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 wish I'd known that my bank wasn't the only place to look for a mortgage,I do t feel we shopped around enough at the time, although I'm happy with our current mortgage provider

wish id put more down for the deposit. wish id been taught to save more. wahhhhhhhhh.....

For me, the decision to buy a home pretty much made itself. It was simply something you did if you were married and could afford it. But believe it or not, owning a home isn’t always the right move, depending on your emotional, financial and professional situation. Always weigh out renting vs buying on your circumstances.

I just wish I'd saved when I was younger. We had no money for a deposit, when we went to buy a house, which reduced our options. We ended up buying a beautiful, brand new house, in an awful area, purely because the builder offered a 5% deposit incentive. We then spent the next 13 years desperate to sell, because we hated the place so much!

I also wish I'd understood how house prices rise and fall and rise again. We bought at peak price, just before the crash in the 1990s. From that point on, the value of our house fell and fell, leaving us in negative equity and leaving me depressed and worried that the price would never recover. Of course, it did eventually and we made a profit when we finally sold. They were very worrying years though and I was frightened that we would be trapped in that house forever, unable to afford to move. If I had understood more about house prices, then I would have known I just needed to be patient.

I wish we had calculated that overtime was not always a given right

We've literally just bought our first home together a few months ago so at the moment I feel happy with our choices. We had a mortgage broker recommended to us who was worth his weight in gold and gave us fantastic advice.

A good mortgage broker is a must for the best deals and moneysaving advice

We wish that we had know that an endowment mortgage could actually have a shortfall when it matured and not be enough to repay the mortgage at the end of 25 years. In the 1980's we were told that there would most likely be money left over to do what we wanted with after settling the cost of what we borrowed. They never warned that it could go the other way!

I wish we known how long the whole process would take as it was all quite stressful.

I wish I had shopped around more instead of taking out a mortgage with my own bank

Wish I'd saved a bigger deposit and accessed a better rate.

save more money

How many problems we would face with repairs - and the costs involved!

Wish I had saved harder for a bigger deposit. So much easier to save while living with parents

I wish I'd known how much the total amount I would have to pay back over the term of the mortgage be and a better opportunity to make overpayments to save money in the longer term.

I wish I had know how much making overpayments would save you xx

I wish I had known the real difference between repayment and endowment.. . my advise would be to dig deeper, understand all the facts before you sign up to something.

Probably the extra stress put on your job as you realise that no matter what you have to keep an income coming in even if you hate your job.

I wish I had known

I would have liked to know more about the different types of mortgage - fixed, variable, interest only, savings offset etc.

I'd have liked to have known the benefits of advice (broker) versus diy mortgage search.

I'd have liked to have known more about the switching process - primarily switching provider and what that entails after a few years.

Mortgages, along with tax, are really important areas of later life and not something that is ever taught at school. This doesn't seem right to me.

Ok so I've been in my first home for 2 years now, currently in the process of selling it and buying somewhere bigger.

All I can say is, topshop and nandos are out of the question...If i'm lucky I can grab something from the charity shop haha