Soldato
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They are not a problem, but they will be taken into consideration as they are a debt. If he says they don't, then he is talking rubbish.
Post your home buying experiences
- Thread starter SiD the Turtle
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They are not a problem, but they will be taken into consideration as they are a debt. If he says they don't, then he is talking rubbish.
Soldato
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Are you a mortgage advisor? (Out of curiosity)
Soldato
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I work for a mortgage lender.
Whilst the loan is not considered in exactly the same way as a normal loan, the payment you make each month is factored in to how much you can afford.
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Remember I'm not an underwriter, so this is all just from personal experience but basically for me they deducted the repayments from yearly salary to work out affordability. For example, in general you can get up to five times your salary. Let's say (for ease of the simplicity of maths sake) you earn £50,000 gross. Your student loan payments would be 9% over £15k (£3150). Therefore:
- With no student loan: £50,000 * 5 == £250,000
- With a student loan: (£50,000 - £3,150) * 5 == £234,250
That can be a big gap, even on smaller salaries.
I'm slightly biased when it comes to estate agency as whilst I'm not in the business my family are.
I'll agree that the majority are useless, however there are some good/genuine agencies out there. Just seems that they are few and far between
As for my own buying experience, first house we went to buy was all going though albeit the vendors agent was useless. Then day of exchange they called to say they had pulled out, kthnxbye.
So we lost the cash we'd already spent out on fees etc (which funnily enough was to another family member who was a solicitor, and they still charged us full whack
).
Then found another house up the road that whilst a bit more expensive was miles better so bought that instead.
Day of completion I got a call from the agent of the house that fell through saying were we still ok to go as they now wanted to sell again. Told them ever politely no thanks and took great pleasure in saying we'd bought somewhere better.
Just realised that was 6 years ago now, time flies and all that.
Now we're just looking to move again.
I'll agree that the majority are useless, however there are some good/genuine agencies out there. Just seems that they are few and far between
As for my own buying experience, first house we went to buy was all going though albeit the vendors agent was useless. Then day of exchange they called to say they had pulled out, kthnxbye.
So we lost the cash we'd already spent out on fees etc (which funnily enough was to another family member who was a solicitor, and they still charged us full whack
).Then found another house up the road that whilst a bit more expensive was miles better so bought that instead.
Day of completion I got a call from the agent of the house that fell through saying were we still ok to go as they now wanted to sell again. Told them ever politely no thanks and took great pleasure in saying we'd bought somewhere better.
Just realised that was 6 years ago now, time flies and all that.
Now we're just looking to move again.
Thanks, that makes sense. I'm not even sure how much I'm paying off, I don't earn enough to be paying back much though, hence why I've barely paid any thus far.
I'm just purchasing a property in London. The story goes:
I had an offer accepted on a place a year ago. The vendor's solicitors were absolutely rubbish and basically 4 months after the offer was put in, on the day of exchange, my solicitor phoned me to tell me in no uncertain terms that he recommended I pulled out of the purchase due to some dodgy requests (such as wire transferring the deposit [rather than the more typical method - I forget the name] and that the vendor's solicitor had changed firms 3 days before we were due to exchange). I had already warned the agent of my concerns but phoned and pulled out. She begged me to reconsider, and came back 2 days later saying the vendor had a new solicitor etc but my mind had been made up. Thankfully my solicitor only charged me for his expenses (searches etc) and the mortgage survey was free. My mortgage broker also allowed me to carry over my fee to a new property in the future. I only lost about £250 (and a lot of time and effort) on this - far better than I expected.
Fast forward until 3 months ago, I had another offer accepted on a property (slightly bigger budget due to savings and increased salary), things were a little slow but I was informed the whole way. That was until the middle of Dec ... My solicitor (same as last time) suddenly wouldn't return my calls (from 14th Dec) until I finally got hold of him on Tuesday this week (a month later, 8 calls promising a call back and 5 emails) - I was fuming but couldn't really voice anything as I just want the purchase to go through. I am now due to exchange on this next week with a completion date pencilled for the 8th Feb. Thankfully I haven't had much pressure put on me by the vendor in that time. Wish me luck.
