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

Standard Insight T&Cs Apply

That a Long fixed term is a bad idea if your relationship is at all rocky

That is really isn't scarier than renting - I wish I had taken the plunge sooner

I wish I'd known it was a really bad time to buy a house and we'd be stuck with a house that might worth 50% of the mortgage if we managed to sell it.

That it sucks away all your money and all your life for so very long.....

Make sure you can afford any repayments on one of your salaries to allow for mat leave, sickness, redundancy etc

Overpay. Overpay. Overpay. Even if it's £20 a month. It will make a big difference to the interest you pay over the term of the mortgage. My biggest financial regret is that we didn't do it more when we were child free with a lot more disposable income.

Like others, overpayment. Wish we'd been stricter with our budget to make overpayments each month (although we've been doing it for the past few years, it's never too late to start).
And I wish I'd avoided endowments back in the day. I've since switched to repayment, and kept up the endowments which will give me a ltitle lump sum later this year. But they never would have met their original promise.

Adding on all the extra costs not covered by housing insurance such as when the boiler breaks or the water pipe under the house needs replacing. Gaaah!

I wish I understood all the options a bit better and foreseeing that we'd be shopping around and changing deals every 3 years or so. I still feel quite naive about the whole process tbh.

Not for me, lost my house due to divorce, but worked for a company that supplied mortgages and wished that more people took notice of the mortgage offer where it tells you that for every pound you borrow you will repay X amount.......think a lot of people don't read it as they are just so happy to get a mortgage

I wish I'd saved more so I'd had a more substantial deposit. And like so many others I wish I'd realised sooner about the difference overpaying makes

How much I would overpay!!!

I wish I'd understood that getting a bigger deposit can get a better rate.

I wish I'd known that Endowment Mortgages were not what they seemed, and that interest rates can vary alarmingly at times and you really do need to calculate how much you might have to pay in the future when making a decision about which property to buy.

I wish they'd keep you updated with time scales. It's nerve wracking waiting, and I've yet to meet anyone who hadn't repeatedly had to chase their mortgage provider.

If Dominos can keep you regularly updated on the progress of you pizza, than mortgage providers should manage it when peoples futures depend on it.

I wish I'd brought earlier! At 18 I could have got a now two decades later no chance.

Insert Mortgage^^

The importance of being able to make overpayments easily (e..g online for me). I also really like to see and be able to login. This has made a difference to how much I am paying off now that I can 'see' the difference.

I wish I'd known not to panic when you get your first few statements! I find it best to ignore them...still do pretty much unless we are thinking of remortgaging or moving!

Getting the mortgage is the easy part! After you have the mortgage, you should keep saving as hard as you did for the deposit as there will always be something needing doing to your home!!
But also, that getting on the property ladder is the best feeling in the world!

That over paying had been explained -
Can you over pay without penalty
By how much & monthly or lump sum

I think a few years ago everyone was paying the low monthly cost and loving having some extra money, but in reality that will have cost them more because they will now pay out for longer and pay out extra interest costs

I would not have taken out an endowment at the age of 22 to pay off a mortgage I did not have.

I would have overpaid, or held m payments when interest rates came down.

But, mortgages allow you to own somewhere and that is priceless.

To be honest I wouldn't have got one at all with the benefit of hindsight. I suppose,looking back, I wish I'd had the benefit of the wealth of advice and knowledge that is now more freely available to people.

I would have gone for a 20 year term not 25 as the repayments aren't that much more but you save stacks in interest payments

I was 22 with a young baby and I had no clue whatsoever. We were lucky to get a lower interest mortgage with OH work, however if he leaves the company our payments will rise significantly. I also failed to factor in the cost of maintaining a home. I just never realised how big a commitment home ownership would be.

I wish I'd known that interest rates would plummet to historic lows... and stay there... just after we fixed at 5.29 for five years!

I wish we overpaid more. For the first house we overpaid substantially which was great but because we bought 2 years later than our neighbours, our house price was nearly double theirs!!!