Mortgage meeting

Russinating

Russinating

Russinating

Soldato
Joined
27 Dec 2005
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Location
Bristol
We've got a meeting with our bank (Lloyds) on Tuesday to talk about mortgages. Me and my girlfriend will be first time buyers so it's just to get an idea as to different types of mortgages, how they work, and what we should be aiming for deposit-wise and looking at when the time comes.

Now they've said we don't need to bring anything, but when it comes to those last two points surely we do - salary, etc. I'm technically self-employed to which I know does/will complicate things so I'm tempted just to go in with 3 years' accounts from the off... or will they not even look?

Advice welcome!
 
If you've got them take them. But to be honest if its just a chat. They'll ask what your on etc and how much deposit you can get.
 
I don't know really, we used a mortgage adviser and would certainly recommend them to anyone. If all goes smoothly then they're kind of a waste of money but in our case (we were FTBers too 6 months ago) we had some right issues that the advisers sorted out and chased solicitors etc for months on end!

Have you seen a house you want? or are you just going to discuss loan amount/deposits etc? Unless you will actually applying for an agreement in principle I wouldn't bother with all of your stuff...
 
Just do your research online, you can remain impartial, won't have to pay broker fees and pick any suitable product on the market.

Unless you have adverse credit or have a terrible credit history then it's not rocket science by any means. Read a couple of guides and use a comparison website where you enter the purchase price, your deposit, term and type of mortgage you are looking for.
 
Yeah, I don't think we'll use a broker. I've heard as many bad stories as I have good, I'm not stupid and our accountant is good.

The thing that shocked me the most about Lloyd's calculator (and a few others) is the dependency on monthly spend. Reducing that by just £100 increases our estimated loan by over £12,000?! Just seems stupid to try and compare what you're spending now to what you'd spend with a mortgage. Everyone lives to their means and whilst I appreciate they have to know you can afford the repayments it seems a bit basic, even at this point.

The difference between what we spend now and what we could reduce that to with a mortgage is a difference of over £50,000 on the estimated max loan.
 
Russinating said:
Yeah, I don't think we'll use a broker. I've heard as many bad stories as I have good, I'm not stupid and our accountant is good.

The thing that shocked me the most about Lloyd's calculator (and a few others) is the dependency on monthly spend. Reducing that by just £100 increases our estimated loan by over £12,000?! Just seems stupid to try and compare what you're spending now to what you'd spend with a mortgage. Everyone lives to their means and whilst I appreciate they have to know you can afford the repayments it seems a bit basic, even at this point.

The difference between what we spend now and what we could reduce that to with a mortgage is a difference of over £50,000 on the estimated max loan.
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I wouldn't try to stretch your loan as far as possible, it will only cause issues down the road and make things much more expensive interest wise.

You need to factor in unexpected costs, new car, major house damage, wedding, baby, unemployment, maternity leave, interest rate rises etc. just because so,ething is affordable if you scrimp and save now doesn't mean to will be in 5 years when/if rates approach double digits and you have a baby in childcare costing a 1200 a month.

Don't kid yourself on how much your living costs are, be sure to favour in vacations, car repair, mot, TV license, that fancy dinner for the GFs birthday. Sure with a mortgage you could try to skip some of these but many are unavoidable and others a going to,crop up: council tax and utilities are likely higher, maintainence costs , furnishing and decorating are never ending drains.
 
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I have just gone through all of this, went with a mortgage broker in the end, cost me 200 quid but they got me a good deal, and what's 200 pound when your spending this kind of money!

everything was sorted for me, only had to go in for about 45 minutes to go over everything and bish bash bosh done.
 
You'd be better of ringing London & Country mortgage advisor's http://www.lcplc.co.uk/ - They were perfect for me in giving me a pretty much whole of the market guide on what would be best based on my income and outgoings. How much I could borrow and what length of time would be best.

Do some online searches too, to find the best deal you can get, and then see what they can get as well. The guy I had was excellent, gave me loads of advice and was very pleasant to speak to. Unfortunately I found a deal with HSBC (who they can't act for), so didn't end up going through him. But there was never any pressure to do so.
 
I'd certainly use a mortgage broker and not bother with the banks directly.

Got messed around by Halifax and ended up getting a much better deal through a decent broker.

Also it took a month of messing around with Halifax, took 7 days with the broker from first meeting to mortgage offer.

London and country weren't useful to me, but it depends on the person at the end of the phone.
 
Yep go with a broker. It's also VERY useful to use the broker who works as part of the agency you are buying through. Their assistance can be utterly vital and gives another string to your bow when negotiating
 
They'll probably want something like a passport or driver's licence to verify that you are who you say you are.
 
Pabl0 said:
I'd certainly use a mortgage broker and not bother with the banks directly.

Got messed around by Halifax and ended up getting a much better deal through a decent broker.

Also it took a month of messing around with Halifax, took 7 days with the broker from first meeting to mortgage offer.

London and country weren't useful to me, but it depends on the person at the end of the phone.
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Mine was the other way around, got messed about so much by the idiots at the brokers, i just went into the bank myself and sorted there and then, it was very swift, i would not touch a mortgage broker with a barge pole.
 
D.P. said:
I wouldn't try to stretch your loan as far as possible, it will only cause issues down the road and make things much more expensive interest wise.
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Not stupid and we'll be realistic with expenditure, but that's also assuming no pay increases which won't be the case.

Thanks for everyone's help, will report back after Tuesday!
 
I left a IFA broker with all my details for 2 days and the best he could come back to me with was a mortgage I beat in my lunch 1/2 hour.
 
Mortgage in principle needs very little documentation. It is only after successfully bidding on a house that the full mortgage application kicks in.
 
Make sure the property you are interested in buying doesn't have any mine shafts nearby.
Last year Lloyds offered me and the wife the mortgage we wanted (buying council house) then strung us along for 6 months.
They cited they didn't touch properties with a mine shaft within the boundaries (30 feet away in our case) but we had been up front from the very start and even showed them the drawing we had from the Coal Authourity.

Of course your mortgage will be fine........
Then after our solicitor chased and chased they declined the mortgage and if not to add insult to injury Lloyds sent another letter saying "We have a mortgage guaranteed offer we would like to interest you in".

Our solicitor was not best pleased.
Local building society we visited offered us a mortgage in a flash and said mine shafts are not an issue with them as if it was going to fall down it would have by now.


Bit of a lengthy rant but i had been with Lloyds for 25 years and couldn't believe how little they regard their customers. I have since moved all my accounts elsewhere.
 
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