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I never thought I would get the opportunity to by a house, we finally after years of saving got together £12k of deposit. We did some research and found the houses in the area we wanted. It was a new build and required a help to buy loan from the government (20%), and we needed 15% deposit which we covered. Then we needed a mortgage advisor to guide us because in terms of support the banks were shocking. What a nightmare the Independent mortgage advisors were!
The first one disappeared of the face of the earth, honestly, I want to put posters up or something? She has disappeared without a trace. The second one, gave us the spiel then disappeared for a week, came back and hadn't even started his search. He disappeared again, then reappeared after a lovely week off again. The third one promised us what we needed in a mortgage in principle. Fantastic we thought... until the application came back with a vastly lower offer of what we can borrow. Why is it so low? Because apparently pension and a parking charge of £12 per month for work, is affecting the calculation by £30k!!! We have so far around £1000 spent on booking a house, and paying the solicitor to start their end for this new build and we haven't even got a mortgage sorted.
Things I have learned so far...
No body has a clue what is happening. Each application raises individual issues. There is no real fixed criteria. Literally pennies extra can result in thousands loaned or penny owed can result in thousands not loaned. It's not as simple as: if you earn £30k a year you'll get this... Everything affects that figure. It's contrived and it makes little sense. The BIG one that annoys me the most... We Pay £1,000 a month in rent, and are in a high council tax band, and also, pay silly money in gas to heat the house. So total outgoings will be around £1,400 a month for that. If we buy this house, a conservative guess of how much our outgoings are with the mortgage payments quoted, we are looking around £600 a month which would be saving us£600! That is the cost of another mortgage. But the banks do not see that, they don't see that having your own place, will save you money making it more affordable. They're stuck in the now and what you have done. Ultimately frustrates me. I've lost sleep, money and I'm really confused as to how the hell we can get on the property ladder.
Thanks for reading my rant.
By MH
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Saved and saved only to now be told I can't take out a mortgage without at least 25% deposit and another 5k earnings per year.
Same applies - I am paying a stupid amount in rent and would be financially better off having my own place!
So frustrating!
Most "mortgage advisors" are no such thing, they are on-commission salespeople whose main interest is gaining as much commission for themselves by selling you products. Obviously this is often not the best product for you, rather it's the product that maximises their income.
I used to work with a lad who left to become a "mortgage advisor", he was boasting about his potential earnings and suggesting we were all 'suckers' to stay. Within a month he was back trying to sell us these wonderful mortgages and within a year he had packed it in and got another job. The whole process seemed to revolve around recruiting people, getting them to sell products to their friends and family, I assume the latter is particularly good as once one family member takes the bait, you can reel in others.
The last I heard he was estranged from his own family because of the expensive deals he got them to buy.
Bleeding obvious