My mortgage broker told me that student loan doesn't affect anything. I had a deposit of 25%.
I had an offer accepted on a place a year ago. The vendor's solicitors were absolutely rubbish and basically 4 months after the offer was put in, on the day of exchange, my solicitor phoned me to tell me in no uncertain terms that he recommended I pulled out of the purchase due to some dodgy requests (such as wire transferring the deposit [rather than the more typical method - I forget the name] and that the vendor's solicitor had changed firms 3 days before we were due to exchange). I had already warned the agent of my concerns but phoned and pulled out. She begged me to reconsider, and came back 2 days later saying the vendor had a new solicitor etc but my mind had been made up. Thankfully my solicitor only charged me for his expenses (searches etc) and the mortgage survey was free. My mortgage broker also allowed me to carry over my fee to a new property in the future. I only lost about £250 (and a lot of time and effort) on this - far better than I expected.
Fast forward until 3 months ago, I had another offer accepted on a property (slightly bigger budget due to savings and increased salary), things were a little slow but I was informed the whole way. That was until the middle of Dec ... My solicitor (same as last time) suddenly wouldn't return my calls (from 14th Dec) until I finally got hold of him on Tuesday this week (a month later, 8 calls promising a call back and 5 emails) - I was fuming but couldn't really voice anything as I just want the purchase to go through. I am now due to exchange on this next week with a completion date pencilled for the 8th Feb. Thankfully I haven't had much pressure put on me by the vendor in that time. Wish me luck.
My mortgage broker told me that student loan doesn't affect anything. I had a deposit of 25%.
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That just isn't the case though. It's a factor in how much of a mortgage you can afford.
Interesting thread, myself and my fiancée are currently waiting for our completion date on our new house and have suffered many of the same woes as the OP. All valuations etc done finally!
We are buying 60% shared ownership house, as the OP pointed out having the rent increased in an issue but after using their calculator it can only rise around £8.75per month, fixed for 1year. So a maximum of £105 rise per year possible.
We didn't have a very big deposit (approx 7%) but I still managed to find a rate of 3.99% fixed for 3 years with a LTV of 93%. However, the "independent, whole market mortgage adviser" our housing association recommended we use said the best deal they could offer was 5.74%, so my advise is shop round. Anyone thinking of having a shared ownership mortgage check out: http://www.sharetobuy.com/ some lenders won't deal with mortgage brokers (Co OP and HSBC to name two)
Issues we have had:
Lender - Co Op, who have taken over 2months to complete our mortgage agreement from the initial principle agreement, it seems at every stage it would need to be "assessed" and that would take a week, just for them to come back and ask for another document. We at no point took more than 24hours to send off anything they asked. Knowing what I know now I'd have gone into a Co Op bank to arrange it, it was by far the best deal about so we had to stick with it.
Solicitor, who managed somehow to do searches and draw up a contract together with the map showing the boundary of the property of the house next door. Which would be an easy mistake except the map had all the house and plot numbers written on it. They have also sent us paperwork for another client who is nothing to do with us.
My general impression is the whole process of buying a house needs to be looked at starting with the legal side, it's scary I can phone up my solicitor and he only asks for my surname and is happy to give out any information I ask for over the phone while the Co Op make me answer 4-5 security questions every time I ring up.
I can't say I'm looking forward to having to deal with chains or estate agents, it's been long winded enough and we are buying a new house with no chain.
We are buying 60% shared ownership house, as the OP pointed out having the rent increased in an issue but after using their calculator it can only rise around £8.75per month, fixed for 1year. So a maximum of £105 rise per year possible.
We didn't have a very big deposit (approx 7%) but I still managed to find a rate of 3.99% fixed for 3 years with a LTV of 93%. However, the "independent, whole market mortgage adviser" our housing association recommended we use said the best deal they could offer was 5.74%, so my advise is shop round. Anyone thinking of having a shared ownership mortgage check out: http://www.sharetobuy.com/ some lenders won't deal with mortgage brokers (Co OP and HSBC to name two)
Issues we have had:
Lender - Co Op, who have taken over 2months to complete our mortgage agreement from the initial principle agreement, it seems at every stage it would need to be "assessed" and that would take a week, just for them to come back and ask for another document. We at no point took more than 24hours to send off anything they asked. Knowing what I know now I'd have gone into a Co Op bank to arrange it, it was by far the best deal about so we had to stick with it.
