we remortgaged after our 2 year fix was up in 2008, my dad advised a tracker and was very clear it had to track the base rate not the mortgage lenders standard rate. This has saved us a small fortune over the years as rates plummeted.

shop around dont just go with the bank you are with

How overpaying just a small amount each month can make a huge difference and take years off your term. We now overpay every month, and have been for a couple of years,but if I had known how big a difference an amount like £50 per month could make, I would have done it, and gone without other stuff to be mortgage free quicker!

I wish I'd known the interest rate would drop, so I wouldn't have got a fixed rate. Also about how high exit fees are!

I was quite clued up when I took out my first mortgage but I wish I had taken out a current account mortgage from the start.

I had a really good broker and mortgage adviser. But I wish I'd understood more about life insurance. It was so stressful for me to get this organised. I still don't know if I have the correct cover but it can be as cheap or as expensive as you make it i think k I have a policy that covers my needs but it really was a worry.