Solicitor, who managed somehow to do searches and draw up a contract together with the map showing the boundary of the property of the house next door. Which would be an easy mistake except the map had all the house and plot numbers written on it. They have also sent us paperwork for another client who is nothing to do with us.
My general impression is the whole process of buying a house needs to be looked at starting with the legal side, it's scary I can phone up my solicitor and he only asks for my surname and is happy to give out any information I ask for over the phone while the Co Op make me answer 4-5 security questions every time I ring up.
I can't say I'm looking forward to having to deal with chains or estate agents, it's been long winded enough and we are buying a new house with no chain.
Bought off-plan in the first phase of a new build development.
Used the homebuy scheme, so government/developer gave an equity loan for 25% of the property. We only start paying interest on this after 5 years. No rent charges like shared ownership.
5% was deposit, and 70% was the mortgage (4.8% fixed for 2 years, now on SVR)
As there was no chain, it was all pretty simple, the only hassle was delays in the building completion, so we had to find a stop-gap rent room for 1 month.
We are looking to sell up spring 2014 and get a house.
Used the homebuy scheme, so government/developer gave an equity loan for 25% of the property. We only start paying interest on this after 5 years. No rent charges like shared ownership.
5% was deposit, and 70% was the mortgage (4.8% fixed for 2 years, now on SVR)
As there was no chain, it was all pretty simple, the only hassle was delays in the building completion, so we had to find a stop-gap rent room for 1 month.
We are looking to sell up spring 2014 and get a house.
Had the bank of Mum and Dad help me out with Lloyds "Lend a hand scheme"
They put £15k in an account locked away for 3 years at something like 3.9% interested, if I default on the mortgage in the first 3 years, the money gets taken out of their account. I put down 5% of the property value price (4.9k) and then I got a 95% mortgage on the rest (£74,950)
Mum and Dad get their money back in 2.5 years as long as I don't default on the mortgage, and property prices don't plummet.
They worked out how much I could afford to borrow, I then looked about, waited ages on the first property I put an offer in on, but it fell through after 4 months due to it being a flat, and the management company having gone bust (the bank weren't willing to take the risk)
Found the property I now own, and it was all sorted and I had the keys exactly 6 weeks after I put my offer in. This place was empty and I was living with the parents, so no hold up.
I paid 82k in the end for a one bed ground floor flat with an off road parking space and a garden the same size as the inside of my flat.
They put £15k in an account locked away for 3 years at something like 3.9% interested, if I default on the mortgage in the first 3 years, the money gets taken out of their account. I put down 5% of the property value price (4.9k) and then I got a 95% mortgage on the rest (£74,950)
Mum and Dad get their money back in 2.5 years as long as I don't default on the mortgage, and property prices don't plummet.
They worked out how much I could afford to borrow, I then looked about, waited ages on the first property I put an offer in on, but it fell through after 4 months due to it being a flat, and the management company having gone bust (the bank weren't willing to take the risk)
Found the property I now own, and it was all sorted and I had the keys exactly 6 weeks after I put my offer in. This place was empty and I was living with the parents, so no hold up.
I paid 82k in the end for a one bed ground floor flat with an off road parking space and a garden the same size as the inside of my flat.
Soldato
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I've literally just yesterday completed my first ever house purchase! I started looking for houses last April and it took till October before we finally found the perfect house. Put the offer in, eventually got it accepted after entering into a small bidding war, which eventually came down to "best and final offers only". We won.
Mortgage was straightforward enough, survey was straightforward, solicitors were straightforwards. There was no chain at my end as I was renting and the owners of the house I have bought moved straight into renting after Xmas. Completed yesterday, picked up the keys, and started to move in, just as the snow was starting!
The whole process was extremely straightforward, made substantially easier because we were first time buyers with no chain. The only thing is that I now have to buy out of the last two months rent of my rented house to see out my contract, which is quite annoying, but unavoidable given the circumstances.
Should be mostly into my new place next week. I'm doing all the moving myself with my car. I haven't got any monstrously large pieces of furniture, but it will still take a few trips. Will have to sleep on an airbed for a couple of weeks until the bed arrives.
I have no sofa, no tv stand, no table and chairs and I need to buy some stools for the breakfast bar. It shall be an expensive few months no doubt!
Mortgage was straightforward enough, survey was straightforward, solicitors were straightforwards. There was no chain at my end as I was renting and the owners of the house I have bought moved straight into renting after Xmas. Completed yesterday, picked up the keys, and started to move in, just as the snow was starting!
The whole process was extremely straightforward, made substantially easier because we were first time buyers with no chain. The only thing is that I now have to buy out of the last two months rent of my rented house to see out my contract, which is quite annoying, but unavoidable given the circumstances.
Should be mostly into my new place next week. I'm doing all the moving myself with my car. I haven't got any monstrously large pieces of furniture, but it will still take a few trips. Will have to sleep on an airbed for a couple of weeks until the bed arrives.
I have no sofa, no tv stand, no table and chairs and I need to buy some stools for the breakfast bar. It shall be an expensive few months no doubt!
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I reckon a lot of brokers are just keeping quiet on it so they can maximise the mortgage they can raise. Can't blame them.
interesting. is this the case for everyone with a student loan?
The gf's auntie worked at a mortgage place, so we saw a house we liked (was only 18 at the time 
) and she literally did everything for us, free of charge, we left the bidding up to her and everything...we actually won the house while we were in Gran Canaria 
She has now left said company, so if we had to do it again, id be stuck as to what to actually do haha
) and she literally did everything for us, free of charge, we left the bidding up to her and everything...we actually won the house while we were in Gran Canaria She has now left said company, so if we had to do it again, id be stuck as to what to actually do haha
The thing is doesn't the actual lender require payslips and the majority of people with student loans will be paying via PAYE so should show up on there? Doesn't tell them how much you owe of course, but should alert them to the fact you have a Student Loan.
I got told the same thing by a broker "it doesn't matter" (used one when we bought our first house as were new to the mortgage game). In fact come to think of it when we remortgaged direct with a lender I don't remember them caring either, although it was about 5 years ago so a bit hazy, and we were borrowing well within the criteria anyway.
Been there, done that! First house was an air bed to sleep on and deck chairs in the living room for a few weeks. When we moved here, we had a bit of drama in that we (including the removal firm) couldn't get the sofa out of the old living room, it had only just squeezed in when vacuum packed or whatever they do. Even knocked the door jamb away with a sledgehammer on one side to try and get it out (which was a pretty stupid thing to do in hindsight) before giving up.
Soldato
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Completed my house purchase today! First Time Buyer (busy few days ahead 
)
My mortgage lender were fine, found the best rate I could for 3 years in my circumstances - it isn't brilliant but I have no choice (3y - 4.89% @ 90%).
Solicitor my side was pretty good to be honest, they did their job well and were very helpful
Vendor solicitor - Slow, very very slow.
Estate agents - Useless, lied, "gushy". Terrible company and will never use them out of choice
Lease holder - (Im in a lease hold flat) Not sure yet but like a lot of them I reckon will be a pain
Over all it wasn't too bad, but some parts were very very stresful. Glad it's over, just want to be in now
- GP
First Time Buyer (busy few days ahead )My mortgage lender were fine, found the best rate I could for 3 years in my circumstances - it isn't brilliant but I have no choice (3y - 4.89% @ 90%).
Solicitor my side was pretty good to be honest, they did their job well and were very helpful
Vendor solicitor - Slow, very very slow.
Estate agents - Useless, lied, "gushy". Terrible company and will never use them out of choice
Lease holder - (Im in a lease hold flat) Not sure yet but like a lot of them I reckon will be a pain
Over all it wasn't too bad, but some parts were very very stresful. Glad it's over, just want to be in now
- GP